A NORTH-EAST Job Centre has helped a young woman take a step closer to achieving her lifelong dream through its work to become autism-friendly.

Sunderland and Houghton Job Centres have become the first in the country to receive full Autism Acceptance Status, awarded by North East Autism Society (NEAS) in recognition of their work to provide the most comfortable experience for neurodiverse people.

These efforts have already begun to change lives. Thanks to the service enhancements she’s seen, jobseeker Amanda-Jayne Davies, from Washington, has been empowered to chase her dream of teaching abroad.

She said: “I’m thrilled to see such wonderful progress in an environment that could previously seem intimidating”.

“It’s a great step in the right direction to have such a focus on helping people to work towards jobs in fields that they have a passion for, and to take personal needs into consideration.

“It’s thanks to these things, and encouragement from others, that I’ve been able to apply for a position as an Assistant Language Teacher in Japan.”

Since April 2019, more than 500 members of staff – including work coaches, front-of-house staff, customer care officers, and more – from Job Centres across Northumberland Tyne and Wear District have received the enhanced training.

NEAS has already awarded Sunderland and Houghton Job Centres with full Autism Acceptance Status, and Southwick and Washington are expected to soon follow.

Steve Martin, Senior Operations Manager, said: “We are very proud of the amazing relationship we have with North East Autism Society, and the outstanding work we do in partnership to support our customers.

“With the support of NEAS, our people have worked extremely hard, and are delighted to be awarded Autism Acceptance Status.

“It’s very important to us that everyone who needs the support a community job centre provides feels comfortable coming in and speaking with us, and that they understand our working culture is one of compassion, understanding, and empathy.

“NEAS have been fantastic in helping us achieve this. They’ve delivered their down-to-earth, interactive training – free-of-charge – in a way that has made it very easy for our staff to engage with.

“Some of the changes we’ve made have been as simple as ensuring that everyone is met by our friendly front of house staff and customer care officers, and given clear directions and support about where to go and what to do.

“We’ve also introduced quiet areas and private rooms for anyone who is feeling overwhelmed, alongside what we call an ‘About Me Passport’.

“This is a small booklet that visitors can hand to our staff, that discreetly communicates details of any disabilities or neurodiverse conditions they have, how they prefer to receive information, and any situations they may find difficult.

“We’ve also introduced ‘Go, Look, See’ events to allow customers with autism to visit the centres and feedback to us about anything they think we could tailor to meet the needs of our neurodivergent customers. This also gives us the opportunity to not only discuss the challenges our autistic customers face, but more importantly talk about their strengths and skills, and their aspirations.”

It was through one of these events that staff met Amanda and learned of her teaching ambitions.

Amanda added: “Before receiving such support and encouragement, I didn’t feel like I would be able to actually pursue this dream, but now I feel like I will be able to do something I love.

“I hope that things will continue in this direction so that other people like me can realise their dreams and find work in a field they are passionate about!”

John Phillipson, CEO of North East Autism Society, said: “This exemplifies why we decided to launch our Employment Futures service.

“We fully believe that with the right support autistic people won’t just go on to find meaningful employment but also that their contribution will be a huge benefit to the wider world.

“The work undertaken to train more than 500 people so JobCentres can be accessible to autistic people, or those with other examples of neurodiversity, is phenomenal.

“If every region in the country did this the country would be a very different place indeed.”