A very warm welcome to St Andrews Autism Centre – Singapore
On Friday the 24th November 2023, we hosted some lovely people from overseas, all the way from Singapore to be precise.
They had ventured over to the UK to explore some different Autism services in collaboration with AT-Autism.
The day was structured into an organised tour of the facilities and grounds of Stroud Court, including a presentation ‘All About Us’. Followed by lunch at The Crown in Minchinhampton (which was delicious and highly recommended!)
We discussed a range of topics, including:
- Our philosophy and approach to care for supporting Autistic Adults
- How we address the specific needs and challenges of Autistic Adults
- Our funding structures
- How we track and use data to inform our practices – both as carers and as employers
- How we ensure our services are truly Person Centred
- The training we provide to empower our Supported Persons
- Some positive case studies
It was really interesting to discuss the differences between the models of care between the UK and Singapore. St Andrews Autism Centre is the ‘only’ service of its type in Singapore!
There is no regulatory body in Singapore and so the group were interested to hear about some of our frameworks on the service model here in the UK and how we meet standards that are set. We are hopeful that after some of the conversations, this will help St Andrews to influence some of the decision making in Singapore after a series of pilots that they intend to run.
There is an increasing awareness of the gap for residential services providers in Singapore and St Andrews appear to be doing a great job at improving things further. It was fantastic to hear about the positive difference that they clearly make in Singapore and hopefully with an array of some of our paperwork they will be able to adapt this to continue to improve the outlook for Autistic Adults and Children in Singapore.
The day concluded with an exchange of gifts including some traditional pastries of the exotic fruit ‘Musang King Durian’ before a pleasant trip across the common back to the train station to show off the area in all its glory 😊 We hope to stay in contact and will be sure to say hello if we are ever in Singapore…