Autism Peer Education Training

Health Education England is seeking to develop a single national offer that can be accessed equally across England to increase the provision of autism education and training for families and carers provided by families, carers, and autistic people.

This work aims to reduce unwarranted variation in access to, and quality of training and education resources and materials that are available to families, carers and personal assistants. To do this, it is expected that resources and training will need to meet a variety of learning needs, learning styles and access requirements and be accessible through a single point of access.

In addition to this, there will be a requirement to develop an autism peer educator's curriculum and a programme of training to train people to deliver this training across the country in several "places" (these will be agreed as part of the delivery process).

HEE (Health Education England) delivers across the 7 NHS regions in England (Northeast and Yorkshire, Northwest, Midlands, East of England, Southwest, Southeast and London) and providers would be required to deliver training that would ensure autism peer education capabilities are developed in all these regions.

Health Education England, in partnership with NHS England, is committed to working with people and families and will require that this programme of work is co-developed and delivered with autistic people and their families. It is anticipated that a number of organisations may wish to collaborate to ensure they have sufficient capacity and experience to deliver this offer, so Health Education England would encourage and support applications from any consortium or collaborators, outlining the proposed nature of the collaboration and how it is proposed to deliver the programme.

The programme of work is expected to take place over three years from commencement in 2022-to 31 March 2025, subject to annual funding and performance reviews and the contract will be offered aligned to this approach.