Supporting individuals with complex behaviours that challenge to stay with their families

What is the project?

This project by Skybound Therapies focuses on developing services to support individuals with complex behaviours that challenge to stay with their families and in their communities. 

It provides personalised support for individuals of all ages — from toddlers through to adults — who are experiencing learning, behavioural, communication or emotional difficulties.  

The organisation offers flexible assistance across home, school and community settings, making sure that each person receives a multidisciplinary package tailored to their unique needs.  

With specialist expertise in developing speech and communication skills, as well as in supporting people who present with behaviours that challenge, Skybound Therapies works with a wide range of conditions to help improve quality of life and promote meaningful, positive outcomes. 

Why is it being carried out?

This work is driven by a desire to keep families together. 

Children with very challenging behaviours and complex needs tend to be separated from families and communities when accessing the level of care needed, often sending them far away from home. 

This project takes the support to the people who need it, which makes staying with their family or in their community more possible. 

Where and when is the work taking place?

Skybound Therapies is based in Pembrokeshire, but works across South Wales. This work is ongoing. 

Who's involved?

This work is inspired and driven by the families.  

It has been supported by Social Care Wales’s innovation coaching service and communities of practice. 

What have they learned from the work?

Through the project, Skybound Therapies has gained a deeper understanding of the significant unmet need for specialist community‑based services, particularly for young people who have often been refused support elsewhere or have struggled to access appropriate care.  

The work has reinforced that most families want to keep the family unit together, and that with the right support at the right time, residential placements can be avoided.  

Skybound has also seen how crucial timing is in determining outcomes, and how innovation in social care is urgently needed to offer meaningful alternatives.  

The organisation’s specialist expertise and its commitment to values such as being solutions‑focused, sharing knowledge, and making sure people have genuine voice, choice and control, has guided how it responds to this challenge. 

This approach has helped staff work together toward shared aims instead of working separately.  

Having protected time for coaching has helped the team think more openly about their processes, avoid becoming attached to preferred ideas, and stay focused on creating what is genuinely best for the people using the service.  

This reflective space has also supported innovative thinking about growth, leading to redesigned roles, strengthened managerial capacity, and proactive efforts to build staff resilience.