Before I became a support worker...

...I owned my own shop.

As a shop owner I realised that my customers were all individuals who all thought differently and expressed a broad range of opinions. To keep people coming through my door, I had to show them respect by listening to them and acknowledging their opinions. Also, crucially, I understood that a smile with the eyes as well as from the mouth led to an impression of good customer service.

On to my role as a support worker, wow, this tested me! To ensure the people I supported kept allowing me to come through their door, I had to, as before, show them respect by listening to them and offering a genuine smile.

During those first few weeks and months a few questions, but only occasional answers, came to mind:

How can I understand the people I support? Observing individuals was going to help here; I tried to recognise any clues as to what was going on for them.

How can I make myself understood? Using individuals preferred method of communication was going to be the only way, but what was it?

I muddled through but reflected on the fact that I had a lot to learn. When the opportunity to attend Great Interactions training came up I grabbed the opportunity to attend, some of the things I learnt there began to help me a lot.

Some of what I learnt seems obvious now and I hope some of it comes naturally. I find the facilitation skills need constant practise and they need to be thought about all the time to make sure I'm getting close to getting it right. The skills include positioning, eye contact, listening, touch and I think, above all, warmth as a genuine smile works wonders.

I recommend that you take any training or support you are offered about Great Interactions, you'll find it interesting and it'll get you thinking about the job and enjoying it all the more.

Having something to talk about helps, I need to do some more work on this. I've got photos, magnetic wall boards, albums, books, art work, music and so on but using them has to be tailored to the individual. Resolving some of these individual preferences is my next challenge. Sometimes my attention and encouragement seem to be enough for a Great Interaction; at the very least I get a smile back.

Lately I have read the Great Interactions book and I would ask you to read it. It's an interesting pointer to what we are all about, maximising well-being through Great Interactions. You might have issues, time, supervision, supporting people with behaviour that challenges you and a whole lot more but reading it and following it up can only help. Oh yes, try things, they might not always work but keep going, a lot will work and you'll find everyone is a winner.

Finally, persist and keep smiling

Pete Selby

Support Worker

No Limits

In No Limits, we often work with young people for a relatively short period of time and so it is vital that we prepare them for the next stage of their lives. To make this work, we use what could be called an ‘enabling approach’ where we support each person to access their own community but in a way that focuses on progression and achievement. But how do we do this when we’re providing very high staffing levels … how do we ensure this doesn’t actually become disabling and that young people don’t become reliant on a level of support that may not be available to them in their adult lives?

The answer should be simple; it is important that our Community Learning Facilitators working within No Limits learn to focus (always) on what outcomes the young people are working towards and how best to support each person to achieve these. We also need to deploy staff intelligently and therefore think about how individual staff members support in a way that enables young people to achieve as much independence as possible. It is not about surrounding a young person with support ‘to keep them and the community at large safe’ but as a team learning when to lead and when to follow, when to intervene, when to suggest, when to praise.

For me this highlights the need for everyone at all levels to be able to recognise what success looks like and to have opportunities to reflect on how to ‘enable’ and equally to understand the opposite - how our interactions or our approach can easily disable and miss opportunities for progression.

Leading on from this, we need to ensure that all of our quality systems support this approach and so, as a team we’re taking time to focus on this area. I want all of us no matter what the job role or level of responsibility to be able to discuss opening and learn from each others practice. In our work observing others is frequent both in the course of a day and more formally as part of our self assessment and review processes. It is vital that we use these insights to create a workforce that is open to feedback and feel confident to give feedback to any of their colleagues no matter who they are or their place in the hierarchy.

Natalie Macpherson
Head of No Limits

An opportunity to reflect . . .

All of us would by now be aware of the programme aired by Panorama last week about abuse in a learning disability hospital. It was truly horrific viewing. I could not bear to watch but a few minutes of this systematic physical and verbal abuse. For me, it really confirmed what would be our worst nightmares: no accountability, no empathy, no structure and no transparency.

If anything the programme has triggered some good debates and discussions within our Children and Young People Division on how crucial and relevant MacIntyre Great Interaction work is.

Indeed, adopting the MacIntyre profile in our recruitment process has never felt so right. It is our duty to ensure that all employees working in services have the right attribute to work with vulnerable children and adults and that we are all trained in recognising and reporting abuse and wrongdoings.

