Sensory Integration Education

ICEASI represents a collection of training organisations and is not a regulatory body. There is no legal requirement for practitioners to undertake ICEASI-recognised courses. Sensory Integration Education’s practitioner training pathway in Sensory Integration is accredited by Sheffield Hallam University, endows globally-recognised UK university qualifications, and equips practitioners with the knowledge, skills and clinical experience and expertise to safely and confidently practise ASI®.

Sensory Integration Education has taken the proactive decision not to participate in the ICEASI 2019 ‘Standards for Training Programs in Ayres Sensory Integration®’. Our view is that these standards lately adopted by ICEASI no longer map to the standards originally agreed in 2016. As an organisation we are committed to ensuring that our developing SI Practitioners and SI Advanced Practitioners learn effectively and flexibly through rigorous and innovative clinically-focused methods and materials. Our resulting curriculum design is different from that recently specified by ICEASI . It would be a regressive step if we were to alter our training in order to adhere to the ICEASI standards. The table below details the ICEASI standards with our postgraduate training pathway.

The SIE SI practitioner training pathway provides a comprehensive programme of clinical learning leading to qualifications that are internationally recognised and easily transferable. It has been carefully mapped to the current UK Allied Health Profession professional bodies and government policies and frameworks around advanced practice, and offers a route to clinical qualification at SI Practitioner and Advanced SI Practitioner level. This is alongside the academic awards of PG Certificate, PG Diploma and Master’s Degree. You can be reassured that the qualifications you have gained, are working towards, or are planning to embark on with SIE, have real worldwide currency.

Feedback from our large, global cohort of students and from our NHS and private-practice purchasers assures us that retaining our current provision of clinically-focused, innovative, interactive online training, blended with specified clinical practice hours and tutorial input supported by Advanced SI Practitioners Clinical Mentors - and all fully assessed to UK university standards - is the right provision for our students, health commissioners and the public. Our education changes the lives of people with sensory processing and integration challenges.

Below, we provide further details regarding our decision. You can also contact us at [email protected] with any questions.

What is ICEASI?
ICEASI stands for the International Council for Education in Ayres Sensory Integration. It is a not-for-profit organisation that was formally created in 2018 after many years as a loose grouping of member organisations called the International Coalition for Education in Ayres Sensory Integration. The stated purpose of ICEASI is to provide an inclusive, supportive community, which promotes best practice and works to raise standards of education and training in Ayres Sensory Integration® (ASI®). The members represent organisations with national profiles of providing education and training in ASI®. It is not a regulatory body. However, international educational and training establishments will be able to voluntarily submit their programmes to the council in order to have them approved against the ICEASI 2019 ‘Standards for Training Programs in Ayres Sensory Integration’, once that process has been approved.

Sensory Integration Education’s involvement with developing ICEASI educational standards
In 2011, we launched an MSc in Sensory Integration pathway, enabling occupational therapists, physiotherapists, and speech and language therapists the opportunity to train as SI Practitioners and Advanced Practitioners, all within the proven, globally recognised framework of UK university qualifications.

In 2016, SIE hosted and led a retreat in London on behalf of ICEASI for leaders from international organisations and individual international ASI® education. The decisions to be made were generated from agreements made at the previous meeting held in Birmingham, England, 2015, as part of the European Sensory Integration Congress. The whole group worked collectively to agree the overall professional levels of ‘certification’. For further detail see SensorNet 46 March 2016.pdf.

The resultant framework, originally developed by SIE’s Chair Rosalind Rogers for the retreat, was published in the American Occupational Therapy Association OT Practice, in 2017. It laid out a structure which outlined the learning outcomes for different levels of expertise and specified requisite knowledge and skills. The citation for the article is:

Baltazar Mori, A., Carrasco Koester, A., Holland, D., Fernandes, P., Gray Rogers, R., Smith Roley, S., Soechting, E., & Van Jaarsveld, A. (2017). Building competency in SI: Evidence based guidelines for occupational therapy using Ayres Sensory Integration®. OT Practice, 22(12), 8–13.

