PROACT-SCIPr-UK® an insight into The Revolutionary Whole Approach

More than 700,000 children and adults in the UK are on the autistic spectrum. That’s more than 1 in 100 and means that you will most likely know at least one person who falls somewhere on the spectrum. Some of those individuals will have lower support needs, while others will have higher support needs in order to function in daily life.

If we widen the scope to include anyone with learning difficulties or disabilities this takes us to 16.1 million in the UK alone. All these people may, at one point or another, exhibit behaviours that restrict their quality of life. These are sometimes referred to as ‘behaviours of distress’ or ‘challenging’ and ‘difficult’ behaviour. In the past, this may have led to individuals being labelled as ‘naughty children’ or ‘mentally subnormal’ (thankfully, a very outdated term), with many people only seeing the negative behaviour, and not the person beneath it.

For professionals who work with people with autism, ADHD, learning difficulties or other disabilities, responding to challenging and restrictive behaviours can sometimes be a daily occurrence, and it can be stressful and frustrating. However, if we consider that all behaviour is communication, it is important that we understand what that behaviour is trying to say for each individual, and how to support it appropriately.

This is what the PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® whole approach is about. It is an approach which puts the person at the centre of behaviour support, providing them with proactive care, as well as the support and tools they need to succeed. This approach has been developed over the last 30+ years by the staff who support the pupils at The Loddon School and is now taught to organisations across the UK. However, where did it come from, and why does it work?

A New Approach to Special Education

The story of Loddon Training goes back to 1988, and the founder of The Loddon School Marion Cornick MBE. Marion had been a teacher, specialising in special education since the 1960s, working in establishments in New Zealand and England. She not only taught in various schools, but delivered workshops and talks on autism, which was not a very well-known condition at the time.

Marion always considered that things could, and should, be done differently. When she met the Inspector for Schools on one of his visits to the school she was working in at the time, he agreed. One thing led to another, and he put her in touch with a local school that was closing and needed someone to take over the building. It was the opportunity Marion had been waiting for, and with the caveat of ‘remaining a charity’, she was given the green light to go ahead.

In her new school, which was later named The Loddon School, she could make a difference to the lives of children with autism and special educational needs. The Loddon School was designed specifically to provide care and education for children with complex needs, autism and learning difficulties. The aim being to provide them with education and life skills, enabling them to achieve a positive lifestyle and be as independent as possible when they reached adulthood enabling them to lead a fulfilling life.

The Changing Face of Special Needs Education

When Marion was starting The Loddon School in the 1980s, societal values around the rights of children, and particularly the rights of children with disabilities, were very different. The School was opened 3 years before the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in the UK was accepted, which states in Article 23 that ‘the disabled child should have effective access to, and receive education which encourages the fullest possible social integration and individual development’.

Up until this point (and slightly beyond), the general school of thought was based on the ‘Medical Model’. This model believed that children with autism were ‘uneducable’, and appropriate care and treatment for their condition was in a long stay hospital. They were viewed as ‘faulty’, with their impairment becoming the focus of attention, their services segregated, and their ordinary needs put on hold. If the child was ‘normal’ enough, they could re-enter society, but if not, they would be permanently excluded.

Around 1970, both society and medicine moved more towards the Social Model as attitudes changed. The child was valued instead of seen as broken, with strengths and needs that were defined by themselves and others. Professionals started to focus on identifying barriers and developing solutions, with outcome-based programmes designed, and resources made available. Training was offered for parents and professionals, and the child was not excluded from society with hospital stays.

Medical Model (c1870-1970)	Social Model (c1970-2010)
The child is faulty	The child is valued
Diagnosis	Strengths and needs defined by self and others
Labelling	Identify barriers and develop solutions
Impairment is the focus of attention	Outcome-based programs designed
Assessment/monitoring	Resources made available
Segregation and alternative services	Training for parents and professionals
Ordinary needs are put on hold	Relationships nurtured
Re-entry if ‘normal enough’, or permanent exclusion if not	Diversity welcomed, and the child is welcomed
Society remains unchanged	Society evolves

 (Source: Rieser, 2001)

When examined side by side, we can see how much it puts children with autism at a significant disadvantage and how challenging the medical model must have been for those working within this environment.

