Julie Beadle-Brown

University of Kent | KENT · Tizard Centre

Despite its popularity, relatively little is known about strengths-based approaches in adult social work. In order to explore how strengths-based models and approaches are developed and implemented in social work and social care in England, and how these models are impacting practice, a two-stage project was conducted between December 2020 and Octo...

Purpose Previous studies have confirmed the potential benefits of participating in theatrical improvisation, including improved mental health, well-being, skills and strategy development. This study aims to explore the experiences of improv (a subset of theatrical improvisation) for autistic, non-autistic, yet neurodivergent and neurotypical people...

Transition to adulthood for young people with intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities (IDD) has been given significant attention in research, policy development and practice. The aim of this paper was to explore how a recently developed theoretical outcomes-based framework for measuring the quality of services for people with disab...

Improv comedy is a small subset of improvisation, which has been under-researched. This study aims to investigate if the benefits agents experience match previous research. Literature discusses positivity, community, social and communication skills, and relaxation. The survey gained 128 global respondents answering a series of questions related to...

The overarching aims of these two studies conducted in Minnesota, the U.S., and the Czech Republic are to develop our understanding of how educational and social care systems can support young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to transition successfully from school or other forms of education to adult life, and to produce new...

Following the publication of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with a Disability, the rights and situation of people with disabilities have once again become a focus of national, European and international policy and advocacy. Mansell et al., (2007 Mansell, J., M. Knapp, J. Beadle-Brown, and J. Beecham. 2007. “Deinstitutionalisation and Co...

Background: A growing body of evidence attests to the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) during the pandemic. This study asked caregivers about their perceptions of how COVID-19 impacted them and the people they support. Method: An online survey was conducted in 12 countries during...

The study presents a framework to measure the quality of services — centred on the quality-of-life concept — based on the Donabedian’s Structures-Processes-Outcome model and the eight Quality of Life domains of Schalock et al. (2002). Considering what is known about the Quality of Life and focusing on what is needed, the main objective of this stud...

Purpose We aimed to develop and validate an instrument measuring perceived importance of indicators of the quality of social care services in different groups of stakeholders. Method 671 respondents (249 representatives of public administration, 217 social service providers and 205 service users) completed a 40-item questionnaire developed on the b...

Trends in the provision of accommodation and support for people with intellectual disabilities have primarily taken the form of deinstitutionalisation, the development of community living and the individualisation and personalisation of funding and support. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability Article 19 conveys the right to a...

Context: There is substantial policy support for strengths-based approaches to social work and social care. These new models of care promote the deployment of ‘strengths’ including personal, social and community resources to empower individuals to achieve their desired outcomes. Although a number of strengths-based models have been developed it is...

Social services for people with disabilities have undergone substantial changes over time, in particular in the past two decades. Whilst lack of affordable and appropriate housing is a barrier to community living for many people with disabilities, it is only one part of the jigsaw. This book traces some of these changes, in particular related to li...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on Banks et al. , and sets the wider context. Design/methodology/approach It provides a brief narrative review of the literature on the factors that determine the quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities, including the impact of culture. Findings Key to ensuring good qua...

Previous studies have found that autistic self-advocates and self-advocates with an intellectual disability have been systematically marginalised in the disability movement. This article appraises how economic factors influence self-advocates’ position within the disability movement, based on qualitative analysis of data collected in two countrie...

Quality of public services including social services is an issue frequently discussed by policy makers, service providers, and by those who represent service users. The aim of this study was to explore how stakeholders perceive quality of social services, with a particular focus on (1) what did participants rate as important; (2) what is the relati...

Choice and control are pivotal in UK Government policy for achieving personalisation of social care for people with learning disabilities; however, little is known about the role care management plays in supporting people with learning disabilities finding social care services. This article explores that the support care managers provide people wit...

Background : This protocol outlines research to explore family members’ and paid staff’s perceptions of the impact of COVID-19 on individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their caregivers. Evidence suggests that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities experience disparities in healthcare access and utilisatio...

Accessible summary • Direct payments can help people with learning disabilities or autism to have good support. Often, family carers manage the direct payments for people who would find this very difficult. • We asked family carers who managed direct payments to tell us why they decided to do this and what their experiences were. • Family carers t...

Background With increasing reductions in funding for social care across many countries, the need to ensure that resources are used to best effect is becoming increasingly important, in particular for those with severe and complex needs. Methods In order to explore the outcomes and costs of skilled support for this group of people, quality of life...

Background : This protocol outlines research to explore the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on individuals who have intellectual and developmental disabilities and their caregivers. Evidence suggests that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities experience disparities in healthcare access and utilisation. This disparity...

