New Autism skills and knowledge list launched
By News England
A new knowledge list to support social care and health service providers working with people with autism has been launched after extensive consultation across both sectors.
The Autism skills and knowledge list has been developed jointly by Skills for Care, Skills for Health and the National Autistic Society after consultation with over two thousand people including health and social care professionals, commissioners and managers. 
The consultation included around 150 people who have autism and over 800 family carers who made their views known by completing a survey, attending focus groups or commenting on draft materials.
The list will enhance, across both settings, awareness of autism and improve skills among workers in generic health and social care services. This work is part of a wider range of on-line training resources funded by the Department of Health to increase awareness and understanding of autism across all public services.
Individual workers, or services and teams, can use the list to work out whether they have the knowledge and skills needed to provide a good service to people who have autism. 
It will also be useful for people who are arranging or providing training to workers. The list will support people with no knowledge and experience of autism, as well as those with existing knowledge about autism including lived personal experience of having autism or being a family carer to a person with autism. 
Professionals in the training field will also find an accompanying document, Implementing the autism skills and knowledge list through staff training and development, useful in helping them to co-ordinate future activity in this area.
Getting it right for people with autism – the research behind the “Autism skills and knowledge list, describes the process followed to develop the skills list and is now available.