Wellbeing support

We want our students’ time at Share to be an enriching and rewarding experience. Our dedicated Wellbeing Team work across the organisation to make sure that students get the right support to help them reach their goals. All staff take part in regular learning disability and autism awareness training to better understand people's needs.

We encourage students to reflect on their own wellbeing and work with them to develop strategies that help them manage their feelings and emotions. 

Our wellbeing support includes:

• Positive behaviour support plans –  a proactive, person-centered plan that aims to understand, reduce, and replace challenging behaviours with positive alternatives. 

• Regular reviews - with parents and carers and students about how they’re getting on. 

• Wellbeing escalation process - a clear plan for addressing and resolving everyday wellbeing concerns as well as more serious issues, ensuring quick action to reduce risks and keep everyone safe and well.  

• Dedicated relaxation rooms – these spaces are available at every site if students need a quiet space to sit and reflect.

Eating healthily, being active and promoting positive mental health is embedded in everything we do. We take a holistic approach and encourage and support good practice outside of Share and not just when students are at our sites. 

All daily sessions start with pastoral hour, a time for students to settle in and talk about what's happening that day, or what they did at the weekend to ease everyone into the day. 

We make sure our students have the right tools to express themselves effectively, fostering connections with staff and peers in the ways that work best for them. 

Our communication support includes the use of:

• Talking mats, a communication system that uses symbols and other images

• Widgit software to produce easy read accessible symbols for class resources and signage 

• Makaton, a communication programme that uses signs, symbols and speech. Many of our staff are proficient in using Makaton and undergo regular training 

• We take part in social care reviews with our students, their social workers, and their families and carers to reassess needs and make sure students are getting the right support.
• We host regular parent and carer forums to raise issues, share experiences and discuss how we can improve our services.
• Our family liaison and wellbeing team work with partners and local authorities to support students, their families and carers to access healthcare and other services, and signpost to these where necessary.

Lunchtimes give our students the chance to have some downtime and enjoy the range of activities organised by our dedicated lunchtime staff. And free time in the afternoon gives students time to play games, listen to music, take part in an exercise class, or join one of our self-advocacy groups.

We also provide social trips out for students who are particularly isolated and our befriending programme matches students with volunteer befrienders so they can broaden their social network and enjoy meaningful connections.

The welfare of our students is paramount. All our staff and volunteers are trained to recognise possible safeguarding concerns and act accordingly so that any issues are dealt with in an effective and supportive manner.

Share is accredited by the National Autistic Society (NAS), which runs the UK’s only autism-specific quality assurance programme to evaluate organisations providing services for autistic people.