Is this the framework for the standards that have been formally adopted by ICEASI?
No. Towards the end of 2019 an alternative framework was proposed which specified the teaching and assessment methods rather than the learning outcomes as was the original aim. We respected the opportunity to raise our issues with it. It was formally adopted by the ICEASI council at the meeting in October 2019.

Has the SIE practitioner pathway been submitted to ICEASI?
ICEASI has not yet agreed the process by which organisations’ programmes can be put forward for recognition, at the time of writing. SIE welcomes all moves to raise the quality and recognition of ASI® training. We do not support the focus of the ICEASI standards and therefore are not participating in the ICEASI recognition process.

Our practitioner pathway has been carefully designed by a team of curriculum designers, educationalists, subject matter specialists and experts, advanced practitioner clinicians, researchers and education technology designers. UK university education standards for post-registration health courses have been developed by organisations such as UK Skills for Health and The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education and endorsed by the UK Council of Deans for Nursing and AHPs, NHS Education Scotland and NHS Education England. As a result, universities have clear expectations as to how standards of clinically-based education and skill development should be described and delivered.

As an organisation we are committed to ensuring that our developing SI Practitioners and SI Advanced Practitioners learn effectively and flexibly through rigorous and innovative clinically-focused methods and materials. Our resulting curriculum design is different from that recently specified by ICEASI. The table below details the ICEASI standards alongside our pathway which enables you to qualify as a SI Practitioner or SI Advanced Practitioner in addition to gaining a Postgraduate Certificate or Diploma.

What does this mean for me as a former, current or prospective student?
Be reassured - it does not impact at all on the quality or standard of your training. ICEASI represents a collection of training organisations and is not a regulatory body. There is no legal requirement for practitioners to undertake ICEASI-recognised courses. Sensory Integration Education’s practitioner training pathway in Sensory Integration is accredited by Sheffield Hallam University, endows globally-recognised UK university qualifications, and equips practitioners with the knowledge, skills and clinical experience and expertise to safely and confidently practise ASI®.

The SIE SI practitioner training pathway provides a comprehensive programme of clinical learning leading to qualifications that are internationally recognised and easily transferable. It has been carefully mapped to the current UK Allied Health Profession professional bodies and government policies and frameworks around advanced practice, and offers a route to clinical qualification at SI Practitioner and Advanced SI Practitioner level. This is alongside the academic awards of PG Certificate, PG Diploma and Master’s Degree. You can be reassured that the qualifications you have gained, are working towards, or are planning to embark on with SIE, have real worldwide currency.

What are the advantages of undertaking training with SIE?
In the UK, Ireland and further afield, our clinical educational focus is on what you, the professional learner, will do, how you will think, and what impact you will have, working together with your client group. Our emphasis on outcomes explicitly should articulate an inquiring, reflective, innovative focus with advancing clinical skills, underpinned by the sourcing and analysis of the best available evidence.

Within the NHS Health Education England, the Advanced Clinical Practice Framework describes advanced clinical practice as:

“practice characterised by a high degree of autonomy and complex decision making… underpinned by a master’s level award or equivalent that encompasses the four pillars of clinical practice, leadership and management, education and research, with demonstration of core capabilities and area-specific clinical competence. Advanced clinical practice embodies the ability to manage clinical care in partnership with individuals, families and carers. It includes the analysis and synthesis of complex problems across a range of settings, enabling innovative solutions to enhance people’s experience and improve outcomes.”

Our training has been designed to enable you to develop advanced clinical skills in sensory integration therapy and the four pillars of clinical practice, leadership and management, education and research are foundational to our programme. We are delighted that SIE has been identified and included in the recent Advanced Clinical Practice: Capabilities framework when working with people who have a learning disability and/or autism (2020) alongside other highly reputable organisations. https://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/images/services/cstf/ACP%20in%20LDA%20Framework.pdf 

August 2020