Changing Conversations: Autism & Supporting Behaviour Ambassadors

In 2020, the Burdett Trust for Nursing supported the iHV to co-develop, in partnership with families and field experts, a range of online resources for health visitors to support their role with children with autism and their families.

We are excited to offer an opportunity for health visitors from across the UK to train as Changing Conversations: Autism & Supporting Behaviour Ambassadors. The programme is co-delivered by facilitators with lived experience and we are joined by expert speakers on the day.

Suitable for health visiting team members with an interest in neurodiversity/SEND – the training offers the opportunity to:

share their learning with their health visiting colleagues.
enhance the support health visiting teams offer to these families.

Following training each Ambassador will receive access to resources enabling them to raise awareness via a short session for their colleagues.

Aim

To equip participants to act as advocates for families where there are concerns their child may have autism.

Learning Outcomes

To raise awareness of the specific needs of families of children with autism
To understand what a child’s behaviour is communicating and how to support families.
To apply learning to wider early intervention with all families
To be aware of evidence-based practice for HVs in this subject
To be able to access resources to consolidate learning and support practice – through sharing a short Awareness session with colleagues.

What is Ambassador training?

The Ambassador model of training is a sustainable approach to accessible learning. Following training the Ambassadors can continue their learning by accessing the Changing Conversations: Autism Toolkit online. This includes further films, reading, e-learning and useful organisation resources. Following this Ambassadors can also share their learning locally via access to Ambassador resources to provide a short awareness session to colleagues (where agreed locally). Participants of the awareness session provided will also gain access to the Autism Toolkit for their own further learning.

Attributes of an Ambassador include: having a professional interest/role as an advocate for the subject, being a good communicator (to raise awareness from a lesson plan and session resources where agreed locally), and contributing to local initiatives to improve communication and support to parents.