Each year, in the week leading up to World Autism Awareness Day, the public is encouraged to take part in World Autism Awareness Week – a full seven days where schools, workplaces and individuals, their families and friends all over the UK are taking part in activities to raise money and awareness for The National Autistic Society.
We have come a long way in raising autism awareness but there’s still more to be done to ensure everyone understands autism. The National Autism Society need the public’s support to raise vital funds to continue running campaigns like Too Much Information, training and sharing knowledge with professionals working with autistic people, and so much more – and that’s where you come in.
World Autism Awareness Week is running this year from 26 March – 2 April 2018, and there are lots of ways to get involved. Visit this link to find out how you can get involved.
I would like to commend the excellent work the National Autistic Society is doing in raising awareness of the challenges faced by people with autism in the workplace and in public places. The 'Too Much Information' campaign and the Autism Friendly Award are making excellent progress in making businesses and public spaces more accessible to autistic people. It is excellent that Parliament has been recognised for its commitment to ensuring people with autism and their families can have arrangements made to help them use a building or facility, and that staff both understand and can adapt to their specific needs.
I am encouraged by the range of programmes and initiatives in place to support people with disabilities or long-term health conditions, including autism, in employment. By March 2017, 1,000 Job Centre Plus staff had been trained to provide the best possible support to claimants who have autism.
New measures were launched to help people with autism to mark World Autism Awareness Week. This includes a Disability Confident autism toolkit, which provides comprehensive information on autism and hidden impairments, as well as guidance on employment and local authority services. The Department for Work and Pensions has also helped develop a Disability Passport to support people with autism who are seeking jobs and those helping them. Sharing this with their work coach or adviser can help improve communication and put any reasonable adjustments in place at the earliest opportunity.
Autism in schools
It is essential for teachers and other education staff to have an understanding of the challenges around autism, and how these can affect the children and young people in their care. Qualified teachers are already required to be able to identify and support pupils with a range of Special Educational Needs (SEN), including autism and ADHD. They are also expected to adapt their teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils.
In July 2016 the Government published a new framework of core content for all initial teacher training courses, which includes detailed content on SEN training with a particular focus on speech, language and communication training.
In order to deliver autism awareness training and advice to teachers and other staff, the Government has funded three voluntary sector organisations, including the Autism Education Trust (AET). The AET provides different levels of autism training to all levels of school staff, and has to date trained more than 150,000 people, in addition to publishing national autism standards and a framework for those working with children with autism.
Experts in SEN and disability are developing a new framework of training for teachers. I welcome that training is led by professionals and those know best how to train teachers to work well with children with autism.
All children deserve the best possible start in life, and I am encouraged that the Government is committed to ensuring that schools and teachers do all they can to best support children with autism and other special educational needs.