• Where am I?
• Home »
• What we do »
• Training

Training

The training team at VoiceAbility is made up of Experts by Experience who have disabilities, together with non-disabled colleagues with a wealth of expertise working with clients with disabilities and those with mental health issues.

---

What can our training offer you?

We have a number of tried and tested ‘off the shelf’ training packages, which we have delivered successfully across the country.   We can adapt their content and be flexible about the length and timing of training courses, working to time scales that suit you.  Courses include the following for professional staff & students:

Disability Awareness training 

This is one of our key training packages.  We have delivered it to many groups, including the police, hospital staff and university psychology students.  In this training you explore what it is like to have a disability, hear life stories and raise awareness of what is best practice for staff.  We can tailor the training to fit your needs whichever group of disabled people you work with including those with:

• Autistic Spectrum Disorder
• Mental Health issues
• Physical Disabilities
• Learning Disabilities

We can give the training the emphasis you require to make your service or business more disability friendly.  This will make it more accessible and up-to-date. 

Engage With Us

Make sure your service is truly responsive to those who use it by learning interactive techniques for engaging your service users, customers or tenants with a disability in consultation and participation.  The tools gained from this training have helped participants conduct truly meaningful consultations.  Long-term benefits from it include the gathering of accurate information from service users with disabilities which can be used when applying for tenders and grants.

My Life, My Budget

This is a unique way to learn the basics of Personal Budgets by playing the My Life My Budget board game which was developed by our Consultancy and Training team.  This training can be adapted for staff or service users, working together or separately.  Clink on the link to hear Ames talk about the game:

---

Training offered for self advocates with a learning disability:

Speaking Up & Speaking Up for Others

Build confidence with this training through learning and practising how to say what you like and don’t like.  The follow-up course trains people with a learning disability how to represent others in meetings and consultations.

Training for Trainers

Learn the skills needed to deliver high quality training and presentations.

Interview Skills

Learn how to be one of the decision makers on an interview panel.

---

Bespoke Training

Have you identified a training need in your organisation?  Speak to us about developing a training package which fits your requirements exactly.

Recent examples of bespoke training we have delivered include:

Personal Assistant training

This is designed for teams of personal assistants managed by personal budget holders, to ensure they can give support in an effective and empowering way.

Example: We were contacted by a parent who manages the personal budget of her daughter who has a learning disability.  Difficulties had arisen with some of the personal assistant staff over allowing the daughter to make her own safe choices.  This had led to a lot of upset for everyone concerned. We worked with the family to develop a day’s training workshop for everyone (including mum & daughter) to ensure that the daughter can live as independent a life as possible, while making safe choices.  As well as achieving this goal, the team reported how much they had enjoyed having a fun and interactive team-building day together, while exploring difficult issues.

---

Conflict Resolution training

This is for services where personal issues between individuals or groups are getting in the way of creating the right atmosphere for people to grow and develop.  We can offer training sessions where difficult issues can be explored and resolved in a non-threatening and non-judgmental environment.

Example: We were contacted by a residential service for people with a learning disability and/or autistic spectrum disorder.  There had been many problems over communication between residents, and people not respecting each other.  Working with the staff team we developed a short training package aimed at supporting residents to recognise each other’s needs.  This was delivered in a non-judgmental style, including the use of role play and group discussions, which allowed residents to discuss the issues without making it personal.

---

Mentor training

This is one aspect of the training we offer to support employers who employ people with disabilities.

Example: We were contacted by a large company, one of whose staff members has an autistic spectrum disorder.  In common with other organisations, this company has gone through many changes recently which this staff member had found difficult, resulting in some challenging behaviour.  The HR team asked us to provide mentor training for other members of staff, so that their colleague could be appropriately supported.  We worked with them and the VoiceAbility job coach to develop a suitable training package.  We are also providing on-going support for the staff mentors should any problems arise in the future.

Contact us to find out how we can support you to support your staff who have disabilities.   We can help you meet the requirements of the Equality Act.

---

Staff team building

With years of training experience behind us, we have a vast bank of fun and interactive activities, including icebreakers and games to motivate your staff, improve their morale and get them working more effectively together.  We can link into your staff training days, and also pass on our techniques so that you can run you own successful team building sessions in the future.

---

Give us a call or email us to discuss how we can meet your training needs and for prices of training packages.

Imogen Ridler

Consultancy & Training Coordinator

Email: Imogen.ridler@voiceability.org

Tel: 01223 555845  ׀  Mob:  07985 926483