https://www.findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk/apprenticeship/-680511 – Apple House

https://www.findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk/apprenticeship/-680396 – Corner Cottage Care Home

https://www.findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk/apprenticeship/-680519 – Little Amberwood Care Home

https://www.findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk/apprenticeship/-680440 – Summerwood Care Home

https://www.findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk/apprenticeship/-680429 – Redcroft Care Home

Please feel free to share these links and to contact us if you would like to pursue a career in supporting people with a learning disability to live full and active lives.
You can find out more information about Learning Curve Group below:
Learning Curve Group (LCG) are national training and education specialists, supporting learners, employers and FE providers to achieve success through a range of impactful training programmes. Our clear vision in everything we do as a training provider is to transform lives through learning. We have core values that ensure that the learner is always at the centre of everything we do, driven by our desire to provide life-changing opportunities.  

We have grown both organically and through acquisition to become one of the largest and most diverse providers in the country. Our breadth of provision has allowed us to thrive where others have failed to compete, we’ve positioned ourselves as market leaders in the apprenticeship levy, but it doesn’t stop there. LCG provides education and training for more than 200,000 individuals a year, working with over 4,500 employers using Government funded training options to ensure their learning and development strategies align with business goals.   

As a market-leading apprenticeship provider, we support businesses across the country to employ apprentices and transform their workforce, so we adopted the ‘grow your own’ approach and invested in our own Academy to house all learning and development across the business.  

We’re passionate about promoting that apprenticeships aren’t just for school leavers, although truly understand the value that apprenticeship programmes can have for those taking their first steps on the career ladder, we know the benefits they can have to people of all ages, which is why we’ve encouraged our management and executive team to enrol too. We’re creating a workforce of the future by ensuring the next batch of leaders have the necessary skills to lead the business effectively. By developing and supporting our hungry and ambitious new apprentices we can truly show, first hand, the benefits that apprenticeships can bring to any business.     

The delivery of our apprenticeship programmes are exceptional, because we ensure that we support our apprentices beyond their programme. Even through the Coronavirus pandemic we ensured we offered exceptional support to our apprentices. We did this by continuing training online and keeping in touch with apprentices more regularly whilst working from home. We’re passionate about developing softer skills, and our school leavers have a pastoral coach where they can access round the clock support, as well as attending workshops that we hold around things like finances and money management, communication and working in a team, and having a mindset to succeed.    

— Romaine Lawson, Director of Operations

Importance of creative activities and exercise for people with autism

Introduction

At Apple House care homes we strive to advocate a healthy lifestyle and to be as independent as possible. We provide access to a programme promoting healthy living and wellbeing, with home cooked fresh food, regular exercise, and creative activities. This article outlines why it is important to give people with autism the opportunity to take part in creative activities and regular exercise.

Challenges for people with Autism

For people with autism, you may notice that they can have challenges in interacting in social situations as it can be overwhelming at times with direct verbal communication. We may not get a direct response or eye contact and we can wonder if we have been understood. So it may also be a struggle to build a relationship through words alone.

Often people with autism can have rigid mindsets at times as this can be their way of making sense of the world around them. So, therefore, they can find change difficult as they feel reassured by a routine that gives them a sense of control. They might not always understand that a change in routine may be something beyond their carer’s or parents’ control such as an illness of a friend, or a change in who supports them due to outside factors; Covid restrictions have been an exceptional challenge for many. Help and support may be needed in regulating  emotions in response to these situations.

Sensory experiences

Jackie Edwards (2017) describes how people with autism may have difficulty making connections between their tactile, vestibular and proprioceptive sensory systems where they may be overactive or not active enough with how they interact with their environment.  For example, they may have a hypersensitivity to loud noise or bright light, may also be de-sensitised to tactile experiences. So, therefore, they would benefit from a sensory diet to improve sensory integration.

She advocates giving people with autism access to different sensory experiences to help improve concentration and attention. In order to help them to be able to regulate awareness to the surroundings more effectively as well as helping them to relax and not feel overwhelmed, leading to increased socialisation and interaction. Promoting less rigid thinking, creativity, and motor skills.

Benefits of exercise

At Apple House care homes we recognise this importance by supporting and encouraging residents to access their community, taking part in physical exercises such as the gym (when safe to return) and swimming, and to help with gardening, tending the vegetable patch, and cycling.

According to Healy S, et al. (2018) research people with autism exercise can have a number of benefits:

• Reducing stereotypical behaviours or self-stimulating behaviours
• Improving social skills with sports that promote teamwork
• Helps to reduce weight gain or obesity
• Can increase a person’s attention as repetitive behaviours can decrease.
• Exercise can reduce anxiety and improve the ability to regulate emotions, build resilience to anxiety-triggering situations
• Exercise can improve motor skills and coordination for people with autism

Benefits of creative activities

The creative arts is another important activity and we support residents to actively participate in regular arts and music classes in the community and in the home.

Art can give a person a sense of control as they learn to adapt to the task in their own way. Drawing and painting can also help to improve and maintain fine motor skills. Creative arts can be an effective way to engage with the person in a non-pressurised way. Tactile art forms such as paint and clay also provide a sensory experience to fulfill the needs of the person to be able to balance their sensory experiences more effectively. Music can elicit interactive emotional responses and melodic rhythms can help individuals to engage.

Arts and wellbeing

People with disabilities can be more vulnerable to mental health issues so we are aware that it is important to provide a way for people to communicate their emotions appropriately. Behaviours on the surface may arise due to an inability to verbally communicate how they feel. Behaviours thus can have a function so this highlights the importance of non-verbal communication and communication aids to help people communicate their needs.

For further assistance, creative arts therapy with a trained art therapist can be a way for a person to be able to express or regulate their emotions when words are difficult, helping to improve cognition and emotional regulation. Where the aim is to use the art materials or creative activity to access emotional wellbeing and to help a person learn to regulate their emotions and understand themselves within a safe and facilitating environment.

— Andrew Wright, Senior Support Worker and Trained Art Therapist, Little Amberwood care home.

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References and further reading:

Draycot, C. (2013) Educating Autism – Art and Creativity to Engage an Autistic Child in the Classroom. The Art of Autism: Connecting through the Arts. https://the-art-of-autism.com/educating-autism-art-and-creativity-to-engage-an-autistic-child-in-the-classroom/

Edwards, J. (2017) The benefits of multi-sensory environments. Autism Journey Blog.

Healy S (2018) The effect of physical activity interventions on youth with autism spectrum disorder: A meta-analysis. Review article. Autism Research. 11(2) · April 2018.

Rudy, L.J (2017) How Does Art Therapy Help People With Autism? Very Well Health. https://www.verywellhealth.com/art-therapy-for-autism-260054