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Category: Adult Living Services

To categorise Adult services content both residential and Hub.

Access All Areas: The Hub

Posted on by Angeline Westley

Our Hub services have been put together with the aim to help children and young adults with disabilities get the absolute most from life.

 

Between custom built accommodation, fun clubs and respite for all the family, we’ve been extremely successful in our goal. To get an inside look on the services, we caught up our Hub Business Manager, Jami Charalambous for insights into her role and what part she plays within the organisation.

“My role as Hub Business Manager is overseeing all the various areas of our Hub services and managing the duty team. Given the nature of the Hub and its four key areas, we need a lot of hands on deck. The team comprises of over 70 flexible support workers. The hub is great for workers who want variety and flexibility in their career.

My job is to make sure business is developing, growing and increasing at a rate that is manageable. I make sure staff are working toward their full potential. If not, what can I do? What would they like to do? It is incredibly important to me that they are happy in the role, that they have a good relationship with the person in their care and make sure it is the right fit. This is a value to both individuals. The team member has much more job satisfaction and of course, the individual in our care has the best quality of life possible, as these key workers become a critical part of their lives. If they don’t like them or feel comfortable around them, it can make care difficult for everybody.

It is also my job to keep a strong working relationship with the relevant Local Authorities. With us continually evolving, it’s essential we keep them up to date with what’s going on and how we can help. A lot of our Hub services can save public money as we see more than one person with complex care needs at a time so there is less to spend, but on a deeper level, it’s invaluable to the young person to be around friends of a similar age and need. Also, we often find that the young people in our care benefit from something different to that originally considered.

We found also found that there were not enough activity groups for those in our care. It’s been such a pleasure to be a part of that change and watch it grow and be successful. The best bit about them for me is that young people can go about their day and are just doing what young people should be able to do. Getting as much of a normal social life as possible is beyond valuable.

With over 100 families to look after and a large support team, the hub has this constant buzz of energy about it. There is never a dull day! It really is exciting and rewarding to bring positive change the lives of young people.

I am incredibly proud of my department, really excited about what we are doing and look forward to the future. The hub has been a testament to the adaptability of Progress and its commitment to improving the quality of people’s lives. There is no limit to what we can do. If there is a benefit to the young people, Progress will move heaven and earth to make it happen.”

We’re incredibly proud of the progress the children and young adults in our care make on a daily basis. The Hub plays a big helping hand in that. For more information give us a call on 01902 561066 option 1, email enquiry.hub@progresscare.co.uk or check out https://progresscare.co.uk/the-hub/

Blog by Issie – 16 year-old daughter of Progress staff member

Posted on by Angeline Westley

The feeling of buying something new never gets old!

 

Like most other teenage girls, my interests are fashion, makeup and music and regardless of any disability, the young girls supported by Progress are probably the same. I believe myself to be extremely lucky that I have no difficulties or disabilities but I can imagine for girls that do, it could prove harder to do things like go shopping.

Because I have a Saturday job in the village store and tea rooms, I always have some money to spend on clothes and makeup, like the pink fluffy coat I just ordered online! If you want to get a part time job but are worried you are limited for choices because of a difficulty or disability, don’t worry because Progress supports young people to get work experience and then paid employment. If you want help with this, get in touch!

Fashion is something quite important to me along with many other women around the world. It allows me to express myself and have my own personal style. My favourite shops to buy fashion clothes from are Topshop, Missguided, Asos and Primark. I also like to shop in New Look and H&M. My favourite style at the moment is 90’s themed, which is what a lot of celebrities and popstars are wearing right now too. I don’t always follow what celebrities and popstars are wearing but I think it’s a great place to look for inspiration for your own wardrobe.

Missguided launched a campaign called #keeponbeingyou and recently interviewed Shelby Lynch, a 20 year-old YouTuber from England. Shelby doesn’t let anything stand in her way when it comes to achieving her dreams and she hopes to one day open her own fashion label, specifically catering for people with disabilities. She believes that diversity is very important when it comes to the fashion industry.

