The Link Spring 2013

Inside

Service Spotlight – Rohan Kent

Person Centred Recruitment – Staff Matching Tool

Don’t miss Featuring

Hertfordshire Fifa World Cup Day

Awards Time – Extraordinary Person of the Month

A word from our Chief Executive: Turning Point’s New Vision and Values

Welcome

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ummer is upon us and for once we are getting some good weather. I hope when you receive this bumper packed edition it is now not raining!

As you can see a lot is going on in Turning Point. In our last edition our new Visions and Values were being finalised and spread across the organisation.

In this edition you can read more about them from our Chief Executive Victor.

I love our new strap line… inspired by possibility; it’s just so fitting for our Learning Disability Services. We all have the power to inspire, for all sorts of possibilities and we often stretch people to relook at what they think is possible. I was just talking to a group of team leaders yesterday and we discussed thinking outside the box, thinking big and making it real for people.

We are doing a lot of work around ensuring all staff fully embrace, understand and continually strive to be person centred in all we do. Nothing about us without us!

Both our Enablement Academy and the new Person Centred Approches training (which you can read more about on page’s 6 and 7) reinforces this message with staff. It also pushes them to have new ambitions for themselves as well as the people they support. I was just listening to support staff at an involvement workshop and they were telling me how good the person centred training was. It both reinforces what they are currently doing and also stimulates further thinking.

Our Service Spotlight focuses on our newest service Rohan in Kent and the two gentlemen who live there.

This sercice certainly inspires me and shows me what we can really do when working with individuals in a person centred way, stretching boundaries.

And of course we have our Extraordinary Person of the Month Award winners. In June it went to Gwen who lives in Staffordshire and in July it went to Tom who lives in Bedfordshire... well done to both of you!

Have a great summer and enjoy!

Best Wishes,

Fiona Ritchie Managing Director Learning Disability Services Turning Point fiona.ritchie@turning-point.co.uk

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Contents In this issue

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A word from our Chief Executive Turning Point’s New Vision and Values

Enablement Academy A vision for the future

Person Centred Approaches Training

Service Spotlight Kent, Rohan

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Hertfordshire Fifa World Cup Day Football’s coming home... to Hertfordshire!

Awards Time Extraordinary Person of the Month

Person Centred Recruitment

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Staff Matching Tool

Turning Point in Action Raising Awareness of Social Care

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On the cover Andrea Haines who lives at Timberlea in Hertfordshire. Andrea took some fantastic photographs at their Fifa World Cup Day.

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Turning Point’s new Our Chief Executive, Victor Adebowale talks about why our new vision and values are vital to the future of Turning Point.

A vision for the future Lord Victor Adebowale Chief Executive Turning Point

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f you don’t have a vision, you can’t see where you’re going. That very simple but very true remark was made by one of our colleagues just the other day.

Sometimes an organisation’s vision can seem far removed from the day-to-day challenges of running a service and meeting the needs of people we support. However, ultimately it should reflect what we are seeking to achieve in the best interests of serviceusers.

Our values are an

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expression of how we want to behave to create the best possible environment both for service-users and for everyone who works here.

And our strap-line is an important reflection of our overall purpose.

Turning Point has gone through many changes and as a result, we have been working on refreshing our vision, values and our strapline because it is really important that everyone in Turning Point sees where we are going, what we are trying to achieve and to be able to understand what their part can be in that.

To this end, one of the things, we did was to get together a working group of employees from a cross section of roles and teams. We also

spoke to individuals we support, to explore what was important to them about Turning Point and how they would describe that.

I believe our work is inspirational: the passion I see when I go in to services to witness the work that those who work in our services do, reinforces that. I want us all to share in that feeling – I hope the words we have come up with to describe our new strap- line, vision and values will help achieve this.

Our new strap line – “Inspired

by Possibility” The new strap- line “Inspired by Possibility” has come about as a result of considering whether our previous strap- line “Turning lives

around”, which has been around for many years, continues to reflect the wide variety of support we now provide and the way in which we provide it. We know that colleagues across Turning Point are playing a major role in helping turn people’s lives around but that happens in many different ways. Often we are supporting people with small changes over time or helping them to explore new possibilities that are open to them. Some of the comments I have heard are that turning lives around can feel like Turning Point are the ones in control whereas what we want to do is support people to make change themselves. We feel that “Inspired by Possibility” is a better reflection of the range of work we do now and

visions and values the way in which we do it. I’d be interested in what you think.

