Bespoke motivational interviewing and communication skills training for a housing association

SNG is a housing association that supports over 85,000 homes across London and the South of England.

SNG approached SMG Learning as they were looking to upskill their staff in client-facing roles. Regularly working with vulnerable people with complex issues, staff are often greeted with barriers to change. SNG wanted their teams to feel better equipped to support tenant progress, gently challenging their behaviour in a constructive and supportive manner. We supported this in two separate stages.

First, we designed a course that brought together elements of Motivational Interviewing and Solutions-Focused Therapy, giving staff a set of techniques they could use in real conversations with tenants who would benefit from behaviour change. The programme covered motivations to change, core conversational skills, working with resistance, and moving people towards actions and next steps. Our trainers developed a course to learn about and practice skills about:

• Motivations to behaviour change
• Core skills 
• Resistance to change 
• Actions and next steps

Thirty housing staff joined the initial training near SNG's headquarters in Basingstoke. Rather than treating the topics as fixed, participants were encouraged to apply their motivational skills in any context where they thought the approach would help.

Following the initial Motivational Interviewing sessions, we identified that different teams within SNG were dealing with slightly different pressures. SNG agreed that they'd benefit from in-depth follow-up training focused on communication. This became a series of coaching and training sessions tailored to each group, built around putting the original learning into practice rather than revisiting it in theory.

Through focusing on behaviours and on people's journeys of change, the training helped staff see how they could support tenants to take positive steps towards their own goals. Participants came away with practical techniques they could apply immediately in day-to-day conversations, and, more importantly, reported feeling more confident when supporting tenants through change.

Participants gave great feedback and shared that there were many immediate take aways for the team to implement in their daily conversations with tenants. The impact was echoed by SNG's Employment, Skills, and Inclusion team lead, who highlighted the practical, tailored nature of the programme and the difference it made to their staff.