KENT SENSORY AND AUTISM SERVICES. Empowering individuals with Autistic Spectrum Conditions and d/deaf, sight impaired, and deafblind people.

Transcription

1 KENT SENSORY AND AUTISM SERVICES Empowering individuals with Autistic Spectrum Conditions and d/deaf, sight impaired, and deafblind people. Applicant Information Pack updated May 2018

2 MANAGER SENSORY AND AUTISM SERVICES UNIT Beryl Palmer AH OPPD SENSORY AND AUTISM TEAM MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE (April 2018 ) V6.3 CHANGE IMPLEMENTATION OFFICER Julia Cox UNIT SUPPORT MANAGER Lisa Blumson INTEGRATED TRANSFORMATION MANAGER for ND CONDITIONS Michelle Snook TEAM MANAGER SENSORY SERVICES Lynn Stow TEAM MANAGER AUTISM SPECTRUM CONDITIONS Matt Bushell SENSORY SERVICES SENIOR PRACTITIONER x2.0 Mandy Jacobsen Sue Isaac/Gill Crundwell CHILDREN S SENSORY TEAM SENIOR PRACTITIONER 1.0 Emma Peasgood ASC SERVICES SENIOR PRACTITIONERS 2.0 Ute Vann/Teresa Saltmer CARE MANAGER x 5.0 CARE MANAGER x 8.0 ADMINISTRATION OFFICERS x 5.46 ASSESSMENT AND SUPPORT WORKER x 5.09 DEAF COMMUNITY WORKER x 0.5 CONTACT ASSESSMENT OFFICER X 1.0 SOCIAL WORKER x 2.8 SOCIAL WORK ASSISTANTS x 1.5 ASSESSMENT WORKER x 6.8 CONTACT ASSESSMENT OFFICER x 1.0 Updated May

3 1. Introduction The Sensory and Autism Services Unit comprises three in house teams Sensory Services (Adults and Children) and the Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASC) team and a number of specialist commissioned services. The specialist in-house teams are based together in Ashford and share a common Business Support team. At the current time (May 2018) we are in the middle of transforming and redesigning both the inhouse teams and commissioned services, alongside the realignment of services in the rest of the Older People and Physical Disability division. It is planned for the Autistic Spectrum Conditions team to become a multi-disciplinary team with Health in Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASC) Services The ASC team (ASC) The Autistic Spectrum Conditions Team is a specialist countywide team. The team work with individuals who have been diagnosed by an experienced medical professional as having autism/asperger s, or who are very strongly suspected to be autistic. The team works with adults and young people in transition but do not work with individuals with autism who have a learning disability. The ASC team is staffed by a Team Manager, Senior Practitioners, Case Managers and Assessment Officers, with a specialist Contact Assessment Officer. Administration support is provided by the in-house Business Support Team. The Autistic Spectrum Conditions Team provides: Specialist (Care Act 2014) needs assessment and case management Social work approaches and interventions. Updated May

4 Short term interventions including Occupational Therapy assessment and skills training (Specialist ASC Enablement) Arranging carer s assessments. Specialist information, advice and guidance. Consultancy on autism to other professionals A daily Duty Service Advocacy for All KCC commissions a specialist peer support service from Advocacy for All. They provide peer support groups for people with autism. Currently there are 11 groups meeting monthly across the county. Members are people with high functioning austism or Aspergers Syndrome. Everyone has the opportunity to participate in discussions if they want to and the groups have developed special strategies to make sure that this happens. Topics of discussion vary but have included accessing employment, relationships, relaxation techniques, music and exercise. Some groups have also introduced their own social events such as coffee mornings, walks or cinema visits. Autism Transformation and Development Work The Kent ASC team is an exciting place to work where innovation is at the heart of what we do. Here are some of our initiatives: We are midway through an internal redesign. This will see our operating model change from one of assessment and short-term enablement with cases needing ongoing support referred to Area teams, to being a specialist team monitoring and reviewing those with longer term needs. We have developed and established the UK s first ASC Enablement Service, based on Occupational Therapy assessments and interventions. This work was the subject of a formal research project and has generated significant national interest. The findings have been published. (Autism and Enablement (2017) Bushell, Gasson and Vann, Jessica Kingsley) Updated May

