Autism Peer Education

Procurement for delivery of The National Autism Peer Education Programme took place in 2022 and the service, Autism Central, has been delivered since that time. NHS England is now reprocuring the service for delivery 1 October 2025 - 30 September 2028, with an option to extend for a further 1 plus 1 years beyond that point.

NHS England values the contribution of families and carers in maintaining the health and wellbeing of autistic people. We recognise that families and carers of autistic people are an integral part of the support people need and as such, they should be able to access high quality education and training to enable them to support and maintain the wellbeing of their family member(s).

Autism Central is co-produced and co delivered and offers locally accessible education and training for parents, carers and personal assistants, across all English regions (www.autismcentral.org.uk). It builds skills and capability within local communities through training that is developed for, created by, and delivered with families and carers.

It is recognised that smaller providers with autism peer education expertise may wish to collaborate with other organisations to develop a national offer. We are holding a virtual market engagement event via MS Teams on Wednesday 11 December 14:00-15:00 to talk through the tender, specification and process. If you are interested in attending, please contact Natalie.rush@nhs.net.