Evaluation of the Succeeding at College project for Ambitious about Autism, 2015-2016 : final report

Ambitious about Autism (www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk) is the national charity for children and young people with autism. It provides services, raises awareness and understanding, and campaigns for change. Its vision is, 'to make the ordinary possible for children and young people with autism' and its mission is, 'to help them to learn, thrive and achieve'. Ambitious about Autism, with its partners, nasen and the Association of Colleges, was commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE) to run the Succeeding at College project from April 2015 until March 2016. The Succeeding at College project aimed to support more young people with autism to move from school into further education and improve their prospects of positive life outcomes in adulthood. The Succeeding at College project built on the earlier Department for Education sponsored Finished at School Programme which ran from April 2013 until March 2015 and involved four college?led partnerships ('hubs') supporting around 110 young people with autism to make a successful transition to post-school education. The Succeeding at College project involved the development and delivery of new face-to-face training hosted by colleges in all regions across England. The training was based on the learning from the Finished at School Programme. Additional online training on person-centred thinking tools was offered to all the professionals who took part in the face-to-face Finished at School training. The Succeeding at College project also involved monitoring the learner progress of the young people involved in the previous Finished at School Programme Cohort 1 (transitioned to post-school education in September 2014) and Cohort 2 (transitioned to post-school education in September 2015). This executive summary relates to the final report of the project.