OUT NOW: A Skills Development Programme Report about Positive Behaviour Support Training by @avenuesgroup

Evaluation of Positive Behaviour Support training across Avenues

In early 2016 Avenues was given the opportunity to apply for funding to undertake a pilot workforce transformation project via the Intellectual Disabilities Programme working across the South East within Health Education England. We chose to apply for Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) training funding. The Avenues Group was due to celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2018, and we knew that this important work could mark the beginnings of a new strategy providing a stronger focus on how PBS and Person Centered Active Support would be at the heart of everything that we do when supporting people with complex needs and behaviours that are often described as challenging.

Since we started this training there have been many changes, not least the pandemic. Since COVID-19 took over our lives we have had many conversations around the importance of wellbeing, providing support and being mindful of mental and physical health. There has also been a lot of discussion in mainstream media about inclusion, discrimination and equality of opportunity.

All of this is not new to us as a provider of social care, and has been fundamentally linked to PBS and Active Support for years. We all need to understand what PBS and Active Support really means and how, when undertaken properly by a workforce who have been provided with the right skills and training, they change lives. We need to get beyond the jargon and terminology – it’s about supporting everyone to have active, happy, fulfilled and balanced lives.

“The training and support is so important. The PBS Team are excellent at helping us to understand the behaviours that people label as ‘challenging’. But wouldn’t you be ‘challenging’ if you were being asked to do something you didn’t understand?”

Senior Operations Manager

At Avenues our strategy is all about how we are ‘building better lives together’ and how important it is that everyone understands what that means and the impact it can have. We believe that it’s all about working together and understanding the goals based around PBS and Active Support, whether that’s Service Manager to Support Worker, Support Worker to the people that we support or all support staff to family members and loved ones.

A poignant moment for me was when I was asked by a person we support – “Do you cook your own dinner?” and “Do you sit up watching television until 1 o’clock in the morning”, to which I answered “Yes, when I want to” – the response I got was “That’s what I’ve always wanted to do”. And now they do.

Maybe one day we won’t need to talk about PBS and Active Support, as it will simply be the way we do things. It’s just good support.

To access the full report click here.

To access the easy read report click here.

For further details about the project contact:

Shane Carroll – Learning and Development Manager

Email: Shane Carroll Shane.Carroll@avenuesgroup.org.uk

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