Rapid scoping review on social care and support for autistic adults.

3 Foreword One step forward, two steps back? The European Expert Group on the transition from institutional to community-based care (hereinafter: the "EEG") introduces the Report on the Transition from Institutional Care to Community-Based Services in 27 EU Member States (hereinafter: the "Report" or the "Study"). This Study comes to mark 10 years...

This study explores “practice theory” through the analysis of interviews with advocates and self‐advocates within the autism and intellectual disability advocacy movements. This is a qualitative, empirical study based on interviews and focus groups with 43 participants in two countries, the UK and Hungary. There are five major types of practices t...

Background: There is strong evidence about the effectiveness of Active Support. Recent research has established predictors of good Active Support as staff training, practice leadership, and service setting size. This paper explores features of organisational leadership and structures predictive of Active Support. Methods: Multilevel modelling with...

Acknowledgements This research was a collaboration between researchers from the Living with Disability Research Centre at La Trobe University and fourteen Industry Partners. It would not have been possible without the commitment of each of these organisations to the value of research and their contribution of resources in the form of staff time and...

Background: Organisational and service level factors are identified as influencing the implementation of Active Support. The aim was to explore differences in organisational leadership and structures to identify potential relationships between these factors and the quality of Active Support in supported accommodation services. Method: Fourteen orga...

Background Active Support, now widely adopted by disability support organizations, is difficult to implement. The study aim was to identify the factors associated with good Active Support. Methods Data on service user and staff characteristics, quality of Active Support and practice leadership were collected from a sample of services from 14 organ...

Background: Disability support organisations have embraced Active Support, but it has proved difficult to embed in services. Aims: This study aimed to identify the factors associated with increases over time in the quality of Active Support. Method: Data were collected on the predicted variable of the quality of Active Support, and predictor v...

This article focuses on access of students with disabilities to education in Ethiopia and, in particular, on the role of inclusive education resource centres (IERCs). A mixed-methods approach was used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. The participants were school administrators, itinerant teachers, special educators, regular classr...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the difficulties highlighted by Ntinas around supporting change in services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Design/methodology/approach This commentary examines what is needed for change and reflects on staff culture. Findings The authors propose that it is not sensib...

Background The aim was to explore the relationship between quality of active support and communication support for people in group homes with high and low support needs. Methods Data from 182 service users, 20–81 years (mean = 40), 89 with high support needs, were observed to have either good (n = 142) or poor (n = 40) communication support. Measu...

This article draws on the findings of the EU Framework 7 project DISCIT to explore the living situation of people with disabilities a decade after the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in nine European countries representing different welfare state models and different stages in the process of deinstitutionali...

Background: Quality of life of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities has been found to primarily depend on whether staff are providing facilitative and enabling support that helps to compensate for severity of disability. Managers have a key role in facilitating staff to provide such support. Method: Qualitative interviews were...

Purpose To establish the effectiveness of Talking Mats™ (TM) in evaluating service users’ experiences, and explore their views of the implementation of person-centred active support (PCAS). Design/methodology/approach A mixed-methods study, employing qualitative interviewing and observational measures. Findings Both qualitative and quantitativ...

Objectives: Research shows practice leadership to be a factor in the successful implementation of active support. The aim of the study was to explore differences in staff practice, associated with the presence of a practice leader in a shared supported accommodation service. Methods: Quality of support and engagement for 189 service users with inte...

This report entitled “Mapping and Understanding Exclusion- Institutional, coercive and community-based services and practices across Europe’’ is a new and expanded edition of Mental Health Europe’s 2012 Mapping Exclusion report. The report was put together by the University of Kent and Mental Health Europe (MHE), with the help of MHE members and pa...

Background: Since the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), human rights have become central for disability advocacy. The CRPD requires that disabled people and their representative organisations (DPOs) have a prominent role in the implementation and monitoring of the Convention. However, the representatio...

We report the feasibility of a novel, school-based intervention, coined 'Imagining Autism', in which children with autism engage with drama practitioners though participatory play and improvisation in a themed multi-sensory " pod " resembling a portable, tent-like structure. 22 children, aged 7–12 years, from three UK schools engaged in the 10week...

Background: Research indicates the value of active support in achieving good outcomes across a number of quality of life domains for people with intellectual disabilities. However, implementation is not easy, and little research has explored why. We aimed to identify some of the factors that impact on implementation of active support in supported a...

Background: Supported living is perceived as more flexible than group homes for people with intellectual disability. This study identified costs and factors associated with quality of life (QOL) in supported living and compared this with group homes. Method: Thirty-one residents in supported living participated in a survey incorporating measures of...

