‘95% of people don’t understand me’. A review of initial consultation processes in the development of a professional National Competency Framework for educational practitioners working with pupils on the autism spectrum.

This paper reports on the development of a professional competency framework for practitioners working with pupils on the autism spectrum. This work has been commissioned by the Autism Education Trust (AET), in conjunction with the development of training material and national standards which aim at improving educational provision for pupils on the autism spectrum. The competency framework will be presented as a selfevaluation tool that practitioners can use to rate their current practice and understanding against a set of competency descriptors, accompanied by examples of good practice that highlight how these competencies can be implemented.

A number of consultation methods are being implemented to find out the views of practitioners, parents of children on the autism spectrum, and children and adults on the autism spectrum regarding educational practice. This consultation process is shaping the development of the framework, which will also be informed by expert advice from key stakeholder organisations, such as Ofsted, NASEN, and Autreach. Involving these organisations in the development of the framework will encourage its broad adoption. The findings from the consultation thus far suggest that a flexible interactionist approach to learning and communication between stakeholders needs to be at the centre of an effective professional competency framework for educational practitioners working with pupils on the autism spectrum.

The paper concludes with a review of how in the development of the framework, the voices of stakeholders have been prioritise, and how this project has utilised a number of research methodologies in order to address wider issues of inclusion and social justice, and an examination of the notion of ‘excellence’ in regard to the education of pupils on the autism spectrum, and how this may not equate with notions of ‘elitism’.