Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA)

It is an honour to be invited to become a member of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). The RSA do really cool initiatives like bringing likeminded people together to harness power for social good. A network of people who are great thinkers, innovators and social reformers. I will become a fellow alongside some of the greatest thinkers in our sector. I will also get to have the letters “FRSA” added after my name, which stand for a “Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts” (in comparison to my doctorate studies, these seem like easy stripes to earn).

However, looking back on the last few years, it has been far from easy, and far from an individual effort. Since starting the 3 Spirit collective, I have been joined by many ‘free spirits’, and in all those years not one person has left the collaborative which is testament to me, of the strength of our bonds, and of our service. Even those who retire remain part of the 3 Spirit family. I am grateful that we continually learn from their wisdom.

It has always been important to us that the people and businesses that we work with are committed to human rights, have a value-based approach to their work and are creative and compassionate – something easier said than done in the current sector climate. Increasingly, we are seeing local authorities focus on cost disproportionately to quality. We are increasingly being called into services on a reactive basis (following CQC inspections) to carry out our remedial training when we should be investing in developing skills for prevention.

It takes staunch commitment and vision sometimes to keep walking up, what seems to be a very steep hill. Lack of public funding, a highly competitive industry and a general lack of trust and a sense of togetherness can put obstacles in the way of developing good quality training. I believe that we ought to think creatively and collaborate on a wider scale to tackle some of these challenges. One of the ways that we do this is by “sharing to create”. We have an active knowledge management strategy that keeps us learning, often in the most unusual of places. Over the past few years, we have invested heavily in each other, and in each other’s learning, developing a ‘collective consciousness’. We have shared our work openly and at no cost and have generally enjoyed the feedback and comments we get from the wider community. We delight in the feedback on the impact our resources have had on individuals’ lives. However, at times, we are still insensitively challenged. We value research, but use this to engage with practice to create new knowledge. We consider ourselves catalysts, bringing practical solutions to diverse work settings. To put our work out there is to harness the power of many, and to listen to those voices which are largely marginalised and all those that have interesting things to say.

It’s been almost 3 years since we turned the company into a social enterprise. When we did this, we started to have much more of a focus on the impact of our work. Out of 100 people we surveyed last year 70 gave us 10 / 10 for the quality of our training and 30 gave us 9/10. However, whilst we are delighted at this, the true measure of our work is in our social impact.

Our Social Impact Survey showed that we are making the following impacts in our community:

Our Social Impact Survey shows that our infographics are used for:

These are some of the comments that we got from our Social Impact Survey:

Can you give any specific examples about how our infographics have impacted positively?

They have inspired me.
I share the infographics via Twitter and have received many positive comments about the wonderful information that is provided. In addition, they make my job as a Memory Care Program Facilitator much easier as the infographics are the written form of what I teach!
They are easy to read & understand and when shown to members of the public (not involved in the care industry) the message is easily relayed.
Spreading knowledge to others.
They give great advice, better understanding and knowledge. Increases confidence for care staff.
By gaining further knowledge assists me to carry out my role with added confidence and efficiency.
Impacted my awareness.
Demonstrating the impact of caring.
Positive informative, visually stimulating.
I have helped raise awareness in my child’s school and friends and family.
Reminding people that dementia affects all communities.
Helped me to think of activities to use with clients.
Helping moving grandma.
I am a care home manager. It has not only aided me in supporting the individuals within the home but also my staff team in giving them guidance and support. My team also benefits from them individually and as a group in improving understanding and the quality of care they deliver.
Often very useful if talking to a carer of a person with dementia, to be able to show them a visual
representation of what’s being discussed. This can make it easier for them to retain the information.
Helps to reinforce in house training topics in a fun way.
Used for delirium package, used to help fellow colleagues access key issues or structure their work or thinking. Saved me time constructing my own.
Helping me to overcome and manage my feelings of frustration and anger and guilt as observed through your advice on how to better modify my reactions and behaviour to cope with my mum’s dementia.
Used to capture complexity in a succinct way.
Getting conversations going about the language we use when talking about BPSD and helping staff generate new positive approaches.
Staff training, both in their professional and private lives
Negative vs positive language – have used the infographic to support carers to communicate more effectively and change views on negative labelling.
Simple and clear graphics support staff understanding and help me to focus on what is important to and for a person.
The feedback and sharing of your info graphics is always great when I put one on social media.
Students benefit enormously from all of the infographics especially those relating to person centred care in
dementia- makes it easier for them to grasp a holistic view.
I deliver dementia awareness training in my trust and find they have a positive impact in training as they are so visual.
I use the infographics to develop my understanding of some subjects and I share this with my wider community.
They stimulated conversation and questions when I displayed several of the infographics During Dementia Action Week at the Acute Hospital Trust.
Shared some with families such as communication and dementia carers and dementia.
Your infographics are clear and eye-catching, and they are meaningful – many of my audience respond well to them. Personally, I find them to be very informative and I hope that my audience will learn from them as the share them too.
They are all so easy to understand & visually beautiful. They set your work apart from others Thank you.
The information is very simple, very clear and easy to understand. I don’t have to read pages and pages just to find out about one thing.
I share your infographics through social media. Reliably, yours are among those receiving the most re-
tweets/shares and positive comments.

