Better Outcomes for People with a Learning Disability

Quality Network Public Statements

United Response

Portobello ServiceA residential service for people with a learning disability

Located at: 19 Colville Road
Portobello London

Mission Statement

Our mission is to support people with learning difficulties to take control of their lives and to fulfil their maximum potential. We provide both practical day to day support and assistance to people in exercising their rights as citizens.

Introduction

Although it is very important to continue the work identified in the last two reviews and action plans, and to move forward with clear aims and goals for individuals and the service as a whole, it has been more difficult to achieve this due to difficulties in recruiting staff. However there is a new manager in post now ready to support the people who live and work at the Portobello service to achieve their goals.

Changes in the service in the last twelve months

The most significant issue for the people who live and work at the Portobello service is that agreement has been reached to re-provide the service as a Supported Living service in a new property near by. All the people at Portobello will have their own individual flats and there will also be some communal areas.

Support must concentrate on developing a wide range of skills, including communication skills, and ensuring everyone is as involved and participate as much as possible during this very important time.

For more information please contact:

Jade Leigh-Carter
United Response
19, Colville Road
Portobello
London

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Equal People (Kensington & Chelsea)
Formerly Kensington & Chelsea Mencap

Public Statement

Our Services
We provide housing, support and care and promote opportunities in the community for people with learning disabilities to enable them to make the most of their lives.

We support parents and carers and campaign for better resources.

We seek to raise awareness of learning disability and create a greater understanding in the community.

We believe people with learning disabilities have a right to live in the community, have a voice, be treated with dignity and respect, have choice and opportunities and a good quality of life.

The Service Review
The review took place over an eight-week period in autumn 2000 and involved visits from tenants and staff from the Community Living scheme. One service user was visited at Westgate terrace, our registered group home for seven people in Earls Court. Two tenants from the Independent Living Scheme were visited, one lives in Stoneleigh St, a shared house for 5 people, one of whom is a support tenant, and one in a two bedroom flat on the Rootes Estate.

Two tenants made visits to tenants of other services. Four staff acted as support to the above tenants or who made other visits.

Everyone took part in the training, feedback and action planning days and process.

Findings-What was going well for the people visited:

• The visitors found evidence that:
• Tenants are treated as individuals
• Tenants are able and encouraged to make a wide range of choices about their lives
• Tenants views, opinions, choices are sought, respected and acted upon
• Tenants are supported to look for and maintain work if they wish
• Tenants are encouraged to take the lead in the day-to-day running of their home
• Tenants know and are known in their local community, participating as they wish
• Tenants entertain, visit and go out with their friends and have boy/girlfriends
• Tenants have contact with their family if they wish
• Tenants are aware of the complaints procedure and have said whom they would approach
• Tenants are aware of healthy eating issues and where health services are and are supported to access these

What we need to improve/change

The areas highlighted by the visitors will form the basis of our Action Plans to be completed by spring 2002:

• Enable more contact, opportunities and options for our tenants to develop meaningful relationships in the wider community
• Recruit more independent advocates and group meeting facilitators
• Supporting tenants in dealing with harassment and abuse in the community
• Clarity of recording around tenant choice, risk assessment and risk-taking

Areas to continue from last year

Visitors emphasised the good work done in these areas over the past year:

• Enabling tenant access to full health care
• Consultation and participation in decision-making about our and other services

Monitoring:

The Quality Network Action Plans will be rolling agenda items on the six-weekly Westgate and Independent Living Scheme Advisory Groups and Housing Management meeting. A report will be presented to the Council of Management every six months. We will also periodically meet with other organisations participating in the Network to review progress.

For more information, contact:
Nic Walsh
Community Living manager
Equal People (Kensington & Chelsea)
73 St Charles Square
Ladbroke Grove
London
W10 6EJ
Tel/fax: 020 8964 5444/Fax 020 8968 0281

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Life Opportunities Trust
108 Highlever Rd, London W10 6LR

1. Residents are supported to have choice most of the time

2. Residents are encouraged to take part in everyday activities, such as their own laundry, cleaning their bedrooms, shopping for clothes and food

3. Residents are enabled to maintain contact with their families and friends on a regular basis

4. Residents make good use of local facilities, such as shops, pubs, GP, dentist, chiropody, church, parks and riding stables

5. Residents are supported at their Day Centre in meaningful activities (including paid work such as gardening)

6. Residents are encouraged to take part in their reviews and their families are also invited to attend or send a letter with comments

7. The home has a good intimate care policy and also a pictorial complaints procedure booklet for the residents

8. Residents are supported to attend all health appointments and their health needs re regularly reviewed. Although there are some major health concerns, these are all being addressed. They are enabled to eat a balanced diet at home

9. Residents are all dressed appropriately and well. Their religious beliefs are upheld and support is given for church attendance

1. Positive recruitment of male staff

2. Staff training regarding respect, dignity, choice and work priorities

3. More pictorial information for residents for menus, social activities, reviews - so the residents can be more involved and make meaningful choices