The Warnock Report

However, change was already in motion. In 1978 the Warnock Report was published, written by the late Baroness Mary Warnock. She was the head of a committee of 26 people, set up to advise the government on special education needs (or SEN). Their report laid out the foundations for what became the statements of special educational needs, which paved the way for the legally mandated provision for children in the schools we know today.

In fact, the Warnock Report was so influential that it significantly shaped the first comprehensive legislation on all SEN in ‘The Education Act’ (1981). This act made education for all disabled children compulsory, meaning that more than six million students with disabilities would have access to effective schooling. This was provided as a mix of mainstream and residential education environments, since the dominant view at the time remained that children with disabilities were better off away from their families.

The Warnock Report also contained sections that had a major influence on the development, conceptualisation, policy, and practice for children and young people with SEN across the UK and internationally. Even 45+ years after it was published, some of these key ideas are still at the heart of our approach to SEN education. For example, 4 core ideas in the report were:

Parents as partners: The report stressed the importance of parental involvement, both as parents and as part of the assessment and decision-making on a child’s SEN provision. This is something that has been very heavily developed since and is intrinsic in how we approach SEN children today. The report also highlighted the nature of the role parents should be taking.

Multi-disciplinary assessment: On the topic of assessment, the report argued that it should be a multi-disciplinary affair and should be developmental. Instead, the report recognised that children’s patterns of abilities and needs can vary to different degrees and in different ways over time. It’s one of the reasons regular reviews are still an important part of monitoring development in SEN children.

Diagnosis and terminology: While the report did agree that diagnostic labels did serve some use, it argued that they were not sufficient in determining the needs of the child. Instead, it suggests that needs should drive decisions regarding action; from teaching and learning in a school or early years provision, to the SEND system, including the development of special provision. This also included the changing of terminology used within schools and the system as a whole. Where some children were categorised as ‘educationally subnormal’, the committee recommended the phrase ‘children with learning difficulties’. This term stuck and remains in use today.

Early intervention is vital: While there were many more ideas in the report, this is the last one we will mention directly, and it’s the importance of early identification and intervention. The importance of both of these elements and reviews of the evidence over the years has raised awareness, as well as the launch of the Early Intervention Foundation (now Foundations) to provide guidance on a range of issues for both parents and professionals.

There’s no denying that the Warnock Report was pivotal in our understanding of SEN children, and responsible for how our current educational system now supports children with learning disabilities. Over 45 years on, this foundational report is just as relevant, and has helped us build a better, more understanding and supportive educational environment for all children.

The Ethos Behind Loddon School

Whilst the Warnock Report was a revolutionary document that inspired real and tangible change, it was still limited. At that time, only a handful of disabilities were widely acknowledged (mainly the blind, deaf, physically and mentally handicapped), which left educators with broad and all-encompassing labels. The concept of autism and the issues surrounding it was not something that was widely accepted, which meant children on the spectrum were left out of the circle of support, insufficiently provided for, and in the eyes of some local authorities, entirely non-existent. In fact, when Marion Cornick approached the Department for Education about funding for her school, she was told that there was not sufficient need for a school for children with autism.

Marion welcomed the first child to the school in October 1988, a 13-year-old boy with very complex needs and no other options, having been excluded from other state schools and residential services. Working alongside Marion was a deputy headteacher with specific qualifications for working with special needs children, experienced teaching assistants and a qualified social worker with teaching experience, making up a multi-disciplinary team.

There was a lot of learning done and changes made in those early days, but the ‘proof of concept’ worked, and soon more children (mainly teenagers at this stage) were enrolling at Loddon School for a chance to experience this new educational approach. Over the years new approaches were integrated, therapies and activities added, and student numbers grew and grew into the thriving school we are today.

From the very beginning, The Loddon School has been about approaching special needs education in a new and innovative way, one that puts the child at the centre and encompasses every aspect of life – ‘A whole approach’. This approach runs through every element of life at The Loddon School, from the ‘Loddon Day’ (designed to encourage staff to support the child at their own individual pace) to the development of our own unique approach (PROACT-SCIPr-UK^®) to behaviour support. Over the years Marion, her colleague, Janet Bromley, and others developed the PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® approach, which equips staff with the skills to use a less restrictive approach to learning and development in order to enable quality of life and relevant skill development, as well as providing a well-developed training and management system.

