Independent living with Partners in Support
About Bianca:
Bianca is in her 50s, and rents privately in Hertfordshire. She is supported by Partners in Support.
Previously she lived in an NHS hospital for several years. She has a personality disorder, learning disability, and epilepsy and previously took medication to manage her anxiety.
Bianca’s medication and her use of other NHS services reduced since Partners in Support became involved in her care, and she is now able to stay in her privately-rented home.
Bianca has a regular team of support workers, and everyone at Partners in Support knows the people they support very well. Bianca receives 105 hours of support and seven overnight stays per week, (paid for by the local authority), from a team consisting of three full-time and one part-time member of staff. She calls all the staff by their first names and likes knowing who is coming on any given day.
Bianca’s story
“I do dancing on a Monday and exercises on a Wednesday with older ladies ... they have a chat and stop and talk, and my support worker comes with me and joins in. On Tuesdays we go to a coffee morning and I talk to people I know, and all the people are very nice. [At home] I like to bake cakes and we do cooking together [with my support worker]. Monday night, we go out to eat or get a takeaway. I do craftwork at home, go to the nail bar sometimes, and go to get clothes. We also watch movies, and play cards. I wasn’t well last week and my support worker was lovely and made me a honey and lemon drink. I do my own washing – I do the things my mum used to do. I’ve got neighbours, and we say hello to each other and send each other Christmas cards.”
About Partners in Support
- Partners in Support started with seed funding from Hertfordshire council and the NHS, because there was not enough local support at home for people with complex needs.
- They employ 150 staff, and support 32 adults – 29 of whom live independently, and three with their parents. All managers work one weekend in six on-call. There is also a permanent weekday on-call team.
Website: http://www.partnersinsupport.org.uk
What Partners in Support say:
- “Being person-centred is about all the processes the company needs to have in place, like Human Resources. 80%-90% of what we talk about [in the company] is about the people we support.”
- “Our ethos is – stay small, but do it well. We won’t do something if we can’t do it really well. Recruitment is difficult, so sometimes we say to people ‘we can’t support you’ because of the logistics. We recruit to the person - the person gets a say too.”
- “All our systems and our information sharing means that all the managers know what’s going on [for people and staff] that day.”