If you have a difficulty or disability it shouldn’t mean that you’re limited to what you aspire to be. There are so many fashion models and strong independent women affected by disabilities. For example, Jillian Mercado is an extremely successful fashion model and wheelchair user. Kelly Knox, who was born without a left forearm, is Britain’s leading disabled fashion model. From the age of seven she refused to wear a prosthetic arm and throughout her career she has paved the way for other aspiring models and offered inspiration to those who need to develop confidence, despite regular negative attitudes towards disability.

Another job that shouldn’t be limited by difficulties is acting. Jamie Brewer is a famous actress who was born with downs syndrome. This has not affected her being able to take on a huge role in a popular American TV series and she recently walked the catwalk at New York Fashion Week.

Our Hub services can help you with things like shopping, work support and managing your finances, if you’d like to find out more about Progress get in touch with us today!

Ingenuitive Technology; Helping Residents Sleep Soundly

Posted on by Angeline Westley

The development of our new residential short breaks and transitions to independence service in Wolverhampton, has provided an excellent opportunity for us to integrate systems to improve the level of care we offer. One of the features we are excited to unveil is the acoustic monitoring technology we are installing. This equipment is only currently being utilised in adult services but we are proud to be the first business in the UK to include this innovative and life changing technology in our offer for young people.

The equipment listens out for concerning sounds and triggers an alert to the relevant bodies, replacing the standard practice of periodic manual observations; where staff hourly visit resident’s bedrooms. This manual process is not only disruptive but also impractical. If an incident were to take place in-between hourly checks, staff may be unaware.

By measuring a baseline noise level in the individual rooms, the technology can detect when a sound exceeds the tailored threshold. This could be an excessive cough or a seizure that would otherwise go undetected. Knowing in real-time when there is a problem as well as preemptive alerts allows us to work proactively. With the reliability of the discrete monitoring system, residents will have a better quality of life with the dignity and respect they deserve — with staff notified when assistance is necessary — the residents are left in peace for an uninterrupted night’s sleep.

To integrate this revolutionary technology, we partnered with Adaptive IT, CLB’s 2017 reseller of the year and below is a statement from them.

“Working with Progress has been a fantastic experience. They were easy to talk to and had a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve. They challenged us (in a good way) by questioning each aspect of our solution, they really had their residents at the heart of all of their decisions.

We have been working within the public health sector (NHS) for many years mainly dealing with estates and IT departments. The move into private care has brought us closer to the front lines of care and we really appreciate the work these organisations do. It is a pleasure to be able to provide a level of support to those who are directly influencing these young people’s lives in such a positive way.

Progress has taken a leap forward for young people’s services in the UK by implementing acoustic monitoring. It is crucial for these young people to feel supported but independent at the same time. Using the acoustic monitoring technology allows them to gain confidence in themselves and their independence in a safe and supported way, by reducing unnecessary care interventions which could potentially undermine feelings of individual achievement.”

Want to know more about any of our support services in the Black Country or beyond?
Please contact us now.

Coming soon – Stourbridge House

Posted on by Angeline Westley

A word from the Managing Director 

Welcome to the first newsletter about the latest developmentfrom Progress, my name is Claire Rogers the Managing Director. Over the next few months we will be keeping you up to date with the developments at Stourbridge House and counting down to its launch. So, what’s it all about you may ask?

Well, I shall tell you!

The service, partly commissioned by Wolverhampton Council will provide a brand new short breaks provision for children with disabilities following the closure of Windmill Lane and Stow Heath. Alongside this, the council wanted families to be able to get support in their homes as well as being able to have overnight stays. For those of you with little ones, the outreach service will help you to get a bit of time out too. That’s where we come in, we offered the council the right mix of skills and creativity and were awarded a contract to deliver this.

Progress has been supporting children and young people with disabilities for 17 years now. Our focus is to provide high quality community support, activity groups, short breaks, residential care and fostering services across Wolverhampton and the Black Country.

