The Staff Development team at Leicestershire County
Council has introduced a new approach to working with
both adults and children who demonstrate behaviours that
challenge. The main reason for the project was increasing
concern about the number of assaults on staff, who had no
formal training except the reactive response of “breakaway
techniques”. The team developed a “Six Pack Policy and
Guidance” with bespoke strategies for each service area
across social services based on the training model
Strategies for Crisis Intervention and Prevention (SCIP).
SCIP training involves service users, families and carers at
various levels. The team followed the story of one service
user’s life and documented this on DVD. GS has a history
of behaviours that challenged within his respite care. As
such, he didn’t enjoy many activities outside of the respite
care. Staff openly admitted that they were afraid to work
with GS. His quality of life at this time was poor. His
parents, who also went through our training, were “at
their wits end”. One year prior to the implementation of a
SCIP care plan there were 22 reported assaults from GS.
One year later, there were 0. GS’s DVD is used in training,
with permission, and shows GS accessing the community.
It demonstrates his need for a full communication package,
his clinical need for introducing sensory and substitute
skills, his person centred approach and what is important
to and for GS.
Leicestershire is now self-sufficient with their training and
are able to train instructors in-house. The approach can
now be built on with the wider social care community,
including the voluntary and private sectors, ensuring a
consistency of approach throughout a child and adults life
in care. “The changes to not only our lives, but *** has,
well, been a Godsend!”
For more information on this project, please contact:
hsteward@leics.gov.uk
