I Support Behaviour work with autistic people, people with a learning disability, and individuals with complex care and support needs. We work closely with CCGs, Local Authorities, Social Care Providers, and families to transform the lives of people, to improve the quality of their lives, reduce challenges, and minimise risk. We are a team committed to making the lives of the people we support the best life possible. We do this through completing our assessment, developing individualised plans of care and support, co-producing these with the people we work with and their families, and through providing direct input, consultancy, and training, to families, carers, and Social Care Providers.We are a highly specialist team that have changed the lives of many by preventing hospital admissions under the mental health act, supporting individuals being cared for in specialist inpatient settings, and through understanding the person, their needs, and the best fit in terms of positive interactions, communication, and providing opportunities for development and growth.I Support Behaviour has helped countless people stay in their community, stay close to home and to loved ones, or to transition from hospital to a place the person can call home. Our passion is to listen to the people we help, their families, and to understand what is required for the person to thrive.

I am the owner of a small business called I Support Behaviour. I set up this company because of my passion and drive to support children, young people, and their families that are affected by autism.It is my belief that the achievement's of people with autism are only limited by our imagination.I have built the business from the ground up. I developed the business plan and I spent six months perfecting this. I worked with a colleague on the logo, but the rest of the business is my creation. I developed the aims and philosophy of the business which, I work tirelessly to ensure we deliver upon.Once the logo, aims, and philosophy were completed I built the website and wrote the entire content. I am responsible for making sure that it runs smoothly and updating its content. I also wrote the content for our Facebook page and I also update this. I am responsible for our on-line marketing strategy and for meeting the goals of the business plan in terms of creating an identifiable brand.As a Behaviour Consultant I use the principles of Applied Behaviour Analysis and Positive Behaviour Support. I work directly with people with autism, learning disabilities, challenging behaviour, and other complex needs. I also work with their families and the services that support them. Our aim is to reduce the barriers created by challenging behaviour and to support young people to live a fulfilling life that is sustainable.We work directly with the families and other stakeholders to develop a network around the young person. A further aim is to 'skill up' the people directly involved with supporting people affected by autism so that the need for specialist services is reduced in the future.For further details of I Support Behaviour and to find out more about us visit our website at www.isupportbehaviour.com

Ambitious Support is a specialist provision for young adults (19 – 25) based within the LLDD department at Barnet and Southgate College. The service was set up as a post 19 provision, to provide specialist short term support to enable young people with autism to live happy and successful life that would be sustainable. One aspect of the service was to provide support for young people with autism and more complex challenges to access post 19 education. As a community based project we also supported the young people to develop their leisure interests further, to be able to access their local community, and to find employment. As the ABA Consultant and Team Leader, I was responsible for managing the service along with the Head of Ambitious Support. I was responsible for developing staffing rotas, forecasting staffing needs, and the recruitment of new staff. I had previously been involved with interviews at TreeHouse where I received Safer Recruitment training. At Ambitious Support I was involved with all aspects of the recruitment process. I was also responsible for ensuring that new members of staff completed induction training, that staff received ongoing support, training, and feedback, and that members of staff met the competencies of Applied Behaviour Analysis.My key roles at Ambitious Support were to write individualised lesson plans for each of the young people on my caseload, to write Positive Behaviour Support plans, and to develop interventions and strategies based upon the principles and procedures of Applied Behaviour Analysis to support the young people with complex and challenging behaviour. I was responsible for implementing these and ensuring that the strategies that were developed were delivered consistently throughout the team.

In November 2009 I began working at one of the UK’s leading autism charities where I was employed as an ABA Supervisor at TreeHouse School. I managed a number of different classes with children in year groups 7 – 10 and I managed a team of ABA tutors in the delivery of TreeHouse School’s curriculum. As part of my role I supported an ABA Consultant and other professionals including teachers, Speech and Language Therapists, and Occupational Therapists to develop individualised programmes for the students in my class. The curriculum at TreeHouse School is individualised to meet the development needs of each pupil. I directly contributed to the development of these programmes, and I was responsible for ensuring that they were implemented and delivered to the highest standards.The teaching at TreeHouse School is delivered using the principles and procedures of Applied Behaviour Analysis. A significant aspect of my role was to provide ongoing overlaps, training, support, and feedback to the ABA Tutors working in my class. I was directly responsible for the line management of at least four tutors at any given time, and I was tasked with delivering the competencies based training in ABA to the members of staff in my class on the school’s Graduate programme. As part of my role at TreeHouse I completed ABA Supervisor training in 2010, which was delivered over an academic year. During the training I developed my knowledge and demonstrable skills in Applied Behaviour Analysis further, and also my understanding of delivering the curriculum in a highly specialist school for children and young people with autism and other complex needs. My knowledge and demonstrable skills were tested in interview and during observations, which I successfully passed. The curriculum of the Supervisor training ran parallel to the Boards competencies list.

I was previously a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Southampton Solent University. I taught subjects in psychology from level one to level 3. This included Developmental Psychology, Biopsychology, Cognitive Psychology, Research Methods, and Academic Skills. I wrote and developed my own level three course entitled The Psychology of Evil: Why People do Bad Things. I was responsible writing and delivering the course material, setting assessment, and marking. I was a personal tutor to a number of level one students, and I supervised final year students through their dissertation research.I was research active and I was involved with research related to Social Cognition and Autism. I presented my findings at national and international conferences. I was also the deputy chair of the ethics committee, and I was a member of the Student Staff Joint Consultative committee.

As a Graduate Teaching Assistant I was responsible for delivering lectures, seminars, and tutorials to students undertaking graduate and postgraduate degrees in psychology. I taught subjects related to Developmental Psychology, Biopsychology, Cognitive Psychology, Research Methods, and Academic skills to students from level one to level three. I was involved with setting assessments, marking, and invigilating exams. I was also responsible for student welfare and I was a personal tutor to a number of level one students. I was research active and I was part of the universities Developmental Research Group. I was also an active member of The School of Psychology's Teaching and Learning Research Group. I was also a member of the Joint Student Staff Consultative committee. I was involved with research related to autism, social cognition, dyslexia, and also Teaching and Learning.

I was self employed at this time working for a family whose son was attending Livingstone School. I worked directly in the school to oversee the progress of a young child with autism that had been on an ABA home programme. My role was to ensure the smooth transition from the home programme to school, to support with generalising his skills into the school setting, and to act as a subtle prompter when needed.An important aspect of my role was to ensure that the other children in his class were not aware that I was employed to work 1:1 with that particular boy. I supported all of the children with their learning, but my main focus was to act subtly to ensure that my charge was able to keep up with the work the other children were completing. Or, to support the class teacher with differentiating the curriculum for him.I was an important link between the home based ABA team and school. I was able to prepare the team for their programming in terms of what the children were learning at school. I was also able to feedback on things that my charge was finding difficult so that the team at home could work on these areas.I developed my early skills in Applied Behaviour Analysis during this role and, in particular, subtle prompting and fading.

From 1991 - 1998 I worked at a summer camp called Camp Huntington in High Falls New York. I began as a Camp Counsellor and became the Waterfront Director.Camp Huntington is a specialist camp for people with autism learning disabilities, neurological impairments, and other complex needs. My first year at this facility was my first working with this population group and it changed my life forever. As the Waterfront Director I was a qualified lifeguard and swimming instructor. I was responsible for the maintenance of the pool, planning and delivering lessons for the clients, supervising the other lifeguards, and ensuring the safety of the people using the pool.