The use of ‘Restraint Reduction’ and ‘Reducing Restrictive Practices’ language and terminology has become common in our field of training over recent years. What is interesting to note however is that adoption of the same language by those businesses that do not entirely support such principles or are not adopting or actively seeking best practice standards such as The Restraint Reduction Network Accreditation or Certification.
A couple of thoughts spring to mind. Is this driven by a commercial appreciation of search engine optimization (SEO) and a desire to have products and training found on the web? Or by a hope that commissioning organizations will be taken in by the ‘use of language’ and not fully appreciate that the company has no defined credentials or standing against the language they are using? For example, a company might say, ‘…Our trainers are fully aware of the requirements set by Regulatory bodies and the RRN…’ or, ‘… Our Training meets or exceeds the requirements of BILD ACT and RRN Training Standards…’ or ‘…All our training is approved…’ The problem with these kinds of claims is self-evident.
Now while I may not always be the greatest fan of some of these accreditation schemes or training standards, I appreciate that in most cases they seek to ‘raise the bar’ generally to the betterment of service user and staff safety. Anything that does this in our industry I will generally welcome. My message to commissioners (purchasers) of training is ‘Please do your due diligence’. If a training company makes a claim to be ‘Accredited’, ‘Evidence Based’, ‘BILD ACT/RRN Certified’, etc… please dig into this and satisfy yourself to the validity of these claims. Additionally, when you are tendering for training be specific about the credentials of trainers or the program that you are seeking. I recently read a government tender that asked for training that was ‘…aligned with the RRN Training Standards…’, why not just seek a program that is accredited as such as opposed to the ambiguity that the tender language perpetuates?
At The Mandt System we try to be open and transparent regarding all of the above as we understand that navigating learning and development solutions to meet the unique needs of your organization is already a challenge and does not need to be further complicated by misleading or confusing claims and statements.
Feel free to reach out and test this out, we would love to show you the Mandt way…info@mandtsystem.com
Simon Kemp – CEO
