The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism

The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism is a new training program that has been released by Health Education England (HEE). The training is named after Oliver McGowan, whose death highlighted the need for better training for health and social care staff in understanding and caring for people with learning disabilities and autism.

Background on the The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training

Oliver McGowan was a 15-year-old boy with a learning disability and autism. He was admitted to hospital in 2016 with a chest infection. While he was in hospital, he was restrained by staff on several occasions. On one occasion, he was restrained for over an hour and a half. He died a few days later. The review of Oliver’s death found it was preventable and identified several factors that contributed to his death, including:

• A lack of understanding of learning disabilities and autism among staff.
• A lack of training for staff on how to manage challenging behaviour.
• A lack of communication between staff and Oliver’s family.

Following his death, Oliver’s mother, Paula McGowan OBE, began campaigning for more appropriate and meaningful training for health and social care workers regarding autism and learning difficulties. In 2018, Paula gathered 56,000 signatures in response to a parliamentary petition, and following a cross-party debate, the government published ‘Right to be heard’ in November 2019 – their response to introducing mandatory learning disability and autism training for health and social care staff.

The Training

The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism has been split into two Tiers of training, applicable to staff depending on their roles and responsibilities.
Tier 1 
Tier 1 of The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism is for people who require general awareness of the support autistic people or people with a learning disability may need.  
Tier 2
Tier 2 of The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism is for people who may need to provide care and support for autistic people or people with a learning disability.

The training is standardised to ensure universal application and standards of quality. Both tiers must complete the e-learning package. Then, for Tier 1 training, staff must complete a 1-hour online interactive session, which is co-delivered by a person with a learning disability and an autistic person, as well as a facilitator; for Tier 2 training, one day of face-to-face training must be co-delivered in person with a learning disability and an autistic person and trainer.

The training also covers a wide range of topics, including:

• The different types of learning disabilities and autism
• The impact of learning disabilities and autism on communication, behaviour, and understanding
• How to create a safe and supportive environment for people with learning
• disabilities and autism
• How to communicate effectively with people with learning disabilities and autism
• How to manage challenging behaviour

What this Means for Providers
Provides must now ensure all newly recruited care workers complete the Oliver McGowan mandatory training as part of their induction, along with all other mandatory training modules. Furthermore, this must be refreshed in-line with all other mandatory training.

Records of all training must be kept as proof of compliance with the new legislation. This will be requested by the CQC and any commissioners or local authorities that you tender with.

How this will Influence Tender Responses
Overall, this training should have a massive impact across the care sector, and within tenders we will bring focus to the ways in which this new training has allowed staff to communicate in a more effective manner with Service Users who have autism and/or learning disabilities, with a specific focus on non-verbal communication (the use of body language, stimming, and other non-verbal displays of emotion); the understanding of speech, including stuttering, cluttering, and assigning items/objects specific names of their own; and how to help individuals with autism and learning disabilities thrive, promoting independence and development of skills through innovative and personalised strength-based care. We will also use address how this informs first-time matching of Care/Support Workers to Service Users, and how control, a key aspect of autism and learning disabilities, will be maintained by individuals.

Links:
Health Education Englands NHS: https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/learning-
disability/current-projects/oliver-mcgowan-mandatory-training-learning-disability-autism

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