Care Opportunities

Care Opportunities has a care home, The Conifers, where young people aged over 18 with learning disabilities and complex needs can live and be supported to develop individual skills at home and in the community. 24-hour support is provided at The Conifers, and each person will have their own bedroom with an en-suite. Care Opportunities also has a Supported Living service, where young people aged over 18 with learning disabilities and complex needs can receive support to go about their daily lives while living as independently as possible in their own home. We have links with a housing provider who can provide a secure tenancy to anyone wishing to receive our support. Both of our services are regulated by the CQC. Our aim is to enable the people we support to deal with all aspects of their life: social, educational, behavioural, psychological, financial, recreational and leisure. We encourage and work with individuals to maintain their existing relationships with friends and family. Each person is supported with the appropriate staffing requirements based on their abilities, skills and needs. We provide: • Person-centred services • In-house clinical expertise (Clinical Psychologist, Behavioural Specialist) • Thorough initial and on-going assessment of needs • Evidence-based support • Transition from child to adult services • Step-down from more secure services • Highly trained and motivated staff team • Robust services • Professionalism • Excellent leadership

We support individuals aged 18 and over with the diagnosis of a learning disability, who may present with one or more of the following: * Challenging behaviour * Autistic Spectrum Disorder * Dual diagnosis (learning disability with associated mental health disorders) * Complex needs, including epilepsy and Fragile X Syndrome Support is provided on a person-centred basis, and will vary depending on the young person’s individual abilities, skills and needs. As support is tailored to the people using our service and we train our staff according to the needs of the people they are supporting (e.g. Autistic Spectrum Disorder, or Schizophrenia).

You can contact us directly to find out more about the services we provide; we accept referrals directly from individuals themselves, family members, Social Services or the NHS. Funding for the people we support is provided through either, direct payments, self-funding, Social Services or the NHS (via Clinical Commissioning Groups, or CCGs). These costs cover all staff support, and for those using our residential care service the funding also covers the accommodation costs (including utilities). A professional from either Children’s or Adult’s services can make a referral to us, and you can contact us directly to enquire about the progress of any referrals made. We currently have a vacancy at the Conifers our residential care home in Basingstoke. The amount of time between a referral being made and our service commencing can vary, depending on a number of factors (such as availability of funding, or the needs of the young person). In some instances the process can exceed six months.

We provide services in North Hampshire. Our residential care home, The Conifers, is located in Basingstoke, Hampshire, while supported living services are currently provided in Basingstoke and Blackwater, Hampshire.

Once someone from Children’s Services or Adult Services has made a referral to us, one or more members of our clinical team will visit the person who would like to use our services to assess their individual needs. At assessment lots of information will be gathered, from details about the young person’s family history, physical health, mental health and cognitive abilities, to their skills of daily living, favourite foods and activities they enjoy. Once an assessment has been carried out, our clinical team will be able to determine whether Care Opportunities are able to provide a service that will promote the wellbeing and meet the needs of the individual who was assessed. If we are able to provide a service, the assessment will be written-up and submitted to the person responsible for funding such as the individual themselves, a Care Manager or Commissioner for review. Individuals or Social Services or the CCG will determine whether funding can be obtained, and once funding has been approved plans can be decided for how to best-support the young person to begin receiving support from Care Opportunities (for example, is a transition needed or can they move in straight away). We are always happy to help the young people we may be providing support to (and their families) understand how decisions are made about who can use our service, and if you have any questions our Behavioural Specialist can liaise closely with you to handle any concerns or queries.

