Earlier this month, staff at one of Lisieux Trust’s residential homes received special training in Makaton.

Staff at the Vesey Road property were given a bespoke course from a leading Makaton trainer in order that they should be able to better support a new resident.

The resident joined the trust in the spring and has communication challenges which can be mitigated by using signs, so manager Eve Holloway came up with the idea to deepen the staff team’s understanding in order to aid the settling-in process.

Eve, who only joined the trust herself earlier in the year, is already fluent in BSL and wanted to equip the staff with similar skills. She said that the training was already showing results.

“The feedback from the staff team has been great,” Eve confirmed. “I came in [to work] and two of the support workers were in the kitchen, and they were going through some of the signs that they learnt and asking for different signs, which was wonderful to see.”

This is part of the charity’s commitment to person-centred care, making sure that we can support individuals in the best way possible, with Eve adding: “It is great that as a team, they can see the importance of learning this communication system to help support tenants using their communication styles and I will be encouraging the use of the signs to develop a positive communication culture within the service.”

Eve explained that the training is already having knock-on effects throughout the house. “It is already evident that the use of Makaton/signs is important to more than one of the tenants”. She added, “The individual who moved in back in April is receptive to the use of signs as part of a total communication approach, and I hope that seeing Makaton used as part of his daily life will encourage him to become more confident in using Makaton more expressively himself.”

Training such as this embodies the trust’s promise to ensure that adults with learning disabilities are empowered to live happy lives full of choice and opportunity.