Stephen … Never say never
Rossella Kench • May 23, 2016
We interviewed our customer Stephen one cold February morning, at our office in Denmark Street, as he had some very exciting news for us: his father – Don Bastow – had decided to write his incredible story for the family, during Stephen’s latest hospital admission. This wasn’t the first hospital admission for Stephen, who spent his life dealing with various medical conditions, but this time his dad thought he would not come out alive!
The book is a little treasure chest filled with precious photos, happy family memories and the outline of a scary journey lived by a very brave family.
There are many touching moments, but the sweetest thing we would like to highlight - apart from all the challenges Stephen and his family had to face – is the love story of Stephen and his partner Jackie, which was featured on the three parts BBC3 programme The Unbreakables: Life & Love On Disability Campus , in July 2015. The programme examined life for young people living with a disability around the Campus, and Stephen and Jackie’s story was one of them.
Mr Bastow introduces his book by saying “The proof that a person, with some learning difficulties, together with a little help and support, can live a happy, contented, and successful life”, and Support Horizons is very proud to be playing a very small role in Stephen and Jackie’s lives.
The book isn’t on sale, as it was meant for family and friends, but we were kindly donated a copy by Stephen to keep in the office, so pop in to see us and take a look at the book should you wish to find out more about the story.
Support Horizons are delighted to have been awarded a grant of £5,000 from Berkshire Community Foundation. The grant will be used towards the costs of training all staff in the new Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training. The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism aim to provide the social care and health workforce with the right skills and knowledge to provide safe, compassionate and informed care to autistic people and people with a learning disability. The training involves both an online element and a full-day face-to-face session for all of the organisation's 70 staff.
Alexander talks about his experience as a support worker at Support Horizons and why he enjoys flexible hours.
Wayne has worked for Support Horizons for 11 years. Listen to him speak about his experience with the organisation and about his clients.
Learn more about Paul's client with mild disabilities and schizophrenia who had support from Support Horizons
Hear Keith's testimonial about Support Horizon's care of his brother, Melvyn.
We are delighted to have been awarded a second grant by Berkshire Community Foundation for the further development of our care planning software. Amongst other things this will enable staff to clock in and out of support sessions via their mobile phones using QR codes, reducing the need for the submission of timesheets. In addition to this we have been supported by a Bracknell Forest Recovery Grant via Involve Community to assist us with re-establishing our activities programme after the pandemic. We are grateful for the support of these organisations.
Support Horizons are delighted to have been awarded a grant by Berkshire Community Foundation to implement improved service planning and monitoring software. We have partnered with The Access Group who are a leading provider of systems to the health and social care sector. Of crucial importance are their tools for managing Covid-19 including track and trace reports. Support Horizons CEO, Terri Lazzari said "we are very grateful for the support of Berkshire Community Foundation which will help to ensure the continued effectiveness of all that the team here are doing to keep both staff and clients safe during the pandemic.’’
This week we interviewed our former Managing Director Tim Holland, who saw Support Horizons going from a temp agency to the healthy business we know today. At the beginning it was just an idea, but the core values were already in our blood stream! We will soon be celebrating our 10th year anniversary, and it wouldn't be a real celebration without remembering and honouring our roots. Question: What inspired you to start Support Horizons? Answer: Support Horizons started as a very exciting idea from the community to support the community. There was a strong need to create something different in the borough. Wokingham Learning Disability Partnership Board, Wokingham Borough Council, Dimensions and Ravenswood came together to create an agency which provided support to people with learning disabilities, and to give employment opportunities for vulnerable people. Initially I was seconded from Dimensions as Project Manager of the new venture. Question: How did you establish Mission, Core Values and Vision? Answer: As a community owned organisation they were embedded within the project from the beginning and were at the route of the new organisation. Question: How did you encourage others to communicate the core values? Answer: As the reasons why we existed, they were part of the project from the start, we were able to apply them to everything we did without having to think about it. We were lucky to recruit some great staff who all shared the core values of inclusion and community ownership. Question: How did you ensure the Support Workers and other employees understood the culture? Answer: All employees - Support Workers and office staff - would be exposed to Support Horizons' culture from the interview process. Where possible, there would be a customer involved during each interview, and the questions asked put the message across very strongly. There used to be a very thorough induction from people who used the support themselves - "Listen to us training" - which has now been handed over to CLASP (and is still used to this day - now called Values Training), and the training focused on the induction of new employees as well as give the role of new Support Workers within the company. Question: What was the biggest challenge you faced? Answer: A few years into the project we realised that a lot of agencies were providing the same service as Support Horizons. We had a business plan and strong core values, so we decided to change the business from a temp agency to a support provider. This involved conforming to rules and legal requirements that didn't apply to us until then. Also, we had to start the registration process with professional bodies like the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and it was a very scary time for all involved, as we didn't know how things would have turned out for us and our customers. We had to change the nature of our business otherwise it would have been difficult to carry on, so we jumped ... and landed on our feet! Question: What have been the biggest achievements? Answer: Our proudest moment was when we started winning bigger contracts from Wokingham Borough Council, as it meant we had finally grown into a real business. We also had a company-wide feedback exercise, which we used to do for our AGM, and we asked questions to absolutely everyone - Customers, Support Workers, Board members -. We would use all feedback, positive and negative comments, to find out what was working and what we needed to improve in order to grow as a company and remain competitive in the market. Question: What are the three biggest accomplishments? Answer: Changing the business model from a temp agency to a successful support provider about to celebrate its 10th year anniversary. Surviving in a sector where the only constant is change. Creating something that was different from any other business and that gave great value to people and their lives. Question: Give me one word that describes you the best. Answer: Enthusiastic! We are very grateful to Tim for his generosity and for sharing his insights and past experiences about Support Horizons, and we look forward to seeing him again at our 10th Year Anniversary party on the 17th June. Please see our latest Newsletter for more details.
