Autism Outreach

[Davros]

Can anyone explain to me what an ASD Outreach Team does or should do? I have wheedled my way onto our local ASD Strategy group as parent rep and this is the big thing up for dicussion at my first meeting. The papers they have sent seem to imply that ASD Outreach only applies to m/s and Inclusion. Is that correct? Should I be making noises about other directions? Thanks.

have a look at the NAS website Im sure they have Autism outreach roles (im sure they have job decribtions online too)

Look at the ASD guidance about 2002 I think it had stuff to say.
There is some govt quality standards for outreach staff online somewhere which would be worth having - bet you will be the only person to have read them though!
But yes our team see themselves as only to skill up mainstream schools and nurseries - very reluctantly they work at home with families
I use the term skill up as thats what they use, I don't pretend they have actually achieved much.
Recently they have advertised a post for outreach for very young children at home which looks more promising.
Manchester have an interesting team I think where they go out before diagnosis and also do some ABA approaches and seemed a more beefed up version than ours.
PEAT charity in Northern Ireland also fund ABA staff to go out to homes and deliver intervention in the home, so there are other models out there.
A key issue is whether they just dish out generic advice or whether they are actually devising and demonstrating actual programmes
We had 1 year of outreach and the teacher managed to never talk to my child or demonstrate anything at all.

Just read a thread from oblomov today that her autism outreach service would only help once an ASD DX had been received! In my LA the service is called communication and interaction advisory teaching service. You just need to have com and int difficulties to be referred. But you must be referred by school, you can't self refer. Which gives you a problem if you are having issues with the school not recognising difficulties.

If you can get these sort of inconsistencies ironed out that would be great.

SS are generally expected to have on site experts on ASD etc. Outreach is a central service 'reaching out' to schools who don't have the expertise. They are sometimes based in a SS.

Well done, you. Hope you can make an impact.

Autism Outreach only works with diagnosed children in my area. They are under-resourced and under-funded and cannot stretch themselves to include anyone else.

My LA is adamant that the service is not accessible to home educators either (this from the Head of Access and Inclusion .

That said, our Autism Outreach lady is being very helpful to me at the moment, while being careful to operate in an 'advisory' capacity. She knows she's not supposed to work with me and is very over-stretched so it's great that she's making time to help where she can.

I used to sit on our local team too, Davros, but had to quit because it was soooo frustrating! They were just too smug about how successful the system was and couldn't see that it actually wasn't working .

Thanks everyone, very useful. I will look at the NAS website and find Govt Guidance. Outreach is only one of the points on the agenda. My big issue is that there is NO ASD-specific holiday, weekend or after school provision but I will creep up on them with that one!

I get no umbrella Autism OUtreach services (or support).

It is assumed (in as much as it is thought of at all by the LA/council) that it is all provided by dd1's school (ABA school). they do provide what they can, but are not in a position to do anything other than a home visit/me have a school visit, and discuss what immediate issues there might be.

they are brilliant at doing what they can, but not the same as a wider outreach service.

and yes, agree - no holiday/after school/weekend provision at all.

My son is unsupported at school. He has been given NOTHING, no social stories, no help whatsoever. He is awaiting an assessemnt.
So I e-mailed Outreach. They replied.
". In Outreach we do need a diagnosis of ASD to see a child, but it sounds like you have that in the pipeline.

Your school should be able to implent ideas such as social stories, visual supports and clear behaviour plans, regardless of a diagnosis - ASD strategies can help everyone and do no harm. Schools can gain support from their Specialist Teaching and Psychology service (STEPS) regardless of diagnosis. There are some very skilled practitioners in the behaviour (BMS) or learning/language support teams (LLSS) who also know lots about AS-type needs - LLSS tend to be consulted for children without a diagnosis or those just on the borderline. "

= Total Fob off. We can't help you. school should be = back to unsupportive school.

Don't know what Outreach do DO, but they don't help those in my situation. Atleast we are all in the 'know', on that one then !!

So it seems to me, I need to raise

• whether dx necessary or not to access Outreach
• lower age limit
• whether Outreach available at school AND at home
• whether Outreach reaches parents and children direct or is filtered through schools
• types of strategies, e.g. social stories, visual support, behaviour management and how these are monitored and assessed

We got their CVs for Tribunal and they were quite a read.
Usually just TEACCH and PECS basic training and thats it.
Asking questions eg are they actually accredited by Pyramid or TEACCH to teach these methods to others would probably stir things up a bit.

Ob, how far off a diagnosis are you? Can you manage a private one?

SPend this time right now collecting as much evidence as you can of their inability to meet your child's needs. Provision should be based on need not dx. Their failure to meet his needs now will give you a smoother path to a statement if that is what you want.

Regardless of whether you want a statement, apply for a statutory assessment 6 weeks before you get an expected diagnosis, so you can get the process underway and just slot it in at the end. A SA certainly pulls a lot of help and assessments out of the woodwork.

'We got their CVs for Tribunal and they were quite a read.'

A highly advisable move in any situation where people pass themselves off as experts.

Our Autism Outreach Team only see children with an Autism (not Aspergers or social communication disorder) dx on request from the school.
At one time we had a fantastic AO worker but in our experience she was the exception rather than the rule.
The one we have now I avoid like the plague and school "forget" to invite her to AR at my request.

It was interesting. Naively I hadn't realised that this ASD Strategy Group only seems to cover education, at least that's how it seemed. I kept fairly schtum (for me!) but made a few comments, such as is a "dx necessary?". I will work my way in. I was impressed with most of the people there though and their commitment.

www.nisai.com - Education for young people with ASD

The school asd outreach only take on children with an asd dx in MS school that also ahve behavioural problems impacting ont he school... pretty tight criterea.
So if its academic or emotional support the child or school needs, tough! If they are passive & undemanding then they get nothing.
That said the staf when the kids are accepted are very good & the children & family really get to know their childs allocated worker & will stay with the family for years.
The NHS also has an asd service pre school & school age who look at family/childs needs but also try to work with teh schools too.