Background Studies incorporating staff-rated or observational measures of practice leadership have shown that where practice leadership is stronger, active support is better implemented. The study aim was to compare measures of practice leadership used in previous research to determine the extent of their correspondence. Method A subset of data fro...

Background: Dissatisfaction with the inflexibility of the group home model has led to the growth of supported living which separates housing from support and is thought to have greater potential for better quality of life outcomes. Comparative studies have had mixed findings with some showing few differences, other than greater choice in supported...

Background: This study reports the experiences of developing and pre-testing an Easy Read version of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) for self-report by people with intellectual disabilities. Methods: The study has combined survey development and pre-testing methods with approaches to create accessible information for people with i...

Background: The quality of life (QOL) of people with intellectual disability living in supported accommodation services is variable, influenced by many possible factors. Various frameworks have attempted to identify these factors without assigning value, direction of influence or relative impact on outcomes. Methods: A realist review of the lite...

Building on cultural dimensions of underperforming group homes this study analyses culture in better performing services. In depth qualitative case studies were conducted in 3 better group homes using participant observation and interviews. The culture in these homes, reflected in patterns of staff practice and talk, as well as artefacts differed f...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to summarise key findings and recommendations from the “Living in Fear” research project focusing on the experiences of people with learning disabilities and autism related to disability hate crime and the experience of the police in dealing with such incidents. Design/methodology/approach – Methods included:...

Background Studies incorporating staff–rated or observational measures of practice leadership have shown where practice leadership is stronger, Active Support is better implemented. The study aim was to compare measures of practice leadership used in previous research to determine the extent of their correspondence. Method A subset of data from a...

Background Improving staff performance is an issue in services for people with intellectual disability. Practice leadership, where the front line leader of a staff team focuses on service user outcomes in everything they do and provides coaching, modeling, supervision and organisation to the team, has been identified as important in improving staff...

This article summarises key aspects of the Mental Capacity Act (2005) in England and Wales. In particular, it focuses on the implementation of this Act and the lessons that can be drawn from the situation in the United Kingdom by those currently developing legislation around supported decision-making. The Mental Capacity Act (2005) has five core pr...

Background People with severe and profound intellectual disabilities often spend substantial time isolated and disengaged. The nature and quality of the support appears to be important in determining quality of life.Methods Structured observations and staff questionnaires were used to explore the quality of life and quality of support for 110 peopl...

Abstract Despite change toward more individualized support, group homes are likely to remain for people with severe intellectual disability. As such, the search continues for ways to determine and maintain the quality of these settings. This article draws on in-depth qualitative analysis of participant observations conducted over 9-12 months in sev...

BackgroundA dimension of the culture in group homes is staff regard for residents. In underperforming group homes, staff regard residents as being not ‘like us’ (Bigby, Knox, Beadle-Brown, Clement & Mansell, 2012). We hypothesized the opposite pole of this dimension, in higher performing group homes, would be that staff regard residents positively....

User choice and personalisation have been at the centre of health and social care policies in many countries. Exercising choice can be especially challenging for people with long-term conditions (LTC) or disabilities. Information about the quality, cost and availability of services is central to user choice. This study used systematic review method...

Support for people with intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviour in the United Kingdom is currently under much scrutiny. Positive behaviour support has been put forward as the key approach for improving services for this group of people. Drawing on both the literature and on the practice experience of organisations, arguments are made th...

We hypothesised that a key factor determining the quality of active support was 'practice leadership' - provided by the first-line manager to focus staff attention and develop staff skills in providing direct support to enable people with intellectual disabilities to have a good quality of life. This exploratory study focused on what levels of prac...

Despite older people representing a significant majority of victims of abuse in the UK and Europe, evidence about its characteristics and management is limited. This article reports on an analysis of adult protection referrals for older people over an eight year period in two English local authorities. It extends understanding of the characteristic...

Background: Active support is an effective intervention to support engagement of residents with intellectual disability in group homes. This survey explored resident characteristics of the people supported by organisations implementing active support, the provision of active support, its procedures and systems, and resident engagement in meaningfu...

Abstract Culture recurs as an important but under-investigated variable associated with resident outcomes in supported accommodation for people with intellectual disability. This study aimed to conceptualize the potential dimensions of culture in all group homes and describe the culture in underperforming group homes. A secondary analysis, using an...

