Services for Parents

Support for parent/carers, and young autistic adults aged 14-25

We have updated what we now offer, Please read the following carefully as things have changed.

What we provide

We are now providing the following for parents/carers of a child aged 0 – 25 living in Oxfordshire (or accessing healthcare, school or social care in Oxfordshire): xx
  • Email newsletters – monthly newsletters full of news, events, and useful information.
  • Online Q&A  These are a great place to start getting support from us. Each session focuses on a specific topic based on frequently asked questions and common themes for our families. There will be a guest speaker providing a talk and answering questions. You can ask a question or just come and listen and feel supported. We encourage you to attend as many sessions as possible. We aim to run 2 per month one in the day time and one in the evening. We will advertise them via email and our Facebook page.
  • Advice by email if you have a query that cannot be answered in our Q&A sessions, you can request advice by email. Email your questions, relating to your child/young person, to advice@afso.org.uk
  • Advice Appointments If your query or needs cannot be answered via the above services, then parents/carers can book an Advice Appointment with our Family Practitioner. an Advice appointment is a 40 minute 1:1 appointment via telephone or Microsoft Teams. Bookings are self referred via our simple online booking system https:/calendly.com/afso/parent-carersappointment  You will receive an email to confirm your appointment. You may only book one appointment in advance and repeat appointments to be no more that once a month.
  • Signposting and access to other services.
  • Oxfordshire Autism Alert Card – see link on our home page
  • Other training courses and workshops, on request.

Parent Support Groups

There are a number of support groups for parents across Oxfordshire – some are autism-specific and others are more general for parents with children with additional needs. For a list of parent support groups in Oxfordshire please see visit the Family Information Service Directory run by Oxfordshire County Council.

Make a referral 

We recommend all families refer to us soon after their child / young adult has received a diagnosis; or when they arrive in Oxfordshire. Our Referral Forms are for each person on the spectrum, so if there is more than one child on the spectrum we will need a form for each child. Our Referral Form may be completed by parent/carers or professionals – but we do need the form to be fully completed, ideally including an email address. Once we have received a Referral Form the parent will receive a welcome email and be added to our mailing list to receive regular email bulletins and all our news of training, activities, and events (unless you tell us you do not wish to receive this information). Parents may then attend our online Q&A sessions.

Please complete the relevant Referral Form:

Please click the link to download the form. If you use Google Chrome, the download will be placed in the download folder which can be accessed using the download symbol in the browser site bar. Alternatively right click the link and open in a new tab.

If you’re already known to us and would like to contact a member of staff, please see our Contact Us page for details.

Contact Us

If you’re already known to us and would like to contact a member of staff, please see our Contact Us page for details.

Training courses for parents

We work in partnership with relevant professionals from across Oxfordshire, including Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford Health and private individuals, in order to deliver appropriate and flexible training.
  • Challenging Behaviour
  • Autism Awareness
  • Sensory Processing
  • Sexuality Awareness
  • Bespoke training on request
“loved this course – it has changed my life, my son’s life and my whole family. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.” – parent attended Sensory Processing course.

Details of our courses are usually sent by email to parents on our mailing list.

To join our mailing list please complete one of our referral forms:

If your email address, or other details, have changed please email us and let us know