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ELCAP'S SUPPORTED LIVING SERVICES
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Aims
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To help people we already support to find accommodation more suited to their individual needs and to promoting a valued lifestyle.
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Achievements
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Five people supported by ELCAP moved to new homes between March 2005 and April 2006.
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Challenges
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A further five people are in the process of moving; four more are actively seeking a move. Many more are being supported to consider their options. The challenges for ELCAP are to identify and be able to demonstrate to others, what are the wishes of those people still sharing housing and support or whose accommodation no longer meets their needs. Once a person's wishes and needs can be clearly demonstrated, the challenge will be to work out how to help them achieve the change they want and need. This will probably include working out how their support needs can be met within the resources available.
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(Where people moving house reduces the numbers in a shared house to two, this helps us achieve another aim, to reduce the number of living situations where people's homes have to be registered as houses in multiple occupation).
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Aim
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To help people reduce their reliance on segregated activities and pursue their interests alongside the rest of the community in mainstream settings.
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Achievements
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Some activities intended to be inclusive had become segregated. These were withdrawn and people supported to pursue individual interests.
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Challenges
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More consistent support into personally chosen activities needs to be provided to more people. We also need to find affordable ways of supplementing support time for people whose funded support has been assessed on the assumption that it is shared with others.
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Aim
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To help people access all the benefits to which they are entitled.
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Achievements
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Over the year ELCAP staff, working with FAIR, have supported people to obtain £37, 926 Benefit income that they were previously missing out on.
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Challenges
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To maintain a close watch on people's benefit entitlement, support applications and appeals, and make sure people understand how earnings or savings can impact on different entitlements.
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Aim
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To help people communicate effectively. To help staff understand better the communication of the people they support.
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Achievements
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People use simple aids at home (photos and symbols) to help them plan their day, and to know who will be supporting them at different times and with different activities. Signifiers (objects identified with different activities or options) are used to help people understand what options are being offered and to express preferences. People receiving support play an active part in training their support staff in their preferred communication.
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Challenges
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To make sure everyone's communication needs are being addressed effectively. To put the ELCAP newsletter and other communications onto tape and to use more aids to communication.
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Aim
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To involve people who use support and their families, and the communities in which ELCAP works, in shaping plans and designing services.
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Achievements
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We introduced individual quarterly service reviews to which families are invited. We held an Open Space consultation around the 2005 AGM and asked people what they wanted us to start doing, stop doing, do more of or do differently. That fed into the Workplan for 2006-7. Partly in response to the Open Space discussions, three people who use ELCAP's services were co-opted onto the Executive Board. People First Scotland were contracted to provide support to these new directors and to a wider group of service users interested in getting more involved in the organisation. This was funded by seconding an Assistant Director part time to another provider for six months, supplemented by a grant from the ELCAP Trust. Across all services, people play an active part in recruiting staff who will support them.
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Challenges
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We need to find other ways of involving the people ELCAP works for in the work of the organisation and supporting them to do this. We also need to find ways of further involving families, and to strengthen our links with community networks.
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Aim
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To extend our services to more people, especially in Edinburgh and Midlothian, and especially to families with a child with support needs.
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Achievements
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We supported 19 more adults and 10 more children than in the previous year. Of these, 5 were in Edinburgh, 13 in Midlothian and 11 in East Lothian.
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Challenges
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We want to further develop our services in Edinburgh and Midlothian, and to start providing services in Borders. As well as offering good services to more people, this would help us to keep our costs affordable and make us less dependent upon one purchasing authority.
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SHORT STAY SERVICE
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Aims
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To offer to people who use the (residential) short stay service alternative short breaks that are not tied to the existing building.
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Achievements
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We asked people what they would like and suggested different ways this could be achieved. However, largely because the existing local authority funding is tied into a buildings based contract, families and care managers were not keen to try alternatives that might have involved them in more expense.
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Challenges
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We want to find ways to make non-buildings based options more attractive and more affordable, and to address the fears and concerns that prevent people trying out alternatives.
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ACCOMMODATION SERVICE
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Aims
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To improve the housing and property management service, remove unnecessary restrictions on tenants' autonomy, improve the standard of accommodation and effect changes to better meet people's housing needs.
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Achievements
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We changed our property management agent, removed most service charges that were restricting tenants' rights to choose how and when to decorate and refurnish and spent £144,817 on repairs, maintenance and upgrades. We also negotiated new agreements with statutory authorities that brought tenants' rights to aids and adaptations into line with those of other citizens with comparable needs. We used funds from previous disposals to acquire three new properties to re-house existing tenants more appropriately.
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Challenges
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The original idea was to use the equity tied up in existing properties to create a rolling development fund with which to provide alternative accommodation for people now in shared housing. However the feasibility study showed this would only be financially viable if conducted on a much larger scale than ELCAP could support. We are now exploring the option of a housing provider assuming the property portfolio in exchange for access to tenancies for existing and future users of ELCAP's support services.
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GOVERNANCE
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Aims
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To focus the Board activity on direction setting, strategic thinking, monitoring and accountability. To keep the Board in touch with how people experience ELCAP's services and what they want from the organisation. To make sure the organisation's systems of financial management are sound and working properly. To make sure risks to the organisation are understood and being addressed.
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Achievements
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The Board established a cycle of activity with one policy discussion, two strategic discussions, quarterly monitoring and an annual accountability review. In tandem with the 2005 AGM the Board held an Open Space consultation involving employees, people who use services and their families, and other agencies that work with ELCAP. Following the Open Space event three people who use services were co-opted onto the Executive Board. A new contract for Internal Audit was agreed and the Risk Map and action plan were reviewed with the new Internal Auditor.
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Challenges
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We need to continue to adapt Board activity so all Board members can contribute fully. The Open Space experience will be repeated in alternate years. We need to keep under review issues that present risk to the organisation and find effective means of minimising or managing these risks.
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ELCAP AS EMPLOYER
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Aims
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To strengthen and stabilise the staff group and meet the Scottish Social Service Council requirements for staff qualifications.
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Achievements
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We achieved a major shift to local recruitment, streamlining the process and involving the people whose support service it is. This shortened the time lag in filling posts so teams are up to strength most of the time, and new services can start quickly. Sickness absence declined by 3.2% compared with the previous year. By the end of the year all Service managers had achieved the qualification appropriate to their level of responsibility. Thirty Support Workers have achieved the qualification required for their grade.
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Challenges
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Forty support staff will achieve their required qualification in 2006-7.
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SUPPORT SYSTEMS
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Aims
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To change existing systems or introduce new systems to further the 'personalisation of services' agenda.
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Achievements
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We developed and introduced person-centred competencies for support staff and their managers. We started the process to deliver individual financial reporting systems. We increased the percentage of staff time spent on direct support. We moved to person centred recruitment and to person-centred staff meetings. We increased the percentage of direct observation and feedback time in the supervision process and we consistently challenged language that did not reflect person-centred practice.
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Challenges
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We need to develop person-centred competencies for senior managers; to complete work on individual financial reporting systems; to continue to reduce time not spent on direct support and to further develop individually focussed recruitment.
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