As part of Bridgewood Trust's commitment to providing a high quality, trusted service we have signed up to the Driving Up Quality Code. We wish to ensure honest and open communication with our service users, their families/friends, staff and all stakeholders.
Our starting point
At the beginning of 2015, letters were sent to families explaining we had signed up to The Code and informing them, that in order for us to be the best adult care service for people with learning disabilities we needed feedback from them.
Our plan for 2015 is to gather as much information as possible on the following:
Support focused on the person
An ordinary and meaningful life
Being happy and having quality of life
Besides gathering information in the usual way of questionnaires, our service managers also continue to have more personalised chats with relatives at summer fairs, coffee mornings, tea parties and face to face discussions. In this way we can explore and expand on people's ideas and thoughts.
Once we have gathered information we will look at ways of implementing suggestions and will send out a summary of this to all relatives at the end of the year.
During 2016 we will look at codes 4 & 5 which are 'Good culture within the organisation' & 'Organisation is lead & well run'. Towards the end of 2016 we will review the impact of the changes we make from the information we gathered in 2015.
We look forward to updating this page on a regular basis.
Karen Knapik - Training Manager
What is the ‘Driving Up Quality’ Code
Bridgewood Trust signed up to the 'Driving Up Quality' Code on 1st July 2014.
The Driving Up Quality Code is a voluntary code of conduct written as a response to the abuse at Winterbourne View. The code was created by the Driving Up Quality Alliance, made up of national member organisations that collectively represent 80% of all learning disability service providers in the country. It was launched in September 2013 at the House of Commons. For more information please go to the Driving Up Quality website.
Update June 2016
At the beginning of 2016 we looked at all the information provided in the family questionnaires received during 2015. The consistently high level of positive feedback was very humbling concerning the services we provide for adults with learning disabilities. Families also had many good ideas on how we could further improve the way we deliver services.
A general theme across both residential and day services was that we could look at improving on ways of communicating with families around the day to day activities that their relatives participate in.
A workshop was held with all our day service staff in March 2016 and they have developed an action plan that they are working on. This will be reviewed in October 2016. Below are some of the topics day service staff are looking at:
1. Encourage people to try more challenging tasks and pastimes
2. Maybe less time waiting to start activities on arrival
3. More outdoor activities to create better fitness levels, swimming & gym
4. Written notes do get lost, perhaps emails may ensure messages get passed on
5. Our relative does not live with us (day to day communication is with staff that support our relative) would be nice for the same information to be passed to us.
6. Bring more outside organisations into relatives lives, community ballet projects, theatre projects, other community projects.
Residential managers attending a workshop on feedback from families in June will also begin working on their action plan and a review of this will take place at the end of 2016. Below are some of the topics Residential service staff will be looking at:
1. More opportunities for some service users to try cooking.
2. More involvement in household chores, light dusting, folding laundry, and one suggestion was polishing brasses for service users who are severely disabled.
3. More board games to be played when in doors, snakes and ladders etc. that some older service users may remember.
4. More involvement in current affairs, reading newspaper stories weekly to groups at a level they would understand, book reading and storytelling sessions.
5. Developing a newsletter with pictures and stories for families
6. Any changes to staffing would be nice to know, maybe involving a phone call.
7. Weekly calls from keyworkers to say what relatives have done that week.
All comments from families are very important to us. They informs us what we do very well and what we can do to keep driving up quality in our services.
On behalf of Bridgewood Trust I would like to thank everyone for their kind comments and informative suggestions.
Karen Knapik - Training Manager
Update July 2017
Since June 2016 we have been working hard to improve on our communication with any families who felt the communication between ourselves and them could be improved upon.
We have commenced work supporting service users who wish to do so, to present information at their reviews in a way they want to, examples of this are pictures, scrap books and life books that tell the story of what things they have been doing and enjoying and goals they have set and achieved, We have also supported service users who wish to write in their daily observations about what their day has been like. Where service users are unable to do this staff are asking the person what would they like entering onto their daily observations and staff are putting this down for the service user.
