Neurodiversity and vulnerability training

Organisations must be confident they are empowering and supporting people with all types of Neurodiversity. Neurodiversity is widely misunderstood, under recognised and people with it often don’t receive the support and adjustments they need. Adjustments which can (often) be easily made.

This course will focus specifically on Neurodiversity with an introduction to the foundations of understanding Vulnerable Circumstances – circumstances which could, for example, significantly disadvantage or harm people because of unfair treatment, exploitation, or discrimination. Ensuring we get this right can bring great positive impacts for everyone involved, including people who identify as Neurodiverse.

This training will cover an introduction to What Neurodiversity is, how it can affect people and best practice examples of what can be done to help make a more fair and inclusive environment.

It will also cover the What, Who, Why, When and How of Vulnerability, demonstrating how being able to recognise vulnerability more widely can improve your programmes and workplace culture.

What is covered in this course?

· What Neurodiversity is and how this relates to Vulnerability, Work and Society

· Communicating highly sensitive and impactful content with care and respect

· Creating empowering and inclusive programmes, especially when working with particularly
disadvantaged groups

· Making communications more inclusive, and personalising and tailoring your
communications

· Supporting your wellbeing and the wellbeing of others (including supporters and the people
you work with)

· Championing the voices of different groups and audiences, fairly and authentically.

· Responding to situations and feedback from Supporters in Vulnerable Circumstances.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this training, you will:

· Have a basic level of Vulnerability Awareness

· Have an introduction to Neurodiversity

· Be able to introduce basic tools for Vulnerability Management

· Be able to learn how to apply these tools with Neurodiversity

· Be able to use Vulnerability management and to empower, support and protect yourself and the people you care about.

Who should attend?

Because this training covers the foundations and principles of working with people in Vulnerable Circumstances, it is suitable for all staff and volunteer levels (from Assistant to Trustee), with no previous experience required.

For anyone already working directly with Vulnerable groups, this training will cover direct principles and practices to develop and support your work and benefit the lives and experiences of people in Vulnerable Circumstances.

Teams who take part in this training commonly include:

● Managers, team leaders

● Business owners, trustees

● HR managers/staff

● Customer service staff

● Service delivery staff (NHS, charity, private sector)

● Trainers

● Teachers/education professionals

How is the training delivered?

Neurobetter’s live virtual training is delivered by Vulnerable Paths - the leading experts in improving the lives of people in vulnerable circumstances and how they experience harm and disadvantage. Each virtual course has been especially designed to deliver a rich virtual learning experience. Your course will feature:

• Google Meet platform learning environment
• Interactive engagement with the trainer and peers
• Group discussions and exercises
• Real-life case studies and examples
• Ample Q&A opportunities throughout the sessions

To enable you to interact with your tutor and your class you will need to have access to a microphone (or access to a landline phone) and ideally have a working video link via a camera. Find out more about Google Meet accessibility requirements here https://support.google.com/meet/answer/7317473?hl=en

Courses are one day and start at 10am finishing at 4.30pm with breaks throughout.

About your trainer

Matt Radford founded Vulnerable Paths, supporting organisations working with people in Vulnerable Circumstances.

He believes investing in Vulnerable groups, and working with them well, has significant benefits for organisations and individuals. For organisations this can be financial, and improving service delivery in the long term. For supporters, staff and volunteers it can benefit their wellbeing and engagement with an organisation.

He has 10 years experience developing policy, guidance and best practice for working with people in Vulnerable Circumstances, as well as training professionals who work with them. This is supported by 15 years experience leading supporter acquisition, retention and experience programmes and working extensively with supporter care teams. He is also the Data and Marketing Association’s (DMA’s) governance committee specialist for consumers in Vulnerable Circumstances and a member of the CIOF's professional conduct committee.