'FASD Informed' Residential School - Stage 4 Specialist Training

This specialist training supports professionals supporting and teaching children and young people who have complex presentations of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure (PAE), Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), and overlapping needs within residential schools and 24-hour living and learning environments.

This essential FASD-informed training equips education and care staff with practical knowledge and strategies to support learners affected by PAE and FASD across both the classroom and the wider residential day.

Why Specialist FASD Training Matters in Residential Schools and Homes?

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 safeguarding support and understanding.

​Those who are not appropriately trained or knowledgeable can often make assumptions with fatal results 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 a child 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 childhood.

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 injurycomplex and high-risk needs, making safeguarding a critical responsibility.

Residential homes provide vital support for individuals with complex needs, therefore careful consideration of safeguarding children and young people for those with FASD brain damage requires very specific training providing essential education for staff to identify, report, and manage risks without making assumptions.

FASD is not simply a short-term problem; it fundamentally alters the structure and function of the brain, leading to a cascade of vulnerabilities that persist across the lifespan. Understanding these mechanisms is key for residential home and school staff to provide safeguarding and effective, empathetic care.

Children and young people affected by prenatal alcohol exposure show developmental divergence from their peers. This means their learning, social skills, and independence may significantly lag behind age expectations, sometimes by half or less than their chronological age; this is called a 'spiky neurodevelopmental profile'.

This programme is specifically designed for education and care teams working in residential school settings, including:

·       Teachers and tutors

·       Teaching assistants and learning support staff

·       SENCOs and inclusion leads

·       Pastoral and wellbeing staff

·       Behaviour and intervention teams

·       Residential education staff supporting learning outside the classroom

·       Educational & Care Leadership and Management 

Section 181 of the Health and Care Act 2022 (the 2022 Act) introduces a requirement into the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the 2008 Act) and regulation 18 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 (the 2014 Regulations) that, from 1 July 2022, service providers registered with CQC must ensure their staff receive training appropriate to their role. The NICE Quality Standards for FASD & SIGN 156 echo this requirement in stating that all professionals that support those with FASD should be trained.

Pupils may:

·       struggle with attention, memory, or processing

·       appear “able” but cannot consistently access learning

·       experience emotional dysregulation, shutdowns, or impulsivity

·       frequently misunderstood as being defiant, oppositional, or unmotivated

·       can fluctuate in capacity to understand or complete tasks 

·       difficulties in transitioning from accommodation to the classroom 

·       may appear age appropriate but is inconsistent with academic performance

·       escalating emerging needs with growing number of episodes of flight, fight, freeze

The 4 stages are designed to not overwhelm your already hard working teams, tailored around your rota, at your pace. The online course delivered by a highly experienced practitioner allows a safe space for staff reflection, thought-provoking and open communication whilst being provided with the knowledge and expertise of the qualified trainer.

Programme Structure – 4 Stages 

Stage 1 – Understanding FASD in Children & Young People

Prenatal alcohol exposure, brain development, and how FASD presents in childhood and adolescence.

Stage 2 – From Knowledge to Daily Practice

Applying FASD-informed strategies to routines, transitions, learning, communication, and emotional regulation in residential educational settings.

Stage 3 – Proactive & Individualised Support Planning

Planning ahead for change, recognising fluctuating capacity, and adapting support across developmental stages.

Stage 4 – Best Practice, Safeguarding & Standards

Aligning care with NICE Quality Standards, safeguarding responsibilities, risk management, reflective practice, and multidisciplinary working.

'Personalised training at its very best.... the course was completely tailored around the young person that we support, where we had made assumptions of capacity and now see that he had only understood only the third or forth word in every normal speed conversation; it was no wonder we started to see lots of rapidly emerging needs.

Fabulous! We learnt so much and really feel that we know so much more about the young person we support where armed with our new strategies we already see a difference in him and us as we all have the confidence to support looking through the lense of FASD.

Sincerely I say this, where it has been a gamechanger for my team. Thank you.'

Registered Manager, Residential Home, Wiltshire

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

‘What does this person need?’

 rather than

‘What is wrong with this person?’

We dig deep to tune into the child or young person that you support where we tailor our programme around the child or young persons individual needs. We offer practical application of therapeutic strategies to support 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..... we consider the 'symptoms' and look for a positives ways to interpret and scaffold needs.

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

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

We stay with you after the course where we also offer a 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.

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Image with kindest permission of our FASD Friend @Charlie Mackesy