House 9 & 14 Annual Report

Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction

Staffing

Summary

Staff complement

Training

Volunteering & Student placements

2014 – 2015 Objectives

Performance Measures – Complaints and Compliments

Performance Measures – Finance

Performance Measures - Fundraising

Health and Safety

Internal Inspections

External Inspections

Incidents

Quality of Service Provision

Service user questionairres

Quality Assurance

Service User Involvement

Service Improvement and Development

Performance Summary

Scheme Manager's Comments:

Service Manager's Comments:

Contact Information

House 9 & 14 annual report

Introduction

House 9 (H9) and 14 (H14) are situated within Enterprise Court and are part of the Niamh family.

H9 is an Assessment and Rehabilitation Unit with a placement of 2 years. It is a 24 hour supported living accommodation consisting of 8 bedrooms. The utilization of H9 services is continuously adapting and changing in regard to age range, gender and mental health diagnosis due to the nature of the rehab unit.

H14 is a non 24 hour unit consisting of 8 bedrooms and all the service users living there have secure tenancies.

We aim to provide a comprehensive and user focused service. We achieve this through partnership and multi-agency involvement. We have an open and honest relationship with all stakeholders, keeping confidentiality and Human Rights at the forefront. We ensure our support is safe, effective, compassionate and well led at all times. This is in accordance with RQIA Guidance relating to stakeholder outcomes.

We endeavor to support individuals on their journey towards recovery by adopting a holistic strengths based assessment of need.This support is realized throughpartnership. We workwith service usersto develop a recovery-based support plan relating to all aspects of life. In keeping with guidelines of Assessment and Rehabilitation, no alcohol is allowed on the premises of H9.

The referral process, generally completed in conjunction with an individual’s statutory worker consists of a visit to scheme, a referral and application and finally a panel meeting. We also encourage pre-entry visits which allow service user’sto meet with staff and other residents. This helps to reduce undue stress for a potential applicant and current residents living in H9 if a move takes place. This pre-entry visit allows the service user to assess their own suitability to the placement.

Funding for H9 is provided by Supporting People and the South Eastern Trust, whereas H14 is solely funded by Supporting People. Annually, we are inspected by RQIA. Service users and staff alike are given an opportunity to speak with RQIA Inspectorsand they can report on the quality of service they experience. This opportunity allows time to discuss issues of concern/compliment to the service.

Staffing

Summary

There are a total of 10 staff members working within H9 and 14. As H9 is a 24hr unit, staff are contracted to provide Night Cover outside their contracted hours.

Staff are selected for employment, following a stringent recruitment and interview process in line with NIAMH’s policy and procedure. This is crucial to maintaining a high performance working environment, where service provisions are recovery led.

Staff in H9 and 14 are encouraged, and supported to develop themselves as high performing employees. We do this in the following ways;

Providing regular supervision. This takes place every 4-6 weeks.
Completion of our annual Performance Management System. This is an appraisal process, which allows staff to set objectives, recognize areas of development and celebrate areas of strength. Objectives will be set using NIAMH’s annual Corporate Strategy.
Development of our annual House Strategy. Staff work together to develop this strategy using the NIAMH Corporate Strategy. This allows staff to set team goals and provides clarity and direction for staff.
Promoting training opportunities. Staff are kept updated on training available to them using internal e-mail.

Staff complement

Training

All staff must adhere to NIAMH's scheduled essential training, together with RQIA's mandatory training.A record of training dates and attendance is kept in-house. This record is updated twice yearly and discussed at monthly supervision.

Volunteering & Student placements

Student Placements

Volunteers

2014 – 2015 Objectives

See below some of our team objectives from last year and how we achieved them.

Performance Measures –Complaints and Compliments

During the 2015 – 2016 period, there have been only four registered ‘Low Risk Concerns’. These complaints were the product of underlyingtensions between several service users. Service users involved immediately reported concerns to staff, these were appropriately documented and dealt with.

Compliments are difficult to record due to the frequency and nature of them. Compliments range from comments made from family and friends present at Carers’ Meetings, stakeholders feedback through questionnairesand residents thanks throughout the year on various activities undertaken. H9 and 14 have developed a Good Practice File to better represent some of the activities and support that service users regularly compliment.

Performance Measures – Finance

All staff within H9 have received relevant finance training and are aware of the NIAMH policies and procedures that underpin their responsibilities around finance.

Efficient finance systems are in place in H9, and we always strive to maintain and improve these. To ensure all budgets and finances are accurate, checked and transparent, staff carry out finance checks twice daily (during both AM and PM shifts).There are individual finance books to represent all monies we hold within the H9 safes. Shopping/petty cash recoups and lodgments are carried out as and when required,these are emailed and processed by the NIAMH Finance Department.

