A commitment to autism expertise 

Part of what makes us so successful in empowering young people with complex autism to achieve their full potential is our commitment to maintaining a high level of staff expertise. We are ambitious for our young people and passionate about ensuring they have the highest level of expert support in place to help them achieve.

A focus on staff training

We use a specialist approach to support our young people to learn, based on autism best practice and established methodologies. At the heart of this is the TEACCH approach - world-renowned for its effectiveness in supporting people with autism. An exceptionally strong focus on training means staff are experienced in using a range of strategies to support young people's individual needs and development in all settings throughout the waking day. 

Regular staff training from induction onwards ensures the highest levels of knowledge and expertise in all staff.

All of our senior staff are trained in advanced TEACCH, and two staff members are TEACCH Certified Advanced Consultants, around 30% of the UK's total. 

TEACCH is at the heart of Prior's Court's approach, and as such we are dedicated to ensuring our staff are trained in the methodology. We also want to share our experience and expertise with other professionals, parents and anyone wanting to learn more about supporting young people with autism.

See TEACCH courses

Why use TEACCH? 

The aim of the TEACCH programme is to enable people with autism to function as meaningfully and as independently as possible in the community.

TEACCH has developed an approach known as 'Structured teaching'. The principles of Structured teaching are:

• Understanding the learning styles of autistic individuals and how to use strategies that build upon learning strengths
• Developing an individualised person and family centred plan for each person, rather than using a standard curriculum
• Structuring the physical environment to make it clearer
• Using visual supports to make the sequence of daily activities predictable and understandable
• Using visual supports to make individual tasks understandable
• Implementing assessment and strategies to build on skills

You can find out more about TEACCH from the University of North Carolina. 

Prior's Court staff training represents what we value in TEACCH: expertise in understanding the needs of their students, a dedication to education and life-long learning and a deep respect for the individuals they serve and their families.

Clinical Director from the TEACCH Autism Program, University of North Carolina

Research to inform practice

Our approach to supporting young people is based on autism research and recognised best practice. The Prior's Court Research Programme was set up in 2019 with the aim of working with partners on research projects which have the potential to further inform our practice and thereby further improve the outcomes for young people at Prior’s Court.

We hope the findings of these projects will also help to shape policy and sector development, potentially improving outcomes for young people with autism from across the country.

Our training courses 

Our Research Programme