4. Increase the residents' friendship base - through church (and maybe a befriender) and extend day care friendships outside of day care hours

5. Diets to be reviewed at day centre

6. More social activities to be offered in the evenings and to be recorded when declined by residents

7. Staff need to record resident 'programme' results consistently

For more information contact:

Tel/fax: 020 8964 0179

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LOOK AHEAD HOUSING AND CARE LTD
Public Statement
Kensington & Chelsea Services Review

• Staff work well to support people with sensitivity to meet their needs and wants

• There was evidence to suggest things were going well in most of the 10 areas of someone's life that sere being considered

• In some areas there was evidence of some good practice but also a need for improvement/change at the same time

• Staff work well to enable people to use community leisure facilities, they support people in a respectful way and aim to give people choice and have fun!

• Staff support people to stay healthy and have a good knowledge of people's health needs

• Staff work well to involve and maintain good contact with people's families

• Staff need to devise different ways or need to pursue all possible avenues in offering people more choices

• The service needs to revisit how we communicate with people and how to involve them

• The service needs to consider when there is a need to talk of people in their presence and when to show bedrooms when people are not there themselves

• The service needs to pursue further opportunities to enable friendships both within services and in the local community

• The service, in conjunction with social services day/employment services, needs to pursue further opportunities for paid employment

Piper House
Kensington & Chelsea Social Services

Public Statement

Our Services
Piper House is a residential home for up to 18 learning disabled adults. The home is divided into 3 flats. Each flat work with residents with a different level of ability. Each flat has its own staff team and operates fairly independently of the other flats.

Piper House is 5 minutes walk from Ladbroke Grove tube station in west London. There is easy access to local facilities.

The Service Review
The review took place in October 2000. One resident from each flat was chosen to be visited and residents' permission sought to be visited.

The resident to be visited in the semi-independent flat received only one visit due to The Quality network visitor being ill.

One resident was visited in the medium support unit and one in the high support unit.

One service user from another service was supported by a member of staff, with another Piper House resident being visited by a staff member from a different organisation.

What we found to celebrate about the service

1. Respect for residents
2. Use of local community
3. Taking part in decision making eg interviewing staff
4. Range of day care and work opportunities
5. Okay health checks

What we need to improve/change

To assist residents to develop friendships outside of learning disability community
To look at expanding work/day care opportunities (all of Flat B residents go to Scope)
To extend the range of ordinary community facilities accessed by residents
To employ more male staff
To assess the vulnerability of residents
To look at family contact/involvement - to see if all relatives are as involved as they might wish to be and as appropriate for individual residents

For more information contact:

Michael Downey
Manager
Piper House
2B St Mark's Rd
London
W11 1RQ

Tel/fax: 020 7229 7623

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SCOPE

Public Statement

OUR SERVICE

The focus of SCOPE is geared towards providing day service opportunities to people with learning disabilities to help them improve the quality of their lives. At SCOPE we attempt to provide a range of centre and community based activities focusing upon leisure and education. Activities, which respond to the needs of our service users and which hopefully helps the service users to maximize their potential. The service users include individuals with complex learning disabilities, coupled with additional diagnoses. This includes people with autism, physical and sensory impairments and wheelchair users.

Our centre-based activities include art and craft sessions, self-help groups and relaxation sessions. While the community emphasis is place upon assisting the service users to access various education classes and community facilities such as local sports centres.

Through a service which is local, flexible and community based SCOPE hopes to play a part in ensuring that people with learning disabilities can have a presence and participate in their local community. Our service is based upon the model of the five accomplishments and attempts to be user-led and sensitive to people’s social, ethnic and cultural background.

THE SERVICE REVIEW:

The Service Review took place between May and July 2002. Several Quality Network participants representing different organizations, such as Equal People, visited SCOPE and residential establishments of St Quitins, Barlby Road and Kings bridge Respite Service

The Quality Network participants concentrated upon visiting five individuals both at SCOPE. Two of these individuals received home visits and the others were visited at their residential establishments.

The Quality Network participants visiting SCOPE consisted of one service user supported by a worker who was there in the capacity of supporting the service user and several key workers from residential establishments, including managers and senior workers.
The Quality Network Public Statements

FINDINGS

What was going well

• The service was seen to be respectful towards and supportive to the service users on a daily basis.
• The service users seemed to enjoy most of the sessions run at SCOPE
• The service strives to support individuals in accessing leisure and educational opportunities both within and outside the borough.

What we need to improve

• The need to increase the opportunities for service users with more complex needs to exercise more choice in the formalization of the activity programme.
• The need to strengthen the support of individual service users around decision-making. This is in respect of their awareness and ownership of IPPs’
• The development of closer links between SCOPE and the carers.
• To develop a service which was more flexible in providing activities for service users outside the set SCOPE hours i.e. evenings and weekends.

John Hendry (Co-coordinator – SCOPE 29/8/02)

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