Bolton's Autism in Schools project

Autism in Schools is a funded national project that is now in its fourth year of being delivered in schools in England. The project aims to be a fully co-produced project joining up the local authority, health, the parent carer forum and schools.

The aim of the project is to work with schools, the pupils, parents and carers and staff, to work towards making improvements for pupils who have, or may have autism.

In Bolton, we joined the project for the first time for the 2023-2024 roll out.

Schools opt in to be selected for the project and and 3 schools are selected each year. The school must commit to staff attending 5 training sessions on different aspects of autism, These include:

• Understanding Autism
• Enabling Environments
• Teaching Styles
• Autism and Anxiety
• The Nest Approach

During the year, Bolton Parent Carers will meet with parents and carers at each school several times. These sessions aim to gather their experiences and aspirations for their children, and also form a parent group.

Bolton Information Advisory Service have been meeting with pupils over the course of the project to gather their experiences and thoughts about autism in their setting. This work was carried out by Kane Wyatt and Samantha Kirby from the service. At the end of this first year, Kane and Samantha have developed a report which will be shared with school leaders, with recommendations based on what their pupils told us in the project. They will return to school after a period of implementation, to see how schools are getting on.

The project is supported by a project lead looking after all areas in Greater Manchester; this helps us as a cluster to be able to network and share best practice as we go through the project. In Bolton we are joined by Ladywood Outreach who will be supporting some of the training, health colleagues Jenny Wilkinson and Liz Wigley from the ICB, Sue Cornwell, Head of SEND and obviously BPC and Bolton IAS.

At the start of the project, all parents, staff and pupils complete a baseline survey about their experiences; they complete this again at the end of the year. This is one way in which the project is measured. Case studies are also documented, and an external organisation also evaluates the project.

Little Lever School and St Josephs RC High School have already taken part. For the 2024 – 2025 schools will be invited to submit expressions of interest during September 2024.