Sam Sly
Sam has worked with people with learning disabilities and their families for over 20 years as a social worker, regulator, within health and social care and as a provider.
Sam has worked on NHS Learning Disability Hospital campus closure projects in Bournemouth and Cornwall over the last five years; which has led onto consultancy work with health and residential staff and Commissioning teams, training on cultural change in readiness for supporting people moving on from Institutional care. Sam is currently working with Doreen Kelly in partnership with NHS Plymouth, undertaking a 3 year project developing an Individual Health Budget approach for people leaving long stay and specialist learning disability hospitals using Service Designs and Working Policies.
Sam would describe herself as more of a doer than a thinker and her skills lie in transferring theory and ideology into practical tools that people can use in their work. Sam is best known for taking concepts like Simon Duffy’s Keys to Citizenship and developing them into a toolkit: Hands Off, It's My Home! that can be used to improve the quality of support people receive in their own homes. She is also known for using Talking Mats to enable people with little verbal communication to engage in regulatory inspection.
Sam is also more of a leader rather than a follower! She is happiest trying to show by example how we should work with, and listen to the people we support on a day to day basis. She has written two chapters of books about Personalisation and several articles about her work.
Sam lives in South Devon with her son Ben. She loves relaxing with her family, walking the local coastal paths, socialising with friends, reading and seeing the world.