ABSTRACT

The term 'support' is a broad one which encompasses many different areas of activity. The activities share the same general purpose - to help provide carers with the necessary support to enable them to carry out their work with maximum effectiveness. Carers need to be able to assert themselves - with other team members, with managers, with professional support services, with the person with learning and behavioural difficulties. A system of individual planning also needs to incorporate methods of quality control, monitoring whether or not goals are achieved and whether work is being carried out in an efficient manner. Good-quality practice is most likely to occur when the individual whose behaviour is the object of change can exert an effective degree of control over those seeking to effect the change. Working with people who have severe learning and behavioural disabilities is a complex enterprise: complex but manageable. Making progress with such people is a long-term enterprise: long-term but achievable.