An effective strategy to embed rapport-based practice in a service is to bring together a group of practitioners that are both enthusiastic and passionate about the practice and can articulate it to others. I call this the ‘Leader Group’ and suggest that this group takes responsibility for:

Ascertaining which young people or adults who are in the care of the service are in most need of rapport-based interventions
Ascertaining which staff in the service are most in need of training, coaching and mentoring in rapport-based practice.
Ensuring that rapport-based practice is available for each child or adult who is in the care of the service by making sure that there are rapport-based practitioners in the appopriate classes/areas or by Leader Group practitioners delivering sessions themselves
Offering a programme of rapport-based coaching, mentoring and training to practitioners that need support, starting with the staff who supporting people who are most in need of rapport-based practice.

The criteria that must be met in order to be considered for membership of the leader group is that the practitioners understands and can articulate:

The three universal needs of self-determination theory and how these needs can be unmet
The nature of rapport and the three ingredients
The 3C’s

The role of a member of the leader group is to convey this language to others in the context of experiential demonstration, mentoring, coaching and training, The key mentoring practice of the leader group is detailed in the training manual. If the leader group operates with consistency, meeting every half-term to enjoy reflecting on practice together, and performing the functions listed above, then the group will proactively support the embedding of rapport-based practice.