Positive Behaviour Support

PBS is a person-centred framework for supporting people with a learning disability, particularly where they may be distressed or at risk of harming themselves or others.

PBS aims to improve a person’s quality of life by understanding

• What causes them distress
• How environmental factors contribute
• How we can better support the person through environmental changes, teaching new skills and changing the way we provide support.

In Southwark, we use a range of different approaches to support children and adults with a learning disability. PBS is just one of them. We believe that PBS can play an important part in understanding and meeting a person’s individual needs.

Good PBS includes the following:

• A focus on improving quality of life rather than changing a person’s behaviour. Improving quality of life may mean supporting a person to access the community more, engage in more activities they enjoy or ensuring they have access to the things they need.  
• A functional assessment of behaviour. This means finding out why the person is engaging in that behaviour at that time in that situation. This involves looking at what skills and needs a person has, what is important to them and what their environment is like. This process may include direct work and observation of the person, data collection and gathering information from their support network.
• Involvement of people who are important to the person.
• A focus on relationships and how these can be strengthened. For example, the person may be supported to see friends more, to join activities with their housemates or to engage in shared enjoyable experiences with their family.
• An understanding of the impact of trauma on the person and their network.
• A focus on ensuring the person’s needs are met in a ‘capable environment’. This may be the physical or social environment.

Example

• A ‘capable’ physical environment could include adaptations to make it safer and easier to navigate. For example, ensuring the person has immediate access to meaningful activities and visual prompts to support understanding of the environment. 

Good PBS also often includes:

• Development of a PBS plan, to be followed by those supporting the person. This should be based on a functional assessment and should predominantly be made up of proactive strategies (things to do every day to ensure the person has a good quality of life).
• Teaching a person new skills to replace behaviours that have become a challenge and to increase their quality of life.

Examples

• Teaching a person to use an Object of Reference to request a cup of tea to replace communicating through hitting their carer.
• Teaching a carer to use a Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) to encourage a person’s choice making and understanding when planning activities.
• Teaching a parent how to implement a sensory circuit to support a person’s sensory regulation at home. 

Good PBS promotes the least restrictive approaches, encouraging positive risk taking whilst aiming to reduce restrictive practices. It should involve the person as much as possible both in terms of decision making and promoting independence.

BILD Video Introduction to PBS -  An Introduction to PBS

BILD Good PBS Resource - What does good PBS look like?

BILD Capable Environment - Capable Environments

For further information contact PBSTeam@Southwark.gov.uk

Some people express concerns about PBS due to perceived similarities with another approach called Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) which first emerged in the mid-twentieth century. Like PBS, ABA aims to understand causes of distress and how environmental factors can contribute to a person’s behaviour. In this sense they are both grounded in ‘behavioural analysis’.

Early ABA used approaches which are now recognised as restrictive and dehumanising - such as using punishment to try to change behaviours. However modern approaches, including PBS, focus squarely on improving quality of life, with any behaviour change as a biproduct. These approaches do not use punishment or aversive practice and aim to reduce restrictive practices.  

Many peoples’ views and experiences differ because of the significant variation in the quality of support received.

This is why we have made a significant investment in PBS training in 2024/25, to support parents/ carers and people who work across the health, social care and education systems to understand what good PBS looks like.  

Southwark’s PBS Community of Practice meets four times a year, twice online and twice in-person. A Community of Practice is a group of people who share a concern or passion and strive to improve practice through regular interaction and shared learning. The PBS Community of Practice is a space for people from across the health, social care, education and community sectors to come together to share best practice, ideas and resources. The aim is to support continuous learning and application of PBS-informed approaches across Southwark.

Anyone who supports children or adults with a learning disability in Southwark can join. This includes family members, carers, support staff, teachers, health professionals, social workers, personal assistants, managers and senior leaders. For more information email pbsteam@southwark.gov.uk