Funding for positive behavioural support (PBS) and autism awareness training

Skills for Care, Health Education England and Skills for Health are working in partnership to support workforce development to enable people who display behaviour which challenges to be supported well in their local communities.

Working together to support the Transforming Care Programme, this funding will make a significant contribution to the cost of training health and/or social care workers in positive behavioural support (PBS) and/or autism awareness.

The funding will be available to social care and/or health care employers of all types in England, and will be based on ‘skills around the person’ i.e. by skilling up a team/group of people who will be responsible for providing care and/or support to an individual. 

• The training which can be funded will contribute to the discharge of one or more persons who are currently in-patients, or to maintaining and improving the community care and support to a person at imminent risk of admission.
• The emphasis of the training will be for those who support people who have:
  • a learning disability and/or
  • autism and/or
  • ADHD and/or
  • other mental health problems and/or
  • display, or are at risk of displaying, behaviours which challenge services, specifically those who are currently in-patients awaiting discharge or people at real risk of an admission.
  • Young people who are under 18 and actively preparing for adulthood will also be considered.
• Each application can be for a maximum of £8,000.
• Employers can submit as many applications as they like.
• The total fund available is £550,000.

Skills for Care CEO Sharon Allen (pictured) said: “Working with our partners, this funding offer is an important part of ensuring that people with particularly complex support needs are supported by a workforce that is trained, skilled and competent. A workforce with the particular skills and knowledge that can provide the high quality, person centred care and support that means people can have fulfilled lives as part of their local community”

John Rogers, Chief Executive of Skills for Health commented: “It’s absolutely vital that people with learning disabilities are supported by professionals who can provide person-centred care that meets their needs. To ensure the best care for these individuals the health and social care workforce need to have a specific set of skills and competences.

“We are delighted to be involved in a partnership which focuses on this unique area of workforce development. The availability of this funding through the Transforming Care programme creates an exciting opportunity to develop innovative approaches to developing ‘skills around the person’ and has the potential to have a life-changing impact for individuals with learning disabilities”.

Dr Ashok Roy, Learning Disability Clinical Advisor for Health Education England said: “Providing high quality care and support to individuals with a learning disability who have behaviour problems and/or autism has been a challenge for services, leading to community placement breakdown and unnecessary long hospital stays. This exciting initiative is one of the first to deliver training and development through a partnership approach to professionals, care staff and families to help achieve the best possible outcomes.”

All applications must be centred around the development needs of workers supporting an individual and should build on the free online PBS awareness training  (accessible from Skills for Health’s e-learning platform) and, where relevant, on autism training freely available from a variety of organisations listed on Skills for Care’s autism page.

Details of how to apply will be available in October 2015 on the Skills for Care website. There will be opportunities to apply at multiple intervals in the coming year.

To register an interest and receive a notification when the fund application process opens, email [email protected]