Autism Education Trust
The National Autistic Society website proudly proclaims that they are now hosting the Autism Education Trust.
The National Autistic Society is delighted to host the Autism Education Trust and welcomes the opportunity to work in partnership with colleagues across the sector. The trust will play an important role in sharing best practice, influencing decision makers, developing high quality support for early years and school staff and involving children with autism and their families in shaping provision.
So far so good.
The Autism Education Trust (AET) is a new organisation established with funding from the Department for Children, Schools and Families. It is dedicated to coordinating and improving education support for all children with autism in England.
About the AET
The aim of the Autism Education Trust is to create a platform for voluntary, independent and statutory providers to plan and develop appropriate autism education provision across all education settings, including early years.
This is excellent news. I went straight over to the Department for Children, Schools and Families to get some more information … and found no mention at all of the Autism Education Trust. So back to the NAS website to learn that the Department for Children, Schools and Families has only made an initial commitment to fund this for one year. It is actually an initiative of the The National Autistic Society, TreeHouse and The Council for Disabled Children.
The best estimates available to the UK government indicate that perhaps 1% of school children are on the autistic spectrum. Is it me or should the government be making a more long term commitment to financing this initiative?
Never mind, the money is there for now and full marks to the voluntary sector for taking the initiative and persuading the government to provide some backing. The question is, “How can we make the best use of this opportunity?” I suggest that people contact Judith Kerem, the project manager <info@autismeducationtrust.org.uk> if they have anything to offer to this project.
Comment by wasim | August 10th, 2008
my male child name tayyab ahmed is suffering from autism.he is now 5 and half years old.he cant speak and talk and cant understand the things.my family is very much worried about him.he now becoming violant day by day and its difficult to manage him.i am from pakistan and now a days i am in uk and my family is in pakistan.how can you help me and reduse me agony which is mountingday by day.does there any proper institution in which such spacial kids are taking care of?
i need your help please.
Comment by Mike | August 11th, 2008
Wasim,
I have forwarded your letter to the National Autistic Society. They have a help page on their website: http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=113 I hope this helps.
Comment by Alison | October 25th, 2008
I hope the setting up of the Autism Education Trust means that familes with young children will have access to the intensive early education that they deserve. At the moment the system fails children with autism who do not receive the intensive education and therapy that they need and as a consequence hundreds of children remain unable to speak. Parents are treated like 4th class citizens not only having the strain of a child with difficulties but having to plead for minimal inadequate services for them. In the long term this only costs the government more money as they children who do not receive enough help early on are more likely to remain dependant on others and in need of care when adults which costs the government millions of pounds eventually for each person. Surely this is currently an injustice.
Comment by Robert | October 25th, 2008
Even the government acknowledge the current education system for autistic children is in a mess and failing the children themselves:
‘Special needs’ education queried
Baroness Warnock wants a “radical review” of special needs education
Mary Warnock, architect of England’s special needs education system, is to publish a damning report on how it has turned out in practice.
Baroness Warnock says pressure to include pupils with problems in mainstream schools causes “confusion of which children are the casualties”.
She also says the way the most severe needs are assessed is “wasteful and bureaucratic” and “must be abolished”.
She wants a “radical review” by an independent committee of inquiry.
In a pamphlet to be published later this month by the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, Lady Warnock calls for a fundamental re-thinking of the concept of inclusion, in which children with physical or emotional difficulties are encouraged to be taught in mainstream schools.
‘Disastrous legacy’
This ideal of inclusiveness “springs from hearts in the right place” but she describes its implementation and the consequent moving of pupils out of special schools as a “disastrous legacy”.
Governments must come to recognise that, even if inclusion is an ideal for society in general, it may not always be an ideal for school
Baroness Warnock
“Governments must come to recognise that, even if inclusion is an ideal for society in general, it may not always be an ideal for school.”
Instead of putting special needs pupils into mainstream schools, she calls for a change in the status and purpose of special schools.
At present, she says these suffer from a “patronising” attitude, which limits their use to children with the most severe and complex disabilities.
“They are regarded as little more than places of containment, hospitals or day centres, but with better educational facilities,” she writes.
‘Cards stacked against them’
Instead she proposes a system of special schools which could serve a wider variety of needs, including autistic children, but which would be small enough to provide a reassuring and personal environment for emotionally vulnerable pupils.
Baroness Warnock wants to re-open the debate about inclusion
These would also have to recognise that special needs might emerge from social deprivation as well as physical disability, she writes.
She says children can feel excluded even if they are in a mainstream school.
Comment by Mitzi | April 2nd, 2009
Hi Mike and friends:
Just wanted to note that the AET now has a proper website of its own at:
http://www.autismeducationtrust.org.uk/
and that it has been funded for at least an additional year by the government (this was part of its effort to derail the autism bill, actually…)
An extensive report on educational provision in England prepared by ACER at the University of Birmingham is now available on the site, along with a shorter report on local authority Web sites and whether they do a good job of informing families about provision and services for children and young people on the spectrum.
You’ll also find a link there to the new DCSF resources for Early Years and Primary/Secondary staff–these are an effort to ensure that every staff member has basic autism knowledge, though they are just a beginning.
The AET will also be having a bunch of events around the country in April and May and these are open to teachers, staff, parents and concerned adults with autism.