Comments from Mark LLoyd Our Managing Director “A tremendous amount of positive events are occurring for Avante as we move into the summer. For those of you look at our website you will see our recent success with three significant new tenders. I am delighted we have been chosen as one of only 23 providers in Kent to be a preferred partner for the delivery of domiciliary care. Along with our work in Bexley and Greenwich we now have opportunity to build this business to become a major part of our core work. We have also won two contracts for Stepahead which gives greater security for the future of our young people’s services. These are contracts with Medway for supported housing and for youth services in Shepway, Maidstone, and Thanet. Much of my work at the moment is drafting a new 5 year business plan for the organisation which will address how we respond to the new Care Bill relating to registered care funding. Councils will look to change how they commission with providers so we need to ensure we are well placed to respond to new arrangements as is the case at the present time with Kent County Council who are tendering for preferred providers. At the same time how we assess people in our services to ensure additional support can be provided will be crucial as needs change.
I am really pleased to see the creation of a new professional management group which includes our specialists such as Anne Child, Steve Mason, and Sophie Murray along with senior operational managers. Much of the work of this group will be around building a new philosophy and ethos in how we work within dementia care. The emerging model will see the importance of the care plan as the golden thread in all that we do. It is good to see the reporting in the national news of David Cameron’s pledge to fight the disease of dementia. 800,000 people in the UK now have a diagnoses and the numbers will be set to rise further. The challenge for all of us is not to just see the impact of this terrible condition on the people we support but to remember and see the individual and their life story and look to enable positive daily living outcomes. Since coming into post this April it has been pleasing to see the commitment and professionalism of so many of our staff in delivering services seven days a week. In the coming months I want to focus on how we build the links between our domiciliary care services, provide live in care, offer registered care, and develop end of life care which may be nursing. Getting these relationships right will be crucial in how we build our services. At the same time we will have opportunity to look at developing our specialist Stepahead services in growing our mediation work. We have the opportunity to review our branding and marketing to ensure the public can quickly and easily access our services will be one of immediate priorities in the coming weeks.
Mark LLoyd Managing Director
Barton Court care home opens its Dementia Cafe Friends Together The Dementia Cafe is designed to be a support group and a great opportunity for people with, or supporting loved ones with Dementia.
even had a boogie with our residents! Both had a really nice time and said what a lovely Home we have! We had people come in from the community that are living with Dementia and their families. They have decided to come to the regular meet up, so we are reaching out to the wider community."
The local Mayor and Mayoress were in attendence, as well as fellow residents from Parkview Care Home, friends and family and a very talented pianist called Ryan.
Parkview resident Joyce reaps the rewards of all the hard work that residents and staff have put into their garden!
Attendees will be able to meet people on a monthly basis who care and understand all aspects of Dementia, where memories, experiences, help and support can be shared and offered. Elaine Bashford, Activities Coordinator, said; "We would like to thank the Mayor and Mayoress for attending. They stayed right until the end and
MBE awarded for past services to dementia. We are delighted to congratulate Anne Child, Head of Pharmaceutical Care and Clinical Standards, who was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List, announced last weekend. Anne was granted the honour for services to people with dementia during her time as Senior Medicines Management Mental Health Lead Adviser, within NHS Kent and Medway from 2011 to 2012.
‘Ta ilo red qu a lit y ca re fo r y o u, i n y o u r o wn h o m e ’
Avante Community Support is successful in Kent County Council’s recent tender for Home Care Services. Avante Community Support is delighted with this news as we are passionate and committed to delivering person centred care, recognising that everyone is unique and will have different needs and requirements.
Kent County Council has awarded Avante Community Support contracts to deliver Home Care services to 5 localities within Kent. This means that we will continue to provide services for KCC clients in Canterbury and Coastal, Dartford, Gravesend and Swanley and Swale whilst moving into the two new geographical areas which are Ashford and West Kent. Angela Johnson, Service and Business Development Lead said; “We are looking forward to this exciting opportunity to expand our services across Kent. We are currently working with local providers to ensure that all our service users receive high quality care.”
Avante Community Support Updates: • Angela Johnson has really enjoyed meeting members of the Community Support team and is looking forward to meeting many more people over the coming months. The dedication and commitment within Community Support has really shone through with so many people going the extra mile to ensure high quality services for the inviduals we support. • The mobilisation of the new KCC contract is going well. The Kent team is working hard to ensure new Service Users transfer over to Avante in a seamless way whilst co-ordinating new referrals as they come in. We are still recruiting in Ashford, Faversham, Whitstable, Herne Bay, Gravesend, Swanley, Dartford, Maidstone, Swale, Bexley and Greenwich. So please feel free to recommend a friend to apply and remember that if they are successful you could be entitled to a recruitment referral bonus of up to £100!! The policy can be found in Avante Partnership Corporate Manual Section 5-163, so please have a read. • An interesting and informative meeting was held between Avante Community Support and an organisation called Somerset Care which provides over 40,000 hours of home care per week. It was a great opportunity to learn about each other’s organisations and to share ideas for the future.
Medway Council award housing support funding to Stepahead Support Stepahead Support has recently been awarded funding by Medway Council to deliver housing support for young people aged 16 – 25 years who are in supported accommodation. Stepahead will support Medway’s vision for Housing Support “To improve the quality of life of vulnerable socially excluded people living in the borough through the delivery of preventative housing support services and to make Medway a place where people are able to achieve their potential for independent living.” Stepahead has been commissioned to provide 33 units of supported accommodation to enable individuals to move on and maximise their independence and maintain a tenancy. Stepahead will also provide 6 weeks floating support when young people leave the service when a positive move on has been achieved. Stepahead will work with the young person and other agencies as applicable to enable holistic service delivery to include: Carolyn McVittie, Managing Director of Stepahead Support said; “We are delighted to have been awarded this contract in Medway to support young people to maximise their opportunity to achieve their potential for independent living and positive integration in their community. The support we provide will enable them to develop a good level of resilience that empowers them to improve the quality of their life and prevents future challenges impeding on their health and wellbeing.”
Youth service updates: Stepahead Support were recently awarded funding by KCC to deliver youth projects in rural areas of Shepway, Maidstone and Thanet over a period of two years. • Mobilisation is well underway with contacts made with KCC team managers and youth workers. • The full complement of five staff have been recruited to cover the youth services to be delivered in Thanet, Shepway and Maidstone rural and isolated areas. They are all experienced working with young people and some have extensive youth work experience. They are due to start during the next 3 weeks and will be liaising with other local youth workers to set up youth clubs and activity sessions. • Stepahead has been awarded £2,000 by the Police Commissioner to put towards resources for the youth project.