We are testing the ICF Toolkit™, a digital strengths and needs assessment toolkit to help autistic individuals and those with ADHD access ongoing, personalised support. The toolkit could be used across education, employment and healthcare.
Why this project matters
Too many autistic people or people with ADHD sit on assessment waiting lists for years before accessing support. Often, many need to reach a crisis point to get any support at all.
A lack of early, personalised and effective support means many neurodivergent people face a lifetime of inequalities.
Autistic people, people with ADHD, and people with both neurotypes need to understand themselves, their needs and how these change over time. They also need services to understand how best to support them.
Although other support needs profiling tools exist, there is no evidence-based tool that also highlights an individual's strengths.
About the ICF Toolkit™
- It is a digital tool to create a personalised profile of a person’s strengths and needs, using the World Health Organization clinical core sets for autism and ADHD.
- It can be completed by a clinician, by the neurodivergent person themselves, or a family member.
- The individual or their family can share their profile with teachers, employers, or healthcare professionals to identify the most suitable support.
- It could be suitable for people waiting for a formal assessment of autism or ADHD.
The research process
So far, we have completed a proof of concept and a feasibility trial. We have more research planned, so will continue to update this webpage.
Proof of concept (April 2023 - April 2024)
We asked autistic people, GPs, clinicians, teachers, SENCOs, employers, and family members to assess how useful the toolkit could be across education, health and employment settings. They were excited by the potential of an evidence-based profile tool that focuses on strengths and support needs.
For more information about the findings from this research, watch the webinar below.
Project team:
Dr Harriet Hummerstone, research associate
Feasibility trial of the ICF Toolkit™ in children before diagnosis (February 2025 - February 2026)
This project evaluated how the ICF Toolkit™ can be used in real-world settings to create personalised support plans for undiagnosed autistic and ADHD students in schools and nurseries.
We found that:
• Tailored, timely support for autistic and ADHD children may help improve their wellbeing and quality of life while waiting for diagnosis.
• Families and education professionals highly valued the ICF profiles in building shared understanding and language of the child’s needs.
• Both groups described the assessment as useful, convenient, accessible, relevant, and worthwhile.
• After completing the assessment and developing a support plan together, both education professionals and families reported greater confidence identifying, communicating and advocating for their child.
We will use this information to provide evidence to run a larger trial of the toolkit in education, for people on assessment waiting lists, or who could benefit from employment adjustments.
Read the report on our feasibility trial.
Project team: Dr Michelle Newman, co-investigator; research associates: Adam Jones, Holly Dennehy.
The potential
We want every autistic person and person with ADHD to have access to effective, personalised support that allows them to thrive, whether they have a diagnosis or not.
Findings
Watch the webinar where Dr Harriet Hummerstone shares findings from the proof of concept study: