‘Collaborative solutions – how can we make this work together?’: Psychologists’ reflections on working with staff teams supporting people with intellectual disabilities

Psychologists working in intellectual disabilities settings often spend a considerable amount of time working with the staff teams that support our clients. Despite this being a core feature of our clinical work, there is relatively little research or practice-based evidence to guide practitioners in this endeavour. This article summarises the feedback from a workshop facilitated at the British Psychological Society (BPS) Division of Clinical Psychology (DCP) Faculty for People with Intellectual Disabilities (FPID) annual advancing practice conference in Cardiff in May 2025. The workshop focused on Working with staff teams: Collaborative approaches to psychological interventions. Here we summarise the valuable information practitioners shared about facilitators and barriers to effective work with staff teams. Easy to read summary ■ Psychologists often work with staff teams to help them work out the best way to support people with learning disabilities. ■ There is not much written guidance to help psychologists know how to do this work. ■ We asked a group of psychologists about their work with staff teams to find out what they thought worked well and what was more difficult. ■ This article has been written to share what we found out to help psychologists in their work.