Support

We will plan and agree with you your support to help meet your needs and work towards your goals.

You can ask other people to help you talk to us about your support; this could be a friend, a family member or someone from an advocacy group. Advocates can support you with what you want to say, or say it for you. We can give you contact details for advocates or support you to contact them.

You will have a named keyworker who will do most of your support planning with you. The support that we agree with you will be written down in a support plan. These plans are so all the staff know what has been agreed and they can follow them.

A service user said "I am involved in meetings about my support plans. Staff tell me when they are due for a review or they ask me if I want a review. Friends and family can come along. My support plans are on the computer, staff show me them, they are kept private."

We will talk to you about different ways of planning your support. You could choose to make a Person Centred Plan. These are visual ways of looking at your life and your support to make sure your support is centred on you.

Part of your support plan includes looking at risks to yourself and others. For some situations we might have risk assessments and support plans that tell staff how to work safely, that we may not discuss with you.

If you need extra support that the staff team cannot provide, we will discuss this with you and try to help you to get the right person to support you.

The staff that support you will work with you in professional way. They are friendly but they are not allowed to start a personal relationship with you, or agree to meet up with you outside of their working hours. They also can not lend or borrow money or things that belong to you or them nor should they be a beneficiary or executor of a service user's will.

A service user said "Staff shouldn't ask for your money, that's stealing."

Staff will respect you, your home and your privacy. This means they will not eat your food, smoke your cigarettes, or make personal phone calls while they are supporting you. A service user said "It upsets me when people don't include me in their conversations."

Your home belongs to you and staff will not enter without your permission, except in special circumstances.

Staff should never behave in a way that makes you feel unsafe or unhappy. If they do, you should report it to someone straight away. You can look at the Feedback section of this Guide to see who you can tell. You could call the Police.

You will be offered advice about making choices that help you to stay safe but you have the right to make your own decisions. Staff will give you the information and support that you need to be as independent as possible.

You can ask to change your support plans whenever you wish. They will be checked with you at least every three months to see how things are going and if any changes are needed. You will be offered copies of your support plans each time they change.

We also use a diagram called the Outcome Star to record what you have achieved and look at how well we are supporting you.

There will be regular review meetings to look at how things are going and if any changes are needed.