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This study aims to investigate the experiences of frontline managers supervising and developing staff to support autistic adults living in two types of residential housing in the community.

A qualitative approach used semi-structured interviews with 14 frontline managers. Audio-taped material was transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis.

Two main themes emerged. Theme 1 “autism in practice” illustrates commonalities observed to affect autistic adults with learning disabilities receiving staff support; whilst one sub-theme illustrated the diversity in how these commonalities may be experienced and expressed, another focused on participants’ experiences of staff concerns regarding behaviours described as challenging. Theme two, “what’s important in autism-informed support” reflected participants’ perceptions of the features of successful person-centred staff support for autistic service users.

The “rich” experiences of these managers may not be readily generalised.

Features of good staff support for autistic adults who may show behaviours of concern included attending to individuals’ specific communication and sensory needs and for predictability within their environments. Developing staff skills and confidence to implement skilled approaches in the context of often high risk behaviour of concern took time and frontline managers “on site” to observe, coach, mentor and demonstrate good practice. More intellectually (verbally) able service-users were perceived as more “difficult” to support.

Staff supporting autistic adults in ordinary housing need frontline managers to act as practice leaders rather than administrators.

This study is the first to report, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, on management for staff supporting autistic adults living in community housing.

Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman’s work on modes of “thinking” provides a comprehensive text which is little explored in respect of work with people who have an intellectual or developmental disability. This paper aims to explore the potential of this work to change staff development and practice.

Key themes from Thinking Fast, and Slow (Kahneman, 2011) are described and applied to current staff practice.

Modes of thinking are relevant and important to understanding and improving manager and staff practice.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to describe and understand staff thinking and practice using Kahneman’s ideas.

Concerns about the overuse, misuse and potential abuse of restrictive interventions used to manage people who may exhibit behaviour described as challenging led to revised guidance in England. The purpose of this paper is to examine the implementation of this guidance in organisations providing services for people with learning disabilities.

A survey collected data from professionals, on leadership, data use, staff issues and post-incident review.

Most senior leaders were seen as acting on the guidance. Data collected were regarded as generally accurate, but less than half of the managers were seen as likely to respond to consistently high or increasing use of restrictive practices. Frontline staff and managers were seen as very significant for reducing restrictive practices. Uncertainty was shown regarding the goals and activities needed to provide post-incident review.

This exploratory survey may be useful for organisations wanting to audit their implementation of government policy and/or for research on a wider scale to indicate how well societies are implementing policy to reduce restrictive practices. Further research on the survey’s validity and reliability is required.

Further action is needed to encourage all organisations to implement best practice and government policy. This survey showed that some organisations appear to be committed to and potentially achieving reductions in restrictive practices.

This paper describes the first survey designed to evaluate organisational efforts to implement an important policy initiative.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on Rhodes and Toogood’s article on the possible relationship between Active Support training and staff job satisfaction.

Rhodes and Toogood unusually and importantly include outcomes for both frontline staff and service users following an Active Support intervention. This commentary builds upon this approach by drawing on ideas recently raised by Deveau and McGill (2015).

A number of important themes are identified including the mutuality of direct support staff (DSS) and service user experience, the significance of considering both the formal and informal aspects of organisational culture and the value of employing a complexity theory perspective.

Effective public services require an understanding of the factors influencing the behaviour of public service staff. In intellectual disability services, positive outcomes can only be obtained through a broader appreciation of the drivers of DSS behaviour, especially the roles played by culture and leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on “Exploring new ways of thinking about and developing staff practice: the role of modes of thinking” written by Roy Deveau, John Ockenden and Petra Bjorne.

The commentary considers the consistency of Kahneman’s model of thinking fast and slow with brain research.

The thinking styles of staff undoubtedly influence their responses to people with learning disabilities. Although Kahneman’s model provides a heuristic approach to tackling prejudicial and biased thinking, it risks incomplete solutions through bypassing some of the factors contributing to staff behaviour.

This commentary concludes that Kahneman’s model is not completely consistent with knowledge about how the brain is organized. This should be regarded as a limitation of any model seeking to explain decision-making.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of the highest cost residential placements provided for adults with learning disabilities in the South East of England, comparing findings with a previous survey.

Lead commissioners for NHS and Local Authority teams in the South-East of England were asked to provide information on the five highest cost placements that they currently commissioned.

The average placement cost was £200,000 per annum with a range from £81,000 to £430,000 per annum. Individual characteristics of people placed were broadly similar to those identified in previous studies.

Significant resources are used to support relatively few individuals. These individuals’ needs and characteristics suggest areas for research and practice development.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the role played by different aspects of the social, physical and organisational environments in preventing behaviour described as challenging in people with learning disabilities.

Conceptual elaboration drawing on research and practice literature.

Community placements for people with learning disabilities should develop the characteristics of capable environments. Such characteristics are associated with prevention of challenging behaviour and improved quality of life outcomes.

The notion of the capable environment may help to shift the focus from the individual who displays behaviour described as challenging to the characteristics of the social, physical and organisational supports that they receive.