Active Support

Active Support

Active Support (also known as Person-Centred Support or Person-Centred Active Support (PCAS)) is a way of supporting people with a learning disability, autism or both that promotes independence and better outcomes. It is driven by example and effective leadership and can lead to increased job satisfaction and therefore better staff retention for social care providers. 

• Do you need a model of support that ensures teams promote inclusion, choice, participation and independence in everyday activities for the people they are supporting?
• Do you need support in turning those Person-Centred Plans into Person-centred Action?
• Do you need support in managing your team to work as a team in a structured way and not as a morning or an afternoon shift?
• Do you want to turn all the learning and values into action and make the most of your training budget?
• Does your organisation need support in meeting policy and best practice guidance?
• Are you struggling with showing and monitoring outcomes?

Through a dedicated and committed team, the ARC Active Support Practice Development Service aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice in developing real person-centred approaches and whole organisation support.

We offer a tailored approach to meet your service and/or organisational needs. You can schedule our online in-house training during daytimes, evenings or weekends to fit around staff shift patterns, plus you have the opportunity to have up to five support telephone calls with Christine for additional support when you need it.

Contact us on [email protected] to book your free initial consultation with our Active Support Lead Consultant, Christine Rose, where you can discuss what your requirements are and plan the best ways to introduce and implement Active Support within your organisation.

Prices start from £500 (ARC members) for a 3-hour online session for up to 12 people, so get in touch now to arrange a call with Christine Rose to discuss your organisation's requirements.

What is Active Support?

Active Support is an evidenced based model of support which ensures that people are supported to participate in every aspect of their daily lives and to take the lead in functional and meaningful activities – staff essentially becoming enablers not carers.

Services who have already been supported with the implementation of Active Support have said that the model has transformed the lives of people they are supporting and staff have a better understanding of what their job role is.

Active Support is also the pre-cursor to Positive Behaviour Support.

Why Active Support?

Active Support is a model of support which enables people with learning disabilities and/or autistic people to engage more in their own lives. Staff actively support people to develop new skills or improve on existing skills so they are more involved in everyday tasks.  This could be a simple task such as putting a spoon in the drawer or closing a drawer.  Being actively supported in tasks build skills and confidence enabling them to be in more control over what they do in their own live.

Services who have already been supported with the implementation of Active Support have said that the model has transformed the lives of people they are supporting and staff have a better understanding of what their job role is.

What services do we offer?

Introduction to Active Support workshop - for individual delegates

Introduction to Active Support – online 3-hour Workshop

Join our Active Support Lead during a 3-hour online workshop delivered via Zoom and find out more about how Active Support can change the outcomes for supported people as they begin to carry out meaningful activities to enrich their lives – more important than ever in the face of limited opportunities to be involved in activities outside of peoples homes.

This ‘Introduction to Active Support’ workshop is suitable for managers and support staff, and will cover:

• What is Active Support?
• Providing support that promotes participation and engagement
• Looking for opportunities to engage people in meaningful activities at home and in their community
• Simple ways of monitoring staff support
• How to embed Active Support within your team

Scheduled workshop cost per participant: 

• £79 (ARC Members)   |   £100 (Non-members)

Check here to see if there is a scheduled course available to book now

Organisational Approach - workshop for your organisation (up to 12 people)

We offer Active Support Training and Coaching either online via Zoom/MS Teams or in-person at your organisation's premises.

Organisation Workshops (via Zoom)

Active Support training is offered to organisations on a consultancy basis for up to 12 members of your team, where our Active Support lead tailors the workshop to your organisation's needs. 

Each 3-hour Zoom session costs £500 (ARC Members) £600 (non Members) for up to 12 people, making it a very cost effective way of getting your staff trained. 

Organisation Workshops (in-house)

In-house Active Support training is offered to organisations on a consultancy basis for up to sixteen members of your team, where our Active Support lead tailors the workshop to your organisation's needs.

Each in-person training day (9.30am-4.30pm) within your organisation's premises, costs £900 (ARC Members) and £1000 (non-Members) per training day PLUS the consultant trainer's expenses.

Please contact us to discuss your requirements and to obtain dates and times suitable for your training sessions. 

• 01246 555043
• [email protected]

Active Support Training and Coaching

Supporting services to promote choice, independence and inclusion for service users within all areas of social care services to achieve person-centred plans. This training is especially beneficial for staff working with people with severe and profound learning disabilities, a range of learning disabilities, behaviour that is challenging, dementia, people with autism and mental health issues.

Interactive Active Support Training (Theory):

Discussing with Service Managers to become Practice Managers and how to support their staff to focus on the individual and to support in a Person Centred way and to put plans into action as a team. Making sure that the team understand how all prior training is translated back within the service and the people being supported ensuring that monitoring and evaluating systems are put in place to monitor outcomes –  Driven by example and effective leadership.

Work Based Coaching and Mentoring:

Consultant trainer working alongside managers and staff, in the workplace after the training, to give practical hands-on advice and support to ensure managers and the team can translate the learning into the workplace.

Tailored to meet specific organisational needs

Looking at current systems and protocols/job descriptions etc. and choosing a pilot service.

Ongoing Support and Review of Active Support:

Remember, training alone does not always bring about change! We may have to look at the culture of the services. Staff are key to ensuring that people with learning disabilities, behaviour that challenges and autism have a great quality of life and are supported to have that ‘ordinary’ life that policy say we should be having.

**NEW** Train the Trainer and Interactive Training (Coaching) Programme

We are pleased to be able to offer you a Train the Trainer programme in Active Support and Interactive Training (Coaching).

Working with your organisation’s designated trainer, ARC’s Active Support specialist will work alongside them to develop and deliver a bespoke training pack on Active Support for your organisation, as well as gain the skills to coach and maintain Active Support within your organisation who will then be able to train service mangers, team leaders and/or practice leads. Especially pertinent to your PBS team.

The training consists of working individually with your designated trainer to:

• Develop a bespoke training pack on Active Support specific for your services
• Train and coach the designated person to become competent to deliver Active Support training
• Become a competent *Interactive trainer (coach)
• Become part of the Association for Real Change - Active Support Community of Practice for Trainers

*The Interactive trainer (coach) addresses the problem of generalisation by directly providing practical 1:1 coaching in the usual working environment to develop in vivo competence for your staff to ensure theory is turned into practice. This method will assist the approach into organisational systems. The Interactive coaching will take place in the usual home environment, in the community, school or workplace.

This Train the Trainer programme will consist of a mixture of online and in-person training. The minimum length of time to deliver this training programme is 5 days, however, there could be further days required depending on your organisation’s designated trainer’s proficiency. Your requirements will be discussed with you by our consultant, Christine Rose.

Please note that the trainer will need to ideally have experience as a trainer and also experience of working with support people across your organisation.

• For an informal chat to discuss your requirements please contact our Active Support Lead Christine Rose on 07917523778
• To find out costings please email [email protected]
• Costs: The cost for this training and coaching is £900 (ARC Members) and £1000 (non-Members) per training day PLUS the consultant trainer's expenses.

Download free resources from ARC's previous Active Support projects below: