Developing effective partnerships with parents to improve outcomes for children with autism and their families

Successful partnership working with families has long been identified as a vital component of effective programmes across education, public health and social care (Early and GlenMaye, 2000; MacKean et al., 2005; Milbourne, 2005). Where families include children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), the importance of working in partnership is increased (Dempsey and Keen, 2008; Pelchat and Lefebvre, 2004) and service providers and agencies are increasingly required to endeavour to work in partnership with families – for example (in England) through the joint development of education, health and care plans for children with SEND (Department for Education, 2014). The importance of effective specialist support is further heightened in the case of families that include children with autism. Reasons for this include: • the elevated stress and anxiety that autism can cause within families (Koegel et al., 1992) • the ineffectiveness of typical parenting strategies (Siegel, 1996) • professionals’ ignorance/lack of understanding regarding autism (Preece and Jordan, 2007a; Rhoades et al., 2007). This paper draws upon my research over the past 15 years – and professional practice over an even longer period – to consider the support and educational needs of such families.