Members' Area

EnglishCymraeg

What is Active Support?

Active Support:

• Is a proven model of support that supports people with learning disabilities to plan the best use of their time, with the correct level of support, to engage or participate in all activities that make up day-to-day living.

• Is an evidence-based set of primary procedures that have been specifically designed for supporting people with severe disabilities and behaviour that challenges.

• Is a set of proactive strategies to improve the quality of a person's environment so that the possibility of challenging behaviour occurring is in some cases avoided or reduced.

• Works well with people with learning disabilities and sensory impairment and for people who have no behaviour that challenges.

• Improves the quality of life of service users by showing support staff, managers and organisations how to support in a more proactive way.

• provides a technology to turn values into action.

Considerable research has been undertaken on Active Support since the mid 1990s by a group of researchers from the Welsh Centre for Learning Disabilities at the University of Wales College of Medicine. The research showed that Active Support is an effective way of increasing the participation of service users, including those with severe/profound learning disabilities, in everyday life. Providers who already use Active Support have remarked at its enormous benefits to both service users and staff teams. Service users become more engaged with the support they receive and staff feel empowered and have said that they encounter less behaviour that challenges.

ARC Cymru are running a three-year Active Support Project, supported by a grant from the Big Lottery Fund. The Project began in the summer of 2006 and will run until the middle of 2009.

We are grateful to Dr Edwin Jones, Professor Kathy Lowe, Dr Sandy Toogood, Professor David Felce and Dr Julie Beadle-Brown for their support during this project. 

Active Support Training

The Active Support Project offers training to staff teams, as well as presentations to raise awareness of Active Support amongst service providers. Both training and presentations are provided FREE to ARC members within Wales, and can also be provided to non-members. Training and presentations are delivered by our Active Support Project Coordinator/Trainer, Christine Harcombe. If you would like to find out more about Active Support you are welcome to email christine.harcombe@arcuk.org.uk or phone 07701 990861.

The Active Support Network

The Project has established an Active Support Network with face-to-face meetings and an email-based discussion forum. The Network is a source of information, support and encouragement. For details of forthcoming Network meetings please see our Events page.

Active Support Events

To launch the Active Support Project, we held a conference in South Wales in December 2006. Similar events in Mid Wales and North Wales were held in April 2008 to introduce service providers in these areas, and throughout the UK, to the concept of Active Support.

Our Active Support Network (see above) first met in January 2007 and continues to meet twice a year to enable members to discuss the implementation of Active Support and to share best practice.

Click here to read the Active Support project report July 2008.

Our privacy policy | Company information

Design and CMS by Ichameleon