Our new values

We believe that everyone has the potential to grow, learn and make choices

We all communicate in an authentic and confident way that blends support and challenge

We are here to embrace change even when it is complex and uncomfortable

We treat each other and those we support as individuals however difficult and challenging

We deliver outcomes by encouraging ideas and new thinking

We commit to building a strong and financially viable Turning Point together.

Our new vision To constantly find ways to support more people to discover new possibilities in their lives.

The quality of our services means everything to us.

The people we work with inspire us and in turn we look for new ways to inspire change. We owe it to the people we work with to grow and shape the future, because we believe in what we do.

The vision expands on the intent behind the strapline describing how we will translate that in to a future reality.

As well as looking to the future it highlights the things that are most important to us – the quality of our services, thinking of new ways to support people, growing the organisation so we can support more people, and enabling people to be ambitious for themselves through finding new possibilities.

In so many organisations, values are just a glossy poster on a wall. When you think of the work we do, this can’t be the case with us – we hope that, in discussion with many of you across the business, we have come up with a set of values

that are important to us all whatever our role, that are expressed in a way that we all understand and that will form part of the way we all behave every day. We need to be clear that our values will mean we all need to do things differently – me included – and it is important that we all have the opportunity to explore this. You will see the values being integrated in to our daily working lives in lots of different ways. We will also be looking at our ‘brand’ or organisational image – ensuring it reflects our values and vision so that our unique identity is clearly communicated and evident to our serviceusers, to commissioners and policy makers.

But whilst our refreshed vision and values reflect the future, it doesn’t mean a complete departure from the past.

50 years ago when our founder Barry Richards launched a small nonprofit organisation called Helping Hands – which would then become Turning Point - to help

people with issues related to alcohol, it was the UK’s first attempt to help those with alcohol problems, by using a community based, residential programme.

Barry Richards was inspired by possibility, and this is something that has been a feature of what Turning Point has done ever since. It is this pioneering spirit that has enabled us to grow from what was effectively a small singleissue charity to a leading social enterprise now employing over 3,000 people and operating over 200 services in the areas of Learning Disability, Mental Health, Substance Misuse, Primary Care, Employment, Criminal Justice and Community.

So we are on an on-going journey which is founded on the past, rooted in the present but with an eye always on the future and it is a journey which we need to take together.

I am personally both excited and challenged by that. I would love to hear your thoughts. I very much look forward to our journey together.

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Enablement

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urning Point’s Enablement Academy is a new set of development opportunities focused on supporting employee learning across the whole of our Learning Disabilities Services.

The Enablement Academy is a response to an increasing demand for a broader and more flexible range of learning opportunities. To meet the changing needs and demand§s our staff face in delivering services and achieving their own development ambitions.

The reasons for calling it an Enablement Academy are twofold.

Firstly, we want to make absolutely clear that the principles of enablement are fundamental to how we deliver our services.

These principles must run through all of our training too. Whether we are training in support planning, personcentred approaches or even supervision and managing rotas.

We should always be thinking about how this enables the individuals we support to make personal choices in their lives. These principles also apply to Turning Point employees as training should also focus on enabling and empowering staff to develop both the skills that give them confidence to perform their jobs and build fulfilling careers.

Secondly, the reason for calling it an Academy is to challenge the idea that training is simply a programme with a start and finish point, where boxes can be ticked to show completion. There will be parts that run like this, such as induction.

What we want to do is to re-enforce the sense that learning has to be on-going. So where our induction training might ensure our staff have the core skills to carry out their jobs effectively, we want to create more opportunities to continue that development

andy kicking off the Person Centred Approaches training in London

through to expertise.

This means making some huge shifts in how we provide access to training. The days of having a simple calendar of training events, where staff book on, turn up and get the certificate are gone. We are developing staff to deliver training locally, at convenient times in smaller chunks, and in the workplace.

We’re also putting our experts at the heart of the design of learning, so they can champion and lead on how the workforce develops the capabilities in their areas of expertise. This means not only looking at training, but how easy it is to read the related policies, equipping managers to support, making sure expertise is

easily accessible, and ensuring our experts remain experts.

A final part of this change has been the introduction of an online learning platform. This means there is a place where staff can go to access learning materials, training calendars and forums to ask experts questions.

So while the Enablement Academy isn’t actually a physical building, we like the idea of it representing a sense of place.

