Autism Together has been approved to deliver a new mandatory training course about autism and learning disabilities to its workforce and other organisations across the region.
The Wirral charity is among a group of training providers, accepted to support the roll-out of the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism.
The course is named after Oliver McGowan, whose tragic death shone a light on the need for everyone working in health and social care to have better training around autism.
Following this, the government introduced a statutory requirement that all health and social care providers ensure their staff receive learning disability and autism training appropriate to their role.
The training differs from standard courses in that it is co-delivered by three individuals – an autistic person, a person with a learning disability, and an experienced facilitating trainer to guide the session.
Autism Together was able to extend the opportunity to some of the people the charity supports to become Experts by Experience – sharing experiences of how autism and learning disabilities affects their lives.
To celebrate its successes, the charity recently held a ceremony to congratulate its first group of experts on successfully completing their training to deliver the Oliver McGowan programme.
The charity has followed up on the success of this first cohort of experts by advertising to recruit more talented Experts from across the region, to support the further rollout of this initiative.
Helen Bilton, Autism Together’s director of people & culture, has pioneered Autism Together’s rollout of the scheme. She said: “It’s a huge achievement for Autism Together to deliver this mandatory autism training to our workforce and to the wider care sector.
“It is vital that all staff working in health and social care are fully aware of the needs and difficulties autistic people, and individuals with learning disabilities, can experience, and then be able to offer the right support.
“This training scheme also supports the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan ambition, by upskilling the wider health and care workforce to help reduce health inequality.
“The initiative also creates opportunities for paid employment for autistic people and those with a learning disability. These individuals are such an important part of our communities and at the heart of everything we do as a charity.
“We look forward to helping further the vision of Oliver’s mum, Paula McGowan, who has persevered to progress this important training, to improve care and support for autistic people across the UK, and leave a lasting legacy for her son, Oliver.”