In fact, this approach was so successful that soon other organisations were asking for training in the approach, which is how Loddon Training was born. It is a way we can teach and spread the benefits of PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® to other people and organisations across the country whilst retaining rigour and the high standards that are essential in providing excellent support to those children and adults who benefit from the approach.

The Creation of PROACT-SCIPr-UK^®

PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® is the brand name for this whole approach to behavioural support. It is an acronym for:

Positive Range of Options to Avoid Crisis and use Therapy – Strategies for Crisis Intervention and Prevention.

We shortened it to PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® for daily use.

Our method is based on decades of research and practice that resulted in delivering outstanding outcomes and promoting the minimisation of the use of restrictive practices while focusing on supporting people with a variety of needs.

The aim is to support and understand children and adults with challenging or restrictive behaviours, (behaviours of distress) while minimising the use of restrictive practices including physical interventions or restraint. It’s an approach that has been developed by a diverse team of skilled, multi-disciplinary professionals over the course of 30+ years and is now being taught to other organisations that provide care and/or education to individuals with complex needs, autism, ADHD, learning difficulties, mental health or other behavioural challenges.

The main focuses of the approach are:

• The communicative function of behaviour
• Problem solving
• Support strategies
• Keeping safe and feeling secure

In other words, it is based on the idea that ‘the purpose of our behaviour is to get our needs met’. This key concept is what the entire PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® approach is built on.

The Goals of PROACT-SCIPr-UK^®

The main goal of PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® is to provide a safe and supportive environment for people with complex needs while reducing the use of restrictive practices when supporting someone who is showing signs of distress through challenging or restrictive behaviours. The Positive Behaviour Support approach emphasises the importance of forming meaningful, trust-based relationships and effective communication with people in order to better understand their needs and reactions. This enables early identification of signs of distress and implementation of personalised, planned supports which are designed to enable everyone to thrive.

Other goals include:

• Improve people’s quality of life and help people live a fulfilling life.
• Provide fully skilled teams for crisis intervention.
• Promote confidence and independence in people with complex needs.

The implementation of PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® splits responses into 3 areas – proactive, active and reactive. In the past, special needs education and care overly emphasised   active and reactive strategies and “crisis management” rather than focussing on prevention. Loddon’s approach shifts the focus onto proactive behavioural support   enabling carers to understand the individual’s needs and create a more positive, proactive environment. Broken down, it looks something like this:

• 70% Proactive Strategies: This is focused on creating a supportive environment which is designed to recognise and meet needs and includes the promotion of independence, choice-making, effective communication, relationship building and skill development.

 

• 20% Active using Positive Techniques: These are planned responses to meet needs as they arise and include the use of positive reinforcement, utilising teachable moments to reduce future distress, environmental changes and planned calming strategies.

 

• 10% Reactive: Of course, sometimes proactive and active strategies are not as effective due to an individual’s distress levels, and you have to be able to react appropriately. Reactive methods include a range of planned non-physical and physical approaches where the least restrictive strategies are used to respond to the individuals when there is a risk arising from the behaviour. Responses will depend on the behaviour displayed and may include giving space and time, calming techniques and the use of planned physical interventions (if absolutely necessary and in the best interests of the person).

By using this blend, carers are able to significantly reduce challenging and restrictive behaviour and instead focus on enabling the person to develop the knowledge and skills they need to thrive.

What Influenced the Whole Approach?

The very beginnings of PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® go back to Marion and her first thought that things could be done better. Janet Bromley and others agreed, which is why they decided to create their own approach. They felt that the challenging behaviours displayed by SEN children were not just them being ‘badly behaved’ or random actions with no purpose. Instead, they believed the behaviours were due to carers not understanding what the person was trying to say. Often children with autism or other learning difficulties will find it difficult to express themselves appropriately, especially in a school setting, which led to them being branded as ‘unteachable’. It was considered that, as the people caring for them, they had a duty to try and understand the message. In other words, they put the person at the centre. They spent a lot of time learning about the existing approaches out there, exploring the options and trying to find something that fitted what they were trying to achieve. A few of the ones they liked were:

IABA Approach: An approach to behaviour, with an emphasis on teaching children new skills so that they do not have to present challenging behaviour to get their needs met. This included supporting staff to understand the messages behind the behaviour and encouraging them to identify and reduce triggers that are causing distress while the new skills are taught. IABA recognises that traditional responses to wanted behaviour (like applying a negative consequence) or ignoring the behaviour often led to escalation, rather than resolution.

