Participation, principles, and purpose | Facilitating the All Wales Community of Practice for Behaviours of Concern
By David O’Brien, Senior Improvement Manager
I got to enjoy one of the best days of my calendar last month, getting together with over 60 peers at the All Wales Community of Practice for Behaviours of Concern in Llandrindod Wells.
It’s a privilege for us in Improvement Cymru’s Learning Disabilities programme to facilitate the event and bring together professionals from across health, social care, education, the third sector, and people with lived experience.
As a Senior Improvement Manager, I’m always pleased to see so many people from different areas come together and strive to improve the lives of people who present with behaviours of concern, through the delivery of compassionate and person-centred support.
Every time our Community of Practice (CoP) meets, it’s a reminder of just how impactful a network of skilled, knowledgeable and passionate people can be. The community has been coming together for over 10 years, usually meeting virtually but still meeting face-to-face once a year in Mid Wales, with members focused on improving the lives of people with a learning disability and their families.
Why we come together
CoPs can provide a framework for establishing a consensus on different topics, bringing together a range of people with local and national perspectives. It’s often a great way to foster informal discussion whilst working to a common goal. They can also connect us to wider networks. Crucially, they inform a collective approach to practice, identify challenges, explore solutions, and share good practice to learn from each other.
In our CoP, our members are spending the next 12 months on improving how we capture lived experience of those whose behaviour is of concern, facilitating positive learning cultures, developing practice to support people in crisis, and managing risk. We focused on these themes because the community chose them as priorities in a recent engagement exercise.
Everything our community does is shaped by the belief that a person’s human rights are the basis for all decisions in care services for people with a learning disability – a principle set out over 40 years ago in the All Wales Strategy.
Our community works to create a culture of inclusion and safety, where innovation can flourish, and ideas tested and challenged. The CoP is a safe space for members to feel confident they are free from bias, criticism, discrimination, and harm.
While the landscape is large and the challenges varied, the CoP provides a place to come and connect with others. Together, we benefit from collective wisdom of our members. The positive effect of our efforts is that we are better equipped, in both knowledge and skills, to make evidence-based improvements in our areas of care.
How we make the most of our time together
Participation itself is a positive step. It’s important for community members to spend time with like-minded people because the daily demands of providing services to people with learning disabilities can dominate our members’ immediate attention and dictate their priorities. We encourage community members to think of participation as a form of training.
As an avid football fan and Wrexham FC supporter, it may be helpful to think about the world of sports. (Before you jump to conclusions, I was a regular at the Racecourse before Hollywood arrived!) The players are recruited based on the promise of their skills and performances. They train together almost every day and they’re supported by a team of coaches and performance staff. The goal, of course, is to peak for 90 minutes on matchday once or twice a week but there is far more time put into preparation and conditioning than is needed at the time of delivery.
The reality facing members of our community is often the reverse with limited opportunities to build skills and knowledge, particularly on specialist subjects such as behaviour, whilst performing our roles continuously. The CoP provides the space to sit on the bench and observe, listen and learn, whilst providing valuable support to each other to address key challenges together.
Where we learn together
At last week’s event in Llandrindod Wells, our speakers shared authentic insights into challenges that they face and some of their solutions.
The subjects included:
- Capturing lived experience of people with behaviours of concern – Sian Jones, Sonia Jones and Victoria Hudson-Moore, Swansea Bay University Health Board
- Developing learning cultures to support people with behaviours of concern – Katie Griffiths, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, and Jamie Hughes and Stacy Browning, Serendipity Care
- Managing risk and support in crisis for people with behaviours of concern – Dr Helen Jones, Swansea Bay University Health Board, and Carrie Shield, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board
We’ve carefully considered the format of our events to make them as productive as possible. Our most recent event began with introductions from Co-Chairs Paula Thomas and Gerraint Jones-Griffiths, and then each of our expert speakers gave 20-minute presentations to introduce their subjects.
Once we set out the ideas of each subject, we then split into workshops where members took part in group discussions and tasks. Our expert speakers facilitated the sessions and challenged members to get stuck into to the nitty gritty detail. The final output will be sent to the Learning Disability Ministerial Advisory Group, who advise Welsh Government.
Because our members come from such diverse care settings, we encouraged them to share their own experiences to help the community understand their unique perspectives. We can’t achieve truly collaborative partnerships if everyone’s voice isn’t heard. This approach often makes our workshops engaging and thought-provoking activities. Our members, free to take new learnings with them, are then better informed to act as advocates and promote effective interventions after every event we hold.
Keeping momentum between meetings is really important and members are active in sharing knowledge between our events, such as resources, case studies, and research findings.
Join the community
Our Community of Practice has a responsibility to continuously learn and grow. That’s where you can come in.
We welcome new members to the community who share a common interest in improving the quality of life for people with learning disabilities at risk of using behaviours of concern. You can find out more in our Terms of Reference.
Don’t be shy! If would like to join the community or ask any questions about membership, please get in touch with: david.o’brien2@wales.nhs.uk