The STEP (Support Tools Enabling Parents) pilot for better rehabilitation and care of children with neurological disorders is now halfway and therefore we’d like to provide you with more information about the progress made so far.

The training curriculum has started and a second training session for the Lake Victoria region (LVR) was carried out in Uganda and one is planned in Cameroon as well. The training paid attention to issues as observation and assessment skills, (clinical) reasoning, goal setting and decision-making about appropriate interventions.

In addition, a debriefing workshop will be held in April 2019 in Uganda. The purpose of this workshop is twofold:

1. to round off the STEP pilot and tend to any remaining questions or gap in skills, and

2. to discuss with involved partners the upscaling strategy of STEP as an approach to be used in the field.

Finally, it will be key that STEP is understood not as a ‘new’ programme to be offered but rather as a different approach to use on the ground and to do things better. Parallel to this, an information page for (S)POs specifically is being developed and will be added to the STEP portal on platform Connect (https://connect.lilianefonds.org/step/default.aspx), in order for all interested partners to have a better overview of what the STEP approach entails. Part of this will include documents on the general setup of STEP, where and how to start, the Training of Trainer design, the type of support you may expect from LF, as well as the lessons learned from the field and types of tools that have been developed to accompany this approach.