Review of Autism Network Scotland

Annex 2: Documentary Review and interview topic coverage

Documentary review

The documents which were made available for the documentary review included:

• Scottish Government grant award letters (August 2012-October 2015)
• ANS progress reports (October 2012 to December 2015)
• Strathclyde University workplan agreement (2014)
• ANS Workstreams 2015-2016 (a document which maps ANS activities to the Scottish Government Strategic Outcomes Framework for Autism)
• ANS communications plan and content strategy and the project plan for the national autism coordination plan
• Minutes of Governance Group (November 2014-October 2015) and Working Group (December 2014-July 2015) meetings
• Materials relating to Menu of Interventions, Autism Toolbox, etc.
• Information about events, conferences, presentations, networks, enquiries and social media including bulletins and newsletters and reports of collaborative working and events.

Topic coverage of interviews

The topics included in the interviews covered: (i) ANS's role, successes and impacts since its inception in relation to professionals, organisations and individuals with autism (ii) the challenges ANS is facing (iii) the strengths and weaknesses of its current model including its host environment, governance arrangements and funding model (iv) its alignment with the (new) Outcomes Framework (v) the strengths and weaknesses of positioning the National Coordination Project within the network (vi) stakeholders' perspectives on the priority areas for an autism network going forward, taking into account the strategic outcomes identified as priorities for the period 2015-2017, and its future funding arrangements (vii) ideas for self-evaluation approaches and (viii) opportunities and threats in the wider policy arena. Stakeholders were also invited to comment on any other aspects which they thought were relevant to the consideration of the network's achievements and challenges.

Since stakeholders differed substantially in their understanding of, and exposure to ANS, the topics covered in specific interviews were adapted to cover those areas where stakeholders felt able to offer views. In some cases, interviews covered a single aspect in depth (for example, the engagement of ANS with people with autism, or the support provided to a local authority through the national coordination project) whilst in other cases interviews were wide ranging and covered many elements of ANS's current remit.

The interview with the RaKET Team Manager focused on questions relating to the policies and procedures in relation to financial management of the grant award.