The Autism Accreditation programme is a continuing accreditation process. It supports services in the interpretation of the Autism Accreditation standards and advises them on creating quality action groups to assist the process. Services carry out a self-audit process against our standards, using set criteria, until they are ready to undergo a formal review.

Criteria

In order to achieve accreditation against Autism Accreditation standards, an organisation must provide evidence that:

  • it has a specialised knowledge and understanding of autism
  • the knowledge and understanding of autism consistently informs the organisation, the resources and management of the organisation
  • the knowledge and understanding of autism consistently informs the assessment and support plan for people who use the service
  • the knowledge and understanding of autism consistently informs all aspects of practice.


This evidence is evaluated using autism-specific criteria, which are applied to each area of the organisation reviewed.

Autism Accreditation standards

Our standards are unique in the fact that no other organisation in the world has developed such detailed and comprehensive standards for the education and care of people with autism.

The standards are comprised of core and specialist standards, including:  

  • core
  • playscheme
  • day schools
  • residential schools
  • colleges and further education
  • adult day services
  • adult residential services
  • secure residential services
  • NHS and independent hospitals
  • educational outreach support services
  • community outreach
  • fostering agencies
  • employment
  • short break and shared care
  • supported living.


For further information about the Autism Accreditation standards, please go to the enquiries page.

Standards body

Chair

Prof. Christopher Cullen Professor of Clinical Psychology Keele University;
Director - Psychological Services, North Staffs NHS

Body

Dr. Jacqui Ashton-Smith Principal, NAS Helen Allison School
Prof. Terry Brugha

Consultant Psychiatrist, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust;
Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester

Ms Janet Corcoran Trustee - NAS & Lincolnshire Autistic Society
The Goth Editor, Asperger United
Mary McLean External professional and sibling of a person with autism
Mr Richard Mills NAS Director of Research
Mr Christopher Mitchell Head of Nottinghamshire Asperger Support Unit and Parent of a person with autism
Ms Caroline Simmonds West Berkshire Education Authority
Mr Jim Taylor Director of Education, the Scottish Society for Autism
Dr Steven Tyler Education Consultant

What benefits do members receive?

The Autism Accreditation peer review, reporting and panel process focuses on identifying strengths and good practice, and makes recommendations for areas that need further development. It supports continuous improvement.

To belong to the accreditation community is therefore to join the leading providers of support to people affected by autism.

Specific benefits include:

  • use of an internationally-recognised quality standard
  • access to our exclusive specialist standards, developed by current experts in the autism field from a wide range of disciplines
  • access to support from one of our expert advisors, through telephone support and visits
  • the creation of a quality action group in your service to work with our advisor 
  • a specialist review by experts of the service you provide
  • recommendations for how to improve practice
  • recognition throughout the Accreditation Community for Good Practice
  • your service being listed on our Autism Services Directory and Accreditation Register
  • invitation to our community network meetings twice a year
  • our quarterly newsletter.

The accreditation process

The Autism Accreditation programme is an extremely authoritative and well-structured quality system which promotes continuous improvement to create the highest of care standards.
Chairman, UK Accreditation Forum and ISQUA UK

A brief outline of our process is given below. Autism Accreditation has gone to great lengths to make this process as fair and transparent as possible, using United Kingdom Accreditation Forum guidance.

  • A registered organisation receives the Autism Accreditation standards.
  • An accreditation advisor will carry out visits to set up a Service Support Plan, provide training in the interpretation of the standards and provide help in setting up a quality action group.
  • The quality action group will carry out an internal self-audit against the standards.
  • The self-audit is used to assess the progress of the organisation against Autism Accreditation criteria, in preparation for a formal review.
  • A formal review is carried out using a peer review process, by trained professionals in the field of autism spectrum disorders.
  • A report on the team's findings is produced and presented to an independent panel for judgment.
  • The evidence collated by the review team and the review team's findings are a matter of confidentiality between the service and Autism Accreditation and will not be shared with third parties without your consent. The exception to this is concerns about, or allegation of, abuse which will be disclosed in keeping with NAS policy.


The review team is unable to consider as evidence towards accreditation, unsolicited information provided by a third party outside of the review process. Autism Accreditation has no jurisdiction over the services that volunteer to be registered, and persons who have concerns about a service may be best advised to follow the complaints procedure of that service provider.

If the service is accredited it is allowed to use the Autism Accreditation logo and state that it is 'Autism Accredited'. To retain this status the organisation must undergo further reviews every three years in order to demonstrate that accreditation standards are met.

If an organisation fails its review then it must re-start the process.