Partners from health, social care, early years, education, the VCSE, the parent carer forum and people with lived experience have come together to form the Autism Strategy Steering Group to co-produce the strategy with autistic people. This group has met monthly since March 2024.
Community engagement
The Parent Carer Forum led on co-producing the parent and carer survey.
We met with parents and carers at Larchwood, a short break children’s home which provides respite care for children who have complex needs. They also supported the development of the parent and carer survey.
We worked with special educational needs co-ordinators (SENCOs) who supported the development of the primary school survey for autistic children through focus groups with the children they work with, making sure the voice of the child was captured. One child specifically wanted a question about ‘being your true self’ included in the questionnaire as she felt that was important to her. This question solicited a high response in the survey and provided valuable insight into autistic children’s experiences in daily life.
The Wayz SEND youth group, supported by their workers led on the development of the secondary school autistic young people’s survey.
We visited several groups for autistic adults, the Autism sub-group, Breakthrough employment and Project 73 (a peer led social support group for autistic adults). We listened to the autistic people who attend these groups to help us to develop the adults’ survey. The members of Project 73 co-produced the autistic adults survey with us.
Once all the surveys were developed, we published them for 12 weeks and cascaded them through Bracknell Forest Council’s social media platforms, schools ‘Can Do’ newsletter, SENCO’s and targeted groups.
141 people responded to our surveys.
We had quarterly discussions at the Learning and Disability Partnership Board (LDPB) where we regularly presented our findings from the surveys.
We met with autistic children’s services Gems, child and adolescent mental health team (CAMHs) and Parenting Special Children to find out what support they offer for children in Bracknell Forest.
We met with Autism Berkshire and Abri housing to find out about the work they are doing for autistic people.
Over 200 people worked together to co-produce our strategy. These included:
- autistic adults
- autistic children
- young people
- parents and carers
- professionals including the VCSE sector
All these views and ideas have been used to define a strategy that represents our collective ambition.