- Your service
ALS support is a small, predominantly domiciliary care company based in Calderdale, ALS was set up by Andy and Linda Stubbs in 2005. ALS support currently have 15 clients, 16 staff members and 3 PA’s.
ALS support provides a quality bespoke, 1-1 support service for people with varying abilities living in Calderdale.
The service is provided in the local community, in the clients homes, and provides a transport service. The company currently has several wheel chair adapted vehicles that can be used on outreach sessions.
ALS support can provide support to male or female client’s and covers all aspect of personal care. Every staff member is training in medication safety, safeguarding and specialised training can be given to support clients with complex needs, and this includes administering Midazolam, Peg feeding, setting up feed pumps and using specialised equipment.
ALS support also offers an outreach service in the community and overnight respite in clients own homes.
The clients care packages that ALS currently support varies from 1 hour calls daily, to 24 hours a day, and a client that is supported 18 hours a day 2-1, all year round.
The staff that provide support have to complete a full induction schedule prior to offering support which includes a full training schedule covering areas such as safeguarding, manual handling, infection control, first aid, fire safety, and any specialised training to meet the needs of specific clients. All staff have shadow sessions prior to starting to support clients and are actively encourage to complete NVQ level 2 and 3 to enhance their personal development and further improve the care of the clientele.
All staff are supported with regular supervision and yearly appraisals and are provided with regular training updates.
ALS support is an inclusive service and encourages clients to actively participate in their own care planning to ensure their needs are met. If the client is unable to do this, ALS will liase and work closely with the people that know the client best to ensure we understand the needs and want of the client to understand how to support them in a way that Is tailored to their unique needs.
When a client begins receiving support, a personal care plan is created to help create a picture of who the client is, their needs, how they identify, their goals, what makes them unique, how they want to be supported, and their likes and dislikes, this is then used when staff begin to support the client to ensure they providing support in a way that meets the needs of the client. The PCP also includes positive risk assessments, manual handling plans, goal planning and future requirements. The PCP is a live document and is created with the intention of being regularly update to reflect the needs of the clients as they change and so support can be adapted. The client will have a regular staff team to encourage continuity of care and the client is matched to the support worker to the best of our ability.
ALS carries out regular reviews to ensure the clients are happy with the service and are encourage to give feedback to ensure the support they are receiving is right.
ALS work in partnership other agencies such as GPS, district nurses, specialised services, other care companies, to ensure there are no overlaps or gaps in the clients care, to ensure a joined up and multi-agency approach and to prevent the client having to repeat the same information to different agencies.
ALS ‘s ethos is based on inclusion and choice and the clients are the lead person in the support package, staff members will actively encourage and support the client to be part of their community and the main voice in their own care.
ALS have recruited local companies for ALS support Human resources, health and safety and IT to ensure the service is run in a safe and professional manner for both the staff and clients.
ALS support has had regular inspections carried out by CQC and local authority and the feedback has always been positive, the service is client centred and levels of support are good.
The feedback from clients and their family has always been positive, an example of this is a client that ALS support has profound learning and physically difficulties, mum is his advocate, she explained that she wanted him to try fun activities and experience new things. The registered manager and support staff found and indoor skydiving centre and arranged the clients outreach session to attempt this, the client absolutely loved the experience and mum was overjoyed that her son had tried a new experience.
A different client with severe Autism, had behavioural outbursts when trying anything new, mum was concerned as she wanted him to have a more structured and fulfilling routine but at the same time didn’t want to cause him any distress, this was discussed at length and a plan was introduced with the staff team to start on one new activity at a time, the client had never been encouraged to go to the super market and make his own meal choices, this was the start, the staff team explained to the client in a way that he understood, in small steps what he would be doing, he understood and accepted it without any outbursts, when in the supermarket he was encouraged to think of meal choices and ingredients he might like. When he had got used to this part of the routine, he was encourage to help put shopping on the conveyer belt, then pack, then introduced him to start doing what he was capable of in the meal prep. The client enjoyed being involved in making his own meals and this was safe as was fully supervised at all times, mum was thrilled that the client was being encouraged to use the skills that he was capable of doing, the approach also empowered the client to make choices for himself and to encourage him to learn new skills and have some control.
This was reviewed and it was agreed that as it had been so successful with no negative behaviours mum would like him to attend some structured learning to encourage him to socialise, ALS sourced a local company that did class with adults with learning disabilities, the client was supported again, in a way that he understood to attend, and once he had got used to the routine, he began to participate in the classes.
ALS will always support individuals to be part of the community they live in and access activities that they enjoy by removing barriers to allow this to happen.
ALS have found that by supporting clients to be active members of their community it gives the clients a sense of achievement and pride.
