Autism Practice seminar outcomes

Last week we held the first in this series of six seminars, which aims collectively to set-out a vision for UK autism research.  This is is a vision which we hope will be created equally by autistic people, their families, practitioners (from multiple backgrounds) and researchers themselves. We also hope that the seminar series will produce practical, accessible, meaningful outcomes which can be used as tools during this shaping process.  Examples could include: 

• a Code of Practice for researchers outlining ways to engage with other stakeholder groups during the entire research process
• a specific list of low cost, easy engagement strategies to help early career researchers, or people who have recently moved, to build links with their regional autism community
• case studies of ‘researcher in residence’ schemes which allow researchers to engage directly, as equal partners, with stakeholders
  

We aim to share more ideas about the content of these documents on this website soon, and welcome comments on these. In the meantime, here you can download the full pdf programme of the first seminar, which focused on autism practice, and took place in Edinburgh in June 2015.

We feel the seminar was a success. Formal feedback will be published here shortly, but at the event itself, people were very positive.  In particular we were pleased that numbers were limited (40 attending) allowing everyone to make personal connections and the group to feel like a coherent ‘team’ working together. We were also glad that the programme was not too crowded - the generous breaks and discussion sessions allowed everyone to have their voice heard, and permitted informal chats over lunch and coffees as well as more structured discussions. 

Please watch this space for more outcomes from the first seminar, and to hear about plans for the next seminar which will take place in Autumn 2015 in Newcastle.