The Scottish Strategy for Autism Progress Report - Foundation Stage (2 Years)

Annex 3

Overview of the Good Autism Practice (GAP) conference November 2014

The Scottish Strategy for Autism recommended the promotion of good autism practice as one of its 26 recommendations. The GAP conference - launched by Michael Matheson, Scottish Minister for Public Health - formed part of that recommendation and aimed to highlight innovative good practice across Scotland. Along with the publication of the special Scottish edition of the GAP journal, the conference was instrumental in recognising and disseminating examples of good autism practice in line with the Strategy's recommendations.

The over-arching aim of the Strategy is to improve the quality of life of people on the autism spectrum and their families and carers. The conference contributed to this by exploring the relationship between good practice and a good quality of life for people of all ages across the spectrum.

Throughout the day of the conference, delegates had the opportunity to discuss and reflect on how we evaluate good practice and consider ways to share ideas on practice and service delivery that lead to positive outcomes for people.

Delegates mainly comprised members of the autism reference group and subgroups, development fund project organisations and local authorities. They heard presentations from several keynote speakers on a range of good practice-related topics and attended a choice of workshops based on papers featured in the journal.

Keynote speakers

David Breslin - a person with Asperger syndrome, who gave his personal experience of good autism practice

Professor Tommy MacKay - Director of Psychology Consultancy Services, Co-founder of the National Centre for Autism Studies at the University of Strathclyde and Clinical Director of the National Diagnosis and Assessment Service for Autism Spectrum Disorders, who gave a presentation regarding implementing a national strategy

Michael McCredie - Consultant Clinical Director for Studio III Clinical Services and Lead Scientist Practitioner of the ATLASS programme, who spoke about good practice and improving well-being

Workshops

1. Why do we need a Scottish Autism Database? - Dr Ken Aitken
2. The Autism One Stop Shop: a developing model in Scotland - Mary Hamilton, Scottish Autism
3. Right Click: an online approach to enabling families - Charlene Tait, Scottish Autism
4. Scottish education and autism: obsessed with data - David Watt, Education Scotland
5. Autism: what helps? Developing a menu of interventions for people with autism and their families - Jane Neil-McLachlan, NHS Lothian
6. Transitions: preparing secondary school leavers for life beyond school - Mary Alexander and Kyle Oram, Transitions Team/Aspire Edinburgh