Sharing Our Knowledge and Expertise

ESPA invests heavily in training its staff to ensure they consistently provide the people we support with outstanding autism-specific and person centred support. We made a decision three years ago to share this training with others so we can make a positive difference to the lives of many other people on the autism spectrum and their families. ESPA’s Professional Training Service has now delivered a wide range of specialist autism training to well over a 1000 professionals.

We are now very pleased to announce that we secured some funding earlier this year from the Strategic Health Authority (SHA) to deliver further specialist training to the Probation Service across the North East. In addition we were also awarded funding to deliver a series of Post-Diagnostic Workshops for newly diagnosed adults in Sunderland and Gateshead.

These workshops have been specifically designed to help people to understand their condition and how it affects their life and to learning strategies to overcome some of their personal barriers or difficulties. Feedback was excellent and our vision is that these become part of the diagnostic pathways for all adults in the future. One series of three workshops has already been delivered in Sunderland and a further two are planned to cover both Sunderland and Gateshead in early 2014.

ESPA has also delivered specialist training to almost 40 final year GP Registrars on Durham and Tees Valley’s Vocational Training Scheme.  We called this ‘An Autism Friendly Practice’. They said that the session was the best they had received throughout their training. It gave them the knowledge they needed to be more confident in recognising the condition and provide appropriate support and signposting. GPs are the absolute ‘front-line’ for most individuals and their families affected by ASC and we hope that through our work people will benefit from more informed and understanding local doctors. This session is now set to be an annual training event reaching many more newly qualified GPs in the region.