'FASD Informed' Professional: Designated Teacher DSL, Governance, Headteacher, SENCO

FASD Southwest
Sep 5
3 min read

Updated: Sep 9

A key role in every School & Academy is to championing the educational needs of birth, looked after children and care experienced children who have prenatal alcohol exposure.

This course is essential for:

Governing bodies of Schools in England, proprietors of academies and designated teachers for looked-after and previously looked-after children, this also includes head teachers, Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCOs) and other senior teaching staff working with children.

'FASD-informed practice' acknowledges the need to see beyond an individual’s presenting behaviours, to consider symptoms and to ask.....

‘What does this child need?’ rather than ‘What is wrong with this child?’

We look at good practice in supporting the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum & co-occuring complex needs in Schools to support Governance, Policy, Child Protection, Team around the Family, CIN meetings; we support your team to consider the risks in safeguarding students, tuning in to vulnerabilities and strengths of those with this irreparable brain injury.

Supporting children with complex needs requires consideration of policy changes to support responsively the anticipated emerging needs of those birth, looked after and care experienced children who have been exposed to prenatal alcohol; we consider safeguarding standards for complex need risk assessment and consideration of the whole child.

FASD continues to be a frequently misunderstood condition, those who are not appropriately trained or knowledgeable can often make inaccurate 'assumptions' due to the fact that many individuals with FASD can superficially present as more able than they actually are, due to their spiky cognitive and neurodevelopmental profiles.

With up to 428 co-occurring neurodevelopmental conditions common to FASD, spanning across 18 of 22 chapters of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) -10. The most prevalent disease conditions include congenital malformations, deformities, and chromosomal abnormalities, mental and 'behavioural' disorders..... we consider the symptoms and look outside the box for a positives ways to interpret and scaffold needs.

Our 'FASD Informed' Professional, offer's bitesize chunks tailored to you to dip in and out at your pace leading to higher level learning:

FASD Informed™ Professional Stage 1:
What is Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder?….. with no assumptions, all professionals starting at the same place at a gentle pace; we consider case example and look outside the box at stuck cases

FASD Informed™ Professional Stage 2:
Interpreting theory into practice, strategies to support FASD; digging deeper into the practical considerations with case study reflection.

FASD Informed™ Professional Stage 3:
Understanding the needs of carers & parents, vicarious trauma, adapting practice to plan to meet short and long term needs.

FASD Informed™ Professional Stage 4:
FASD NICE Quality Standards, OFSTED good practice informing 'FASD Responsive' Practice; personalised care, reflection and case management; forward planning.

All participants will receive 'FASD Informed' certification, resources and membership of our network of FASD Responsive Professionals.

We tailor our bespoke FASD-Informed sessions around the needs of the families you support; every session is unique because we consider carefully the children that you support.

'It was a complete lightbulb moment for me. I attend thinking it ticks a box... this training absolutely is not as it literally changes lives! I look at every child I support through a new lense.

I loved everything about the sessions, it was great to bring the governance team of our School together, where we were encouraged to share skills and experience. We really dug deep to considering the children in our School who were likely to have been exposed to alcohol.... so many lightbulb moments where we all now look through the lense providing a personalised approach .... very powerful.

The experience of the speakers were so rich and valuable to my role where they provided such huge insight into the difference my job can make. So inspiring and energising, thank you.'

Headteacher / DSL Cornwall

FASD Informed(TM) Education delivered by a strong experienced qualified team, tailoring a bespoke service to support your team in becoming FASD Responsive(TM)

To book a placeholder diary date please email us: info@fasdinformed.co.uk

We also offer a 1:1 consultation service for stuck or complex cases requiring out of the box thinking to consider the spectrum of needs and to look towards finding a way forwards.