Frontline managers’ experiences of practice leadership for when supporting autistic adults with complex support needs residing in community housing

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the experiences of frontline managers supervising and developing staff to support autistic adults living in two types of residential housing in the community.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative approach used semi-structured interviews with 14 frontline managers. Audio-taped material was transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis.

Findings

Two main themes emerged. Theme 1 “autism in practice” illustrates commonalities observed to affect autistic adults with learning disabilities receiving staff support; whilst one sub-theme illustrated the diversity in how these commonalities may be experienced and expressed, another focused on participants’ experiences of staff concerns regarding behaviours described as challenging. Theme two, “what’s important in autism-informed support” reflected participants’ perceptions of the features of successful person-centred staff support for autistic service users.

Research limitations/implications

The “rich” experiences of these managers may not be readily generalised.

Practical implications

Features of good staff support for autistic adults who may show behaviours of concern included attending to individuals’ specific communication and sensory needs and for predictability within their environments. Developing staff skills and confidence to implement skilled approaches in the context of often high risk behaviour of concern took time and frontline managers “on site” to observe, coach, mentor and demonstrate good practice. More intellectually (verbally) able service-users were perceived as more “difficult” to support.

Social implications

Staff supporting autistic adults in ordinary housing need frontline managers to act as practice leaders rather than administrators.

Originality/value

This study is the first to report, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, on management for staff supporting autistic adults living in community housing.