Somewhere Over the Rainbow…

I recently had the good fortune to see a fantastic production, “Hindsight”, staged by Fox and Hound Theatre Company. They are a small company of disabled and neurodivergent actors, and they are outstanding.

Jill Franklin’s beautifully written piece tells an all too familiar story of Laura (played by the very talented, Sam Fox), a 12-year-old girl who, is experiencing high levels of stress and anxiety in school. Through the device of her precious toy bear (played brilliantly by Ellie Jay Stevens who also directed the piece), we gain insight to the characters’ inner worlds. Her thoughts and feelings and the confusion and pressure she feels navigating a school environment and subjects that she finds punishing and pointless.

Aptly named “Hindsight” we observe as those around Laura miss and misuse many of the tools Laura has to self-regulate such as; repeatedly watching the Wizard of Oz and Star Wars, her stimming, her dancing and, at times her withdrawal from that which she is experiencing as harmful to her. The frustration of her teacher (played scarily well by Codge Crawford) is palpable but, he too, is on a journey that eventually leads him to understand that Laura is autistic. However, it is too little too late for Laura’s mum (played as only it could be the actor’s own mother, Helen Fox) who feels brutalised and abandoned by those who she, rightly, expects to support her and her child.

The event took place in the Scottish Parliament with the support of the National Autistic Society Scotland. The audience comprised of autistic people, families, interested professionals and MSPs. Whilst the performance was originally planned pre covid, its revised scheduling was more than timely given that there is currently a parliamentary inquiry into Additional Support for Learning.

Having spent years designing and delivering training and campaigning for professional development that emphasises the importance of relational practice, this play achieved more in half an hour than I have in a very long time. Why? Because it was a genuine reflection of the lived experience of far too many autistic children and young people in Scotland.

I’m sure many of us would have considered the behaviour of the teacher in the piece as harsh, lacking empathy and being judgemental. However, we had the gift of hindsight. The responses and attitudes on display of process over people apply to many professionals who engage with autistic people.

So, this got me thinking, yet again, about how we ensure the adequate training of the workforce across a wide range of services.

It’s a long time since I realised that delivering training in isolation, what I think of as “hit and run” training is not effective and usually provides a poor return on investment. Often, that investment in monetary terms and in Human Resources can be significant. For me, training is most effective when it is part of an ecosystem.

Learning pathways that enable professionals to broaden as well as deepen knowledge, an organisational culture of continuous learning at every level and an expectation of reflection in and on practice along with practice coaching and mentoring are, for me, essential components of impactful training.

Then, there is the question of what we train, what is the curriculum that will affect practice improvement and development? It is relatively easy to teach people what autism is or isn’t. The real challenge is to effect behaviour change in those supporting autistic people. Yes, theoretical knowledge is needed, yes, we need to build empathy with autistic people and learn from their experiences, but the challenge is how we use that to change mindsets, responses and to enable professionals from all disciplines to recognise the power professional they have to affect every day experiences.

“Hindsight” brought the very real experiences of one family to life before our eyes, we were enabled to observe, reflect, and formulate alternative ways of approaching what was, in the end, fairly obviously going wrong. Wouldn’t it be great if we could bring that experience into training? Lived experience is an essential component, it’s an important one, but as in all ecosystems there is a relationship between all the component parts. A notable example of this done well is The National Autism Trainer Programme currently being delivered to NHS England staff and led by Anna Freud Centre and AT- Autism.

In my usual way I got quite carried away thinking how this excellent piece of work and others like it, could be a powerful resource for change, a whole load of learning materials and resources could be built from it and provide a really interactive and rich professional learning experience. Then I considered are we ready for that? In Scotland we have a very annoying habit of doing the same thing in the same way and expecting things to be different. Things do need to be different, autistic learners continue to be both lawfully and unlawfully excluded from our schools. Teachers are burnt out feeling deskilled and leaving the profession. Parents are exhausted, exasperated and in many cases taking on home schooling as that somehow feels safer and easier for them and their child. I’m not sure when we got to be so broken. I have a lot of ideas about how it happened but, along with many others, I have ideas about how it could be different.

Ultimately, we need to learn from hindsight, the play and our own experiences. There is a very powerful scene towards the end of the play where Laura’s mum sings “Somewhere over the rainbow” to sooth her and to de-escalate her high distress.

Surely, we don’t have to go to the trouble of a hurricane blowing us over the rainbow. We have the heart, the courage and the brains to solve this ourselves. I even have the ruby slippers. They are bloody sore on the feet but as with all fabulous things they are worth the pain. Isn’t it great that we can avoid that pain if we just dare to do things differently?

PS. With thanks to Rob Holland and the team at National Autistic Society Scotland for the invite. Also while I have you here, Fox and Hounds Theatre are in need of funding support, if you have any ideas about funding sources please get in touch and I will pass them along.