Meet the trainers
Meet our specialised training team
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Rachel oversees the Training and Consultancy department, rejoining the National Autistic Society in 2005. She has a BSc in social policy and planning, a Diploma in social work and a Postgraduate Certificate in Asperger syndrome. She is also a Social Work England registered social worker. An experienced senior manager, Rachel draws from over 25 years of experience in supporting autistic people, families or professionals, overseeing an expert staff team and the design and delivery of specialist training and consultancy.
"My favourite part of the job is when I hear examples of how our training has changed people’s understanding of autism which will go on and improve the lives of the people they support."
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Niki joined the National Autistic Society as a Senior Training Consultant in 2012. She has worked in the field of autism since 2002, initially supporting children and their families and later working within services for autistic adults. She has a psychology degree and an MSc in child development. She has been involved in autism research with various research groups and completed her PhD in autism in 2011. Since joining the NAS, Niki has been involved in a variety of consultancy projects and has delivered a range of training courses to professionals across the country and internationally.
"My favourite part of my job is meeting such a wide range of professionals and sharing knowledge and experience. But the best part of the job is working with and learning from autistic people themselves."
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David is a Senior Training Consultant and jointly manages the training team. He joined the National Autistic Society in 2006 initially as a help! Family Support Programme Officer, which involved delivering post diagnostic information seminars to parents and carers. His previous roles include Head of Casework and Family Support and National Volunteering Development Manager. David has experience in the management and delivery of a range of services aimed at supporting families, autistic young people and autistic adults.
David has considerable experience delivering a wide range of training, seminars and workshops to both parents and professionals, including the Licenced User parent programmes. He led the revision and update of the EarlyBird and EarlyBird Plus parent support programme and the accompanying Licenced User Training.
Due to personal family experience, David has developed a special interest in restricted diet and sensory differences.
“My role has many amazing aspects but my favourite part is the feeling of satisfaction when the advice and support I share with parents and professionals has a positive impact of the lives of the family and/or the individual".
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MSc Autism
Rachel is our Online Training and Development Manager who project manages the development of any new online training modules. She has helped to develop modules relating to autism in the police service, sport, managing money and safeguarding. Her latest module is the women and girls module, having a personal interest in the subject after gaining a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome in 2014, having self-identified as autistic since 2011. She also ensures the autistic voice is strong within our face-to-face courses as well as online content. Rachel has worked for the National Autistic Society since 2005 in a range of positions including befriending, mentoring, support work, research and delivering training across Scotland to families and professionals. She enjoys learning from a variety of professionals but particularly enjoys hearing from autistic people themselves.
"I am very fortunate to work within a team that understands and assists me to be the best version of myself. My favourite aspect to my job is working with others on the autism spectrum to create our online courses for professionals, the varying perspectives and ideas mean I get to constantly learn on a daily basis."
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PGCertEd Autism
Lorraine is an Autism Training Consultant who has worked with autistic people and their families throughout her career and is passionate about increasing understanding of autism. Joining the National Autistic Society in 2005, Lorraine has delivered a variety of autism training to both professionals and families, covering a range of topics including sensory differences, continence, sexuality and women and girls. She has lectured on autism at a variety of UK universities and has spoken at several conferences on autism and related subjects.
Her publications include Toilet training and the autism spectrum: a guide for professionals (2016) with Dr Eve Fleming, 'Toileting problems in children with autism' (2014) in The Nursing Times, and the National Autistic Society's Teen Life workbook. Lorraine developed the new National Autistic Society Teen Life parent support programme and accompanying Licensed User Training, and has written a variety of articles on Network Autism, covering topics such as catastrophising and toileting difficulties.
Lorraine was one of the content writers for the National Autistic Society's online training module on women and girls.
"My favourite part of the job is the opportunities I get to constantly learn more about autism, often from autistic people themselves, and to share that knowledge with those who come on my training."
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Mandy is an Autism Training Consultant. She began her career as a primary school teacher and then worked with children with learning disabilities in a large residential school. Following this, she moved into working with young adults in residential services, becoming a team leader. In 1996, Mandy began her career with the National Autistic Society as a manager of a day resource and independent living service for young autistic adults in Northamptonshire, instituting the SPELL framework at the service. With this experience, she began training other staff and then took on a role as an autism training consultant in 2002. Mandy’s main role is training across a wide customer base, providing consultancy support, teaching on HE courses and developing training materials. She also recently worked on a large consultancy project overseas.
"I have many favourite parts to my job. Most recently it has been the opportunity to work with a staff team over many months and see how training and support resulted in them developing best practice and autistic children being happy learners."
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Sarah joined the National Autistic Society in 2012 as an Autism Training Consultant. She has 15 years of experience as a primary school teacher in both mainstream and specialist education and has a PGCE in Special Education: Autism (Children) from Birmingham University. Sarah has worked as a Specialist Advisory Teacher for an Early Years Communication Interaction Team, supporting pre-school children and their families. She delivers a range of autism workshops and has trained a diverse range of professionals. She consults in schools and nurseries and delivers bespoke packages of training, including training developed by the Autism Education Trust.
"What I love most about my job is the wide range of inspirational people I get to meet and work with on a daily basis."
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Laura has worked with the National Autistic Society as a training consultant for over 5 years. Laura delivers the National Autistic Society's EarlyBird/EarlyBird Plus parent programmes to families as well as delivering the Licensed User training courses for professionals. Laura also delivers a number of our employment training courses and provides work place support and assessments for autistic employees. After graduating with a degree in Psychology with linguistics, Laura trained as a play therapist supporting autistic children and their families in home and education settings, before joining a London based charity as a job coach/employment coordinator supporting autistic adults into employment.
“One of the most rewarding aspects of my job is reading positive feedback from families– all across the world - who have attended our parent programmes, knowing that we are helping them to understand their children and shape their understanding of autism".
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Sue joined the National Autistic Society as a training consultant in March 2021 after working as a freelance consultant with the NAS for 18 months. Sue developed an interest in autism following her own diagnosis of Asperger syndrome and ADHD in her late 30s. She has since invested a great deal of time in studying all aspects of autism and often speaks from her own experience of being autistic.
Her original background was in policing and she served 17 years with the Metropolitan Police Service specialising in intelligence work for most of her career. She has also worked as a safeguarding lead in a secondary school and for an IT consultancy which exclusively employs autistic consultants.
Whilst studying autism, having experienced being misdiagnosed and late diagnosed herself, Sue is particularly passionate about raising awareness around autism in general, but particularly the less-well understood female profile."My favourite part of the job is seeing people who have limited or no previous experience of autism understand and be able to make sense of how and why we experience the world the way we do, and how, with a little understanding, our differences can make a difference".
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Deborah Garland is an Autism Training Consultant. She delivers a wide range of training programmes, has been involved a number of research studies and also works in a Tier 4 Specialist Autism Service providing post diagnostic support to families from the North East and Cumbria.
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Julia joined the National Autistic Society in April 2021. Julia trained as a primary school teacher specialising in Early Years and has worked directly with families for over 15 years. She spent 11 years working as a Portage Worker as part of a local authority children with disabilities team where she became an EarlyBird Licenced User delivering this programme to many groups. Julia was also a trainer for the National Portage Association. Prior to joining the National Autistic Society Julia managed family support services for another national charity which involved running a helpline, providing family support and overseeing delivery of short break programmes. Outside of work Julia is a volunteer for Girlguiding as part of the North West Region safe practice/inclusion team.
"My favourite part of the job is sharing my passion for supporting families and knowing that professionals will go on to deliver our EarlyBird programmes which will empower families by giving them the knowledge and tools they need to help them understand their children".