Our ongoing effort to ensure accessible complaint information and access to appropriate training is vital and, most importantly to me, given staff the support to implement what they have learnt in their workplace.

Also crucial, is MacIntyre’s effort to develop the skills of all managers to understand what makes for good practice and to take appropriate actions to make change happen.

On 12 July, all managers from the Children and Young people Division will get together to discuss the challenges faced by our services in ensuring the embedding of Great Interactions across our provision.

One of our challenges is to ensure that the decisions that we take about how best to support the learning of the children and young people are never influenced by negative attitudes and beliefs about the nature of their disabilities, their status as young adults and their place in society, but by informed views of effective teaching and learning. Clearly, staff at Winterbourne View had very negative attitudes and beliefs and had lost complete sight of what good practice should look like.

An additional challenge for our Division, is to go away from what is called the “Velcro approach”, where 1:1/2:1 support is used intensely in both our schools and college. MacIntyre Great Interactions book states that “we have an obligation to learn how to provide services that promote choices and control”. In our work, it is common to feel that we need to retain a degree of control if we are to adequately “protect” and provide for the Children and Young People in our care.


I have often observed that many of our children and YP (especially those with very complex behaviour and communication difficulties) rely very heavily upon staff to translate their thoughts, their wishes, etc… Our staff is clearly very skilled in making sense of their particular mode of communication, of understanding the cues, satisfying the needs and of managing behaviour that challenge. This is good but could sometimes be counter-enabling.

Too much reliance on staff means that when interactions are unsuccessful, when we are failing to understand the cues, satisfy needs or manage behaviours, this often triggers irritation and aggression.

For Children and Young People services, one of the key implications of MacIntyre Great Interaction is finding ways of giving more control and greater participation in the learning process, moving the focus away from teaching practices to students learning, away from meeting the ‘coping needs of students’ towards meeting their learning needs.

In our meeting in July, we will explore the importance of making sure that our curriculum offer and interactions focus on promoting independence at all times and that we are facilitating learning to give individuals more control and reduce dependency through:-

Holding high expectations
Making judgements about when to assist (and checking assumption regularly)
Sharing and agreeing objectives with individuals
Clarifying instructions
Utilising high degrees of responsiveness which are consistent
Respecting learner pace
Observing
Questioning
Giving explicit feedback

As a Head of Operations, I recognise that our methods/approaches can have a profound impact on an individual sense of self and social and emotional well being as well as on their attitudes and beliefs about themselves as a person. Watching Panorama makes you realise that we cannot afford to get this wrong.


Anne-Marie Dawe
Head of Operations

Out and about...

Great Interactions – a catchy phrase intended to capture something that is so fundamental to what we are all about that it really should not need further explanation but it does, it is that very simplicity that makes it so hard to pin point and explain.

Step outside work mode for a moment and think about times you are in receipt of any kind of service – whether or not you feel you have received a good service will come down always to Great Interactions or the lack of them.

When listening to a friend complaining about the poor service she felt she had received from the call centre of a major internet provider recently it occurred to me that what had gone so very wrong with that conversation could be directly related to the absence of some of the 10 facilitation skills we in MacIntyre talk so much about now. My friend clearly did not feel that she was listened to or that the person she was talking to was responsive to what she was saying and she certainly did not feel any warmth quite the opposite as the experience left her feeling that she had been regarded as a problem or an inconvenience. I suspect that we have all at some time or another had a similar experience and been left feeling more upset, frustrated or angry as a result of the interaction than we were about the original problem that caused us to phone up in the first place.

Of course if a poor interaction can leave us feeling like this it is equally true that a Great Interaction can leave us feeling really good even if the activity or task concerned is not that special or even enjoyable. For example think about when you make an appointment for yourself or a member of your family at the local health surgery – you know which Doctor you would prefer to see and I doubt that is because of their professional qualifications or experience. It is more likely to be because of the way they make you feel when you see them and that will be down to their behaviour towards you as a person.