Staff communicate with the people we support in a number of ways, including: • Makaton, an adapted version of sign language that is widely used by people with learning disabilities alongside speech • Pictures and symbols • Photographs • Social stories, which are written uniquely for the individual using a programme called ‘Communicate: Sym-Writer’ • Choice boards, which display a range of choice options and allow people to take their time making a decision. When someone has made a choice from the available options staff can determine what someone wants by the person’s eye gaze, pointing or gestures if they do not indicate their choice by speaking • Communication books, which contain lots of symbols that someone might need to communicate (e.g. containing pictures of activities, foods, feelings, and more) • Written text • Verbally All the people we support have the opportunity to share their views about the service they receive at monthly residents/tenants meetings, and through completing ‘service user satisfaction surveys’. Symbols and other types of communication tools are involved in these meetings and surveys when required. We also encourage the people we support to speak to staff if they have any concerns or issues. Family service review meetings are held annually, so the parents, siblings and/or next of kin for the people we support can share their views and ask questions about the care and support Care Opportunities provides. Our service users’ next of kin are also sent family satisfaction surveys annually to complete.

Our residential care home is a homely environment, designed with the needs of the people who live there in mind. The communal areas are designed to be calming and suitable for people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (functional, low-stimulus décor and furnishings). Most of the furniture in communal areas, such as the dining chairs, sofas and activity boards, are made by a company who specialise in providing robust ‘tough’ furniture for environments where challenging behaviour may be displayed. This means the furniture can more easily withstand property damage, compared to typical home furnishings. Our housing provider for our supported living service is very flexible and allows for us to adapt the homes that the people we support rent, to meet the needs of each tenant on a person-centred basis, without restricting the lifestyle and routine of their housemates. We provide easy-read symbol-based versions of support plans for service users who might find it difficult to read a written version of their support plan. Other documents are also provided to service users in a person-centred format that meets their needs (e.g. minutes for tenants meetings might be in an easy-read symbol-based format if someone requires pictures alongside words, but their housemate may have a worded version of the minutes if this is their preference). We always adapt our approaches to support each individual based on their own needs – to treat everybody in the same way does not promote equality, dignity and diversity. Please feel free to contact us to discuss your needs.

All of our employees receive training in the following areas: • Learning disabilities • Challenging behaviour • Proactive strategies for supporting people who may display verbal or physical aggression, and reactive strategies for responding when a person may be in ‘crisis’ (this course is called PROACT-SCIPr-UK®) • Health and safety • Control of substances hazardous to health • Fire training • Manual handling • Safeguarding • First aid • Infection control • Equality and diversity • Food hygiene We also offer additional training that is centred around the needs of the people we support, and is tailored to the staff supporting the individual, e.g. training on specific clinical disorders or syndromes.

We gather lots of information on the needs of the people we support, and write a robust personal risk assessment for each service user. We use a ‘traffic light’ system for assessing risk – red indicates a high risk, whereas green indicates no risk. Risk assessments form part of people’s support plans, and these are reviewed fortnightly by our clinical team. Risk assessments cover key areas, such as being in the community, safety about the kitchen and risk of self-harm. If a change is required, the clinical team will make any changes quickly to keep the person safe. The staff that we employ all undergo an enhanced criminal record check (known as a DBS check) before working in our homes, and ID checks are carried out at the interview stage. All of our staff are offered jobs subject to satisfactory references and DBS checks. The homes that the people we support live in are all assessed for their safety. Regular health and safety audits are carried out on the environment by our Operations Team, and DBS checked maintenance contractors ensure that the environment is safe. We are inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), who check that our services are safe, caring, responsive to the needs of the people we support, effective at delivering high quality support, and well-led by competent managers. All of these factors check that our service is safe. Competent services are inspected at least every other year. We have achieved Outstanding following a recent unannounced inspection.

If you want to discuss something anything in relation to a young person, please contact our head office on 01256 405460, who can direct you to the most appropriate member of staff – either our Operations Manager or Behavioural Specialist. We are a small company and keen to establish close relationships with families of prospective service users, or people we are already supporting. If a young person is receiving support from Care Opportunities, a Support Team Leader will oversee their team of direct support staff, and you may contact the staff team at the young person’s home, as well as the management team at head office. We always welcome you to contact us with any questions, concerns or queries. If you are considering whether your child or young person would benefit from our service, then please contact us directly at head office and ask to speak to our Behavioural Specialist. We can advise on you the best action to take to get a professional referral.