Update from our Let Every Autistic Child Learn event at the Houses of Parliament
Published on 24 January 2024
The education system isn’t working for autistic children and young people. This is what we told MPs at our Education event yesterday. Due to our campaigners sending an incredible 6643 invites. 46 MPs attended alongside other important stakeholders and heard directly from autistic students about their experiences. We also explained how reform is desperately needed and recommendations of how to do this from our education report.
What did we do?
The 46 MPs that attended heard speeches from Sir Robert Buckland MP, who is chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Autism Max, one of the National Autistic Society's Young Ambassadors spoke powerfully about their personal experiences in the education system and said “Everyone can do their bit for the future of autistic people in the UK” Carrie Grant, celebrity ambassador for the charity and they shared their experiences of education. Both Max and Carrie’s son Arlo had to miss out on a lot of school before getting the right support. Peter Cullum a philanthropist who has fund and set up innovative Cullum Centres that support autistic children in mainstream schools. Our CEO Caroline thanked all those involved in the event and urged the need for urgent reform, as too many autistic children are missing out of the education they deserve.
MPs also had the opportunity to talk with our young ambassador group and other autistic people who described their experiences in the school system.
Learn more about Max’s story here
Our research reveals that autistic children and young people are being failed by a woeful lack of appropriate school places, and teachers are not being equipped to meet autistic students’ needs. Only one in four autistic children feel happy at school. Three in four parents or carers (74%) said their child’s school place does not fully meet their needs, and more than one in four parents (26%) waited over three years to receive support for their child.
Beyond school, government figures suggest only 29% of autistic people are in any form of employment compared to around 80% of adults in the general UK population.
What we are asking politicians to do
Set up an autism school places taskforce
We are urging the government to set up an autism school places taskforce to address the lack of appropriate school places for autistic children. The taskforce would look into the baseline need across local areas, identify what difficulties parents face in finding an appropriate school for their children and offer solutions.
Mandatory autism training for all school staff
Our research shows that just 14% of secondary school teachers have received more than half a day’s training on autism. This is not good enough, it is crucial that all autistic children are taught by a teacher who understands their needs. That is why we are calling for the government to introduce mandatory autism training delivered by the Autism Education Trust.
Adopt the Cullum centre model
Cullum Centres provide the resources and training to manage and mitigate the barriers that autistic children face at school by providing specialist autism centres within mainstream schools. Our research has shown that they can be truly transformative for the educational experience of autistic children. That is why we are calling on the government to adopt the model and provide more specialised units in mainstream schools.
Our art competition
Jaja’s winning entry from our over 16s competition – Jaja wanted to demonstrate the five key things schools need such as the importance of embracing non-typical forms of communication.
The winning artwork from our Under-16s competition winner, Dilly. She wanted to show the current state of education and what the future could look like.
Art from the autistic children and young people who entered the National Autistic Society’s competition was on display at the event. People had been asked to show their idea of their ideal autism friendly school.
There were so many wonderful ideas that we have shared with MPs yesterday. Our over-16s winner, Jaja, and our under-16s winner, Dilly, both won a £50 voucher for Hobbycraft.
Learn more about our art competition here
What next?
We are incredibly grateful to our campaigners who helped make this event a success. This is still just the beginning, and we will be continuing to pressure the government to reform the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) system and provide support for autistic pupils. 2024 will be an important year in UK politics, please click the link below to keep up to date with our work leading up to the election.
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