Autism / Asperger / ASC awareness in OFSTED

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Dear Office for Standards in Education,

Currently children with autism / Asperger syndrome / ASCs suffer because of a lack of understanding and support in school, particularly senior mainstream schools.

It boils down to a sort of formula:-

mainstream school + autism + lack of understanding + lack of support (+ lack of diagnosis?) + bullying = mental health problems, thoughts of suicide from very early age = referral to / job creation for CAMHS

What autism / Asperger / autistic spectrum condition awareness training do OFSTED staff, particularly inspectors, receive?

Do all inspectors receive this training?

What form does it take?

Who provides it?

How often is such training rolled out?

Whatever it is currently, OFSTED is clearly failing to ensure standards of autism / Asperger / ASC awareness and support in mainstream schools. I hear of unhappy traumatised such children / young people (and traumatised and stressed parents / carers) again and again. Parents often still have to take their children out of school, and their children have a delayed or very patchy education.

How does OFSTED attempt to ensure that SEN / autism provision in mainstream schools, both primary and senior, is adequate and effective?

What checklist / criteria do OFSTED Inspectors use when inspecting schools, to ensure autism awareness and support is adequate in each school?

Do you have any measures (to remedy the current misery of many such children in mainstream schools) in the pipeline?

Thank you,

Yours faithfully,

[P. Smith]

Sally Hall (Information Access), Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills

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Dear [P. Smith],

Please find attached our acknowledgement for your request for information.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any queries.

Yours sincerely

Sally Hall
Information Access Administrator
Ofsted
Tel: 0117 94 56230

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Richard Green, Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills

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Dear [P. Smith],

Please find reply attached.

Yours sincerely

Richard Green
Development and Strategy Directorate
Business and Administration Team
Ofsted
Aviation House
125 Kingsway
LONDON WC2B 6SE
0300 0130819
[email address]
www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Dear Richard Green,

Many thanks for your response.

Re: "This training includes reference to a range of needs and disabilities including Autism and is updated annually."

"Reference to" is not enough. It should comprise a proper grounding in autism.

Please could you be more specific about the autism training? Autism is a very particular, hidden, and much misunderstood condition / disability.
It requires separate and appropriately informed consideration. What sort of autism training, facilitated by whom? What materials?
By the NAS for example?

Please see the National Autistic Society's campaign pages re education. If the training of Ofsted inspectors were adequete, there wouldn't be so much misery around for children with Aspergers / HF autism in mainstream schools.

A mainstream school can get a good Ofsted report, even for SEN provision, yet a child with Aspergers can be suffering all through their education years there.

Yours sincerely,

[P. Smith]