Bill has said many times that people experience our behaviours not our values. Being told that your call is important at regular intervals will not make you believe it is – that will only happen if you are made to believe it is so by the person you speak to when you finally get through. If we are told by a supermarket cashier that they hope we have a nice day but there is no eye contact or warmth then we will not believe that they mean it.

All of us are on a journey as far as Great Interactions are concerned and the most important thing is that we find the time to reflect on what we do and seek to improve how our actions are experienced by others. We can all talk about the right thing to do, for example respecting privacy by knocking on a door but if we are in a hurry and push the door open at the same time as knocking will that make the person in the other room feel respected?

Remember that the word Great relates to the Interaction and not to the activity so those seemingly insignificant opportunities we have to interact with people on a day to day basis are as important as those special events or occasions we all set such store by. It is important that we do the special fun stuff of course but we should put as much thought into how we wake someone up in the morning, share the experience of mealtimes with them or assist them to put their coat on. After all that phone call my friend made pretty much shaped how she felt about her whole day but I doubt whether the person on the other end of the line considered it to be that important – probably just another call, one of many. So it is essential that we guard against ever feeling this is just another mealtime or just another conversation because it isn’t – it is an opportunity for a Great Interaction which will leave everyone involved feeling better as a result.

Emma Killick
Head of Operations

A day to remember...

I had the great privilege recently of being invited to Oxfordshire’s Lifelong Learning Celebration of Achievement, kindly hosted by Morgan Cole at their offices in the centre of Oxford.

On arrival, I was warmly welcomed by Angie and Peter two of the learners who choose to attend MacIntyre’s learning centre. Angie kindly offered to escort me to the conference suite where the presentation was to be held, chattering all the way about how excited she was to be taking part in the event, sharing with me what she had achieved over the past 12 months, and literally drawing me into her life, and plans for the future.

In the suite, the atmosphere was electric; family members, learners, friends, professionals and support workers were all busy chatting and interacting with each other, laughing, smiling and listening and creating a fantastic buzz that enveloped me in excitement and joy of the day.

As an avid people watcher, I took the opportunity to wander around and take it all in before the grand ceremony commenced, and as I wandered amongst the gatherers, greeted by and greeting people I knew and those who I was soon to, it suddenly struck me that what I was experiencing, was in essence, not a formal gathering, but a reunion of great friends and colleagues.

The camaraderie I encountered on that day was all embracing; I watched as one of the learners, who appeared anxious and had begun to withdraw from the wider group, was approached by a learning support worker who sitting down beside her took her hand, leaned in her head and began to talk softly to her. Within seconds, the learner’s head came up, her back straightened, and the worker was rewarded with a wide and beaming smile, before being led confidently back into the group. The interaction was simple and yet powerful all at the same time, and the easy relationship between the two was tangible, so much so that I felt as though I was eavesdropping on a private conversation.

Later, during the ceremony one young man who appeared a little overawed signed to Martin, a Senior Support Worker, who was busy filming the ceremony, that he needed support. Martin’s response was immediate. Quickly guageing the young man’s level of anxiety, Martin gained and maintained eye contact from his position at the back of the room, and without disturbing the ceremony or drawing attention to the situation, made his way to the young man, knelt before him and using sign language, eye contact, body language and touch expertly calmed the situation and lowered the gentleman’s anxiety levels to the point that he felt able to accept his own certificate of achievement and sign his happiness at this to the whole audience.

Throughout the ceremony, where learners were recognised for not only their achievements, but for what they themselves brought to their fellow learners, the staff and the centre as a whole, it was clear to me that the investment and work that has been undertaken through the introduction of facilitation, communication and person centred approaches, underpinned by the expectation of all staff to lead and deliver high quality, meaningful interactions at all levels and in all situations and all circumstances, had significantly contributed to the success of what I was experiencing on that day, and what everybody involved in the service acknowledge to experiencing day in day out.


I’m not sure who was more excited on that day, the hosts, the families, the learners who were clearly leading from the front, or myself. For me it was a reminder of why I came into Learning Disabilities in the first place, and an affirmation that the continued investment and work that MacIntyre has made across our Adult Services and contributed to the delivery of a workforce that not only reflects our values and commitments, but one that delivers a great experience every day in every way for people with a Learning Disability.

I can’t wait for the next event!

Naomi Matcham
Head of Operations