At Creative Support we are committed to delivering person centred, flexible services that meet the specific needs of those we support. As part of this commitment we are aiming to deliver personalised services in line with the government expectation that “every person who receives support, whether provided by statutory services or funded by themselves, will have choice and control over the shape of that support in all care settings” (Department of Health). Over the past year or so, we have been busy changing the way we work to accommodate these changes and to ensure that we are able to meet the needs of those who chose to use our services. We have therefore been hiring Personalisation Service Coordinators in many of our services to lead this change.

But what does a Personalisation Service Coordinator actually do?

This is a fun, energetic and rewarding role that comes with a unique set of challenges. One of the main challenges faced is how to find staff that can flexibly meet the needs of the individual and who will share the same interests. Service users might want our support for the odd hour to attend an art class, or to learn how to cook. So rather than being there for a full day, staff pop in for a short period of time when they are needed. This reduces costs for the service user and ensures that they can do some of the things that they enjoy, when they want. Our Personalisation Service Coordinators oversee this and ensure that Support Workers and service users are suitably matched. It can be a daunting task but one which when done well provides excellent results.

As part of the personalisation agenda some people will have access to their own budgets, a new way of financing support that takes people’s individual needs into account and empowers people to make positive decisions about their own needs and support. This will allow people to buy into different activities that they enjoy, or that will benefit them in some way. This can be anything from cooking lessons to photography classes and crafts. At Creative Support our Personalisation Service Coordinators have been busy developing activities programmes which offer fun and meaningful things for people to do. We are currently about to start a new activities programme in Scunthorpe aptly named ‘Creativities’, we’ll be doing a number of fun things like  photography, cookery, computing and crafts at our purpose built activities space in our Scunthorpe office. It’s a great way to learn about new things, as well as offering the perfect opportunity to meet new people and forge long lasting friendships. We have similar plans in Warrington, where we will be offering activities such as ‘Creative Crafts’, ‘Stage Stars’ and ‘Saturday Social Space’. Not only will they be fun, they will be relatively cheap because support will be shared between everyone therefore reducing the overall cost.

We are currently planning innovative services in all our regions, and it’s because of the Personalisation Service Coordinators that these are becoming reality.

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