What is the project about?
Autism in Schools is a national project aimed at improving support for autistic children and young people in mainstream schools. It focuses on exploring and implementing proactive and preventive strategies to enhance support in the school environment, helping to prevent issues from escalating over time.
The project began in Nottinghamshire in 2021 and is now entering its fourth year in 2024–2025. This year, it is taking place within the Chilwell Family of Schools. If your child or young person attends one of these schools, keep an eye out for the parent/carer mini forums being run by NPCF, as well as the free training workshops available to parent carers. For more information or details of the sessions, please email: enquiries@nottspcf.org.
The project is funded by the NHS and is an investment in early intervention. It is also a great example of partnership working. A planning team made up of Nottinghamshire Parent Carer Forum (NPCF), ICB members from the Autism & Learning Disability team, and the Communication and Interaction (part of the SEND Inclusion Service in Nottinghamshire County Council), collaboratively design how the project will operate in Nottinghamshire.
What does the project involve?
In Nottinghamshire the project works within a Family of Schools – a secondary school and all its feeder primary schools.
The project focuses on 3 key areas:
- Training, development, and support for school staff
- Parent/carer mini forums which provide peer support and encourage relationship building with the school
- Training workshops and signposting for parents
NPCF’s representatives run the parent/carer mini forum groups held in all the participating schools. These groups are open to parents of children with any kind of additional need, not just autism, including those without a formal diagnosis.
What are the benefits of the project?
The focus is to develop and improve the school environment and school practice, foster collaborative positive relationships between staff, parents, and children, and to guide families to available support resources.
In the mini forums, parent/carers:
- connect with other similar families and receive peer support
- share their experiences and concerns in a safe environment
- identify themes of strengths and challenges related to SEND at their child’s school
- collaborate to find potential solutions
NPCF project workers then serve as a bridge between the families and the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO), bringing forward parents’ anonymous feedback to jointly identify strategies for school-wide improvements.
The hope is for the groups and the school-family collaboration to continue even after the forum’s active involvement concludes.