Hard copies of financial transactions are retained within scheme. Finance records are audited internally using our monthly monitoring system. All finance systems are reviewed independent of scheme on an annual basis.The most recent finance audit was completed at H9 on the 23rd March 2016.

At present, threeservice users hold money within the safes. This option is only available to service users should a specific risk be in place relating to finances. Staff will support service users to work towards managing finances independently. Where staff hold service users monies, a recovery support plan and safety management plan will be in place.

A house specific budget is designed and discussed at staff meetings to provide an outline and better awareness of scheme finances. As a team, we strive to get the best value for money to ensure we remain within this budget. The realization of this goal enables H9 to keep scheme charges to a minimum.

Performance Measures - Fundraising

Staff are committed to NIAMH's corporate and wider social responsibilities and therefore fundraise for various charities throughout the year.

Donations are received from staff and residents for Marie Curie Cancer Care on a regular basis and H9also hold an annual Marie Curie Sale in December. The annual Marie Curie sale not only raises money for the charity (£1100 in Dec ‘15) but also involves service users in the organizing and implementation of the event.

Other fundraising activities include the 2015 NIAMH abseil, where one staff member raised £376.45, the H9 family BBQ, a H9 weight loss challenge (H9 Biggest Losers) and the involvement of two staff members and one service user in the work of Habitat for Humanity both home and abroad.

Health and Safety

Internal Inspections

Health and safety audits are completed annually. H9 implements all recommendations within the set time frames. Themost recent recommendationincluded:to level several uneven flagstones located by the smoking area, due to the growth of tree roots beneath. The low number of recommendations from audit can be attributed to staff dealing with any arising health and safety issues immediately. Issues that are not able to be dealt with immediately by H9 staff, such as maintenance, structural and fire door issues, are reported immediately to Choice.

Other internal health and safety checks completed include:

Legionella checks - Completed weekly by staff.
Fire alarm checks - Completed weekly by staff.
Fire extinguishers - Checked to be intact and in proper location weekly by staff.
Carbon monoxide alarm – Checked weekly by staff.
Fire drill – Completed twice yearly with clients and staff.
Emergency lights checks – Completed twice daily by staff.

All service users are made aware of the exit routes and what to do in the event of a fire on referral and entry into H9, and then annually by completing a fire safety checklist with their key worker, this is retained in file.

An in house presentation is given by staff to service users via the Partnership Meeting on the importance of correct handling and storing of food. NIAMH's essential Regional Training Schedule ensure staff are fully trained and competent in regards to Health and Safety, which also complies with RQIA guidance and recommendations.

Service users are also aware of the correct mop usage so as to avoid any infection spread and the importance of wet floor signs in the prevention of accidents. Service usersreport any concerning issues to staff and have demonstrated a proactive approach in this area.

A member of staff has presented a Keeping Myself Safe programme at Partnership meetings and to individuals throughout Enterprise Court, so that services users are aware of safeguarding issues and the role they can play in their own safeguarding.

External Inspections

Annual Health and Safety Inspections and Risk Assessments carried out externally include:

Legionella checks - Choice complete their own annual testing, a copy of the subsequent report is sent and stored in H9.
Fire alarm checks - Completed twice yearly by BPS.
Fire extinguishers - Thorough fire extinguisher checks completed annually by BPS.

Boiler Servicing.
PAT testing of electrical appliances.
Fire Risk Assessment.

The local fire department has also visited H9 in the last year to speak with service users regarding fire safety and advise staff of any further measures to take to ensure the safety of all. The fire department did not recommend any further actions.

Staff also receive a regular Health and Safety newsletter from the Corporate Services department within NIAMH highlighted areas within the group to review.

Incidents

As detailed overleaf,the majority of incidents in the last year have been regarding violence. These issues have involved damage to property and verbal and physical assault. These are due to the behavioural issues of a number of complex service users.

The second biggest ratio of incidents comes from medication errors. As demonstrated below, these have declined significantly this year due to a number of new safeguards and procedure developed within H9.The H9 team have implemented new MAR sheets where some of the service users now sign that they have popped and taken their own medication. This system is working well and gives service users an increased ownership of their self-medicating efforts. Our team reports all errors via the incident report form with mistakes being logged and discussed in supervision.

Quality of Service Provision

Service user questionairres

We continually strive to attain and maintain a high quality service. Feedback from ourService User Member Questionnaires 2015-16 are shown below. These are very encouraging results, however we continually strive to improve our service delivery.

