‘Does it do what it says on the tin?’ – An exploratory case study into how an additional resource provision in a mainstream secondary school facilitates inclusion for young people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

The drive toward inclusion for autistic children and young people, has led to the majority of these students being educated within mainstream schools (DfE, 2021/22).

School placement decisions for these students are generally based on individual needs and resources available. 

One option that is slowly growing in popularity based on parental satisfaction and aimed at promoting inclusion in mainstream education is that of additional resource provisions (ARPs) (Fredrickson et al., 2010). 

Currently there is little research on ARPs and even less eliciting the views of autistic students who access support from these ARPs.

Therefore, the aim of this research was to conduct an exploratory case study of an ARP attached to a secondary mainstream school and aimed to explore the available support through observations and a staff focus group.

The research also aimed to elicit the views of 7 autistic students through semi-structured interviews on their experiences of being supported by an ARP, including what they found helpful and what they experienced as being barriers to effective support.

Reflexive Thematic Analysis was used to analysis the data collected and indicated that the ARP in this study offers several benefits that supports students to access the mainstream school, including keyworkers being central to facilitating individualised packages of support.

However, findings also highlighted areas of improvement, including developing the wider school ethos and culture, through training and attention to school policies.

Furthermore, findings called for more collaborative working between the ARP staff and mainstream teachers with the aim of having a shared understanding of how best to support this population of students.

The unique insight into student's experiences of available support aims to inform future thinking on what students may find works well and what might need further consideration to supporting these students to access the mainstream setting.