SERVICES

We aim to meet the needs of service users who have an Autistic Spectrum Disorder or related conditions, severe learning disabilities and behaviours that may challenge.

We aim to offer a service which has its users’ well-being at its heart. We treat service users with courtesy and respect, acknowledging their right to privacy, dignity, choice, independence, equality and adulthood. We recognise their individuality and aim to tailor our service to their needs, offering opportunities for personal development to fulfil their potential. We respect service users’ individual means of self-expression, and value their personalities and diversity. We support their cultural and faith identities.

Our aim is that service users:

• Live happy, purposeful and fulfilling lives which reflect their abilities, interests, wishes, aspirations, ethnicity, culture and faith.
• Develop a range of social living skills for use in their home, in occupation / employment, leisure and general community activities.

We support service users to achieve all they can, and make full use of the resources available to them.
At their level of ability and understanding service users are supported to:

• Plan for their lives.
• Make choices in all areas.
• Develop effective communication.
• Keep in touch with family and old friends and make new friendships...
• Realise their aspirations and fulfill their potential. Build on old skills and learn new ones.
• Follow their own lifestyle, interests, culture and religion.
• Increase their independence in all areas.

Daily programme
We help service users to manage their own daily programmes. Many people with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder and related conditions need support in visually structuring their time, environment and activities to enable them to understand and participate fully.

Fairmont @ Kidderminster is committed to the structured approach advocated by Division TEACCH at the University of North Carolina. This approach is widely adopted internationally when supporting people with autistic spectrum conditions. Staff are trained and experienced in TEACCH and are supported through a contract with Sunfield who are UK TEACCH trainers.

Individual support plan
We use a person-centred approach to planning. Individual Support Plans (ISPs) are developed collaboratively with service users based upon their Care Plans. The ISP reflects an individual’s needs, interests, wishes, hopes and aspirations.
Including such things as:

• Personal likes and preferences (e.g. food, drink, etc.).
• Communication styles (including any communication support needs and arrangements).
• Social, cultural and spiritual preferences and how these will be taken account of
• Leisure interests and how these can be supported successfully.
• Any special furniture, equipment and adaptations with procedures for use.
• Level of support and approach needed for specific personal care and hygiene needs.
• Individual health needs and how these will be met and facilitated.
• How immediate family/carers, friends and representatives will be contacted.
• Arrangements for taking medication and, if necessary, who can be contacted.
• Who will provide independent support if the service user needs to make a complaint.
• Any measures of physical intervention which staff may have to use for the service user’s own safety, the safety of others and property.
• How service users can best be supported to succeed in different situations (e.g. their home, in continuing education, in vocational training and employment, in domestic skills, in life achievements, in financial management).

Through continuing assessment and review, we aim to meet our service users’ changing needs and support their progress towards independence. ISPs are reviewed every six months in association with their Care Plan review.
Individual Support Plans will also list any targets and aims.

Care Plan
A service user’s Care Plan is reviewed every six months with the service user and significant professionals to ensure that the placement is still suitable and the service user’s present and changing needs are being addressed. Immediate family, friends and advocates, as agreed with the service user, are also invited to attend. The service user or their representatives can ask for interim reviews if they feel that this is needed.

We support service users in making real choices in all areas of their lives,  at the level of their understanding that do not adversely affect their health, safety and well-being or those of others sharing their home and community. We aim for a negotiated balance between the rights and choices of an individual and those of other service users.

Enabling service users to make choices in different areas of their lives means they have control. This helps everyone feel a part of the community, and is good for both emotional and mental health.

Many people with autistic spectrum conditions may need the support of a visual and/or concrete approach to communicate effectively with others. Makaton and the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) are widely used and proven approaches. All our staff receive Makaton and PECS training through Sunfield qualified trainers. Training in other individualized systems is accessed if required.

We ensure that each resident has access to an independent advocate via Wyre Forest Advocacy, and we also work with a service user’s circle of support. We listen to and respect the views put forward by advocates as though they were the service user’s own views.

Accreditation
A pedagogical approach is used when service users are taught life skills in everyday situations.  Staff have been trained to record and provide evidence of such learning so the service user can be duly accredited for progress and acquiring skills. This continual learning process will be coordinated and accredited through the Further Education department at Sunfield School.  This will enable the service user to learn, develop and retain skills needed for them to live in a supported living environment.