Intensive Interaction: A communication approach developed by Dave Hewett and his team, it was first developed because a group of staff were having difficulty getting to know the students they were supporting, who have learning disabilities. Its focus is on the quality of everyday interactions, adjusting interpersonal behaviours, following the person’s lead and taking everything they do as communication. Intensive interaction is a flexible approach that can be used anywhere and was specifically developed for people with more severe or complex learning difficulties.

Total Communication Techniques: An approach based on the idea that communication doesn’t have to be verbal. Children and adults with special needs often struggle to express themselves with words, or can even be completely non-verbal, which means carers need other ways to communicate. Total Communication uses a variety of methods including gesture, signs, drawing, facial expression and mime to facilitate effective communication between individuals and the people caring for them. The idea is that any means of communication is valuable as long as it works.

The TEACCH Programme: An American programme that brings together clinical and psychoeducational information to support autistic people. It views autism as a culture and suggests that daily activities should be adapted to meet the unique strengths and needs of each autistic person. The TEACCH programme also suggests that many autistic people prefer a visual approach to learning, and so it aims to support this through a visual and structured teaching approach.

Creating the Positive and Proactive Approach

While all of these approaches had positive points, it was felt that there were elements missing from them all. So rather than just adopt one, Marion, Janet and their colleagues took elements and inspiration from all of them, and applied their own ideas as well, tailoring the approach to be fully focussed on individuals presenting challenging and restrictive behaviours.

Once they had all of the principles in place, they set about bringing them together into a single approach. This is something that had never been done before and was the missing link for Marion and Janet. They realised that by adopting a joined-up approach, they could not only reduce the physical interventions needed (limited to when there is no other option), but they could see positive outcomes for the children they were supporting and increased staff retention and reduction from burnout. As the approach was based on both experience and practice it proved to be incredibly successful.

PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® is a philosophy and approach for meeting people’s unique behaviour, preferences and needs with understanding; helping them to live engaging and independent lives. The proactive and positive approach identifies distress early and defines how education, health and social care professionals work and engage with people with complex needs while ensuring they have the best experience on a day-to-day basis. It also allows clinicians to meet the needs of the people they support by understanding the ways of communication, people’s likes and dislikes and ways of expressing themselves.

In cases where people display behaviours of concern, the proactive approach can identify the distress early on and provide expert teams, and Positive Behavioural Support plans to respond proactively and in a non-restrictive way. On top of that, supportive physical interventions are only used when the person’s safety is compromised and others around them are concerned. Utilising a proactive approach is evidence-based and promotes human rights while providing person-centred care and allows clinicians to see people for who they are and not simply focus on a diagnosis or behaviour.

The unique nature of the PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® approach takes special needs education away from fighting fires, and instead gives people the skills they need to flourish.

What Is ‘The Whole Approach’ To Behaviour

The Whole Approach is a phrase we’ve used a lot so far, and you might be wondering exactly what it means and why it’s important to us. Simply, it’s the act of viewing an individual and their behaviours holistically – as a whole rather than in parts. By shifting our perspective this way, we can find new ways to avoid challenging behaviour from occurring in the first place. This means looking at not only the person but also the organisation and the staff/caregivers, to get a complete picture of what is going on and why. This is what the PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® Whole Person Approach looks like in practice when implemented in an organisation.

PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® helps organisations to cover all of the important touchpoints for every individual, providing a uniting philosophy, a training system and a management system all in one.

The Benefits of PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® in Practice

PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® has proven to bring plenty of benefits to people with behaviours that challenge, including improving well-being and enhancing social engagement. For clinicians, it provides them with understanding and helps them reduce behaviours that challenge so that people can live a fulfilling life.

