'FASD Informed' Multi-disciplinary Team (Stage 4)
- somersetmiracles
- Oct 13, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 15
For teams supporting children, young people and adults with Prenatal Alcohol Exposure, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD); complex needs, stuck, educational, medical and home challenges. Providing essential FASD safeguarding training.
This bespoke course is designed for:
Team Around the Child or Family, Child in Need (CiN) meetings, safeguarding, adult transitions teams, social care, therapists, learning disability teams, specialist teaching assistants, teaching staff, forest school leaders, alternative provision teams, equine teams, SENCO's, advocacy, designated teachers, SEND local authority caseworkers, child health teams, children looked after nurses, personal assistants, enablers, key workers, virtual school, social workers, kinship workers, post adoption, therapists, and other team members supporting birth, children looked after and previously looked after.
'FASD-informed practice' acknowledges the need to see beyond an individual’s presenting behaviours, to consider 'symptoms' and to ask.....
‘What does this child or young person's need?’
rather than
‘What is wrong with this child or young person's?’
We tailor the programme to consider strong reflective practice in teams supporting and safeguarding children, young people or adults with pre-natal alcohol exposure. We encourage sharing of good practice in consideration of personalised care and management planning. The course is designed to dig deep when needs are complex, where there are ongoing physical or mental health conditions, making care multidisciplinary involving a wider team membership to include a healthcare responsibility rather than just social care, determined by the nature, intensity, complexity, and unpredictability of needs in supporting the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum.
This programme considers the complexities of supporting, for many if not tuned into, a hidden disability; where Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is the most severe of the neurodevelopmental disorders in terms of its far-reaching impact on functioning across the lifespan, and requires a unique approach to support and understanding.
Suicide ideation, self harm and suicide is much higher in FASD where in some areas of the country research identifies suicide as high as 3 - 12 % higher than the general population.
Those with Neurodevelopmental Trauma through Prenatal Alcohol Exposure, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder experience a range of unique vulnerabilities both from the impacts of teratogen on the brain and body, and from the adverse life experiences commonly associated with this disability.
Those who are not appropriately trained or knowledgeable can often make assumptions due to the fact that many individuals with FASD can superficially present as more able than they actually are or where their ‘symptoms’ are misinterpreted as ‘behaviour’ due to spiky cognitive and neurodevelopmental profile.
There is also often the assumption that symptoms of FASD will improve over time, or an individual will outgrow their emotion regulation challenges or poor adaptive functioning for example, when unfortunately, the opposite is true; the developmental gap continues to widen and diverge away from the norm over the course of time.
This necessitates increased, rather than decreased, need for support and services. FASD must be understood as an enduring brain injury, similar to any other acquired brain injury.
We therefore offer practical application of strategies to risk assessing and supporting the indoor and outdoor environment, where we tune into the brain injury and central nervous system damage.
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.
Our 'FASD Informed' Professional Stage 4 programme offer's bitesize sessions tailored to your team's rota, where we can adjust to suit your team in or out of hours or on inset..... where you can dip in at your pace.
Every session will be adapted to meet the individual or team that you support but broadly we set out the programme as follows:
FASD Informed™ Professional Stage 1: What is Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder?….. with no assumptions, all professionals starting on the same page; we consider the damage of the brain and nervous system and how this impacts everything.
Identify how alcohol is Neuro-Developmental Trauma
The impact of alcohol on the brain and its vulnerabilities
Show how alcohol has a direct impact on safeguarding through processing and functioning
Examine how the alcohol informs the spectrum of need and some of its 428 co-occurring conditions including Autism, ADHD, Learning Disabilities, Tourette’s etc
Review developmental milestones in the womb; explain the lifelong impact
Recognise the brain functions and how FASD impacts development
Examine the developmental divergence of peers in learning
FASD Informed™ Professional Stage 2: Interpreting theory into practice, processing speed, transitions, sexualised symptoms, hyper-fixation, fluctuating environmental capacity, perseverance, confabulation, differentiating the curriculum; providing strategies to consider to support the spectrum, digging deeper into the practical considerations with case study reflection.
FASD Informed™ Professional Stage 3: Supporting steps forwards, digging deep into 'switching' techniques, looking outside the box at meeting emerging and anticipated needs, planning well ahead for transitions.
FASD Informed™ professional Stage 4: FASD NICE Quality Standards, OFSTED good practice informing 'FASD Responsive' Practice, Clinical Guidelines for supporting Alcohol; personalised care, risk assessment, safeguarding, reflection and case management; forward planning.
Understanding the needs of carers & parents, vicarious trauma, adapting practice to plan to meet short and long term needs; good practice in getting support from a wider multi-agency team.
All participants will receive 'FASD Informed' certification, resources and membership of our network of FASD Responsive Professionals.
We tailor our bespoke online FASD-Informed sessions around the needs of the family you support; every session is unique because we consider carefully the child or adult that you support.
'Under the guidance of the programme lead, the team was encouraged to engage in open participation, drawing on the strengths present at every level. This collective multi-disciplinary reflection was pivotal; it allowed the team to step back from their reactive stance and consider the broader context, including the potential impact of alcohol-related brain damage. This shift in perspective enabled the team to interpret the young person’s behaviours as forms of communication of unmet needs, fixated symptoms, perseveration; signalling changes in mental and physical health. By unpicking these needs together, the team began to transition from a mode of crisis management to a more thoughtful and responsive approach.
For the Head of Service and the wider team, this period marked a complete turning point—a ‘showstopper’ moment that united everyone in the shared goal of making a real difference. The sense of achievement and unity fostered within the team was profound, leading to a significant change in our entire service offer of core practices in supporting in care and children looked after where we now 'rule in alcohol' at the earliest opportunity to consider early intervention. The experience underscored the value of reflective practice, collaborative problem-solving, and the importance of celebrating collective successes.'
Head of Service.
This account from the Head of Service, illustrates the profound impact that reflective, strengths-based teamwork can have in supporting vulnerable young people and their families. By moving beyond crisis response and embracing open collaboration, the team was able to identify and address underlying needs, transform their practice, and empower those in their care. The experience serves as a powerful example of the importance of collective reflection and responsive support in achieving lasting, positive change.
'FASD Informed' (TM) Education delivered by a strong experienced qualified team, tailoring a bespoke service to support your team in becoming FASD Responsive(TM)
We also offer an online 1:1 consultation service and attendance of meetings 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.
All rights reserved internationally ©FASD Informed UK
