| Statement of Purpose |
Leicester Care Provision Newcastle Care Provision
The Learning Support Centre The Learning Support Centre,
Phoenix Yard Merchant House,
First Floor Jubilee Building 30 Cloth Street,
Upper Brown Street Newcastle Upon Tyne
Leicester NE1 1EE
LE1 5TE
Telephone No:Leicester0116 2548881 Newcastle 07840 176839
Email: info@learningsupportcentre.com
Website: www.learningsupportcentre.com
Introduction
The Learning Support Centre Ltd. was established in October 2009 by Laura Cook and Hazel Neal to provide specialist tuition and training to disabled people and people with specific learning differences.
Jotters Ltd, established by Laura Cook in 2003, is a division of The Learning Support Centre and has been providing mobility and academic support to disabled people since 2003. However, it was unable to provide personal care as the support workers were not insured/trained to carry out this type of support. As a result of service users expressing dissatisfaction with the provision of personal care they were receiving, whilst studying at university the Care Division of the Learning Support Centre was established in 2011 with the aim of ensuring that all our service users have access to professional Personal Assistants who are also trained to provide quality academic notes.
The Learning Support Centre Ltd provides specialist support services, that are tailored to meet the individual requirements of our service users and work based clients with physical disabilities and neurological conditions. Support can be carried out at the service users’ halls of residence, educational institution, workplace or home.
To ensure our service is person centered we recruit, train and manage support workers with a service user and service centered approach. Each support package is tailored to each service user’s individual needs. Before a support worker is allocated to a service user a support plan is drawn up in consultation with the service user. At this stage clear expectations are outlined to ensure the support is delivered appropriately and expectations of the service are realistic.
Due to capacity we are only able to provide personal care services in Leicester and Newcastle City Centre. Our service is available Monday to Friday 8.30 -6.30pm.
Service Aims & Objectives:
- To provide quality professional personal care to disabled service users to enable access to education
- To ensure all Personal Support Assistants have relevant training, DBS disclosures, are fully referenced and are recognisedas an integral part of the service
- To use feedback from service users to aid continuing development and improvement of service
- To ensure all staff feel supported in carrying out their role effectively
- To respond to enquiries in a timely and effective manner
- To provide support that respects our service users’ rights to independence, privacy, dignity and to make informed decisions
- To have a clear and transparent complaints procedure
- To promote and ensure anti -discriminatory practice
Company Service Level Agreement
Aims:
- To work within the appropriate legal frameworks relevant to this field whilst maintaining an elevated level of service that is effectively managed
- To work within appropriate regulations relating to employment of staff, including the provision of a Health and Safety and Equality policy
- To work in conjunction with appropriate institutions including Disability Services, university faculties, and exam teams to provide effective and efficient support
- To respond to feedback from our service users
- To meet the training requirements of staff to maintain and improve the quality of service expected
- To ensure that all staff have the appropriate skills and experience to carry out their roles
Are committed to:
- Delivering a bespoke and consistent quality of service within the scope of our terms of engagement
- Responding to the changing needs of our service users and referring on to other services where appropriate
- The principles of fair treatment and equality for all, treating service users and staff fairly and equitably in all our operations
- Facilitating the empowerment of the individual
- Supporting the successes of others
- Providing an efficient and friendly service
- Keeping up to date with industry changes
- Having in place appropriate procedures and documentation to underpin and enhance the quality of service expected
- Reviewing procedures and operations on a regular basis
- Regular monitoring of the service we provide to ensure adherence to high quality levels
- Responding to any issues that arise promptly and effectively
- Welcoming and listening to our service users’ and staffs’ suggestions to provide an inclusive environment for the development of The Learning Support Centre Ltd
Nature of support
Personal care can be provided for all aspects of the individuals activities of daily living, including:
- Dressing and undressing
- Bathing, showering, washing, grooming and oral hygiene
- Toilet and continence requirements
- Medication requirements and other health related activities
- Manual handling
- Food and drink preparation
- Eating and drinking
- Mobility
- Shopping and Socialising
(This is not an exhaustive list)
Duties Personal Assistants may notundertake, include:
- Assisting with artificial feeding and hydration via PEG
- Catheter management, changing bags, monitoring urine output
- Assistance with eye or ear drops
- Ileostomy and colostomy management, changing of bags
- Tracheotomy management and care
- Pressure area care
- Daily therapy exercises
- Ear syringing
- Removing or replacing urinary catheters
- Injections, involving assembling syringes or administering medication intravenously
- Filling of oxygen cylinders
- Lifting from the floor unaided and weight bearing
- Cutting of toe nails
Quality Assurance
The Learning Support Centre Ltd is committed to ensuring high quality service delivery tailored to our individual client’s needs. Our Quality Assurance starts with a thorough recruitment process and continues through the monitoring and reviewing of service delivery.