Some of the other benefits of using PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® in your practice include:

• Positive outcomes for individuals.
• Person-centred care and support.
• Trauma–informed support.
• Reducing the need for restrictive practices.
• More efficient crisis management.
• Positive reinforcements and proactive problem solving.
• A flexible solution that can be tailored to your organisation’s needs.
• Documentation to support effective implementation. This documentation is currently used by over 200 organisations nationwide, with more adopting it every day.
• Unique training which allows services to blend their current systems and approaches with the PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® whole person approach.
• Staff can access full initial training, as well as annual refresher training to keep them updated, and consultation is available for difficult issues and general support from the Loddon team.
• A significant increase in staff confidence – the approach gives them something tangible to refer back to whenever needed.

Reducing Physical Interventions with a Positive Approach

Reducing physical interventions through a proactive and positive approach involves developing individually tailored strategies and methods that promote good communication, positive reinforcement and active engagement within the community. The main purpose is to create a safe, calm and empowering environment by embracing well-being, dignity and respect for people’s basic human rights.

This was an important point to address for Marion, Janet and the wider team. Restraint was the most common method of responding to challenging behaviour from children and adults alike, with many autistic people being forced to live out their lives in long-term hospitals rather than be allowed to learn, grow and live independently. Loddon’s approach acknowledges that sometimes staff might think that restraint is the best thing to do in the moment, but that it’s ultimately futile. Restraining an autistic person will not stop the challenging behaviour from happening in the future. It’s simply a means of control that gives the person no agency in their own care. Instead, the focus needs to be on addressing the reason for the challenging behaviour proactively, so that the behaviour (and the restraint) can be avoided altogether.

 

 

10 Reasons Organisations love PROACT-SCIP-UK^®

Over the years we have asked organisations using PROACT-SCIPr-UK ^® what they think the benefits are, and how it has positively impacted their approach. And there are 10 key reasons that always come up:

1. A Focus on Improving Quality of Life: PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® isn’t just about supporting challenging behaviour in the moment. It’s about building an understanding of the individual, their likes, dislikes, triggers and specific behaviours, creating a personalised plan that not only reduces challenging and restrictive behaviour, but allows the individual to learn, grow and experience a much better quality of life.

 

2. A Proactive Approach to Support: The ‘whole person approach’ is proactively focused, which means individuals get the support they need when they need it, rather than waiting until they reach crisis point. This makes for a more harmonious situation for all!

 

3. Focus On the Whole Person: A person is more than their disability. Many other approaches focus on managing symptoms rather than looking at the person as a whole, with the condition as just a part of who they are. PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® is all about putting the person at the centre and crafting a tailored approach that provides more positive outcomes.

 

4. Trainer Training Courses: As well as teaching the PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® approach, we also provide training courses that qualify you to train other people too. This allows organisations to deliver the PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® Introductory and Foundation courses in-house (more on those later).

 

5. Empower Staff: The unique nature of the PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® approach gives staff practitioners more freedom around the education and care they provide, empowering them to be mindful practitioners for each and every person they interact with.

 

6. BILD Act certificated with the Restraint Reduction Network Standards (RRN): that provides guidance on training standards for individuals with special needs, including the reduction of restraint. The standards aim to facilitate a culture of change, not just technical compliance, and receiving training from a trainer who is registered with Bild Act is an incredibly important part of that.

 

7. Develop A Support Programme: The PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® approach enables the development of tailored support programmes, which are defined by what the individual needs in order to feel successful and lead a satisfying life.

 

8. Adaptive Programmes: PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® is not a restrictive programme. It’s designed to be adaptive, which changes to meet the needs of the person. After all no two people are the same, so why should they be treated as if they are?

 

9. Minimise Physical Interventions: One of our big focuses is to minimise the use of physical interventions on people, instead favouring behavioural support strategies based on each individual’s needs, characteristics, and preferences.

 

10. Exceed Requirements: It’s one thing to meet the current guidance and legislation, but exceeding it puts you ahead of the competition and ensures you’re providing the very best care possible.

Learning The PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® Approach

After many years of success with the PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® approach in the Loddon school, we decided it was time to share our approach with the outside world. Loddon Training was launched to provide training and consultancy services to people who specialise in the education and care of individuals who display behaviours of distress or challenging behaviours, so that they too could benefit from the PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® approach. We also included instructor training, so that larger organisations can benefit from using the approach with an internal training lead.

