What Good Behaviour Support Will Look Like for Participants in the Next Few Years
Her old plan measured how many times she left the table at dinner, and her new one starts with who she wants to sit next to.
Same person. Same house. Same dinner table. The new plan asks a better question, and her evenings look completely different because of it.
The PBS field is shifting. I think the gap between good practitioners and great ones over the next few years will come down to a handful of skills, and each one gives the person more voice, more belonging and more life. Here are the five I'm watching most closely.
1. Relational skill
The relationship carries a huge part of the intervention. Practitioners who can build trust, notice what's happening in themselves during a session, and repair when things go wrong will get further with people than any framework can take them alone.
For the person: He used to shut down whenever a new practitioner arrived. His current practitioner spent the first two visits playing his favourite card game. By the third, he was telling her what scares him.
2. Quality-of-life thinking
Reducing incidents matters. People care most about what fills their lives. Great practitioners will start every plan by asking the person and their family what a good life looks like for them, and measure progress against that.
For the person: Her family wanted one thing: a meal together without bracing. The plan started there. Six months on, they eat together most nights, and she chooses the music.
3. Working inside genuinely good systems
A great practitioner inside a chaotic system will struggle. Supervision, sensible caseloads, good data systems and strong clinical governance let practitioners do their best work consistently. Organisations that build these well will attract and keep the best people.
For the person: Her practitioner has fortnightly supervision and a manageable caseload, so when her circumstances change suddenly, the plan gets reviewed in days.
4. Belonging as part of the intervention
Friendship, community and feeling part of something protect people in their own right. The next generation of plans will treat belonging as a goal and a strategy, with the same weight as any other part of the plan.
For the person: His plan includes Thursday nights at the local footy club, where he runs the water bottles. Fridays have been calmer since he started. He'd tell you the important part is that the coach knows his name.
A quick self-check
• Relational skill: Do the people I support look forward to seeing me?
• Quality of life: Could I describe each person's version of a good life?
• Good systems: Do I have supervision that helps me think?
• Belonging: Does each plan I write include somewhere the person belongs?
What to do this week
Choose one plan on your caseload and read it against the five shifts. Pick the shift where the plan is thinnest and add one concrete change at the next review.
Common questions
What skills does a PBS practitioner need?
Clinical knowledge, assessment skills and safeguarding knowledge, plus strong relational skill, quality-of-life thinking and the ability to work well within systems.
What is quality of life in Positive Behaviour Support?
The core aim of PBS: helping people live lives they value, with more choice, participation and connection.
Build your career with us
If you want to practise this way, with supervision and systems built to support it, visit our careers page.
Stories in this post are composites, shared with details changed to protect privacy.