Employees of The Learning Support Centre Ltd
All employees have a continual development portfolio, containing:
- Enhanced DBS checks
- Two references
- Records of training attended including internal training, health and safety and specialist external training
- A record of supervision meetings
- Annual appraisals
Feedback system
All service users are asked to complete feedback forms termly. In addition to formal feedback we adopt a contact schedule throughout the year to ensure clients are satisfied with the support they are receiving.
Service user service agreement
All service users receive a welcome email which includes a copy of our Service User Agreement and links to all relevant information including our service user portal.
Affiliation to professional bodies
- The Managing Director and Support Coordinators are members of the National Association of Disability Practitioners (NADP);
- Safeguarding lead is registered with the Health and Care Professions Council;
- Committed to Investors in People;
- Company is member of British Assistive Technology Association (BATA);
Complaints policy and procedure
Context and or Aims
The Learning Support Centre recognisesthe importance of effective complaints management as part of our on-going aim to maintain and improve the services we offer to our service users. We recogniseyour right as a service user to raise any issues concerning you about our services.
In addition, The Learning Support Centre’s care division are responsible for ensuring they meet government standards of quality and safety. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) registers care providers that can demonstrate they are meeting these standards.
Policy Statement
The Learning Support Centre wants to ensure that individuals who use our service:
- Are sure that their comments and complaints are listened to and acted on effectively;
- Know that they will not be discriminated against for making a complaint and The Learning Support Centre will comply with regulations by:
- Having systems in place to deal with comments and complaints, including providing people who use services with information about that system;
- Support people who use services or others acting on their behalf to make comments and complaints;
- Consider fully, respond appropriately and resolve, where possible, any comments and complaints;
Principles
- The Learning Support Centre believes that should a service user wish to make a complaint or register a concern, they should be able to do so with the minimum of fuss and with the appropriate paperwork in place for them to do so.
- All complaints are dealt with by Olivia Shek (Newcastle) and Angela Wright (Leicester), LSC Support Coordinators in the first instance and are then filed in the complaints or compliments file, with the action taken and the outcome of the complaint or concern recorded. Should a service user wish to make a complaint about the Support Coordinator this will be dealt with by Laura Cook, Registered Manager. Any complaints made about the Registered Manager will be dealt with by Donna Welburn, Operations Manager.
- The Learning Support Centre takes immense pride in the work our staff do and the quality of support they provide. In some instances, this is rewarded by compliments received from service user’s or their family regarding the support they have received. All compliments received are copied and distributed to the staff concerned, with the original filed in the service users file. In some cases, compliments are received via the telephone. In this case a member of the office team will take note of the conversation and duly copy, distribute and file this.
Verbal and Written Complaints
The following procedures are set out to enable service users who have a complaint or a concern to bring these to The Learning Support Centre’s attention:
- All complaints, whether formal or informal, will be recorded, investigated and a formal written response given to the person who has made the complaint;
- Should a Service User make a complaint to a member of staff, and they are unable to rectify the problem immediately, they will contact the relevant Support Coordinator or Registered Manager, if out of hours, immediately;
- If it is a minor complaint the Support Coordinator or Registered Manager will then discuss the concern with the complainant, talk the problem through and suggest a course of action to resolve the complaint, if this is agreeable to the complainant the course of action to be taken will be put in writing, signed by both parties and filed in the complaint’s file.
