A short thread on the Twitterpoll on circumstances in which ASD children do not receive education (ignoring lockdown for the purpose of the poll). Almost 1000 people responded so thank you to everyone who voted and shared. It's not scientific, obviously, but useful. 1/

These are the results and I don't think too many people are surprised. By itself, ASD does not represent any higher risk of Permanent Exclusion from school... but it isn't the formal PEX route out of school which worries most people. 2/

However, while we're on the subject of PEX, these are the last figures for PEX + SEND. They always take longer to reach publication than other types of data. 3/

So who is worth talking to and reading on the issue of exclusion? @philipnye at @FFTEduDatalab The blogs and graphs are reliable and if you follow you get great discussions too. Philip made this point a couple of years ago in relation to mainstream pupil outcomes: 4/

"Outcomes for all groups of pupils who leave the roll of a mainstream school are poor, with only around 1% of children who leave to state alternative provision or a special school... achieving five good GCSEs;" Of course, GCSEs aren't the only or most appropriate measure... 5/

But they do drive the sector and that determines what each child and family might expect to get from it - or nothing...
What do we know about ASD pupils who are not PEX'd? Well, some do well; some actually are happier and more confident as they go up through the edu-ladder... 6/

But some go undiagnosed and many who have a dx simply don't get the environmental adjustment and support they need. Increasingly authorities like to label them as 'complex' to avoid the inconvenience of having to develop high quality diagnostic and intervention services... 7/

And many end up in Alternative Provision (where I started) which IS NOT A SCHOOL NO MATTER HOW GOOD IT MAY BE. (It can be very good). This means the child may be living with a feeling of transience and of not belonging. A great researcher in this area is @MsJoBillington 8/

One of the weaknesses of assessment, besides the huge waiting times, is the lack of knowledge among settings and therapy services about different ways to interpret the language difficulties of ASD children. It is, frankly, a disgrace that perceptions are so limited. 9/

So one of my aims post-COVID is to talk again with RCSLT about how we approach this. They've been good - very open to talking - but we were interrupted by the virus and other things.
But fundamentally, the strength of opinion from voters on "No Suitable Provision" is clear... 10/

So we need DfE to sponsor research on this because enough is enough. We're talking about autistic children who cannot tolerate the discomfort and inconsistency of their school's environment and services that either haven't the wit to change it or don't want to know. 11/

That's another goal and we should think about how we persuade DfE to embark on the research and canvass solutions. I hope you weren't waiting for me to offer one - we need the research first IMHO.
Thanks again. End.