A recent study carried out for the Autism Education Trust (AET) by Dr Kerstin Wittemeyer and colleagues based at the Autism Centre of Education and Research at the University of Birmingham highlights the need for schools to be given more guidance and scope to be able to adapt the National Curriculum and provide pupils with wider opportunities to develop important social and life skills.

The project report makes particular reference to the needs of pupils with autism who are being taught in mainstream settings and recommends that the DfE should provide written guidance on how teachers can ‘find the right balance between teaching pupils with autism key academic skills and teaching them skills that fall outside of the National Curriculum (eg independent living skills, social and emotional understanding). It also highlights the importance of providing pupils with autism opportunities to discuss their needs should they wish to do so and also calls on local authorities to support the training of a member of staff to work as an ‘autism expert' across clusters of schools with the longer-term aim of employing an autism expert in every mainstream school.