Search for Learning and Development Services and Pathways

This course will encourage you to reflect on how you can provide a more informed, considered environment which is attuned to the changing needs and interests of the children in your care. The EYFS recognises that ‘the environment is the third teacher’ and an enabling environment plays a key role in supporting children’s learning and development.

We will consider what makes an enabling environment for 3 – 4 year olds through a range of perspectives. We will explore how specific aspects of the environment can support opportunities for valuable learning of communication and language. The course will focus on both the physical and the emotional environment and the impact of getting it right!

There will be opportunities to reflect upon your own individual environments, to plan how to make meaningful improvements and provide the best learning environment possible for your 3 – 4 year olds.

“Young children require space, indoors and outdoors, where they can be active or quiet, and where they can think, dream, play and watch others.”
Foundation Years 2012

This assessed training course provides Care Workers with the essential skills and knowledge to apply and comply with the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 when carrying out their role. The MCA applies to every health and social care worker who is involved in the care, treatment or support of people who are unable to make all or some decisions themselves. Care Quality Commission Inspectors are increasingly asking care workers to explain their responsibilities under the MCA. The MCA provides legal protection from liability for carrying out care and treatment of people who lack capacity to consent, provided that care workers: Understand the principles of the MCA Have carried out a capacity assessment and reasonably believe that the person lacks capacity Reasonably believe the action they have taken is in the best interests of the person. How the training course works: Attend a workshop Submit brief evidence of how you have applied your learning in the workplace Receive feedback on your work which is shared with your employer Once you have achieved the required standard for compliance and good practice in line with the MCA code of practice you will be awarded a Mental Capacity Essentials Training Certificate. The standard charge for this course is £35. Please refer to our Course Charges on the Home page for information on discounts and exemptions.

This ‘Pilot’ support group has been set up specifically for carers of teenagers, who may be struggling, or would like to better cope with some of the behaviours that their young people are showing. It will be reviewed in December 2019, and based on how successful the programme has been, may continue in 2020.



The multiple ACE’s (adverse childhood experiences) that our young people may have experienced are likely to have had an impact on their emotional development. This in turn can show as range of behaviours relating to:

· Fear (fight or flight)

· Inability to re-attune to care-giver

· Blocked trust

· Impulsivity

· Lack of cause & effect thinking

· Needing to be ‘in control’

· Lack of empathy

· Lack of remorse

· Hypervigilance

· Sadness & grief

· Fear of being ‘invisible’

· Anger



But how can we respond to these behaviours in a therapeutic way? This group looks to take an issue, identified by yourselves each month, and look at why a young person may be showing that behaviour and how we can respond therapeutically to it.
Each Session will be different but as a general guide the outcomes will be:

* To be able to identify reasons behind particular behaviours
* To know how to respond to these behaviours in a therapeutic way.


The group will be facilitated by Thinking Aloud and will aim to meet once every month during term time. The programme will very much be determined by yourselves, as this series of support groups has been set up with you in mind to meet your current needs. 

It would be helpful if you could email catherine.charlton@southglos.gov.uk  any particular issues that you would perhaps like covered in advance, as a more detailed programme could be drawn up ahead of the sessions, if we know what the issues are.

This training is specifically for practitioners in South Glos Council's adult social care division, i.e. Social Workers, Occupational Therapists, Social Work Assistants, Occupational Therapy Assistants, Senior Practitioners etc.
Strength based approaches are not new in Adult Social Care. You will be familiar with this term and will be able to identify aspects of it in your current practice. Our starting point will be recognising the practice strengths and professional curiosity you already apply in South Gloucestershire in your work with adults and carers and enabling you to share ideas and tools with your colleagues. A strength-based approach is as much about how professionals think and feel about their role, and the individuals they work with, as it is about using new and/or different tools. It requires finding ways to share both power and responsibility with people to promote wellbeing. During the session you will have the chance to explore what this means for you and your colleagues in the challenging climate within which you are working.
Aim: To enable delegates to gain a consistent set of underpinning knowledge and to further develop skills and confidence in applying a strength-based approach in practice

The multi-agency South Gloucestershire Safeguarding Adults Board oversees the Joint Policy and Procedures for Safeguarding Adults in this area. It is essential that a wide range of staff working in local authority, health and social care agencies are fully aware of the key issues in safeguarding vulnerable adults and of how the policy affects them in their front-line roles. The half-day Raising Safeguarding Concerns course is essential training for all front-line staff and managers who are involved in providing services to adults at risk and who work directly with service users. The course content is mapped to the learning outcomes in the local Safeguarding Adults Training Standards (published Dec 2017) as well as to relevant national occupational standards including the Care Certificate (Standard 10). Course attendance is monitored by the Safeguarding Adults Board.
The standard charge for this course is £40. Please refer to our Course Charges on the Home page for information on discounts and exemptions.

“If the job of a toddler is to learn to talk, the job of a pre-schooler is to learn to communicate, which is a complicated task indeed!”
Scolastic, 2018

This course will help you to understand how young children develop communication skills including exploring the wider ways in which 3 – 4 year olds communicate. We will discuss how we can utilise the environment and role of the adult to enhance both communication and language skills.

We will explore how young children acquire language including the speech sounds and share practical ideas and experiences which can enhance progress in this area. There will be opportunities to define different types of communicators including a deeper look at reluctant communicators and meaningful ways in which we can help.

“Talking, understanding others and knowing what to say are really important skills. They help children make friends, learn and enjoy life to the full. Adults’ response is to acknowledge the child’s attempts to communicate and provide a stimulating learning environment.” ICan

This course is for childminders who would like to improve their knowledge of the differing ways children can communicate and understand the complexities of children’s communication and language.

This course will explore how communication develops from birth with an opportunity to discuss non-verbal ways in which children learn to communicate including through behaviour.

We will define different types of communicators and ways in which we can support children to acquire and develop language skills.

Through consideration and reflection of the barriers to communication we will look at reluctant communicators and meaningful ways in which we can help.

“Language helps us to think and adults have a crucial role to play in supporting language learning by understanding how communication and language develops and monitoring each child’s progress in understanding, listening and attention, speaking. Most importantly, they need to be good listeners, picking up on each child’s interest and extending children’s language and thinking by modelling relevant and correct language just beyond the child’s current stage of development.”
Julian Grenier and Helen Moylett Touch Base