At a glance
- Organisation: Kent County Council
- Provision type: Adult Short Breaks (Learning Disability)
- Regulatory body: Care Quality Commission (CQC)
- Training delivered: Trauma-Informed Care and Breakaway Techniques
- Review period: September 2024 to August 2025 (12 months)
Headline results
- 80% reduction in incidents within 12 months
- 0 workplace accidents throughout the entire period
- 0 days lost to injury
- A team that feels safer, more confident and more connected
Summary
Kent County Council's adult short breaks service was experiencing a rising number of behavioural incidents linked to one individual with complex needs, with nine incidents recorded during just seven overnight stays in August 2024. Following a comprehensive training course delivered by +ProActive Approaches in September 2024, covering Trauma-Informed Care and Breakaway Techniques, the team developed a shared framework for understanding the function of behaviour and responding with consistency and confidence.
Over the following 12 months, incidents reduced by approximately 80%, with zero workplace accidents and zero days lost to injury throughout the entire period. Staff reported feeling significantly safer, debriefs became meaningful reflective learning opportunities, and the team shifted from reactive management to curious, empathetic, and proactive practice. The cultural transformation demonstrates the measurable impact of trauma-informed training within adult learning disability services.
The challenge
The service provides short breaks for adults with learning disabilities, offering vital respite for families and carers. It supports individuals with complex needs, including those whose behaviours may present challenges for staff during stays.
In the summer of 2024, the team was experiencing a rising number of incidents linked to one individual, referred to here as the person they support. During seven overnight stays in August 2024 alone, nine separate incidents were recorded. Staff were responding reactively, without a shared framework for understanding the function of this person's behaviour or a consistent approach to de-escalation.
The management team recognised that without a fundamental shift in practice, incident levels would remain high, staff confidence would continue to erode, and the quality of the person's experience during their stays would suffer. There was a clear need for training that went beyond compliance, something that would change how the team understood behaviour and responded to distress.
The approach
+ProActive Approaches delivered a comprehensive training course in September 2024, covering Trauma-Informed Care and Breakaway Techniques. Rather than teaching staff a set of rigid procedures, the training focused on building genuine understanding: why people in distress behave the way they do, how sensory and emotional triggers drive escalation, and how calm, predictable, low-arousal responses can prevent situations from reaching crisis point.
The training gave the team a shared language and framework. It equipped staff to look beyond surface-level behaviour and ask, "What is this person trying to communicate?" This shift in thinking became the foundation for everything that followed.
The results: quarter by quarter
The impact of the training was tracked over a rolling 12-month period using both quantitative data and qualitative feedback from the team.
- Q1 (Sep to Nov 2024): 9 incidents before training, 1 after training in the same quarter
- Q2 (Dec 2024 to Feb 2025): 4 incidents; reduction sustained, with several stays incident-free
- Q3 (Mar to May 2025): 2 incidents; highest level of reflective practice observed
- Q4 (Jun to Aug 2025): 2 incidents; strongest stability, with multiple incident-free stays
The trajectory is striking. From nine incidents in a single month before training, the service saw a consistent and sustained reduction across every quarter, reaching just two incidents per quarter by the second half of the year. Critically, no workplace accidents were recorded during the entire 12-month period, and zero days were lost to injury.
What changed: the cultural shift
The numbers tell an important story, but the qualitative feedback from the team reveals the depth of transformation that took place beneath those figures.
Understanding behaviour as communication
Staff developed a fundamentally different relationship with challenging behaviour. Where previously incidents were managed reactively, the team learned to ask what was driving the behaviour and respond accordingly. They identified that the person's actions were often communicating emotional discomfort, sensory overwhelm, uncertainty during transitions, or a need for predictability and control.
From managing incidents to teaching coping strategies
A key development was the team's growing ability to support the person they care for in building their own coping strategies. Rather than simply containing difficult moments, staff began involving the person in preparing their personal care items, using visual timetables to reduce anxiety, and offering limited, structured choices that gave them a sense of control. These approaches fostered autonomy, improved engagement, and reduced distress.
Debriefs that drive real learning
Team debriefs shifted from administrative exercises to genuine reflective practice. Staff used them to analyse what had triggered incidents, evaluate which strategies had worked, and agree consistent approaches for future stays. These discussions strengthened consistency across the team, reinforced trauma-informed thinking, and supported staff wellbeing after challenging shifts.
A more joined-up, confident team
The team became far more aligned in their practice. Staff consistently used the same trauma-informed approaches, shared learning through handovers and daily notes, and demonstrated a shared understanding of the person's triggers and support needs. Confidence grew with each stay, and when coming on shift, staff had clearly taken on board the agreed strategies.
Smarter environmental planning
From April 2025 onwards, the team introduced environmental changes informed by their trauma-informed learning. Stays were carefully planned so that the person they support was either on their own or matched with only one compatible individual, reducing overstimulation and potential peer conflict. These adjustments, combined with consistent practice, created a more predictable and emotionally safe environment.
The bigger picture: why this matters for adult services
The experience here demonstrates something that adult learning disability services across the UK are increasingly recognising: that trauma-informed practice is not just relevant to children's settings. Adults with learning disabilities are disproportionately likely to have experienced adverse life events, and yet the frameworks used to understand and respond to their distress often remain rooted in behavioural management rather than relational understanding.
What happened was not simply a reduction in incidents. It was a cultural shift. Staff moved from reactive to reflective. They stopped asking "How do we manage this behaviour?" and started asking "What is this person telling us?" That shift changed everything: how the team communicated, how they planned, how they felt about coming to work, and ultimately, how the person they support experienced their stays.
For CQC-regulated services, this kind of evidence matters. Demonstrating that your team can identify triggers, respond proportionately, reflect meaningfully, and continuously improve practice is precisely what good and outstanding ratings require. But more importantly, it is what the people you support deserve.
Summary of outcomes
- Incidents reduced by approximately 80% within 12 months, sustained across every quarter
- Zero workplace accidents and zero days lost to injury throughout the review period
- Staff developed the ability to identify the function of behaviour and respond with empathy and curiosity
- The team became more aligned, more confident, and reported feeling significantly safer
- Debriefs became meaningful reflective opportunities that drove continuous improvement
- Environmental adjustments informed by trauma-informed thinking further enhanced stability
- The supported person's experience during stays became more predictable, safe, and emotionally stable
This case study is published with the permission of Kent County Council. The individual supported is not named, to protect their privacy. All data was collected and verified by the service's Registered Manager as part of their rolling annual review process.