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Housing With Care and Support
Person Centred Services:
How To Get Involved
All Housing With Care and Support service users can be involved in our services. They can be involved in their support plans, how their support is given and the services they get from the projects to support them. Service users can be involved in our organisation in a variety of ways, including the publishing of our service user magazine - Insight or through choosing the staff that work for NCHA.
We want service user involvement so that our services can improve in the way service users request, so that they can become the services they want. There are a number of Person Centred Services groups that currently include service users and there is always an opportunity to get involved in these groups.
Person Centred Planning
This group ensures that staff are trained in Person Centred support planning. This enables all staff to be able to develop Person Centred Plans (PCP) with the direct involvement of individual service users. The group are now looking for service users to be involved in staff training.
Communication & Consultation
This group manages and reviews on how we currently communicate with our service users. They also, through consultation with service users, look at how we can improve all forms of communication to ensure all service users are engaged and informed.
This group has service user quality assessors who visit other projects to see how that project is doing at meeting our standards. They look at evidence and ask staff and other service users what they think and assessments are done with the support of a staff assessor as much as needed. We involve service users, wherever possible, in the review of the company’s policies and procedures. Training is available for all service users who wish to become quality assessors.
Insight: the service user magazine
The service user magazine, Insight is lead by an editorial group made up completely of service users. This group has led and developed our service user magazine. The group collect articles, photos, art and poetry, which are sent in from other service users at projects, the group also has service user reporters who go out to projects to get stories.
Service users play a big role in the training of Housing With Care and Support’s staff. The service users involved in this group tell new staff what support means to them, what they want from support and what they want from support workers. Service users have given presentations, talks and performances and we have supported service users to develop these presentations.
Promotions and Events
This group co-ordinate the marketing and promotion of the Person Centred Services across the Association, through seasonal promotions; newsletters; forums and events. The group promote PCS involvement in the Better Lives Strategy cycle, ensuring maximum involvement from service users at all levels. This group has organised gardening competitions, art exhibitions, our HWCS calendar, as well as events where we ask for service user input and feedback. Service users have been contributors, judges and planners and organisers of our latest garden competition and calendar.
Choosing Staff
The Choosing Staff group is made up of service users and staff who are involvemed in the recruitment of staff. Service users welcome candidates to interview and support them with the layout of the building and timings of the interview. Service users have contributed all the questions our support workers are asked and other service users have been trained to sit on interview panels and participate in selecting staff. There is training and support for all service users who wish welcome candidates or interview staff.
Advocacy
This group promotes the use of advocates at projects to support service users in daily activities such as chairing tenant meetings or meeting with their social worker. An advocate could be a support worker but could also be a service user or anyone you can trust. The group are currently encouraging service users to become advocates and eventually take full control of the group. Service users and staff have recently attended training in the setting up of advocacy services and are looking to set up the first advocacy group in HWCS’ mental health services.
Person Centred Services Representatives
Each HWCS project has at least one service user and / or support worker who is a Person Centred Services Rep to communicate and consult with service users and staff on behalf of the other Person Centred Services groups to keep them informed of future activities and ways to be involved. This group are looking to ensure that there are also service user Person Centred Services Reps who can be the voice of other service users in expressing what others think.
