Committed to Change?

Committed to change? describes the work of a project that aimed to put research findings directly into the hands of professionals and people with learning difficulties. The authors explain how they set up a training and development programme to promote the involvement of people with learning difficulties in staff recruitment. The report shows how practitioners and service users can be encouraged and supported to put research into action and to use research evidence to improve practice and promote change within their own organisations. Committed to change? explores the process of working with five organisations to implement user involvement in staff recruitment and examines: the four main steps of the 'Learning to choose staff' training and development programme; how the project team supported people with learning difficulties, support workers, managers and policy makers to work and learn together; the strategies used by participants to promote, change and develop practice and policy relating to user involvement in choosing staff. This report is for practitioners, managers and policy makers working in services for people with learning difficulties.
It will also be of interest to those wishing to work in partnership with other professionals and/or service users to achieve a particular goal or outcome. Both the model of the project itself and the strategies developed by participants could inform a wide range of other initiatives aiming to promote change and improve practice.