Managers' views of skilled support.

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 conducted with 35 managers of supported accommodation services to explore service aims and the nature of, and challenges in providing, skilled support.

Imagining Autism: Feasibility of a drama-based intervention on the social, communicative and imaginative behaviour of children with autism.

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. A total of 22 children, aged 7-12 years, from three UK schools engaged in the 10-week programme. Measures of social interaction, communication and emotion recognition, along with parent and teacher ratings, were collected before and up to 12 months after the intervention.

Developing an Easy Read Version of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT).

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 intellectual disabilities. A working group assisted researchers in identifying appropriate question formats, pictures and wording.

Person-centred active support - increasing choice, promoting independence and reducing challenging behaviour.

Background: 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.

Methods: This study uses observational methodology, combined with staff-rated measures, to explore the impact of the implementation of person-centred active support on the lives of 30 people with severe and profound intellectual disabilities living in small group homes.