BEYOND NEURODIVERSITY ‘AWARENESS’ –

Everyone was motivated and enthusiastic

Janine tutored a two-day ‘introduction to neurodiversity’ course that I organised, held at London Bridge station.
Neurodiversity and its different effects and presentations is a hugely misunderstood area. On the railway, we meet people whose plans can be disrupted and routes changed with no notice. Neurodivergent people may struggle with these situations more and need railway workers to recognise and understand the additional support they may need.
Janine’s training was excellent. Everyone was motivated and enthusiastic about the course and the way she delivered it. They benefited hugely from the course that she wrote and delivered for us. She is an excellent tutor who works cooperatively with her students so they get the best out of the training. I would definitely recommend her training.
Janine is also a kind, friendly and welcoming person who uses those qualities to ensure everyone is comfortable and gets the most from her training.

Very practical and popular

Janine ran a very practical and popular workshop at unionlearn’s recent Learning, Health and Well-being conference focusing on the issues facing workers with Autism. Janine has since had her book, “Autism Equality in the Workplace”, published. Both the training session and the book are well worth seeking out if you are a rep looking to better understand and support colleagues at work with the condition.

Incredibly useful

A number of staff and barristers attended Janine’s training in Neurodiversity in the Justice System. The training involved general information on many neurodivergent conditions, case studies and provided a guide for further learning. The training was very informative, interesting and engaging and all attendees found it incredibly useful. We plan on doing further training with Janine very soon.

Informative and engaging

Janine provided an excellent overview of neurodiversity from a trade union perspective.
Using the social model of disability, she explained the need for union reps to understand both the nature of specific learning difficulties and how to take this issue forward in the workplace.
The session was informative and engaging, leaving the reps encouraged and enthused to tackle issues that may arise in their workplace.

A superb programme of neurodiversity training

Janine Booth has provided a superb programme of neurodiversity training courses to PCS staff, reps and members since 2016.
Janine ensures that content and delivery are grounded in Union Organising and Social Model approaches that challenge, provoke and educate. Feedback is consistently positive.

Moving beyond neurodiversity ‘awareness’

In September, we held a neurodiversity training session run by the fantastic Janine Booth from Red in the Spectrum. Part of our goal as an organisation is to become a just workplace that centres collective wellbeing. An important strand of this work is to ensure we remove barriers for neurodivergent people in the workplace.
As a team, we recognise that workplaces and their working practices can be inaccessible to neurodivergent people.
We chose to work with Janine for this training because of her focus on transforming workplaces, and moving beyond neurodiversity ‘awareness’ – as many productivity-oriented and employer-aligned neurodiversity trainings emphasise.
From her wealth of lived knowledge and professional experience working with trade unions, Janine guided us through the following elements of creating a neuroinclusive workplace: experiences of minority neurotypes; understandings of neurodiversity within the team; the social model of disability; identifying and removing barriers within the workplace, and our wider organisational activities.
The training raised several areas of further sustained work for us as an organisation, and we will now be working consistently to identify and remove barriers within our working practices, to create an organisation that works for everybody.
We thoroughly recommend Red in the Spectrum Janine Booth as a neurodiversity trainer!

Really valuable

Dear Janine
The Neurodiversity workshops that you ran at Hammersmith were really valuable. We all learned a lot about how a neurodiverse workforce can be supported and can bring benefits to the whole team.
Your use of real-life examples, tailored to our operational environment, encouraged discussion and debate amongst the delegates, whether or not they have previous experience. We all gained greater insight as a result.
Thank you.

10 out of 10

RMT courses score consistently well when assessed by our accrediting college. But only one has been rated 10 out of 10: Janine’s Autism in the Workplace course. Highly recommended!

Overwhelmingly positive feedback

The Royal College of Podiatry asked Janine to help us with training for our staff and activists on how best to support our members who have neurodivergent conditions. Janine’s approach was highly professional, her learning style was excellent and interesting to all participants, and we had overwhelmingly positive feedback.
We will continue to work with Janine and would highly recommend her to other trade unions.

Everyone who attended left having learnt more and gained understanding

Janine from Red in the Spectrum was asked to present an ‘introduction to Neurodiversity’ as part of Manchester City councils Neighbourhood directorate Staff conference. The conference’s theme focused on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

She was able to adapt her usual sessions to match the requirements of the day, which was 6 separate sessions of 30 minutes.

The sessions were exactly what was needed for the conference and on the day, many people were giving great feedback about it to organisers and leadership at the event.

In the post-conference feedback survey, the Red in the Spectrum sessions got great feedback. 90.9% of attendees to the session said it was Extremely Engaging, and 9.1% said it was reasonably engaging. No-one gave any other scoring.

A few quotes from attendees:

“ The lady who led the session on neurodiversity was a fantastic presenter, and although it’s a subject I know quite a bit about because of having a close relative who is autistic, I still learned things, and in a really interesting way.”

“Understanding Neurodiversity. The presenter was very engaging and talked from a position of experience. I was able to pass on what I learnt to others about dyslexia.”

“Neurodiversity session was very good, excellent communication and interaction and a lot to think about and put into practice.”

The session and Janine as a facilitator were great and everyone who attended left having learnt more and gained understanding around the subject.

Grounded in expertise, relatable workplace scenarios and lived experience

It was a pleasure to have Janine with us for our annual staff meeting at the AMEX. Janine delivered a one-hour talk about neurodiversity in the workplace.

We really valued the informative nature of the talk which was grounded in expertise, relatable workplace scenarios and lived experience. We were provided with the opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the topic.

Janine created a positive atmosphere to approach a topic in which Concordia employees were keen to develop their knowledge.

Exceptional and insightful

Janine attended our site in October 2022 to support our Inclusive Employers National Inclusion Month.
Janine gave a talk and presentation on Neurodiversity, its impact on the workplace and impact on employees with over 50 employees present.
Janine’s session was exceptional. The detail was insightful and was well placed for her target audience. The employees found it engaging and informative; and was presented in a relaxed atmosphere which suited the employees with what can be seen as a sensitive topic for some people.
Her knowledge on autism, ADHD and dyslexia was second to none and was able to answer questions afterwards posed by our employees. We will definitely look to Janine to support in future events.

An excellent course

Very informative, thought-provoking and useful

Janine delivered a number of session on neurodiversity for staff at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. Staff found the sessions very informative, thought-provoking and useful in terms of understanding neurodiversity and how that impacts people and organisation.
Janine presents the subject matter in an easy way to understand and has an honest and engaging style with helpful lived experience of neurodiversity. The sessions are interactive, with a good balance of presentations, group work and breaks.

An eye-opening session expertly delivered

It’s always great to take the opportunity for self development, to be a delegate and learn from a subject matter expert.

This was an eye-opening session expertly delivered by Janine Booth from Red in the Spectrum with so many useable and useful insights and takeaways.

Enormous value

All trade union reps need to come on this training! Janine has used both her trade union and personal experience to develop and deliver a highly effective course which equips reps to become more confident in dealing with autism related issues both in their workplaces and their trade unions. At the WEA these courses were in high demand and hugely popular with consistently good feedback citing the enormous value in terms of new knowledge and awareness of autism.