College opportunities
Service users are also supported in identifying college courses that will be of interest and of use to them; there are appropriate courses available at nearby Kidderminster College.  Staff will support attendance of college on a 1:1 basis.  The college offers part-time courses of study and leisure to people with learning difficulties.  Courses focus on developing the individual’s life skills as well as increasing vocational skills within a subject area.

Vocation
Vocational aspirations are explored with service users, by accessing local employers who are able to offer opportunities of work experience to adults with varying needs. This enables service users to apply relevant skills they have obtained, or are working towards at Kidderminster College.

Families and friends are usually an important part of service users’ support network, and we make every effort to help service users and their families and friends to keep in touch unless the service user communicates that they do not want this. We also support them in making new friends and relationships.

We recognise that, except in unusual circumstances, families are the enduring people in the lives of service users, and have their best interests and well-being at heart, as well as a profound knowledge of their wishes, needs and circumstances.

We welcome phone calls and visits from service users’ families, friends and advocates. Visits do need to be arranged to ensure that they do not unduly upset or disrupt the busy lives of other service users. 

Religious Faith and Identity
Service users are free to follow the faith of their choice. We support service users to attend a local place of worship of their choice when possible or arrange for a faith leader to visit if that is preferred. Keyworkers will also help service users to understand and identify with their ethnicity and culture.

We support service users’ independence, confidence and self-esteem by encouraging them to take responsibility for their lives, community and environment at a level which allows them to experience success.

Service users are encouraged to become increasingly independent in all activities they take part in, while taking account of their health, safety and quality of life. We provide consistent learning opportunities and daily programmes to promote independence, together with weekly service users’ meetings, where they are consulted about the operation of their home in ways which enable their contribution according to their abilities.

All service users have learning aims and targets which are reviewed regularly.

Behaviour support
We promote positive behaviour among service users in a sensitive and consistent way through behaviour development and support strategies for each resident. We recognise that the difficulties which service users experience can impact on their behaviour, and any physical and/or verbal aggression by the person is understood and managed appropriately in their best interests.  We use the Crisis & Aggression Limitation & Management (CALM) approach to behaviour support, accredited by the British Institute of Learning Disabilities (BILD)

Psychology, Health Care and Therapeutic Services
Fairmont @ Kidderminster has a close affiliation with Sunfield, and has a contract and access to consultancy from specialist professionals, including a consultant psychologist, occupational therapist, speech and language therapist, councillor and healthcare professional. If agreed and funded through the local authority other individual therapy and interventions can be Arranged.
Medication is administered efficiently and safely in a way which respects the individual’s privacy and dignity and preferred way of taking medication. Each resident has an individual locked cupboard in their room but it is usually more appropriate for their medication to be stored in our central locked Medicine cabinet or fridge. The service users’ preferred way of taking medication is always detailed in the Health Section of their Care Plan. Staff receive training in administration and safe storage of medication.

Business affairs
We respect people’s right to control their finances and personal property, and support service users to handle and manage their financial, legal and personal affairs in accordance with their level of understanding. We help service users to claim all appropriate welfare benefits and social services.

We have put in place accounting, financial and other business procedures that safeguard service users’ interests, and we handle their finances and valuables appropriately, in accordance with legislation, regulations and guidance. All staff read the policies associated with business affairs, and receive appropriate training within the first six months of employment.

Unless arrangements have been made for direct payments to be made to a service user’s representative, the key workers are responsible for supporting service users in managing their financial affairs. Outside professional advice is sought if necessary.

Admission
Referral to this service is typically via your local authority. When a placement is proposed, we assess the applicant carefully to make sure that our service can meet their needs, and to consider their likely compatibility with any service users already living at the home.

If it is felt that the service provided would suit the person and vice versa, transition visits to Fairmont @ Kidderminster are arranged before a place is finally offered.  One of these visits is likely to be a day visit with their current staff or family supporting. Another visit is normally a day and overnight stay without familiar staff or family support.  It is hoped that this will determine for both staff and service user whether Fairmont @ Kidderminster is a place where they could be happy to live.  

The first three months are a trial and a settling in period for all concerned; at the end of these three months a review is undertaken, to ensure that the placement decision was right for the individual and the home.

You are welcome to arrange a visit prior to any formal agreements, please contact the home’s Registered Manager; details are on the contacts page of this website.