As a training centre fully certificated as compliant with the Restraint Reduction Network Training standards, we are able to offer:

Introductory and Foundation Training

A course designed to teach people with any level of experience the practical skills and knowledge they need to implement the PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® approach in their setting while supporting individuals with behaviours of distress or challenging behaviours. It’s perfect for parents, carers or professionals responsible for providing support to adults or children with autism, ADHD, intellectual disabilities, mental health conditions, emotional, behavioural and social difficulties, and even dementia. Teaching lasts for a minimum of 12 hours and is usually done over the course of 2 consecutive days, ending in a theory and practical assessment to earn certification.

By completing the course, learners will be able to:

• Describe in detail the PROACT-SCIPr-UK^®
• Identify that behaviour serves a purpose for the individual, as well as name the four functions of behaviour.
• Identify the elements of the Whole Approach.
• Understand how past experiences or traumas might impact the individuals we support.
• Identify any health and safety issues associated with the use of audit-based interventions.
• Demonstrate competence in the use of those audit-based interventions identified by the training needs analysis.
• Identify how relevant legislation and guidance influence our working practices.
• Identify the importance of the post-incident process.
• Describe the differences between support and control.
• Identify and define active interventions that will reduce the risk of behaviour escalation.
• Identify proactive, active and reactive strategies within the PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® Whole Approach.
• Describe their responsibilities while implementing the PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® Whole Approach.

Instructor Training

Once you have been using PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® for some time, you may decide that having an internal expert is best for your organisation, or your role may require you to provide in-house training to other staff within your organisation, who are, in turn providing hands-on support to children or adults with autism, ADHD, intellectual disabilities, mental health conditions, emotional, behavioural and social difficulties, or dementia.

In this case, a minimum of two people would need to take our instructor training, which will qualify them to teach the Introductory and Foundation training course to others within their organisation. In order to enrol on the instructor training, you must have completed the PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® Introductory and Foundation training course, have spent a minimum of 2 years supporting individuals with challenging behaviours, and hold a professional qualification in education, health or social care (or an allied subject) ideally at Level 3 or above.

As this is a more detailed course, training is done over 5 days, spread over a 6-month period. Typically, this will involve an initial 4-day training block, followed by 6 months of implementation and support, with a final assessment at the end. This assessment isn’t just an exam – it’s a mixture of group work, formal practical and theory assessments, a portfolio and a reflective account.

Once the course is complete, learners will be able to:

• Understand that all behaviour serves a purpose.
• Understand what’s meant by ‘challenging behaviour’.
• Understand the importance of knowing the individual, and the functions of their behaviours.
• Demonstrate a clear understanding of the PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® Whole Approach, including proactive, active and reactive interventions.
• Understand the importance of trauma-informed care.
• Understand the importance of listening to the person and having people with ‘lived experience’ tell their story.
• Understand how relevant legislation and guidance influence working practices.
• Know the importance of positive behaviour support and least restrictive practice.
• Understand the importance of recording, reporting and debriefing.
• Identify the health and safety issues associated with the use of audit-based physical interventions.
• Demonstrate competence in teaching both the theory and practical elements of the PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® Whole Approach curriculum.

Autism Awareness Training

Supporting a child with autism can be quite daunting, especially if it isn’t something you have ever dealt with before. Our in-house autism training is designed to help participants learn more about autism, build up empathy and gain an understanding about the condition. This course is open to organisations who provide support to adults or children with autistic spectrum disorders and want to equip their staff with practical suggestions for support.

Whilst we do touch on more theoretical information, most of this training focuses on gaining an understanding of the problems that people with autism may experience, so that you can provide a higher quality of care and education. You don’t need any prior knowledge to enrol in this course, nor is there any formal assessment. Instead, learning is measured through group work, discussions and practical activities.