Training courses were run towards the end of 2016 for service users around Health and Safety, Kitchen Hygiene and Healthy Eating. This training was received well by the first group of service users and plans to run this training will continue in 2017.
An easy read newspaper is now delivered to services on a monthly basis allowing service users to keep up with current affairs should they wish to do so.
Activities both inside and outdoors have been improved upon, with lots of service users taking part in community activities like bowling competitions, sporting events, putting on shows in local community churches and much more.
The focus throughout 2016 and into 2017 has been on people living fulfilling lives and reaching their full potential.
Karen Knapik - Training Manager
Update October 2018
From 2017 into 2018 we have looked at how we give information to the people we support. It was time to change and embrace this. We have worked hard on easy read documents like service user meeting minutes, invitation to training for service users, easy read support plans and daily needs documents.
Training for service users has gone down well, we have run further training upon requests for Makaton and First Aid, everyone who attended said they really enjoyed this.
We have worked on three levels of workbooks for our horticulture attendees and these are being worked through with staff support.
One of our residential services is working with their residents on the newly developed work book around Understanding Abuse. Feedback from this will help us develop further and roll this out to other services.
People living with us are now becoming more involved in the running of their home by helping staff with infection control checks, fire safety checks and health and safety checks to name just a few.
2018 has had us focus on “Moving to outstanding.” We aim to do a great job but we want to do better for the people we serve.
We have run workshops for managers looking at what excellent practises are out there and what we can do to improve on our own service delivery.
We have been running workshops for all staff from July onwards after developing a programme that celebrates the good work we already do and areas we can develop.
Our focus for 2018 into 2019 is to support people to be as independent and informed as possible, by involving people in the day to day running and checks of their services and by giving information through training and workbooks.
Karen Knapik – Training Manager
Update October 2019
Update October 2019
From 2018 into 2019 we continue to improve how we give information to the people we serve. We have recently introduced IT into services that support people, managers and staff in accessing information in Realtime.
Staying on the theme of communication, two residential managers at Bridgewood have set up and are running a Service User Forum. Representatives from our day care and residential services attend this forum and bring issues and ideas that will help improve on our delivery of quality services. One idea brought about through the Forum was to hold a sports day involving all services. With the help of managers and staff across service this took place in September, this was a great success and very much enjoyed by all.
People attending our Horticulture day service have worked through the Horticulture work books and some people have completed these. These workbooks look at working as a team, being safe when working with equipment and understanding plant care.
Our safeguarding workbooks are to be rolled out across services to support peoples’ understanding of what abuse is and how to report this.
Our Wednesday day service drama group has worked hard in developing a video on how to stay safe in a terrorist or weapons attack; this was shown to the managers at their August 2019 meeting and will be shown to people using our services, stimulating discussions on keeping safe in our community.
Every service is trying its best to ensure people have control of their own lives, some examples of what’s taking place at different services are:
People using computers to make their own medical appointments
Breakfast clubs being set up and people reviewing the quality of these breakfasts
Anxiety curve tools being used with people to help them and staff understand their behavior and how to support positive outcomes
People being asked what questions should we ask potential new staff at second interviews.
2019 continues to focus on “Working Towards Outstanding.” We aim to do a great job but we want to do better for the people we serve.
We commenced the Working Towards Outstanding workshops for all staff in July 2018 and continue to run these in 2019. This has also become part of the induction for new staff ensuring we continue to motivate new employees in providing the highest quality support possible.
The recent inspections of two of our services saw an overall rating of outstanding in one service and outstanding in care for the other. This tells us we are pushing ourselves and in doing so improving the quality of services we deliver
There are so many great moves forward in supporting people to take control of their own lives and this will continue to be the theme for 2019 into 2020. WE WILL continue to drive up quality.
Karen Knapik – Training Manager
Update 2020
Update December 2020
2020 has been a strange time, we had so many plans that unfortunately went on hold due to the pandemic.
We were introducing mental health training that would give staff the knowledge and skills to support people’s mental health and well-being, this face-to-face training has been put on hold, managers ensured they carried on with developing their knowledge by collecting information and electronic tool kits that can support them in setting up systems within the workplace to support the staff and people we support.
