Learning and Development case study – Grace Proctor, Support Worker 

My role is to deliver Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training, Tier 2 Face-to-Face, to our staff. I am also a support worker at Mellieha (residential home in Pontefract).

I completed the Oliver McGowan Train the Trainer course with Sarah. Before starting the course, I had a chat with Vickie (Learning and Development Facilitator), who explained what it involved and the support I would receive. After talking with my family, Vickie and Sarah, I decided I would like to do the course. My manager, Lisa, also said it was a great opportunity for me to learn and develop. In fact, all my team were very supportive and encouraged me to go for it. I wanted to educate staff and be a voice for the people we support, helping staff understand what having a learning disability means to me so they could think more about the people we support in our homes.

For my Oliver McGowan Train the Trainer course, I had fantastic support from Sarah Lewis. She broke the training down into small parts so I could understand it better, and when I needed a break, we took one. It can be quite tiring for me to take a lot of information in at once, so Sarah worked at my pace and made sure I understood each part before moving on. She regularly checked in with me, and I told her how much I was enjoying the course.

In my role as a support worker at Mellieha, reasonable adjustments were also made to help me understand and follow support plans and carry out routines. My manager made flashcards for one of the people we support, and I had a good mentor who helped me understand their needs. Once I could do that independently, we moved on to another person’s support needs.

Working with Sarah gave me the support and confidence to believe I could complete the course and deliver the training to staff. It was really useful having my own file and having the course broken down into smaller chunks, with explanations that helped me understand things better.

The biggest thing I learned was how to deliver training to large groups of people and to be confident in myself. Before delivering the training, I struggled with confidence and worried about whether I could do it. With support from Sarah and Vickie, who encouraged me and told me to believe in myself, I gradually became much more confident.

The training has helped me feel more confident in delivering sessions. When I first started, I was quite anxious and felt I couldn’t do it. Vickie reminded me that I knew our staff and they knew me.

Now, I deliver most of my session myself, and I’m proud of that. I have also started delivering training to staff I don’t know in Scunthorpe, Roxby and Grantham. At first, I was worried about this, but I now really enjoy travelling to Roxby and Grantham to deliver the training.

One of the biggest changes for me is that I am not as anxious about speaking to or delivering training to people I don’t know. Before, I was really anxious. Sometimes I still get a bit worried, but once I start delivering the session, I remember that it will help the people who live in our homes.

This increased confidence has made a difference in other areas of my work too. I feel more confident with the people I work with and don’t get as worried as I used to. I can now cook for the people at Mellieha, something I used to be scared of because I worried it wouldn’t turn out right.

It has also made me think more about what the people we support want to do in their lives.

I think we are a really positive team. We encourage the people in our home to do what they want to do and go where they want to go. I am now a key worker for one of the people we support. We go shopping together and sometimes travel by train or bus. Before the training, I would never have believed I could do that.

Looking ahead, I am happy as a support worker. I help the Senior with jobs such as medication counts and checks, which is a big achievement for me because I have dyscalculia.

Sarah and Vickie have asked if I would like to deliver Oliver McGowan Tier 1 webinars, and I would really like to do this. I spoke to my manager, Lisa, because I didn’t know much about it, and we had a Teams meeting with Vickie, who explained everything to me. I hope to start this soon.

I would definitely encourage somebody else to take on a similar opportunity. If someone really wants to do something but is scared, they may just need a bit of help and encouragement to realise they can do it. The Oliver McGowan training is also very good because it makes people think about what happened to Oliver and how we should work together with people with learning disabilities and autistic people.