Skip to main content

National Autistic Society - Leading UK charity for Autistic people

  • Accessibility
  • Community
  • Contact us
  • Work for us
  • News
  • Shop
Donate
Close Button
  • Advice and guidance
    • Advice and guidance
      • Advice and guidance
      • Directory
      • Community
      • Help and support
        • Help and support
        • Autism Helpline
        • Autism Inpatient Mental Health Service
        • Education Rights Helpline
        • Education Tribunal Support Helpline
        • General Enquiries
        • Parent to Parent Emotional Support Helpline
        • School Exclusion Helpline
        • Transition Support Helpline
      • Professional practice
      • Spectrum Live
      • Stories from the Spectrum
      • The Spectrum magazine
        • The Spectrum magazine
        • Articles and features
        • Letters to the editor
        • Poems
        • Previous editions
        • Spectrum Collections
      • What is autism
        • What is autism
        • Asperger syndrome
        • Autism and BAME people
        • Autism and gender identity
        • Autistic women and girls
        • The causes of autism
        • The history of autism
        • Varying support needs
  • What we do
    • What we do
      • What we do
      • Adult residential services
        • Adult residential services
        • Find adult residential services
        • Adult services stories
      • Best practice
        • Best practice
        • Consultancy services
        • Accreditation
        • Professional development
        • Training and conferences
      • Branches
      • Campaign
        • Campaign
        • About our campaign work
        • Sign up to Campaigner Updates
        • Changing the law
        • Transforming Care
      • Diagnostic services
        • Diagnostic services
        • DISCO
        • Meet the team
      • Education and children's services
        • Education and children's services
        • Cullum Centres
        • Our schools
      • Employment
        • Employment
        • Autism at Work programme
        • Job opportunities
      • Help and support
        • Help and support
        • Autism Helpline
        • Autism Inpatient Mental Health Service
        • Education Rights Helpline
        • Education Tribunal Support Helpline
        • General Enquiries
        • Parent to Parent Emotional Support Helpline
        • School Exclusion Helpline
        • Transition Support Helpline
      • News
      • Support in the community
        • Support in the community
        • Befriending
        • Centres
        • Family support
        • Outreach
        • Social groups
    • www.aaronscottrichards.co.uk Event curve-right

      Autism and Mental Health Conference 2021

      Published on 11, March, 2021

  • Who we are
    • Who we are
      • Who we are
      • Northern Ireland
      • Scotland
      • Wales
      • Who we are
        • Who we are
        • Our leadership team
        • Our patron, president and vice presidents
        • Our trustees
        • Our mission, vision and values
        • Transparency and compliance
      • Work for us
        • Work for us
        • Autistic employees
        • School based roles
        • Support worker roles
  • How you can help
    • How you can help
      • How you can help
      • Autism Friendly Award
      • Campaign
        • Campaign
        • About our campaign work
        • Sign up to Campaigner Updates
        • Changing the law
        • Transforming Care
      • Corporate
        • Corporate
        • Our marketplace community
        • Our partners
      • Donate
        • Donate
        • Donate while you shop
        • Gift Aid and making your donation go further
        • Give in memory
        • Leave a gift in your will
        • Lottery – play now to win £25,000
        • Other ways to donate
        • Payroll Giving
      • Membership
        • Membership
        • Membership FAQs
        • Renew your membership
      • Philanthropy
        • Philanthropy
        • How your support can help change lives
      • Raise money
        • Raise money
        • Do your own thing
        • Fundraising events
        • Fundraise from home
      • Volunteer
      • Work for us
        • Work for us
        • Autistic employees
        • School based roles
        • Support worker roles
Donate
Donate
  1. Home
  2. Our schools
  3. NAS Academies Trust – our network of free schools and academies

NAS Academies Trust

Our network of free schools and academies

The National Autistic Society has been running schools for children on the autism spectrum for over 50 years. We have always recognised, however, that the demand for autism-specific education outstripped our ability to supply it so when the Government introduced the free schools strategy, we recognised that here was an opportunity to develop additional autism-specific provision.

Our first free school, Thames Valley School in Reading, opened in September 2013 and our second, Church Lawton School, opened in Cheshire in January 2015. Most recently, we had our brand new Vanguard School open in January 2020 for autistic students in Lambeth, South London. These schools provide wonderful opportunities to address the needs of children on the autism spectrum and to transform not only their lives but also those of their families.

While The National Autistic Society is acting as the sponsor, free schools are state funded and The National Autistic Society cannot benefit financially. Accordingly, a separate Trust has been established – the NAS Academies Trust – and it is this body that owns and manages the free schools. As you would expect, the NASAT will reflect the vision and mission of The National Autistic Society, aiming to deliver an outstanding education to children and young people on the autism spectrum.

What are free schools?

Free schools are state-funded schools that have been set up in response to local need and are run by a sponsoring voluntary organisation that has knowledge and experience of setting up and running schools.

Free schools are based on the Charter school model used in Scandinavia and the USA.

