Evaluation of the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training Trial in Learning Disability and Autism - Resources

The National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) was appointed by Health Education England, Skills for Care and the Department of Health and Social Care to be the independent evaluation partner of The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training Trial in Learning Disability and Autism. We worked in partnership with My Life My Choice and bemix to complete this work.

The training is named after Oliver McGowan, a young autistic man who died after being given anti-psychotic medication in hospital against his and his family's wishes. Following Oliver’s death, his mother Paula McGowan led a campaign for more training for health and social care staff. The training was to provide them with the confidence and skills to understand the needs of people with learning disabilities and/or autism in their care.

We are pleased to share a final evaluation report of the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training Trial in Learning Disability and Autism.

This evaluation report focuses on the data collected about the training packages that were trialed.

NDTi’s evaluation of The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training in Learning Disability and Autism showed the importance of including people with lived experience in the training. Across all the training packages, at least 95 per cent of survey respondents agreed that input from experts by experience worked well for them.

A further report was published in 2022 which focuses on what has been learnt across all the trial partners about what worked well and what could be better in relation to the involvement of experts by experience in both the design and the delivery of the training. This learning can be used to inform future delivery and ensure best practice going forwards.

The evaluation also explored the facilitators and barriers for the implementation of the training, and participant's learning in the workplace. We have provided a report on these things to the commissioners of the trial.