We offer a wide range of training and related support focusing on a variety of topics and catering for people with differing levels of knowledge. At the moment, our Making Every Contact Count (MECC), Motivational Interviewing and Train the Trainer courses are particularly popular.
We also continue to offer a mix of social marketing training which we have been delivering to public and third sector bodies for several years. These are especially suited to practitioners involved in designing, delivering and evaluating customer-focused interventions and projects that encourage healthier and more environmentally sustainable lifestyle behaviours.
A course on cross-sector stakeholder partnership working is also available.
Brilliant facilitation, really well structured, good to hear from a mix of representatives.
Training participant (Train the Trainer)
Fantastic training session with a fantastic trainer! 10/10.
Training participant (MECC)
Really useful, reassuring and empowering course. Very well delivered.
Training participant (Train the Trainer)
Excellent delivery, really enjoyable - very well presented and informative. Built my confidence to deliver the training.
Training participant (Train the Trainer)
Very well structured, informative, and had the right mix of presentations and exercises
Training participant (MECC)
Training was good, especially for more experienced practitioners to think differently about how they approach projects. Also an excellent networking and knowledge sharing opportunity.
Training participant (MECC)
Good group based exercises. Interactive nature was enjoyable. All of the training was helpful and allowed me to address my outcomes.
Training participant (Motivational Interviewing)
When booking I did not know what to expect or even if this was going to be relevant at all. Now I have really enjoyed the morning and feel the day was focused directly towards my role as a practice nurse. Thank you very much.
Training participant (Motivational Interviewing)
Very informative. Small changes to my communication with patients could have a large bearing on patients making/needing to change their behaviour. Great technique advice and relevance to practice.
Training participant (Motivational Interviewing)
Excellent training methods, tools and resources to reinforce learning practice and develop skills.
Training participant (MECC)
I would recommend this training to others to ensure that staff support residents at all times.
Training participant (MECC)
My level of awareness has changed substantially on this subject.
Training participant (MECC)
Some very useful techniques (and a variety of them) for supporting people to make positive changes in their lives.
Training participant (MECC)
Very informative, builds your confidence to support others.
Training participant (MECC)
It is useful to think of other ways of helping others. Sharing ideas within a group helps explore other options.
Training participant (MECC)
I would recommend this to staff on the frontline, staff who haven't had any depth motivational interviewing training, and also as a refresher for those who haven't used motivational interviewing in a while.
Training participant (MECC)
I would recommend this training to others as signposting is the future of encouraging people to take responsibility for themselves and promoting that responsibility.
Training participant (MECC)
It would be of great benefit for all and any person in the field of adult social health to attend this training session and learn new techniques.
Training participant (MECC)
The training provides you with an opportunity to think about what you are currently doing, how you can improve and share your practice.
Training participant (MECC)
This course was good for beginners who have had no customer care, counselling, mentoring, coaching or training experience previously. Trainer was clear, knowledgeable and approachable.
Training participant (MECC)
I would recommend this training to others as it’s useful and I learned how to motivate people, engage people and learnt from others' conversation.
Training participant (MECC)
This training should be mandatory for all council staff and provider organisations. It would certainly improve communications between residents and council staff.
Training participant (MECC)
The training helps to learn how day to day issues can be addressed by effective communication and integrated services.
Training participant (MECC)
This training has definitely helped me when meeting my clients and the public and is really important when delivering my sessions.
Training participant (MECC)
I feel more confident now to start conversations and to ask the right questions.
Training participant (MECC)
The course trainer was very knowledgeable about MECC and took a great interest in other people's view. The trainer engaged well.
Training participant (MECC)
This course has provided me with guidelines and a more clear image on certain topics concerning wellbeing and health. It has been useful in offering a wide range of techniques that can apply in the future for achieving successful outcomes between human relations and customer services.
Training participant (MECC)
Important for all staff to feel more confident raising issues outside of the normal job role.
Training participant (MECC)
Very informative. Increased my confidence. I did not know anything about MECC but felt the training was very good.
Training participant (MECC)
It is a comprehensive course broken down into bitesize chunks - very useful and participant friendly.
Training participant (MECC)
We always start by looking at your specific requirements and can tailor our support on a number of levels:
A tailored training programme with a full range of promotional support, research and evaluation, and help to embed skills in day to day practice.
A tailored training only programme covering the specified competences required by participants. Training can range from part of a day to running over several days, with time in between, to give participants an opportunity to try out new skills.
Web and mobile phone based applications and e-learning.
Our training team brings a rich wealth of experience of cross sector training, with participants coming from local councils, government agencies, primary care, acute hospital care and third sector bodies. Several thousands of staff, working at all organisational levels, have benefited from SMG training.
We are very flexible and do not rely on 'off the shelf' products. We work with your organisation to provide exactly the suite of training and resources that you require, tailored to your organisational requirements.
We follow relevant best practice and guidance, for example from Public Health England, Health Education England and the National Centre for Social Marketing.
Our training also supports broad policy strategic commitments, such as the Government’s promise to make every healthcare contact a health improvement opportunity and the NHS's goal to 'build a workforce for prevention'.
We provide accredited training, for instance our MECC skills training course is accredited by the Royal Society for Public Health, and can lead your organisation through the accreditation process if required.
We offer a rounded package to support the delivery of our programmes: as well as training, we can also provide you with communications and recruitment support, booking administration, venue management, evaluation and other help to embed the use of new competencies in day to day practice.