Quality Assurance

H9’s RQIA Inspection was carried out on the 11th of November 2015. There were no recommendations. The inspector focused on stakeholder outcomes, listed under 3 headings:

Is Care Safe? Avoiding and Preventing harm to individual from care and support that is intended to help them.
Is Care Effective? The right care/support at the right time, place, with the best outcome.
Is Care Compassionate? Individuals are treated with dignity and respected/should be fully involved in decisions regarding their treatment, care and support.

The inspections are underpinned by:

The Domicilliary Care Agency Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007.
The Domicilliary Care Agency Minimum Standards (2011).

Internal audits are also regularly carried out to assure the highest quality of care is delivered, this includes a focus on areas of: Data protection,medication, finance and service delivery. These inspections generally take the form of Monthly Monitoring, carried out by Beacon’s Assistant Director.

On 25thNovember ’15, H9 took part in aSupervision Audit carried out by the Quality Department. The only recommendation given was to ensure ‘Private and confidential’ is displayed on the front cover of supervision files. The feedback given by the auditor affirmed that supervision files within the unit were kept to an excellent standard and that H9’s example of this work should be replicated in other schemes.

Service User Involvement

H9 prides itself on service user integration and involvement within activities in and out of scheme. Examples of these include:

Service Improvement and Development

It has been encouraging to receive no recommendations during our previous RQIA Inspection and the positive feedback from our stakeholders. However, we continually strive to improve our service.

In line with Niamh's Vision: Wellbeing for All, we aim to improve and develop in line with the Mental Health Strategy Map, in the four key areas of Customer, Processes, People, and Financial outlined below.

H9 & 14 Mental Health Strategy Map 2016-2017
NIAMH’s Vision: Wellbeing for All
Customer / Reduce voids in House 9 & 14. / Staff delivery of high quality services to existing and potential residents. / Staff to raise NIAMH/Inspire brand/profile through events. / Two staff will create a user friendly guide to self-medicating.
Processes / Development of GOS systems. / ISO documentation to be in place. / Maintain robust governance and quality processes. / Discuss responses from Service User and stakeholder questionnaires at Team and Partnership meetings. Agree actions.
People / Develop H9 & 14 as a high performing workplace. / SPW and PW to commence QCF Level 5 in Sept 2016. / Staff engaged in corporate social responsibility- fundraising, volunteering in/outside of NIAMH. / Identify staff training needs - nurturing commitment to personal development.
Financial / H9 & 14 to work within existing annual budget. / Staff to adhere to Financial Policy and Procedure. / Adapt to changing financial climate. Exercising innovative management strategies to deal with new environment. / Optimise financial efficiency by ensuring scheme charge arrears are kept to a minimum. Timely amendment to standing orders annually.

Performance Summary

Scheme Manager's Comments:

Yet another year has passed, bringing with it many challenges and difficulties. However, I feel as a team, we have risen to these, in a united and supportive manner. Individuals being referred with very complex needs/issues represent the majority of these challenges.

As an Organisation, we wish to support recovery to enable individuals to live a meaningful and happy life. To achieve this, we need to be mindful of the following:-

Changing the nature of day-to-day interactions and the quality of experience.
Changing the way we approach risk assessment and management.
Increasing opportunities for building a life beyond illness.
Ensuring organisational commitment, creating the culture of leadership at all levels.
Increasing personalisation and choice.
Redefining user involvement.
Transforming the workplace.

I believe everyone faces challenges, however, we can learn from these. As a staff team, we encourage individual journeys of recovery, wellness, progress and life-long learning. We endeavour to promote wellness and empower individuals to make informed decisions about their own wellness.

Our new SPW has completed one year in his role and is a great asset to the team. Keith has embraced the challenge of this position with enthusiasm, bringing experience, skill and knowledge.

There is a good mix of skills within H9/14 Team, this enables development, through shared learning, support and enhanced performance. One PW completed the Nuturing Talent/High Performance in the Workplace programme,two staff members are embarking on the QCF 5 Course in September and another is beginning Dementia Training. These are just some examples of good practice.

Involvement from family members has always been positive and meaningful. Hopefully, this will continue. The quarterly Carer's Group enhances this positivity.

We were very privileged to support a client’s family members following the death of their loved one in July'15. The individual resided at E/Court for several years, spending his last years in H14. Staff and residents attended the funeral, and provided lunch in H14 following same.

We continue to experience healthy relationships with CMHT’s on a regular basis.

PMS process active throughout the year – very positive outcomes evidenced.

In conclusion, I'd like to thank the staff team for their continuing efforts and motivation. Together, we will embrace this year with a common goal of improving, and maintaining a service of quality and hope.

Mildred Groves – Scheme Manager.

Service Manager's Comments:

Tracey Ritchie, Service Manager

Contact Information

mildred groves
manager / Keith young
senior project worker
Tel: 028 9145 2708
Email: / Tel: 028 9145 2708
Email: