Co-creation and collaboration: The development and evolution of a feedback-driven specialist ASC-LD MHST in mainstream schools in Ealing

The Ealing Mental Health Support Team (MHST) was established in January 2020. In 2021, feedback from our local parent-carer forum group reported a gap in provision for Autistic children and young people (CYP) with and without Learning Disabilities (LD) diagnoses attending mainstream schools. This served as a key catalyst for the development of a specific team for Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASC) and LD within the existing MHST structure. A decision was made in collaboration with key stakeholders to use some of the existing MHST budget to develop such a provision for mainstream schools, which later came to be known as the MHST+ Learning Disabilities and Autism Practitioners (LDAP) team. This supports CYP with a diagnosis of ASC or LD, or who have been accepted on a waiting list for an ASC assessment, with mild-to-moderate mental health concerns or behaviours of concern. The MHST+ LDAP team is a very small team consisting of three clinicians alongside trainees when possible, but serves up to 83 mainstream schools in the borough. LDAP practitioners are trained in the high-intensity Children and Young People’s Psychological Therapies ASC-LD programme.