We also introduced the De-Choke devise and trained some staff in the use of this should people we support get into difficulties, this was going to be rolled out in 2020 but again this was put on hold, it will be rolled out to the rest of the services once it is safe to do so.
Services have worked so hard in becoming partners with people they support in running the services. People who wish to be, are involved in day-to-day running’s of their home and day services and have taken on responsibilities and flourished in these roles.
Services continue to ensure people have control of their own lives as much as possible.
During the pandemic all services have kept the highest standards of infection control, both staff and people they support have worked together to ensure everyone was as safe as possible.
All staff have worked tirelessly to ensure people had structures to their days and had things to look forward to during lockdowns and within the tiers.
People were supported to:
Phone and Facetime their families
Maintain contact with their friends in other services via phone calls and Facetime.
Computers in the homes support people to do their Christmas shopping on line.
Put on themed days, some examples of this were, Greece evenings, Cinema evenings, Award evenings, Hawaiian evenings to name just a few.
Themed Arts & Crafts that supported special occasions like, Remembrance Day, Guy Fawkes night. Halloween and NHS rainbow support.
Celebrated Birthdays and shared their pictures.
Day service staff maintained contact with people who use our services while living outside of the Trust, providing activities for people and families who requested this.
Day service staff worked in identified locations supporting the delivery of the day services in other setting.
Throughout this time without exception people living and working within the Trust have pulled together and kept the atmosphere positive.
2021 will continue to focus on “Working Towards Outstanding.” We will continue to strive to be the best we possible can and listen to people we support in how we can improve.
In 2021 we will slowly move back to normality, ensuring we do this in a safe and respectful manner WE WILL continue to drive up quality.
Karen Knapik – Training Manager
Update 2021-2023
Bridgewood Trust continues to be committed to the Driving up Quality code, providing person centred, and quality care to each individual who uses our services.
Our aim over the last couple of years has been to return to some normality following the pandemic. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is how to be adaptable in unprecedented times, and we have certainly seen some changes in recent years.
Karen Knapik made the decision to retire to her picturesque log cabin in Poland and while she is sadly missed, she has passed the training reins on to Heather Hayes.
We welcome our new Finance Director, Steve Carpenter, who comes to us with a wealth of experience of finance in the care sector.
Ros Garside, our long-standing HR manager has retired, we’re sure she will embark on many a cruise in her retirement. Her role has been taken on by Clare Young and we look forward to her supporting us with all our recruitment needs.
Bridgewood services work using a system underpinned by the ISO 9001 quality management standards. Our policies and procedures are constantly been updated and the recent distribution of our new quality manual in to services has incorporated information and policies accessible via QR codes. A move that will lead the way to BWT becoming more digital going forward.
Training opportunities continue to be vital for staff, instilling the necessary attitudes, skills and knowledge to deliver high quality, person centred care. 2022/2023 has seen a return to face to face training including new starters induction, first aid, fire extinguisher and train the trainer courses in the training room as well as more bespoke training taking place in the services around Moving and Handling, soft skills, advanced care planning, hydration and bowel health to name a few. Our e-learning platform “Access ELFY” provides an extensive course list allowing staff to access the majority of mandatory training, as well as site-specific CPD courses. Other e-learning platforms are accessible i.e. PrescQIPP- medication and ELFH- ReSPECT.
The de-choker will be replaced with the Life-Vac with the intention of providing each service with a device. Training will be delivered in the services by Mark Clarke.
We have introduced AEDs (De-fibrillators) in to three of our services with a view to providing each service with an AED going forward. Training is included in the First Aid course and a further training video by Mark Clarke is available via QR code, located near the device.
Day services have returned to normal following the pandemic and have seen a few changes to the team since many of the staff, including the manager and deputy manager made the decision to leave the service. The team have welcomed Sarah Hepplestone as their manager, Julie Skoczylas as their deputy and Caroline Short as their senior. They have rebranded themselves as “Bridgewood Day Opportunities” and have stepped in to the world of social media, they are accessible via their Facebook and Instagram pages.
Horticulture is back to normal and open to the public Monday-Friday 9am-12pm then after lunch 1pm-4pm.
