Believe in People EXTRA: Oliver McGowan Training - Why It Protects Lives

This short episode of Believe in People Extra shares an exclusive preview from our upcoming full conversation with Paula McGowan OBE, whose son Oliver’s death led to the introduction of The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training across health and social care in England.

This preview focuses on one critical question: why Tier 2 training matters, and why listening to people with lived experience is not optional, but essential for safety, dignity, and life itself.

Paula explains why Tier 2 training must be delivered face to face, why it is led by experts with lived experience, and why cutting corners in training is never about saving money, but about risking lives.

What Is The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training?

The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training was introduced following Oliver’s death, to address systemic failures where autistic people and people with a learning disability were not listened to, misunderstood, or harmed through avoidable mistakes. The training is now a legal requirement in health and social care settings in England.

You can book the training here

https://www.olivermcgowantraining.com/book-training

Official government guidance and statutory expectations can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/oliver-mcgowan-code-of-practice/the-oliver-mcgowan-draft-code-of-practice-on-statutory-learning-disability-and-autism-training

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Transcript

Series Purpose And Focus

Who Tiered Training Is For

Introducing Paula And Oliver’s Law

Tier 1 And Tier 2 Overview

Why Tier 2 Must Be Face To Face

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is a renewed original recording. Hello and welcome to Believe in People Extra, the companion miniseries to our award-winning podcast about all things addiction, recovery, and stigma. I'm Robbie Lawson, the show's producer, and each week I'll bring you highlights, exclusive recordings, extended cuts, and powerful moments from our archive. This series brings together the most impactful conversations and recovery-focused insights condensed into short episodes to support and inspire those on their journey. Today's episode is for professionals working in health, social care, education and frontline services, and for families who want to understand how systems are meant to keep people safe and why they sometimes fail. Next week we'll be releasing a full conversation with Paula McGowan OBE, whose son Oliver's death led to the introduction of mandatory training across health and social care. There are two tiers to the training. Tier 1 is a general awareness package designed to help staff recognise the needs of autistic people and people with a learning disability. Tier 2 is for those providing direct care, treatment or support, including clinicians, support workers, managers, educators, and professionals making decisions about capacity, risk and safety. Tier 2 combines e-learning with a full day of face-to-face training delivered by experts with lived experience. It focuses on the issues that families raise time and time again when things go wrong. Being listened to, making reasonable adjustments, avoiding assumptions, and understanding the legal duties designed to protect life and dignity. Details on how to access the training, including tier 1 and tier 2 routes, are available in the show notes. In this episode preview, we asked Paula why tier 2 matters so much, why it's not just training but a safeguard, and why cutting corners is never about cost but about consequence. The full episode will be released next week.

Pushback, Costs, And Consequences

Paid Roles For Lived Experience Experts

Empowered Families And Self-Advocacy

A Legacy Of Change And Fair Pay

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Oh my goodness. It's so important because it's actually face-to-face training, classroom-based. You know, when Oliver's training at the very start of this journey was being designed and evaluated, the biggest voices were our communities. And they were telling us this is exactly what was needed. And this came to fruition, this is what we're doing now. But tier two is delivered by our experts with lived experience. Now, that is actually autistic people and people with a learning disability. And they are making a significant difference. The feedback has been outstanding, actually, almost 100% feedback. Now there are issues with some organizations having a bit of a pushback where they are complaining about the backfill or how they're going to release the staff and the costs. I would say to them the biggest cost of all is the loss of life. Remember why you went into that profession? Oliver's training is now law. You have to do it. You have to do it. So please stop trying to cut corners. Please hear those voices. Please hear directly from our experts with lived experience because in turn you will learn and you will be able to support these patients far, far better when they come into your organizations. And in turn, it will not only save lives, but it will save money in the long run. Tier two is essential training. And I am so proud, so proud that our experts with Lived Experience are being given a voice, but it's also given them real employment opportunities and it's paid opportunity. And the feedback from some of some of our experts, they're saying it's the first time they've been employed. They're telling me how they're standing in front of an audience and people are actually listening to them. And I've got all of that. That evidence is there. How they feel valued for the first time and the difference it's making in their lives. It's it's empowering them. I'm also hearing from families where they're saying, after hearing all of the story, often attending the training, they're now able to advocate for themselves and their loved ones far, far better than they ever were before. Autistic people, neurodivergent people, they're now advocating for themselves far better when they're going into different health and social care settings. That's coming through quite a bit at the moment. It's made a huge difference. And you know, honestly, for me, I again I always say I can feel Oliver. I couldn't be more proud. I couldn't be more proud that Oliver himself, he didn't die in vain. He's made a difference. Like I said, not just in the care and support our communities receive, but it's enabled them to have this paid employment and meaningfully paid as well. It's not, it's not what is it, minimum wage. Oh, it's not minimum wage. It's it's meant to be at least a band five. Oh wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's quite good. It's quite good. And they are well supported to do that job as well. So thank you for asking that question because it's really important. And we just need our commissioners and our leaders and our senior management to get on with it, really. There's no excuses.

unknown 4:56

Thank you.

Clear Call To Act And Subscribe

SPEAKER_00 4:57

And if you've enjoyed this episode of Believe in People Extra, we'd love for you to share with others who might find it meaningful. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And leaving a review will help us reach more people and continue challenging stigma around addiction and recovery. For additional resources and to listen to this episode in full, explore the links in this episode description. And to learn more about our mission and hear more incredible stories, you can visit us directly at believingpeoplepodcast.com.