Meet the ST-ACS PBS Team

Sarah Ware - ST-ACS PBS Manager

Sarah has worked with children and adults with learning disabilities since 2002. After originally training to be a primary school teacher she has a BSc in Education and later went on to complete a Masters Degree in Applied Behaviour Analysis. Sarah is aware that Positive Behaviour Support is a science that continues to grow and develop and is keen to keep her knowledge current by attending conferences, training seminars and keeping in touch with the PBS community nationally.

Sarah has worked in a range of settings including residential homes, supported living in the community, schools and family homes. She has been involved in implementing research based and data driven PBS techniques with the aim of improving the quality of life of those who require support. She believes everybody should be given the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to live as independently as they choose. Sarah is passionate about ensuring support teams receive the training to provide high quality and person centred, specialist support. She has previously worked as a licensed PROACT SCIP instructor and also has experience using Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI).

Sarah joined St Anne's in 2020 and is working alongside the Restraint Reduction network to ensure our training continues to meet their standards and support teams are equipped to provide the most effective support using the least restrictive methods. Sarah is involved in training PBS with a focus on working proactively to avoid escalation as much as possible but also with some elements of de-escalation and crisis management which may include break away techniques and physical interventions as a last resort.

Matthew Jones - ST-ACS PBS Trainer

After completing his BSc Psychology (Hons) Matthew joined St Anne’s Community Services in 2012. Since then Matthew has supported individuals in a variety of support settings across Leeds, Kirklees and Calderdale including outreach, supported living and residential services.

Matthew currently works as a deputy manager within Bradford Supported Living Services providing support to individuals within their own homes in the community.

Matthew joined the Positive Behaviour Support in 2015 following his involvement in a newly established forensic mental health service. As a developing instructor Matthew has been involved with delivering training within St Anne’s and had the opportunity to work with external organisations.

Matthew was involved with the development of support plans and bespoke training around significant self-harming behaviours and played a key role in the work that culminated in the receipt of the Special Award for Outstanding Practice at the BILD 2017 Leadership Awards.

Stephen Allen - ST-ACS PBS Trainer

Stephen has over 11 years’ experience of working with children with disabilities, this followed a period of outreach work with mainstream children and 3 years of working in a pupil referral unit. Stephen is also studying BSc Psychology alongside full-time work. Stephen discovered a passion for Positive Behaviour Support after implementing proactive strategies for the children he worked with after seeing that the previous model of support focussed heavily on reactive strategies. This led to some research into PBS and Stephen attending a conference to learn more, which provided knowledge around further aspects, such as functional assessments. Stephen is excited about the future of PBS and looks forward to broadening his knowledge and experience to support others to be able to live life to their full potential. Stephen has delivered training in a positive behaviour management model for 4 years across Local Authority Residential homes.

Stephen joined St Anne’s in 2020 and is involved in training PBS with a hope to support staff to equip the adults they work with, with the tools to self-regulate their own behaviours with minimal staff intervention.