The National Autism Peer Education Programme will offer families and carers of autistic people high-quality and easily accessible autism education, training, and support, via regional hubs across England, alongside a dedicated website (Autism Central).

Parents consistently report that they do not receive the support, education, and guidance they need, when they need it. This programme is designed to complement local support with an education focused offer for parents and carers and in order to ensure its impact, it has been and will continue to be developed and delivered with families, carers, and autistic people at every step.

Central to the programme is the training and wrap around coaching which will be provided by peer educators and subject matter experts. Peer educators are autistic people, and parents and carers of autistic people, who have been trained by the regional hubs to train and support other families. The ambition is to create a sustainable, scalable way of providing authentic support for parents and carers in ways that meet their needs.

The programme has been commissioned by NHS England’s Workforce, Training and Education Team and will be delivered by a consortium of nine not-for-profit organisations: the National Autistic Society, Autistica, Ambitious about Autism, the Autism Education Trust, the Autism Alliance, Contact, the National Network of Parent Carer Forums, Great Minds Together and the British Institute of Learning Disabilities (BILD).