Somewhere we can all access the expertise and development we need to be successful in our roles and provide the quality of support to individuals we support, that is so important to us all.

To find out more please contact Andy Callow, Head of Operations andy.callow@turning-point.co.uk or James Finn, Head or Learning & Development james.finn@turning-point.co.uk

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Academy Person Centred Approaches (PCA) training The past few months have seen over 30 staff from the Learning Disability Services revisiting and refreshing their knowledge and expertise, ensuring we focus everything we do on supporting people to get the life they want. These people’s role will be to lead the roll out of PCA to every staff member in our Learning Disability Services.

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are 2 Learn - training providers who specialise in training in Social Care, delivered training on ‘Person Centred Approaches to Enablement’.

Those staff who attended training will now have the opportunity to enter a Train the Trainer (TTT) programme so they can cascade what they have learnt to other colleagues within Turning Point.

The day included:

How the new Turning Point Vision and Values dovetail into PCA,

Learning Disability service development,

Keys to Citizenship,

REACH standards in Learning Disability Services and

Co-production

The training was launched by Andy Callow, our Head of Operations, Learning Disability Services.

andy head of operations said:

Person Centred Approaches are so key to our work and the transformation plan we have in Learning Disability services. This training and roll out programme will enable every one of our colleagues to be engaged in and thinking about how we can enable the people we support to live fulfilling, meaningful lives.

I’m delighted to be part of this and meet such energetic, enthusiastic colleagues who will help us take this forward.

Hi I was in Stafford yesterday, when the delegates from the PCA training came upstairs during a break. When I asked the delegates how it was going their response was: “It is a fantastic course, the content is absolutely brilliant and exactly what we need”

Right: a letter from Gail taylor Learning & Development Coordinator; passing on positive feedback, from the train the trainer session in staffordshire.

Kind regards, Gail Taylor

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Welcome

Rohan provides a service for two gentlemen with learning disabilities and complex needs. The service is an Independent Hospital that supports people under the Mental Health Act. We wanted to share with you how some of the changes that have been made to enable Pete and Lee to live more independently. We have been looking at some long standing practises and changing our approaches to empower Lee and Peter to increase their independence.

Andy Callow, Head of Operations notes:

Kent - Rohan It’s been nearly a year since we welcomed Lee and Peter to be supported by Turning Point, along with their support staff from the Rohan service in Kent.

challenge old practises.

Here is one example of how…

Previous to being supported by Turning Point the gentlemen’s home was referred to as ‘the shopfloor’. This was not malicious but language that had evolved over time. This terminology has been challenged and replaced with the word home. Although this may seem like a simple change, it is in fact, a very powerful message that has re-established the gentlemen as the focus of

We are really excited about the service at Rohan and the opportunities we can offer Pete and Lee. We have a lot of work to do with the staff and service in enabling it to have a social, community focus, and are delighted with the teams’ commitment and motivation in improving things for Pete and Lee. We have developed a plan with commissioners and the team that includes changes to the environment, approaches to behaviours that challenge and a enabling the service to have a community based focus, rather than a hospital based one.

Turning Point has introduced a culture of regular visits, meeting and spending time with Lee and Peter and their support team. This has made Rohan far more transparent. The staff team have told us feel they have more access and recourse to senior personal and “fresh eyes” have been able

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what we do. As a direct result of the change to ‘home’ both Lee and Peter now have door bells which staff ring to enter instead of just walking in to their apartment.

Contents

The staff are currently working with Pete and Lee to choose their own carpets, bedroom furniture and soft furnishings. All of the hospital signage has been removed from their home, and the gardens are being developed to be fully accessible and include a small allotment area.

We have also reviewed and are changing the way we support them during times their behaviours is

challenging and are introducing BILD accredited Positive Behaviour Support, Person Centred Approaches and non aversive approaches to support them. By putting Peter and Lee at the centre of what we do and redeveloping the service around enablement and independence, we are already seeing a reduction in behaviours that challenge.

Lee has been enjoying summer picnics and recently went to St Margaret’s Bay, Joss Bay and Fordwich. At Fordwich. Lee has recently signed up to a Zumba class, been swimming, horse riding, visited a pet shop and been going to the cinema.

At home he has been busy planting and watering his garden, growing lots of different vegetables in the garden and peppers, tomatoes and strawberries in his greenhouse.