- Where the service user’s support is shared with one or more providers, and where required, The Learning Support Centre will ensure a coordinated response for any complaints made by sharing information and responses to complaints with the involved agencies. Permission will be sought from the service user prior to information sharing.
- If the complainant raises potentially serious matters, advice will be sought from a legal advisor.
- If the complaint is in writing, the Support Coordinator or Registered Manager will send out a complaints form to ensure that all complaints are recorded in a consistent format. This is followed by the Support Coordinator/Registered Manager arranging a meeting to try and resolve the problem; all action taken is recorded and filed within the complaints file.
- All complaints and outcomes are monitored and evaluated by the Registered Manager and will be assessed as part of the Quality Assurance process, and where necessary, influence change to future practice.
- Please send all written complaints to:
The Learning Support Centre
First Floor, Phoenix Yard
Jubilee Building
5-9 Upper Brown Street
Leicester
LE1 5TE.
- In accordance with the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and the Local Authority Social Services and NHS Complaints regulations 2009, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) cannot consider individual complaints about the services they regulate. However, if you feel there has been a possible breach of regulation or to share your experiences of support received from the Learning Support Centre you can contact them on:
- Telephone: 0300 616161
- Address: CQC, City Gate, Gallowgate, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 4PA
- Email: enquiries@cqc.org.uk
Timescales
All complaints are handled within the following time-scales, if there are serious issues which require legal advice, or the Care Quality Commission are involved, these timescales could be lengthened. If this is the case The Learning Support Centre will keep the complainant regularly updated.
- All complaints must be made within three months of the event.
- The Learning Support Centre will respond within two days of either a written or oral complaint, to acknowledge receipt of complaint.
- The Learning Support Centre will launch an investigation within five days of receipt of complaint.
- All complaints will be dealt with and arrangements made for meetings within 14 days.
- The Learning Support Centre will endeavor to resolve any complaints received within 28 days, if this is not possible the complainant will be advised that they can approach the Local Government Ombudsman.
- With regards to serious complaints The Learning Support Centre will involve the Police, Social Services or any other professional body should it be deemed necessary.
Advocacy
Some people may feel they need support when making a complaint and where necessary, we will sign-post you to an appropriate advocate to help you. An advocate is someone who can support you and speak on your behalf and can be anyone from a family member or friend to professional organizations offering services free of charge. If we know they are speaking on your behalf and with your consent, then we will always work with advocates to solve problems and resolve any concerns.
Resolution
The Learning Support Centre aims to resolve all complaints in a timely and fair manner, aiming to be:
- Open and accessible;
- To be fair to all parties involved and avoid allocating unnecessary blame to individuals;
- To lead to prompt resolution.
Resulting in:
- An apology and/or other form of recompense if appropriate;
- Corrective and/or preventive action if appropriate;
Or
- Provision of a clear and transparent explanation of what has happened and why further action is not appropriate.
If you are not happy with the response you receive from The Learning Support Centre when you complain, and your care is funded by your local council you can take your complaint to your local social services department. You will need to follow their complaints procedure- your social worker, care manager or the department itself will explain what to do. You can find the address of your local social services department at Directgov. The care service or the social services department should try to resolve your complaint themselves and put things right to prevent the same thing happening again.
If you are not satisfied with the final reply from the care service or your local social services department, you can complain to the Local Government Ombudsman. There are three local government ombudsmen in England. They each deal with complaints from different parts of the country. However, you should first send your complaint to:
The Local Government Ombudsman,
PO Box 4771,
Coventry
CV4 0EH.
Phone: 0300 061 0614or0845 6021983.
Complaints that are referred to the Ombudsman are known as “Stage 2” complaints.
