Ever sat in a management meeting and heard someone ask why a team member “can’t just try harder to concentrate”? If so, you already know why this training matters. It isn’t about ticking a box for HR. A manager who understands neurodiversity properly reacts differently, and their team notices.
There’s plenty of neurodiversity training out there. Some of it is a webinar you half watch while doing something else, followed by a PDF nobody opens again. Some of it is a morning of terminology that never quite translates into what to actually do on a Tuesday afternoon when someone on your team is struggling. The courses that actually change how a manager operates tend to have a few things in common, and they’re worth knowing before you book anyone onto anything.
Training built by people who’ve lived it
There’s a difference between someone who has read up on ADHD, autism, dyslexia and dyspraxia, and someone who understands them because they’ve navigated it themselves, in their own career and often in their own family too.
Every open session at Neuro Sparks is delivered by Dan Armitage, our Chief Executive. Dan holds a PG Cert in Neurodiversity and is a TAP accredited trainer, but the business itself started with him and his mother Val, and it grew out of real experience of what it takes to support a neurodivergent professional through an actual working day, not just a diagnosis on paper. That shows in the room. Questions get answered honestly, from someone who’s been there, rather than pointed back at a slide.
Worth asking any provider you’re considering who’s actually delivering the training and what their own connection to neurodiversity is. A decent one will tell you straight away.
Training built for managers, not just staff awareness content with a new title
A lot of neurodiversity training gets written once and rolled out to everyone regardless of role. That misses something. General awareness helps your team understand what neurodiversity is. Managers need more than that. They need to feel confident having a proper conversation with someone who’s struggling, to know what a reasonable adjustment actually looks like in practice, and to manage performance fairly without constantly second guessing themselves.
That’s the gap our afternoon session, Neurodiversity for People Managers, was built to fill. It runs 1pm to 4pm at our training suite in Burnley and covers spotting when someone might need support, having those conversations without them feeling awkward, adjustments that genuinely help rather than just look good on paper, managing performance fairly, and building a team culture where people can actually do their best work. It sits alongside our morning Foundations session, which is aimed at everyone in the business, so you can send a manager to the afternoon on its own or book the full day and cover both.
Small groups, not a room of eighty
Training on something this personal only works if people feel able to ask the question they’re actually thinking, rather than the safe, polished version. That’s a lot easier in a small group where the trainer knows your name by lunchtime than it is watching a livestream with eighty other people muted.
We keep our sessions small on purpose, so nobody feels out of their depth and questions get properly welcomed rather than rushed past to keep to time. The training suite itself, above Oliver Ryan MP’s office on Grimshaw Street in Burnley, was designed with neurodivergent learners in mind. If anyone has access requirements, we sort that out beforehand rather than scrambling on the day.
Beyond the legal box ticking
Any decent manager training should cover your obligations under the Equality Act 2010, and ours does. But if that’s where it stops, it hasn’t really done its job. Our Foundations session gives managers a solid grounding in what neurodiversity means and how ADHD, autism, dyslexia and dyspraxia show up in everyday working life. The People Managers session goes further, so people leave with things they can actually use the next morning: how to spot early signs someone needs support, how to open up a conversation about it without it feeling forced, and how to put adjustments in place that make a real difference rather than sitting in a policy document nobody reads.
What it actually costs and when
We run open sessions every month at our Burnley training suite, with new dates added regularly. The morning Foundations session is £99 per person and open to anyone in your business. The afternoon People Managers session is also £99 per person. Book both together for £174, and that includes a networking lunch. If you’d rather keep training in house, we do that too.
If you manage people and want more than a certificate saying you’ve “done” neurodiversity training, have a look at our upcoming dates and book onto the afternoon session. It’s built for exactly the situations you’re already dealing with.