Current research projects

We commissioned a piece of research from the University of Warwick and University College London (UCL) to examine the needs of parents who have young autistic children, and their access to services including barriers and facilitators.

The methodology included an online survey and follow up interviews with parents of young autistic children and was carried out from December 2018 to July 2019. We used the findings of this research to support the development of our Right from the Start toolkit providing information and signposting to parents of young autistic children.

From October 2019 to September 2021 a PhD student at the University of Warwick will be undertaking research into Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) in special education settings for children and young people with intellectual disabilities and/or autism. This research will explore the implementation of PBS in special educational settings to inform policy development and uptake of the PBS model.

The purpose of this study is to improve access to early intervention and support for young children with intellectual (learning) disabilities and/or autism in the UK. This research is in partnership with charities Cerebra and Mencap. It started in October 2017 and is due to finish in September 2020.

We are currently evaluating the impact of our activities including our strengths and development needs to continuously improve our services to autistic children and young people. We currently have evaluations running in the following areas:

• Autism Exchange work experience programme for autistic young people aged 16-25.
• Ambitious College education provision to learners aged 16-25 across two sites.
• Employ Autism network's developing a model of best practice in six geographic areas across England where young people, families, education providers and employers are brought together to support autistic young people on their first steps into the workplace.
• Ambitious Approach to education provision across our education services.

The challenges that autistic young people face as they transition to adulthood are well documented. Only one in four autistic young people continue their education beyond school. We are supporting a team of four young researchers to co-produce a piece of research into post-16 education and training for autistic young people working with the Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE).

Funded by the Department for Education through the Autism Education Trust (AET), this research considers what change there have been for autistic young people in post–16 education, since the introduction of new entitlements to education provision to age 25 under the Children and Families Act 2014. The final report will be presented to the Department for Education in March 2020.