If you fund your care yourself, you will be able ask the Local Government Ombudsman to take up your case if you are not happy about how The Learning Support Centre dealt with your complaint. In the unfortunate and unlikely event of:
- both parties being unable to reach an amicable resolution to the complaint
and/or
- repeated complaints of the same nature that have been addressed more than 3 times, but the service user remains unhappy about the outcome and The Learning Support Centre feels there are no other alternatives it may be decided between the service user and The Learning Support Centre that their needs can be better met through an alternative support provider. In this case The Learning Support Centre will sign post the service user to the relevant agencies and support the service user in this transition.
Related Documents
- Safeguarding Procedure
- Care Quality Commission website
- Complaints Form
| Date | |
| Full Name | Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss/Other: |
Address for correspondence including post code, day time phone number and email address:
Complaint:(Please briefly set out the main points of your complaint; include date/time/place and any witnesses to the complaint.)
Suggested action to be taken: (Explain briefly what you would like to happen because of your complaint.)
Please continue on an attached piece of paper if space is not sufficient. Please also attach any supporting evidence.
I can confirm that everything in this complaint is true to the best of my knowledge and I understand that in investigating my complaint The Learning Support Centre Ltd may need to exchange information about my complaint with other persons or organizations, for example to find out important facts relating to my complaint.
Signature Date
Please keep a copy of this form and any documents you send with it for your own reference.
Management of Personal Care Services
Your Registered Manager
Laura Cook is responsible for managing the LSC Care Division
Qualifications:
ILM Level 3
Experience:
Fifteen years managing a Specialist Disability Service.
Two years working as a Personal Carer / Assistant for disabled service users
Contact details:
Address: The Learning Support Centre, First Floor Block B, Jubilee Building, 5-9 Upper Brown Street, Leicester, LE1 5TE.
Tel: 0116 2548881
Email: laura@learningsupportcentre.com
Your Support Consultant and Coordinator
Olivia Shek
Qualifications: HNC Early Education and Childcare, BA(Hons) Social Sciences
2:2, Level 2 Certificate in The Principle of Working with Individuals with Learning Disabilities
Experience: 7 years’ experience of working within the education social care sector.
Angela Wright
Qualifications: BA (Hons) First class degree in Sociology.
Experience:Over ten years’ experience working in the social care sector and four years’ experience supporting disabled students in Higher Education.
Amy Niland
Qualifications: Post graduate qualification in English andNVQ level 3 in Working with Children and Young People
Experience: 10 years’ experience of working within the education and social care sector.
Staffing Information
The Learning Support Centre ensures all staff are enhanced DBS checked and fully referenced.
Our teams are led by experienced professionals, and supported by our team of disability specialists to ensure a holistic approach for support.
We offer continuous training, which is informed by service user and team feedback. We are committed to the continuous professional development of our staff team. Full induction training is given to all new staff members prior to commencing their employment. Staff are supported by an experienced manager 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, through our out of hours contact line.
80% of all staff will have QCF Level II or equivalent, or will be working towards this qualification.
Cover for sickness and holidays
Any change in support due to staff holiday will be done in consultation with the service user. Service users will be introduced to the Personal Support Assistant before cover commences. Any absenteeism where cover is required at short notice the best possible cover will be sought and an appropriate match will be made, keeping the service user always informed.
Useful Contacts
| Health and Care Professions Council
Park House Telephone:0845 300 6184 Opening hours Monday – Friday 8am-6pm |
Care Quality Commission
CQC National Correspondence
Citygate
Gallowgate
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 4PA
You can also call the National Contact Centre: 03000 616161
Opening hours
Monday to Friday: 8.30am – 5:30pm
Newcastle City Adult Social Care Services
Opening hours: Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm
Phone: 0191 2788377
Mobile: 0796 8474891
Email: scd@newcastle.gov.uk
You can also write to Community Health and Social Care Direct, 2nd Floor, Westgate Community Complex, West Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 9LU
| Leicestershire Adult Social Care
County Hall |
Social Services
Leicester City Adult Social Care
1 Grey Friars
Leicester
LE1 5PH
Telephone: 0116 252 7004
Email: customer.services@leicester.gov.uk
Minicom: 0116 252 7011
Reviewed and amended by Managing Director Laura Cook August 2018