I am an Autistic social care professional with 25 years of experience working with people with learning disabilities and Autistic people. I work for bemix as part of Brightpath, a partnership with Kent Autistic Trust and Aucademy. I lead a team of 26 people who deliver or support the delivery of the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism across Kent and Medway. At least 70% of our team are neurodivergent, representing many different neurotypes. I would like to share with you my perspective on our journey so far, in the hope that it helps and inspires you.

I would like to add a note to explain for ease of reference, I am using the term ‘neurodiverse’ here to describe the diverse range of neurotypes within our team ie; the diverse brains and identities we all have, which are inherent to who we are and affect how we perceive the world. This includes everybody; including people who identify as neurotypical and people with learning disabilities. I also use the term ‘ neurodivergent’ to describe any person whose brain, neurology or ways of processing and experiencing the world differ significantly from what society sees as the dominant, typical way of behaving or seeing things. Therefore, both Autistic people and people with learning disabilities are included in this definition throughout.  

Project Management training and methodology often references Bruce Tuckman's* model , which describes 5 stages of team development. For want of a better lens, I thought it would be helpful to explore the development of our team and our learning through this model. 

Forming - Team members get to know each other and understand project goals.

Storming - A period of conflict as team members identify differences and assert themselves. 

Norming - The team establishes roles, ways of working, and starts collaborating effectively. 

Performing - The team works together to achieve project goals with shared purpose. 

Adjourning - The team reflects on successes and challenges before moving on.

* “Developmental Sequence in Small Groups”. Tuckman, Bruce (1965): The Psychological Bulletin.

Since we're delivering an ongoing project, I thought it would be useful to use the first four as a template for exploring the early stages of our journey, highlighting unique challenges and opportunities when working with a neurodiverse team.

Forming - Strong Support and Accessibility During Recruitment is Key

The Challenges:

• Making sure people who might not see job advertisements could find out about opportunities and apply

• Providing proper support and reasonable adjustments so everyone could do their best in interviews

• Building confidence and skills for people who had never worked in paid employment or had bad workplace experiences

The Opportunities:

bemix specialises in co-production, so we could do what we do best. We involved Autistic people and people with learning disabilities in creating a new way to apply for jobs.

We visited community groups where people with the right lived experience for trainer roles might be found. We explained the job in ways that worked for each person.

We created an accessible application form using plain text, audio and video, designed by experts with lived experience. This broke down communication barriers and made the process fair for everyone.

Our outreach and support staff helped applicants through interviews, making reasonable adjustments when needed.

Some potential applicants attended our co-produced 'Skills to Train and Lead' course. This interactive, accessible course was designed and delivered with and for Autistic people and people with learning disabilities. The course was free with no pressure to apply for jobs. We gained some excellent trainers who took the course and successfully applied in our second recruitment round.

Storming - Our Induction Process Had to be Carefully Managed

The Challenges:

• The project was new, always changing and a fresh venture for bemix. bemix had always been deeply committed to its values of co-production and equity, which I felt in abundance when I joined the organisation. It has been important for us to learn how to embed our values within our new team through learning how to manage this together, in the context of the usual external pressures and influences faced by all publicly funded and charitable organisations. 

• There was understandable high anxiety and defensiveness among some of our neurodiverse team. Beyond normal 'new job nerves,' some team members weren't familiar with workplace policies or team working. Many had experienced discrimination or unkind treatment in previous jobs. There really was a storm! People had found their voices and wanted to fight for their autonomy while also needing to work together as a team.

• Our diverse communication styles added complexity. We all had to commit to learning how to support each other's needs - respecting those who communicate loudly, quietly, bluntly, directly, passively, emotionally, with detailed answers, complex language, plain language, processing breaks, or sometimes finding it difficult to use spoken words at all. There were also differences in people’s need to either meet in person or online, in order to support ongoing learning as well as individuals’ wellbeing. 

• The emotional impact of suddenly working with people who shared your experiences, when you'd never been in that situation before, cannot be understated. We all, ( including myself ), needed time to process feelings that swung between empathy, validation, excitement, joy, fear and anxiety.

The Opportunities:

We could think creatively and use our co-production skills. We welcomed feedback from everyone in meetings, discussions and staff surveys. We created, listened, learned, re-created, reviewed, and adapted. The whole team got involved in policy reviews, assessing venues, and changing how we work.

We had opportunities to learn from each other - exploring how our own needs could be met while being flexible about others' needs too. This wasn't easy for a neurodiverse team, so we had to ask people to be patient and flexible while supporting them through difficult feelings.