Our emphasis is on quality and on measuring that we have achieved the aims of the courses that we deliver. We undertake pre and post questionnaires with all participants and provide clients with an evaluation report immediately after training delivery. We also offer further follow-up evaluation at agreed intervals.
Our existing clients and participants value our provision.
Over the last 6 years, Andy has headed up SMG’s extensive body of MECC training work. Beginning with Salford MECC, he developed and delivered a new MECC training programme for a range of local partners, including Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust Hospital, NHS and Salford City Council. This programme ran for around 5 years, engaging several thousand staff. Andy has continued to lead the development of our MECC work which has since extended to numerous areas including Camden and Islington, Barnett, Enfield, Gloucestershire, Dudley, North Yorkshire, East Sussex, West Sussex, Brighton and Hove, Surrey, Medway and Kent.
Andy is a former university lecturer with a strong track record of developing and delivering courses for a range of practitioner groups, including staff involved in public health, community development, housing, social work and other community regeneration activities. He has drawn on this experience in SMG to lead the organisation’s behaviour change training. For example, he was closely involved in Department of Health-funded training for social marketers and other behaviour change practitioners. He played a key role in the delivery of the National Social Marketing Centre’s (NSMC) national training programme focused on the former Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) during which (along with other members of SMG) he was involved in delivering over one-third of all NSMC training for PCTs across all regions of the country.
Mike is one of the core MECC training team at SMG, being involved in developing and delivering MECC since SMG’s first contract in Salford 6 years ago. He has delivered a wide variety of MECC training, including Train the Trainer modules, with recent and current clients including: Salford, Gloucestershire, North Yorkshire, Camden and Islington, Barnet, Enfield, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Brighton and Hove, West Sussex and Medway.
Mike has been a Lead Associate with SMG since 2010. He is an experienced behaviour change practitioner and, in addition to delivering a wide variety of project work, has a major involvement as a trainer, having delivered training to many hundreds of public sector professionals. His experience in MECC was marked by his invitation to present on his work on the Salford MECC at the World Social Marketing Conference in Toronto.
David has over 19 years’ consultancy experience working for a wide range of clients in the public, voluntary and private sectors. He is a very experienced facilitator and trainer. He currently delivers training across Scotland for the Skills Development Scotland Skills Academy, and assesses participants to attain credit rating from this programme within the SCQF Framework. He is a key member of our MECC delivery team and also delivers the ‘Behaviour change through effective partnership working’ course.
David has designed and delivered an extensive series of training and capacity interventions for third sector organisations across Scotland, including accredited Business Plan training. He is also a very experienced facilitator with recent clients including: the Scottish Government; local authorities; Community Planning Partnerships; the NHS; Public Social Partnerships; and voluntary sector consortiums.
Susan is a health improvement specialist and trainer with over 20 years of experience working in health and wellbeing sector. As training lead for a large UK health board, Susan has designed, delivered and evaluated training for a wide range of professionals. She has also been commissioned to develop and deliver projects for services funded by Public Health England, Public Health London and the Scottish Government.
Matt is a senior behaviour change practitioner. As an experienced trainer, he has delivered a range of behaviour change and social marketing training to many local authorities and the NHS throughout the UK. This includes being a lead trainer of the National Social Marketing Centre’s (NSMC) national behaviour change training programme focused on the former Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and local authorities across England, and periodically is a guest lecturer for the Department of Marketing at Strathclyde University.
Matt is a core SMG training team member and has been involved in the delivery of MECC training for all SMG MECC clients including: Camden and Islington, Barnet, Enfield, Waltham Forest, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Brighton and Hove, West Sussex and Medway, Salford, Gloucestershire, North Yorkshire.
Martin Higgitt is a travel behaviour change specialist who focuses on promoting active and sustainable travel. He has 19 years’ transport consultancy experience, most recently as Market Lead for Sustainable Transport at SYSTRA & JMP. His work areas include designing and delivering large-scale community travel behaviour change programmes, travel marketing and comms strategies, and assisting employers and organisations with influencing their staff and visitors’ travel choices.
Pip is a nurse and counsellor by profession, and has worked for over 30 years developing behaviour change interventions based on the principles of Motivational Interviewing. Her work in this area has included design of brief advice and counselling interventions, writing training packages and skilling staff to deliver them. She has co-authored a book on health behaviour change and is an active member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers which seeks to promote excellence in the teaching of behaviour change counselling.
Pip has worked in the NHS and the voluntary sector as well as several years as an independent consultant. Previous projects have included being principle author of a trainers’ manual used in a major brief interventions project for the former Health Education Authority, and training trainers across Eastern Europe on behalf of the World Health Authority.
Tony has worked with SMG since its inception, assisting with early stage planning and strategy. He has continued to collaborate with us as an associate and has been involved in the delivery of a number of SMG training initiatives.
Tony has extensive experience in coaching and advising SMEs, having spent almost 20 years working with a range of clients from start up through to high growth companies and is an accredited coach through the University of Strathclyde’s Super-coaching programme. He assists young, ambitious growth companies through the University's Enterprise Partner programme, of which he was one of the original members.
Tony is an expert in understanding the needs of high growth companies. He has both worked for and delivered consultancy to a range of organisations including The University of Strathclyde, Business Link London, The Scottish Institute for Enterprise, Business Gateway and Scottish Enterprise.
Ally oversees and manages client support and provides excellent business and administrative support across all SMG Learning projects. Her meticulous organisation and understanding of all aspects of our work is highly valued by clients and helps ensure the smooth running of all projects.
Calum joined the core SMG team in 2017. He supports Ally in the administrative management of all training projects.
If you'd like more information on what we could offer you, please get in touch.