AET Roadshow Series 2008
We held sixawareness-raising roadshow events during April and May 2008 atlocations around England (London, Newcastle, Birmingham, Bristol,Manchester and Hull). The events were held following the launch of theAET in November 2007 to spread the word about the organisation to awider audience. We wanted to encourage involvement from parents,professionals and young people with autism in the future work of theAET.
Thank you to all those who attended a roadshow, and for those whocouldn't join us, we have summarised the main discussion points fromthe events here and in the PDF document available to download below.
The comments and suggestions made at the events have helped shapethe AET workplan for the next 12 months. This plan is in its finalapproval stages and we will share it with you here as soon as we areable.
Throughout this document the term autism refers to all autism spectrum disorders, including Asperger syndrome.
Programme of activity
Each of the roadshowsfeatured an introductory presentation from an AET Steering Groupmember, a number of workshop discussion groups and either a short talkfrom a young person with autism, or the screening of the short film Autism and me by Rory Hoy.
The presentation and the transcript of Andre Jean-Baptiste's speech (given at the London event) can be found below.
Follow this You Tube link for the Rory Hoy film Autism and Me.
A range of topics was chosen for the workshop sessions at eachevent. We wanted to get a range of views from delegates in order toensure AET plans were relevant and targeted. All discussion groups werewell-attended and were seen as an opportunity to talk about localconcerns as well as national issues. Groups were asked to choose ascribe and spokesperson to give feedback and this worked well. (A fullevaluation of the workshop sessions is given below.)
Information materials
We produced acomprehensive delegate pack for each event. In addition, we encouragedany organisations that came to bring display materials or leaflets withthem.
The full information pack is available to download below.
Workshop discussions
We have summarised heresome of the main points of the workshop sessions. A more detailedanalysis of each can be found in the document below. Many are ambitiousand may not be able to be addressed immediately, but we have a goodbasis for future plans.
There was general enthusiasm for the introduction of an AdvisoryCouncil with many expressions of interest. It was felt essential thatchildren and young people with autism should be represented, and thatregional groups should be a mixture of parents and professionals.
Therewas agreement that the Advisory Council should have a direct route backto the Steering Group (and beyond if possible) to ensure that time andeffort is rewarded with action on the part of the AET.
The AETwebsite was seen as the main form of communication and would be anessential tool in establishing the Advisory Council. A moderated onlineforum was discussed with the possibility of it being used for virtualmeetings and discussions. It was agreed that the website should developinto a one-stop shop for autism education offering advice, support,training options, regional signposting and interactive elements such asthe forum.
There were varied discussions about future research the AET couldundertake but many groups felt the most important thing to establish iswhat works for children and young people with autism in schools andwhy.
Many people felt the AET had a role to play in delivering andaccrediting training for a wide range of professionals - also includingparents. The lack of appropriate training is seen as one of the mainbarriers to a successful education placement and therefore it was hopedthat the AET could address the training issue with some sort of kitemark or assessment toolkit.
It was also stressed that periodsof transition are huge milestones in the life of a child or youngperson with autism and that the AET could help with advice and supportduring those transition stages including from school to highereducation.
It was generally felt that better cross-agencyworking and a better system for sharing information and experiencewould benefit everyone involved in autism education. In particular itwas felt that better collaboration between the state and independentsectors would help alleviate stress on resources. It was suggested thatthe AET could be the conduit for establishing a better system forworking together to meet the educational needs of children and youngpeople with autism.