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Cleveland house is a 10 bedded residential home for adults with learning disabilities and complex needs. The home is located in South Woodford, London. Cleveland was acquired by CMG in November 2005 and at the time the home had a CSCI rating of adequate. Myself and the deputy manager started at Cleveland with the aim of improving the quality of support offered and the CSCI rating.
A lot of work was put into the areas of staff morale, the home environment, and service user care programmes.
We consulted the service users about what changes they wanted to see in the home. With the service users’ help we started creating an environment that was both relaxed and homely. Service users’ were involved in decorating, choosing the colours and putting up photos. New furniture was acquired again with the involvement of the service users. Service users’ were involved in the recruitment process, sat in on staff interviews and were responsible for asking some important questions e.g. one service user asked an applicant “What would you do if there was a fire?” The home has evolved into a service users’ led home.
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Service users are now involved in more meaningful activities like going to college to learn independent living skills, art, drama etc. They also participate in music therapy, aromatherapy and local community activities. Almost all the service users have been supported to use public transport when accessing the community. The CSCI rating has improved to good and the home is working with the regulatory inspector, company quality assurance and regional director to improve this rating to Excellent.
As a result of all the improvement, service users’ are much calmer and happier and live more fulfilling lives. This can be evidenced by the massive reduction in incidents and the positive feedback received from parents, next of kin and care managers. Service users are taking more control of their lives and how the home is run. The staff team are happier and more confident (through training and improved supervisions and staff meetings). This can be evidenced by the very low staff turnover in the last 18 months. We now have a good relationship with our funding authorities and CSCI and have received numerous calls from parents, care managers and other professionals who have heard about the high quality service offered at Cleveland.
Written by the home manager of Cleveland House
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