COTS 2026

Positive Behaviour Support continues to evolve, but its central purpose remains the same: to improve people’s lives. This seminar will explore the current direction of PBS and ask how we can keep compassion, wellbeing and human flourishing at the centre of practice, even within complex and pressured support systems. Paddy will consider compassion as both a practical skill and an organisational responsibility. The session will explore how compassionate practice can help us better understand behaviour, reduce restrictive responses and create environments where people are more likely to feel safe, valued and understood. It will also reflect on some of the criticisms of PBS, including the risk that it can become overly focused on process, compliance or behaviour reduction when the wider person and their quality of life are not kept in view. The seminar will introduce wellbeing as a useful anchor for contemporary PBS, including how the PERMA model can help services think more clearly about positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment. Looking ahead, Paddy will also consider how developments in training, including AI-supported simulations, virtual tutor conversations, contextualised learning and multilingual access, may help staff build confidence and apply PBS more thoughtfully in real-world settings.