We have a wide range of experience to meet the needs of young people, we are creative in our approach, offering the right service at the right time and ensuring that we respond to the changing needs of children and families. Ourservices don’t stop at 18, our offering continues on into early adulthood, ensuring continuity and consistency of support and care for as long as needed. In the design of this project, we wanted to take it a bit further than the original brief as our aim is to help young people ‘progress’ and develop into confident young adults. Stourbridge House will be a three-storey building, (you may have seen this peeping above the boarding around the site).

The Ground floor will have 6 beds and will provide short breaks for children with all types of disabilities. The first floor will be for young adults aged 16-25, again offering short breaks but with a greater focus on developing independence and building on friendships and relationships. Finally, the second floor will have 5 flats where young adults can try out what it’s like to live independently.The young people who visit Stourbridge House will be taken on a safe and supported journey into adulthood and will be able to start planning for their futures. We are all very excited about this new project and look forward to sharing it with you and getting you involved along the way.

The Big Build

So, the actual building is about finished, what a challenge that has been! For those of you that don’t know, we are on the Stourbridge Road. The site used to be an old petrol station, so the ground works were a bigger job than expected and it took longer to get it off the ground than we thought. This caused us a bit of delay! We have had multiple tradespeople working round the clock to get the building up which has made up a bit of lost time, but we are still about 6-8 weeks behind schedule because of this.

The underfloor heating is in on the ground floor (we have found over the years that the kids love this!)and the first fix is going in as we speak. Our owners Bal and Raj personally project manage every aspect of the build and Bal has exacting standards when it comes to interior design. She personally chooses all the materials and décor to ensure that it feels like a Progress home. Bal has recently met with suppliers to commission the hoists and bathing equipment, looking for quality, resilience and a non-clinical appearance. The end result will look like somewhere you would want to move into yourself,so I can’t wait to see what she does here!

Our People

We have been doing loads of recruitment locally for our new team to support families and children at Stourbridge House and in the community and were thrilled when we made 19 offers of employment at our last recruitment day, we look forward to welcoming the new staff into the Progress Family. For those families whose children will be transferring from Regis House or community support, you need not worry as some of the existing staff will be transferring over to the new service to provide consistency and make sure that children settle in well.

Registration 

Our Registered Manager for Stourbridge House will be Phil McDonald, who many of you will know as he is our current Manager at Regis House and supports many families with his community based services and groups. Both Phil and I are in the process of theapplication to Ofsted to get the home registered and we hope this process will go smoothly, with the support of our colleagues at Ofsted.

Highlights 

We wanted Stourbridge House to embrace modern technology so it will be packed full of assistive technology to make people’s lives easier, provide better health monitoring and give young people greater dignity during their time with us. We will tell you more about this next time.

Keep it Wolverhampton  

Progress is a family owned business and is proud of it’s Black Country heritage. We like to do business locally and employ local tradespeople. We will introduce some of our local partners in the next few publications. If you know any local suppliers or businesses, who may want to be involved whilst we are kitting out the home and getting ready for launch, please get in touch.

News and events

We are hosting an ‘Afternoon of Fun’ on 31st August as part of the local consultation for our new service Stourbridge House. The family fun day will be held at the Mercure Wolverhampton Goldthorn Hotel between 2:30pm – 6:30pm. It’s sure to be a great day with lots of exciting activities and a goody bag for your children. It helps with our planning if we know you are coming, please click here to register. We are pleased to announce that our lovely CEO Bal will be attending this event. If you would like to meet her she will be available between 3-4pm. We all look forward to seeing you soon!

We will also be launching a competition to name each service at Stourbridge House,to get involved, follow us on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest news.

View this blog as a pdf here.

View the flyer for our ‘Afternoon of Fun’ here.

Community Based Services – Introducing the HUB

Posted on by Angeline Westley

The Hub is a combination of dedicated services with the sole aim of creating positive outcomes for children and young adults with disabilities.

Community based services. The Hub’ provides a central point in the co-ordination  of key services that are community based and accessible to all vulnerable children, young people and their families as and when they feel they need them and can be purchased directly by the individual, parents or carers who manage their own personal budgets.

To find out more, visit our Hub page by clicking here.