5 We have established an Autism Collaborative or Partnership Board comprising people with autism and their families, carers, and a range of stakeholders and partner organisations. This Collaborative has developed a five-year Adult Autism Strategy for Kent which it is now helping to implement. Please see the strategy here: for Adults in Kent with Autism A fully integrated multidisciplinary ASC Team is being planned with pilot studies already starting April 2018 with the Maudsley Hospital and Sinclair-Strong Associates for health assessment of those with complex autism. We are actively working in partnership with other agencies to address the needs of people with autism and to improve the understanding and skills of their workforce. We are proactively seeking to undertake further research to evidence the effectiveness of the services we are providing. 3. Sensory Services Sensory Services currently comprises two teams, an Adults team and a Children and Families team. Sensory Services Adults team The team provides a range of services to d/deaf and deafblind adults and young people in transition. The team is staffed by Senior Practitioners, Care Managers and Assessment and Support Workers. The overall aim of services is to promote independence, optimise quality of life and to promote equality of opportunity. Our staff are skilled in specialist communication methods and maintain a good understanding of the Deaf and Deafblind community and culture. A significant amount of work takes place on a countywide basis including team meetings, development work and training. The team provides: Updated May

6 Specialist (Care Act 2014) assessments and case management/social work. Support planning and personal budgets. Arrangement of carer s assessments. Enablement work including benefit and employment advice and development of new methods of communication or adaption of existing methods of communication. Equipment assessment and provision. Gateway Clinics - Deaf Services Support Workers to run drop-in clinics in Gateways across Kent. These clinics provide specialist information, advice and guidance, contact assessments and signposting. Specialist information, advice and guidance. Service user Involvement. Daily duty service Sensory Services Children & Families team The team moved to work alongside the adult service in 2016 in preparation for the development of an All Age Sensory pathway and in line with changes to create a separate all age pathway for children and adults with learning disabilities and complex physical disabilities. Social workers with specialist knowledge and skills in working with deaf, visually impaired and deafblind children provide assessments of need and support children in need, children in care and children who are on a child protection plan. Sensory Voluntary Sector Providers Sensory Services has agency agreements with voluntary sector organisations to provide services to d/deaf people and sight impaired people: Updated May

7 The Royal Association for Deaf People (RAD) RAD are contracted to provide an interpreting service for Kent d/deaf and deafblind people so that they can access Kent County Council services. The contract is extended to a number of other Kent Public Services including Kent Police, Kent Fire and Rescue, Kent and Medway Community Healthcare Trust, Kent and Medway Partnership Trust and Dover District Council. This contract and its ongoing development is managed by the Sensory and Autism Services Unit. Hi Kent Hi Kent is commissioned to conduct specialist Care Act (2014) needs assessments for assistive equipment to deafened and hard of hearing people over the age of 65 (who do not use sign language). Hi Kent also provides a number of other services in its voluntary capacity: Specialist assessments for equipment (Care Act 2014) Resource Centres in Maidstone and Canterbury Specialist information and advice Lip Reading Support Groups Hearing aid maintenance clinics Deaf Awareness Training British Sign Language Courses Kent Association for the Blind (KAB) KAB are contracted to provide comprehensive assessment, rehabilitation and support services that enable blind and sight impaired people to live independent lives. There are four teams of rehabilitation workers based in Maidstone, Canterbury, Gravesend and Dover. Services include: Information and advice on visual impairment and eye conditions Specialist (Care Act 2014) assessments including assessments leading to a Care and Support Plan and estimated Personal Budget Updated May

8 Training in all aspects of rehabilitation, mobility and orientation, daily living and communication Low vision assessment & training Welfare rights & benefits advice Registration as severely sight impaired (blind) or sight impaired (partially sighted) Provision of Eye Clinic Liaison Officers (ECLO) in Maidstone and William Harvey Hospitals Additionally, KAB provides a Guide Communicator Service. This is a one-to-one support service for Deafblind people. Sensory Transformation and Development Work Currently our focus is on transforming our services in line with the KCC Transformation agenda. We are aiming to achieve greater efficiencies and to improve outcomes for service users. To this end our current initiatives include: The development of a Sensory Strategy ( ) and a Sensory Collaborative (Partnership Board) to take this forward Development of a multi-agency All Age Sensory Pathway The redesign of the Sensory Children and Adults teams in line with the Sensory All Age Pathway. A Deaf Wellbeing and Access project. Collaboration with public health providers to address inequalities for the Deaf BSL population in access to health provision. The Sensory and Autism Services Unit has a good history of project work and service development in partnership with other agencies/services. Projects are developed to meet identified needs and Updated May

9 staff from across the county and from voluntary agencies often work together on these initiatives. Examples include: The Sensory BME project to improve the services we provide for people from minority ethnic communities The provision of advanced assistive technology for sensory impaired people The provision of a rehabilitation service for deafened people in partnership with Hearing Link We are passionate about our work and are actively transforming and developing our services. Do come and join us! Updated May