  • To facilitate the move from a postcode lottery towards empowering parents to address gaps in education provision.
  • To increase the range of provision.
  • To create the freedom to innovate.
  • To raise standards.
  • To support the localism agenda.
  • To support the long-term (not political) agenda to increase the autonomy and independence of schools.
  • They have a statutory duty to respond to local needs.
  • In some areas, there has been a five fold increase in the number of school aged children with a diagnosis of autism.
  • Many local authorities have a growing demand for autism specialist provision and are seeking sponsoring organisations to develop provision.
  • Local authorities are receiving less funding from the Department for Education.
  • Local authorities' role is increasingly to procure not provide.
  • Where a local authority identifies a need for new provision they must seek to identify an organisation that can sponsor an academy or free school.
  • They have a duty to address gaps in their local offer.
  • To reduce reliance on INMSS (43% of students placed in autism-specific provision have to go out of the area, a long way from the family home).
  • Local authorities can benefit from leasing or selling a site for a free school to the Education Funding Agency.

We believe that young people with autism have the right to an appropriate education. Autism is a spectrum condition and requires ongoing specialist provision that meets the individual needs of students.  We have over 50 years of experience in providing autism-specific education. Through the free school agenda we can increase the number of young people who benefit from our education offer.

We are proud that so many local authorities have asked to work with us because of our reputation in autism-specific education, our links to the larger autism community, the support we provide outside school and our track record in positive outcomes. Our dedicated team of experts has the capacity, experience and authority to lead a successful free school.

Annual reports and financial statements 

  • Download our report for year ended 31 August 2020
  • Download our report for year ended 31 August 2019
  • Download our report for year ended 31 August 2018
  • Download our report for year ended 31 August 2017
  • Download our report for year ended 31 Auust 2016
  • Download our report for year ended 31 August 2015

Governance plan

  • Download our Governance Plan and Scheme of Delegation

Funding aggreements

  • Download the Master Funding Agreement
  • Download the Supplemental Funding Agreement for Church Lawton School
  • Download the Deed of Variation to the Funding Agreement for Church Lawton School
  • Download the Supplemental Funding Agreement for Thames Vallery School
  • Download the Supplemental Funding Agreement for Vanguard School

Board of Trustees

Mother of an adult child with autism born in 1978, who now lives more independently than we ever thought possible, I was a mainstream primary school teacher from 1969 until I retired some five years ago, my last 16 years being as a Deputy Head teacher and SENCO. I have taught many children with autism. Secretary of the Lincolnshire Autistic Society for over 20 years, I run our local helpline for parents and professionals and I have been an NAS councillor since 1996 and a trustee from 1997. I am currently on the Services Quality and Development Committee and the Brand and Commercial Development Committee of the NAS board. We live in Donington, Lincolnshire where I am on a wide range of community and social welfare committees.

My older adult son has a diagnosis of ASD and MLD and after many difficulties is now suitably placed in a residential care home in East Anglia. Professionally, I started my career by setting up print media enterprises in East Anglia before moving to London as a freelance arts journalist and editor. I then became Director of Marketing and Development at the University of Westminster, later moving to the British Museum in 1999 as its first Director of Marketing and Public Affairs. In 2003 I joined the Prince's Trust as Commercial Director before becoming in 2007 Chief Executive of Coram, the oldest Children's charity in the UK. When selected to chair the NAS Board of Trustees in 2011, I relinquished (after five years) being Chair of the Avenues Trust, a provider of residential community and domiciliary services for adults with learning disability. We live in north London.

Helen worked for nearly 30 years as a senior civil servant initially in the Department of Education but mainly in HM Treasury where she worked on public policy including education reform under Gordon Brown and on improving health service delivery and waiting times for the Prime Minister's delivery unit. One of her projects identified an extra £1 billion for the government which would pay for hundreds of schools.  
 
She has a degree in PPE from Oxford as well as an MBA and is a qualified accountant and spent a year at Harvard in 2004-05. She has previously run a charitable trust and been a governor of an inner city school. She has long supported increasing schools' independence so is enthusiastic to be chairing a free school. Helen has been proud to be part of the team setting up Thames Valley School from its early stages to a fully-fledged school with a waiting list.

Helen has 3 sons of 16,18 and 20 and her experience of autism derives mainly from the children of close friends but she also has extensive experience of mental health services in relation to her wider family.  Helen completed the Blenheim triathlon (slowly) last year on behalf of Bloodwise for a friend's child with leukaemia.

Contact the NAS Academies Trust

Fill in our form

NAS Academies Trust is a network of free schools and academies. A company limited by guarantee in England (No 7954396).

Keep up to date with all the great things we're doing

Subscribe for updates
  • Feedback and complaints
  • Cookies, privacy and legal
  • Terms and conditions
  • Transparency and compliance
  • false
  • false
  • false
  • false
  • false

We are registered as a charity in England and Wales (269425) and in Scotland (SC039427). The National Autistic Society is also a company limited by guarantee, registered at Companies House (01205298). VAT registration number: 653370050. © The National Autistic Society 2021

false

Cookies on this site

Our site uses cookies for key functions and to give you the best experience. Use cookie settings to control which cookies are allowed or click on Allow Optional Cookies to allow all cookies. For more detailed information please see our cookie policy.

Your cookie settings