Designing care and support, together

We don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all service. Instead, our team members take the time and care to really get to know the people we work for, so we can design a service that really meets their needs.

Learning about the person

Before we start to provide a care service, we meet with people to find out:

• What really matters to them. From important people in their life, to places they like going to and activities they enjoy. We look at the small things too – it’s also important to know how someone likes their tea or what TV programmes they don’t want to miss.
• What they would like to change in their life. We talk about what’s working and not working in people’s lives, and think together about their priorities for change.

Coming up with ideas

With this information, we can then start to explore ideas of what services we might provide.

We don’t jump straight to paid support as the way of making everything happen. Instead we work through a number of options in sequence:

• Self-care. There may be ways for us to help people to care for themselves better. For example, we could support them to learn more about their condition or think about possible changes to their routine that could help alleviate symptoms.
• Assistive technology. From a specially-adapted kettle through to a visual doorbell, there are lots of ways technology can help people to live well.
• Family, friends and other people in the person’s life. There may be other people in a person’s life who could support them with some things, if only they knew about it. We employ a Community Wellbeing Coordinator to help people to stay connected to those around them .
• Local services. Because we’re local, we also know about other services in the community that might help too. It could be anything from a transport service through to an activity group.
• Our team. Finally, we think about where our team members can help.

Going through the options in this way means that any paid support is being used in the best possible way, and that people are getting great value for money.

Making it happen

Now we’ve considered the options and agreed on a plan together, the service can start. We review it regularly to make sure that we’re providing the best possible service and taking into account anything that might have changed. And all the way through, the person we support is at the centre of every decision we make.

Our Teams are designed to have flexibility in the way they work, so they can always put the person first – not rigid timeslots or difficult paperwork.

If this way of working sounds good to you, why not get in touch today for a chat?