Charity unveils autistic training centres for early years staff

The hubs – a mix of educational settings and local authorities – will deliver specialist training to workers as part of the charity’s schools training programme.

The initiative, funded by the Department for Education, is designed to ensure that all professionals working in educational settings are prepared to support pupils with autism.

The hub organisations, which include North Yorkshire County Council, the Kent Association of Further Education Colleges and the National Autistic Society with Thomas Bewick School, were selected during an open application process.

Steve Huggett, director of the AET, said: “We are pleased to be able to offer training to early years and post-16 settings in four regions of England to enable the education workforce to support children and young people on the autism spectrum.

“This is the beginning of our early years and post-16 programmes and we hope to cover the whole country soon just as we do now with the schools programme.”

The organisations that will be training hubs for early years professionals are:
•    North Yorkshire City Council
•    Birmingham City Council
•    The National Autistic Society with Thomas Bewick School
•    Leicestershire County Council

The organisations that will be training hubs for post-16 education professionals are:
•    Birmingham City Council
•    The Kent Association of Further Education Colleges
•    Ambitious About Autism with Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College
•    Norsaca

They will deliver training over a two-year period from January, and is funded through a £1.5m government contract announced in June.