Cheshire East becomes an Autism Education Trust Training Hub

4 March 2021

We are delighted to announce that Cheshire East has become an Autism Education Trust (AET) training hub. The AET is a not for profit organisation established by the Department of Education and led by two autism charities, the NAS (National Autistic Society) and Ambitious about Autism.

Our aspiration as a training hub is to train and support schools, colleges and early years settings to listen and respond to the needs of children and young people with autism.

Cheshire East have acquired an ‘all phases’ licence which will allow us to deliver accredited training modules to early years settings, schools and post-16 colleges. This will ensure a consistent approach to supporting our children and young people with autism through all stages of their education. Training to early years settings will be delivered jointly by the Cheshire East early start team and Cheshire East autism team (CEAT). Training for schools and post-16 settings will be delivered by CEAT . Rollout of this training will begin towards the end of March.

East phase has a bespoke set of training modules. They begin with a general ‘making sense of autism’ intended for all staff and progress through modules aimed at practitioners working directly with young people, up to training modules for lead practitioners. Each module is regularly reviewed and updated with case studies and the most current research. There is also training available for those settings working with young people with complex needs.

In addition, the AET offers free online resources which can be used at a strategic level to help audit and improve standards of provision and to review staff competence in schools and settings in relation to autism. CEAT , the early start CEAT and the early start team will be on hand to support schools, colleges, and early years settings to make effective use of these resources.

We are very excited about this new development in our training offer and look forward to working closely with our setting.

More information can be found on the Autism Education Trust website.