CONTEXT/BACKGROUND OF PROJECT/OBJECTIVES Autism spectrum disorder (autism) affects about 1 in every 100, and impacts all aspects of the individual’s experience, including how they learn. Children and young people with autism share common education needs with all other children, and are entitled to a high quality education. However, they have specific, special needs resulting from the characteristic difficulties in autism regarding communication, social understanding, inflexibility and sensory processing. Education has been identified as the key area of intervention for those with autism, and meaningful access to effective education is crucial. Teachers need a range of skills and strategies to meet the needs of these learners, and providing effective education has been identified as challenging throughout Europe, and in Central & Eastern Europe and the Balkans in particular. Work undertaken by project partners in previous and current strategic partnerships has identified areas of good practice and training/development needs. This partnership focuses on developing appropriate training to support effective teaching, to ensure the inclusion of learners with autism in Croatia, the FYR of Macedonia and Poland. OBJECTIVES - To map current good practice and areas needing development with regard to the educational inclusion of children with autism in Croatia, the FYR of Macedonia and Poland. - To develop a model training programme and materials for specialist teachers, providing them with skills to effectively support the educational inclusion of children and young people with autism in these countries. - To use these materials to pilot the programme to specialist teachers from the range of educational settings in Croatia, the FYR of Macedonia and Poland. - To evaluate the appropriateness and effectiveness of the materials and the impact of the training using quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis. • To share the programme, tools and materials with stakeholders and make recommendations to national policy-makers in these countries, and more broadly across Central/Eastern Europe and the Balkans and Europe as a whole. NUMBER/PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS A minimum of approximately 3000 persons will benefit from/be the target of the project’s activities during its 2-year lifetime. It is expected that this number will increase greatly in the years following the project as a result of the exploitation of the materials. These will include specialist teachers, individuals with autism and their families, professionals and policymakers. ACTIVITIES a) Initial mapping exercise, including survey of specialist teachers b) Development of curriculum/programme c) Testing of materials through provision of training d) Evaluation e) Revision/finalisation of programme f) Dissemination METHODOLOGY The project undertaken by this strategic partnership will utilise a collaborative, action-based methodology, and will be evaluated using a mixed-methods, evidence-based programme evaluation approach to data collection and analysis. This methodology has been designed to meaningfully identify impact and to realise practical and practicable ‘real world’ outcomes. RESULTS ENVISAGED AND BENEFITS This project will produce a model training programme designed to meet the needs of specialist educators supporting the educational inclusion of children with autism, locally adapted to meet the needs of three diverse Central/Eastern European/Balkan countries. The final programme and materials will be made available via the Erasmus+ dissemination platform, as well as via individual partners’ and the project websites. Supporting teachers in these countries to understand autism and effective evidence-based approaches and strategies to effectively include children and young people with autism in education will have significant benefits with regard to educational and social inclusion, educational achievement, equality of opportunity and teachers’ professional competence. As such, this project will contribute to the development of a more equitable and inclusive Europe in the short, medium and longer terms.