Previous research has found that active support is effective at increasing levels of participation in activities and supporting a good quality of life for people with intellectual disabilities. However, there has been little research on the effect of active support on other outcome measures. This study uses observational methodology, combined with...

quality ratings of care homes are used by decision makers in the absence of direct information about outcomes. However, there is little evidence about the relationship between regulators' ratings of homes and residents' quality of life outcomes. to capture social care-related quality of life (SCRQoL) outcomes for residents and investigate the relat...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report the key findings from a study of adult protection referrals collected by two English local authorities during 1998‐2005. Design/methodology/approach – Referrals were analysed for patterns relating to risk with client level data supplemented by information from the local authority databases and from...

Background Studies of engagement in meaningful activity often focus on a short period during the afternoon. The question arises whether this produces different results from studies covering the whole day. Methods Data collected for 18 individuals using a 20-s momentary time-sample from 08:00 to 19:00 over a number of days for each person were analy...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the issue of social inclusion for people with autism spectrum conditions. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on current policy and good practice guidelines as well as the experience of people with autism and those who support them, this paper considers how well legislation, policy, and good practice...

• Summary: This article examines the processes and outcomes of adult protection referrals in two local authorities in England using adult protection monitoring data collected between 1998 and 2005, identifying learning for the use and development of adult protection monitoring. • Findings: Associations were found between aspects of process and outc...

The Czech national policy on social services and health is based on the principal of human rights and empowerment of persons with disabilities. Based on published literature and reports, as well as knowledge and experience from working in the field, this mainly conceptual article summarizes progress over the past two decades in the Czech Republic i...

Background Adult protection monitoring data held by local authorities in England provide opportunities to examine referrals for alleged sexual abuse for people with intellectual disability to identify patterns of risk. Methods Adult protection monitoring data collected by two local authorities was analysed, with referrals for alleged sexual abuse c...

Background There has been increasing recognition of the importance and extent of abuse of vulnerable adults, including people with intellectual disabilities, leading to the development of monitoring systems. This paper reports findings from one of the largest databases in the UK collected between 1998 and 2005. Method Analysis of the 1926 referrals...

The purpose of this review was to evaluate the available research on the quality and costs of dispersed community-based housing when compared with clustered housing. Searches against specified criteria yielded 19 papers based on 10 studies presenting data comparing dispersed housing with some kind of clustered housing (village communities, resident...

The editorial for this issue sets out the context of increasing awareness of the need for better services for children and adults with autism spectrum disorders, and highlights the importance of policy to maintain awareness and provide incentives while recognising that more would be needed to ensure that people with autism have a good quality of li...

Background Despite the acknowledged difficulties of measuring satisfaction for people with intellectual disabilities, the current study examined the quality of life (QoL) of the Camberwell Cohort, a total population sample of people with severe intellectual disability and/or autism [ Wing & Gould, Epidemiology and Classification , 9 , 1979, 11 ]. M...

Background and aims This study aimed to collate and summarise statistical information on the number of people with disabilities living in all types of residential care but with a particular focus on those living in institutional care within 28 countries in Europe to analyse the costs and outcomes of the transition to community-based services in ord...

Large-scale reviews of research in deinstitutionalization and community living were last conducted about 10 years ago. Here we surveyed research from 1997 to 2007. Articles were included if the researchers based the study on original research, provided information on the participants and methodology, compared residential arrangements for adults wit...

The level of resident's adaptive behaviour and staff facilitative practices are key sources of variation in outcomes for residents in community-based residential services. The higher the resident support needs the poorer their outcome. Although substantial investment has been made in values-based training for staff, their attitudes and the impact o...

Out-of-area placements may make it harder for people to maintain family links and for care managers to monitor quality. This study explored the views and experiences of family members, care managers, residontial home managers and the members of multidisciplinary community teams involved with out-of-area placements. For each of 30 people placed out-...

• Summary: This study focused on the incidence of adult protection referrals, the people involved as victims, perpetrators and referrers and the type of abuse in two local authorities in the south-east of England. • Findings: The number of referrals increased over time; those for older people stabilized but those for younger adults were still risin...

Engagement in meaningful active and relationships is important for quality of life but, for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, engagement depends on the quality of support received from those around them. This paper describes the process of implementing person-centred active support in the Avenues Trust, and the findings from t...

Observations were conducted in three county councils to find out whether the government’s ambition to develop Learning Disability Partnership Boards (as expressed in the White Paper Valuing people) are being realized. All the partnerships practiced various inclusive activities in order to involve people with learning disabilities in public service...

Background An important question in community living is what factors influence the extent to which staff provide ‘active support’. Methods Engagement, care practices and a range of staff and organizational characteristics were studied in 72 residential homes serving 359 adults with intellectual disabilities. Managers in 36 settings were trained in...