Oliver McGowan Training: Becoming a Lead Trainer

Recently, Cheryl, our Learning and Development Officer, attended four days of Oliver McGowan training in London. Discover what this experience meant to her and our Moorview Matters group, and read her firsthand account of becoming a lead trainer below:

Becoming an Oliver McGowan Lead Trainer has been one of the most rewarding parts of my role. The biggest highlight has been working alongside our co-production groups Moorview Matters and Moorview Mentors. It’s a real privilege to support people to share their experiences and help create training that is genuinely person-centred and makes a difference.

Cheryl highlights how:

"The training gives a platform to our people to explain why understanding learning disabilities and autism is important."

I’m especially proud to have supported our Moorview Mentors in becoming Expert by Experience co-trainers. Watching their confidence grow and seeing them recognised for their knowledge has been amazing. Their lived experience brings something to the training that no presentation ever could, helping professionals understand what good support really looks like.

She emphasises that:

"Everything we do is as a team."

So far, we’ve successfully delivered two Oliver McGowan training sessions with Nicola and Dale as our Expert by Experience co-trainers. They have both done an incredible job, sharing their experiences with confidence and helping to create open, honest discussions that have had a real impact on those attending. Bradley had this training passed on to him as well, allowing the team to work together and deliver training collaboratively. Cheryl shares that the goal is to pass on the training:

"So the team can give the best support possible."

Being part of this journey has reinforced how valuable co-production is. Working together allows us to deliver meaningful training that puts people’s voices at the heart of learning, and I’m proud to be part of helping make that happen. I’m really looking forward to building on this and focusing even more of our training around our Moorview Mentors and our co-production group, continuing to ensure the voices of people with lived experience remain at the heart of everything we do.

Watch here to see what the training means to our Moorview Matters group:

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/88c213_0f1433703f0c40ef8b42445647c0879a/1080p/mp4/file.mp4