We could build mutual understanding. I learned that communication doesn't work well when people feel anxious and unsettled. This also meant that I had to learn to be hypersensitive to the team dynamic, manage my own feelings and try to be mindful of my own communication whilst sometimes being confronted. This gave us another co-production learning opportunity. We got help from our bemix wellbeing lead and specialist support from Kent Autistic Trust and Aucademy, who provided tailored training about learning disability and Autistic experience, including how to work together in a neurodiverse team.

Norming - Eventually We Started to Get to Know Each Other

The Challenges:

• The emotional topic of our training noticeably affected people, especially early on

• We needed to sort out practical issues for a team working in different locations on different days

• People with sensory, communication, physical or other support needs must be included equally in training delivery. Sometimes one person's needs conflicted with another's, but all were equally important

The Opportunities:

Aucademy and Kent Autistic Trust set up Peer Support Groups where people with similar experiences could share what worked for them and reflect on coping strategies. 

We also worked closely with our Partners to strengthen and clarify the role of our advisory group, working together to build a shared approach to prioritise the wellbeing of our team.

Our team structure and line management gave people chances to build strong relationships, offering each other feedback and time to reflect on our daily work. We recruited a Head of Training for a dedicated team support.

A structured long-term schedule showing our booking calendar against people's working days helped us think about reasonable adjustments for training at different locations across our large county. This opened conversations about helping each other with transport, moving equipment or swapping training days. We don’t always get it right, but listening and involving people is at the forefront of our planning. Everybody was involved in these discussions and exploring solutions.  

The opportunities for co-production and creativity were huge. A colleague helped a blind colleague record their training script to memorise it. We thought carefully about every aspect of training and how it affected everyone's wellbeing - from managing hot weather to helping people with varying mobility, transport training equipment, and making sure team information reached people with literacy support needs and those who get overwhelmed by lots of correspondence. 

All this quickly built cooperation, support and shared purpose in our team. 

Performing - And Wow Does Our Team Perform!

The Challenges:

Despite our team's growing compassion for each other, not all training delegates receive our trainers the same way, and some aren't always engaged. We need to keep finding ways to encourage  'hard to reach' delegates to hear us, so Oliver's message gets through and real changes happen in health and social care.

Training venues still aren't always comfortable or easily accessible for transport or parking.

Long days of passionate talking use lots of energy - we need to look after ourselves.

Many of these challenges are ongoing as we build momentum, increase bookings, and spread across a wider area. We have more administrative support to help manage this now and we will continue to problem-solve together.. 

The Opportunities:

This reminds us why we're here - to become more united in our shared purpose and vision. This keeps us motivated and drives us to do our best. In this way, we're an innovative expression of bemix's 20-year vision, that neurodiverse people can “be seen - be heard - belong".

Our talented team thinks creatively; performing to a high standard, using natural talents and professional skills to find new ways to involve training delegates. This creates more opportunities for discussion and mutual understanding, helping us empathise with health and social care providers so we can support them to find new solutions and reasonable adjustments that actually work in their unique environments.

We use our passionate energy to strengthen our message when our trainers stand in front of crowds and think of Oliver, his family, and too many others with similar stories. Some team members welcome the chance to use their stories to help change things for others - for some, it's healing, turning their difficult experiences of health and social care into something positive.

We break down stigma, get our voices heard, educate and inspire. We show people a different way of seeing things.

Sometimes we get things wrong. Sometimes we're tired or emotional and need to talk, but this just gives us more opportunities to grow stronger as a team, to reflect and understand our own strengths and limitations.

Support our Mission

Our Journey Creates Real Change

Ultimately, the journey we've travelled together and the path we're still on creates an opportunity to drive actual, real societal change.

Our team goes out there carrying this journey and everything they've lived through in their hearts every day. They use their passion and commitment to justice to power the delivery of our message.

There have been challenges, but we have overcome them and no doubt we will identify and overcome more. 

From my perspective, I have cried, felt burnt out, worked long hours, learned new coping strategies, celebrated, laughed and felt overwhelmed with joy and pride in my colleagues and our work.

Co-producing our team and our training sessions with the most inspirational people I've ever had the good fortune to work with has changed me. We will change others too and, most importantly, change the health and social care system so stories like Oliver's can be prevented and no more families have to grieve the loss of a loved one knowing that their death could have been avoided.

Natasha Corcoran - Head of Project. The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism. 17th September 2025 

Find out more about the training