Consultancy & Support

In addition to offering training, we provide consultancy and support services to those who need us. This could be organisations who have already taken our training or instructor training who require ongoing support, or who are struggling to find a solution to an issue around the implementation of PROACT-SCIPr-UK^®, a specific scenario or an individual. We also offer full consultancy services to the parents of children with autism, ADHD, intellectual disabilities, mental health conditions or emotional, behavioural and social difficulties, providing support, education and an empathetic ear for their own struggles. For local parents, there is also the opportunity to attend an informal open coffee morning and meet with our trainers who will provide a listening ear and offer some practical support. Or for parents who live further afield, they can contact us and organise a friendly chat.

Consultancy services are available by application, so get in touch with us if you would like to find out more.

It’s important to mention here that all formal courses provided by Loddon Training are valid for 12 months, by which time you will need to book your annual refresher course to keep you up to date.

Don’t Take Our Word for It!

The Seashell Trust is a wonderful charity dedicated to providing a creative, happy and secure environment for children and young people with very complex needs and additional communication challenges across the UK. Under their umbrella are 17 residential houses, a school and a college, as well as other health and wellbeing facilities for special needs students. We asked their Positive Behaviour Support Lead, Lynne to tell us about her experience with Loddon Training and implementing the PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® approach within their organisation.

“We were using a one-man company who was BILD accredited for all of our training, but we found out that he’d come away from being BILD accredited. As an organisation we always knew we should be under BILD, so we researched about 50 companies to find someone else. We narrowed it down to Loddon because of their PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® approach.

We have 130 children and young adults under our care, but we have 600 staff involved in the various schools. Which means approximately 450 staff that are hands-on at any time, including night staff. We really needed a more flexible person-centred approach, and we felt like PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® would give us that.”

Once Lynne had chosen Loddon Training and the PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® approach, it was a case of managing the rollout to their very large teams throughout the organisation.

“I think the whole of the Loddon team came and covered absolutely everything for our initial training. We had 14 sessions running at the same time over the course of two days. Anyone who needed to be hands-on was there. They also trained a team of 14 to become instructors as well. They were absolutely brilliant!

After the main training, we had people retrained in short workshops all through the changeover and had follow-up workshops after to make sure that everyone understood the approach and that it was really embedded within the organisation. Loddon are such a good support through it all.”

At Loddon, we don’t just leave organisations to get on with it once they have done our training. We always follow up to check how everything is going, as well as offer our ongoing support, which Lynne happily took us up on.

“They provide us with so much support, we really feel like we’re being proactive and doing things right. I can ring them anytime or email, asking for clarification, what something means or if this bit of paperwork is right. I know I can always ring them anytime and they’ll be there to help. They’re very good.

Our paperwork is now very robust (which I love!), we go to our annual refresher training and get updated on what we should be teaching, and how we can adapt it to be person-centred for us and work within our organisation. It’s made everyone so much more aware of the things we need to be doing and putting into place, and they’ve confirmed that we are doing the right things.

I’m so glad we chose them, and I would highly recommend Loddon Training, and in fact, I do often!”

Our Final Thoughts

Both the Loddon School and Loddon Training are part of the Loddon Foundation Charity. The charity was set up to help us provide residential care and education for children and adults with autism and associated disabilities. We are made up of one team working across both the school and training to meet the needs of the people in our care and provide education to other organisations providing similar care. PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® truly is a revolutionary approach to special needs education, and one that has proven effective time and time again. By putting the person at the centre of the approach and working outwards, we are able to empower our students to truly be themselves, enjoy the freedom it brings and lead enriched, independent lives.

The PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® approach has been developed by experts in special needs education, who are passionate about not only treating people with autism and other disabilities with respect but giving them the skills they need to succeed in life, whatever that might look like for them. It’s a positive, people-centred approach to both education and care that can be applied in any setting where professionals are charged with the care of people with extreme needs and challenging behaviour. Our approach is used in various special needs schools, within the NHS, by therapists, teachers, support workers and even parents, united by their desire to provide the best possible approach for those they support.

Our PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® approach is certificated by Bild ACT as being compliant with the Restraint Reduction Network Training Standards (RRN) too, so you know that you are in safe hands working with Loddon Training. If you would like to know more about the PROACT-SCIPr-UK^® approach, Loddon Training, or our approach in general, then we would love to speak with you. You can get in touch with us using the information below.

Telephone: 01256 461273

Email: [email protected]