Lee tells us: ‘I’m looking forward to giving my mum and dad a bag of peppers when they visit.’

He’s also been getting involved in preparing meals in the kitchen and getting on with the washing up and other household chores and activities.

lee enjoying himself horseriding

Peter has been having a busy time too. He recently visited the Rare Breeds Centre, just outside Sandwich and enjoyed looking at the unusual animals there. Peter has also been to Howlett’s Zoo. He swims regularly at the Aspen Centre and talking of water, he likes nothing better in this warm weather than to fill up his own paddling pool in the garden.

Pete loves the feeling of water and sunshine on his face.

peter at the rare breeds centre

I’m sure you will agree it’s been great to hear how Lee and Peter have been getting out and about and working hard alongside staff to increase their independence and lead the lives they want to.

To find out more please contact Karen Carley, Service Manager

karen.carley@turning-point.co.uk

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Service Hertfordshire User Involvement Fifa Football’s coming home...to Hertfordshire!

It might not have been England’s year this time around, but that hasn’t stopped our colleagues and people we support in Hertfordshire from getting into the World Cup spirit. With the tournament in full swing over in Brazil, project workers in Hertfordshire put their heads together to organise their own carnival for Learning Disability Week.

The organisers invited individuals we support, their family and friends, as well as colleagues from Hertfordshire and beyond. Also in attendance was local MP Richard Harrington, Fiona Ritchie,

Project worker, Crispen Nyambe said:

The activities really struck a chord with the individuals we support, as they were able to participate at different levels. The involvement of made it easy for the individuals we support to get involved, not only did they enjoy the activities they also enjoyed a variety of food including a BBQ

left and right: people we support enjoying the day

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World Contents Cup Day Managing Director for Learning Disability and Claire Moszoro, Engagement Lead.

Activities on the day included rounders, table tennis, 5 aside football and a penalty shootout, just to mention a few.

After all the activities, food and drink there was a raffle with goodie bags as well as an England shirt up for grabs.

MP Richard Harrington said:

tendai temple, service manager said:

Huge thanks to everyone who was involved. We held this event as part of Learning Disability Week, to raise awareness in the community of learning disabilities and the support we offer. It was such a lovely event and it was great to get people together. There was a lot of laughter, fun and camaraderie between the people we support, staff and our neighbours. A good time was had by all.

I had a great time with Turning Point and it was good to catch up with them, it’s certainly clear just how valued their services are locally and the open day was really enjoyable. I am looking forward to seeing them again soon to discuss things in more detail.

To find out more please contact Crispen Nyambe, Project Worker crispen.nyambe@turning-point.co.uk

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Welcome

Awa rd s time gwen June’s extraordinary person of the month

Extraordinary Person of the Month The past few months have seen some great achievements from the people we support.

June

The winner for the Extraordinary Person of the Month Award in June went to Gwen Harvey from The Octagon, Staffordshire.

Gwen has boundless enthusiasm and desire to maintain her independence even in the face of some challenges around her health.

Gwen had her knee replaced information about different types 12 years ago and sadly it has of holidays including flights, never properly healed which has cruises and holidays in the UK and impacted Gwen’s mobility but Gwen quickly showed that she despite this she is very keen to do was particularly interested in the everything for cruise. herself that she VICKY THOMPSON sUPPORT WORKER Staff also SAID: can. worked with This year Gwen’s family Gwen is going and other Even if it takes Gwen a on a cruise professionals little longer she won’t let to make people do things for her sure that if she knows she can do the holiday them for herself. was exactly what she wanted; she will be setting sail from Southampton round the on the 12 September and will be Mediterranean. visiting Spain and France.

Staff at The Well done Gwen!

Octagon got lots of

Gwen - extraordinary person of the month in june

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July Contents My name is Tom Drake and I am a voluntary ‘Champion Park Ranger’.

Every fortnight I meet the Ranger Team at Priory Park, Bedford and assist them in keeping the park clean, tidy and safe for the local wildlife. My role will involve collecting litter, hedge trimming, monitoring wildlife and reporting any concerns during my walk around the park. We get to meet lots of new people and some wonderful dogs that come up to greet us. It is a job that I can do most of the year and it will change with the different seasons.

This is a picture of myself in the park one sunny afternoon. I am using my ‘litter picker’ to collect rubbish that has been left on the ground.