If you have received training from our organisation what difference has this made to your practice?

I received my education from Indiana University. I can state that your Infographics have a positive effect with the caregivers and also PLWD.
I feel I have a much better understanding of Dementia and I am confident to educate others of what I have learnt in a more detailed and informative manner.
It’s really helped. As the dementia champion I feel more knowledgeable and feel more confident in providing the best care for people with dementia.
Made a huge impact in the best possible way! I now have so much knowledge and understanding that people will approach me for advice.
Confident, competent, knowledgeable, engaged staff.
It has improved the quality of care we deliver. The training is always great, and the IDEAS team do an amazing job in identifying training/ areas of awareness needing to be highlighted.
A much greater understanding resulting in a more compassionate relationship with clients.
Enhances and maintain safe practice and empower staff to challenge poor practices.
My view about caring changed into good, and made me wants to study nursing to progress my career to helping people in the community and also at home.
Improving language used to communicate about Dementia, better skills of recognizing warning signs of distress and managing behaviour that challenges.
I’ve learnt a lot of new skills from how to progress in my work place and succeed as a care supervisor.
Your autism course was one of the best courses I have attended and having Andy (autistic individual) in to explain his story made things a lot clearer.
The training was very useful and the trainer was excellent.
The last bit when the autistic person told us about his experience with autism was great.
I found the training like a revelation. The presentation by the autistic person was eye opening and very beneficial.
I have felt the training very useful as I learn well visually. The trainers have always made me feel very comfortable and the atmosphere is relaxed. I love the ways in which questions can be easily introduced into the learning session and if not always relevant for the particular matter it will still be addressed even if it is later in the course. No one is made to feel silly or lack skills as most of the coursed have a diverse mix of people attending. I have enjoyed the learning session as it has given me more confidence in which i am able to carry out my work.
Following equality & diversity- it has allowed me to integrate and discuss current discrimination issues and able to ensure I am inclusive with activity planning for our community groups for people living with dementia.
Have made a list and handed to the home manager so that we get an outstanding in our next CQC inspection. This list is what is missing at the home.
We have found that going on most of your course’s we are able to cascade all the information to our other staff members. We have been able to share all the Nutrition information with the staff and residents here at XXX to educate and support them. The Dementia course was great to look out for sign and symptoms.
The trainers are so engaging and knowledgeable I am always so keen to sign up to the next available course. Trish delivered my Safeguarding training which was so enjoyable and very engaging. Therefore when I saw she was delivering the learning disability course I had to get on to it.
We have improved our practise a lot by reducing admission to hospital, reducing antipsychotic, reducing falls. Therefore we have improved communication with staff.
It was extremely useful to attend training delivered by someone who understood the political climate and could debate how changes to the policies and procedures had come about rather than just delivering an overview.
There were times when I was bullied, this training has helped me get my confidence back and to deal with situations myself.
It really did open my eyes to the whole dementia topic. Tricia was great at delivering the session. Entertaining and informative. Thoroughly enjoyed.
This Course has personally supplied me with tools to cope when assessing the level of care necessary for these very vulnerable people. I have a husband who sadly has very aggressive Alzheimer’s disease so for me the study day with Caroline has been hugely helpful.
Was able to put some useful information and techniques I learned into practice immediately. Great course.
I wish all trainers could deliver learning so effectively and enjoyably. Best trainer I’ve ever had in my career.
Even better than day before loved it, so interesting I learned so much could have stayed longer. Went so quick.

And Finally, this is what people had to say: