Helping children and adults with autism and their families
I was contacted today by the National Autistic Society (NAS), who have invited me to attend a public meeting with Harrogate and District NAS to discuss the recent consultation on Enhanced Mainstream School Provision. As a chair of Governors, provisions for young people with autism, and for their teachers, are something that I am passionate about.
The NAS sent me some shocking statistics. Apparently 43% of children with autism were officially excluded from school between 2007 and 2008; pupils with Special Educational Needs are over eight times more likely to be permanently excluded from school than the rest of the school population.
To me, this is a tragedy. How can we expect young people with autism get a good education if nearly half of them are excluded from school at one time or another? But when 51% of our teachers have never received specialist training to help them support children with autism, it is no wonder that we are in this situation.
There is a general lack of understanding of autism, and of the distinction between disability and disobedience. Teachers need to receive thorough, specialist training so that they feel comfortable teaching children with autism, and this training needs to be part of teachers’ ongoing professional development. The Liberal Democrats will reform teacher training so that all new teachers get better quality training in identifying and responding to children with special educational needs.
The Lib Dems will also invest an extra £2.5bn in schools to cut class sizes and provide one-to-one tuition, which will make it far easier for teachers to support children with austism.
If elected, I will do everything I can to support the work of the National Autistic Society, and to help children and adults with autism and their families. I will be attending Harrogate and District NAS’ public meeting before the second leaders’ debate tomorrow night, and hope to be able to work more closely with them in the future if I’m elected!