Well done Tom! You are the winner of July’s Extraordinary Person of the Month Award.

tom - extraordinary person of the month in july

If you want to nominate someone you know who has achieved something special get in touch by emailing your story and pictures to: LDinvolvement @turning-point.co.uk

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Person Centred Recruitment Staff Matching Tool We know that finding the right employee to support individuals is key, but how do we know we are finding the right fit?

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anna Finnerty, Team Leader at Refocus, Wiltshire Learning Disability Services the team and the people we support have been doing just this. Zanna has created a person centred employee matching tool with the help of the individuals we support.

The team feel it is vital that the people we support are involved in the recruitment of any new starters; Zanna asked them would be important to them in a Support Worker. Out of these conversations, the tool was created.

The team at Refocus recently held an interview with a candidate Donna Crouter. Donna was asked competency

based questions by an interview panel. After this she spent about an hour meeting all of the people who use the service. This enabled them to ask Donna about what is important to them. Everybody was able to participate either by asking with pictures as prompts or through their 1:1 support assisting them in highlighting their needs and wishes. All of the individuals we support liked Donna and with the help of the staff matching tool Zanna can ensure the people we support are happt with who is supporting them.Donna started supporting people at Refocus on 30 June and we would like to wish her a warm welcome.

the three Donnas - left to right: Donna Crouter new recruit, Donna Brownless, Support worker, and Donna Frank, who we support - Yes it is going to get confusing!

To find out more about the staff matching tool contact Zanna email: zanna.finnerty@turning-point.co.uk

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Turning Point in action

Raising Awareness of Social Care In June, Victor spoke at the House of Lords as part of a debate on health inequalities found by the Confidential Inquiry into Premature Deaths of People with Learning Disabilities (CIPOLD). everyone else and receive the same level of determination from the Government to lead the improvements that are needed.”

Sarah Reed External Affairs - Manager Turning Point

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he debate was brought forward by the Baroness Hollins, nearly one year since the Government responded to the CIPLOD report. Victor stated that: “At the heart of this Inquiry is the fundamental issue of meeting and responding to people’s needs...The Inquiry’s recommendations need to be addressed as a matter of urgency, alongside improving culture and responding better to people’s individual needs...People with learning disabilities must receive the same standards of care as

Other news…

MP Visits We have continued our work with parliamentarians by hosting a visit by Chris White MP to Russell Terrace in Warwickshire which went very well.

Speaker’s House Event In September, we are hosting an event on learning disability at Speaker’s House, hosted by the Speaker of the House of Commons The Rt Hon John Bercow MP. Here we will bring together MPs, Peers,

providers, individuals we support and their families to discuss the challenges facing people who have a learning disability and the many things they achieve.

Consultation on the Care Act regualtions and guidance We are also drafting our response to the consultation on the Care Act regulations and guidance. The Care Act 2014 became law on the 14 May and sets out a number of duties for local authorities including a duty to:

Promote individual wellbeing when buying and arranging services

Promote integration of care and support with health services

Provide information and advice about local services, how people can raise concerns and

get financial advice.

Provide people with an independent advocate if needed

Act quickly and provide support if providers fail.

The Act also sets out rights for people, including carers, to have an assessment of their needs, an entitlement to a personal budget and improved processes in place to support transitions.

This places huge amounts of work on already stretched local authorities so we have a role to ensure we’re aware of everything they are tasked to do (through the current consultation) and then that the benefits of the Care Act are felt by the people we support, or may support in the future.

To read Victor’s full speech just visit the learning disability part of our website

www.turning-point.co.uk

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The Link has been designed for you.

It’s about you and the people you care about, connecting families and carers of people with a learning disability from around the country. Please tell us what you think and how we can make it better next time.

What is important to you? What you say matters and we want to share your ideas and stories. Tell us more about what you would like to read about.

Get in touch today Tell us what you think by emailing TheLink@turning-point.co.uk or via post to The Link, Turning Point, Standon House, 21 Mansell Street, London, E1 8AA Letters may be edited.

The Link will be distributed quarterly. If you would prefer not to receive it, you can opt out by emailing the address above, or via telephone on 020 7481 6228.

www.turning-point.co.uk

Useful Numbers General Turning Point enquiries: Standon House (London) 020 7481 7600 The Exchange (Manchester) 0161 238 5100

Ideas, comments and stories: Claire Moszoro Turning Point 020 7481 6228

Turning Point is a registered charity No. 23454565. Address: Standon House, 21 Mansell Street London, E1 8AA