One to One Support Services
Please click on the green play button below to listen to the audio version of the One to One Support Services section of the Statutory Accounts.
One to One support services encompass three service types where clients receive community-based support on a one to one basis, to facilitate communication to enable service users to lead more independent lives. The first, the long established Guide Communicator Service (GC Service), supports people with dual sensory impairment (people who are deafblind). The second - the Sight Support Service - supports people who have sight loss but no hearing impairment, and the third, an Intervenor Service launched in 2009/10, supports congenitally deafblind people who have a learning disability or other complex needs. One to One Support is charged at an hourly rate, and is financed either by local social services departments or by clients themselves. The service is flexible, and clients receive as much or as little input as they require. Current provision ranges from 1 hour to 27 hours per week and remains broadly the same as previous years.
Following the introduction of a new fee structure in 2009/10, an aim for 2010/11 was to see the historic KAB subsidy further reduced. However, when Medway Council introduced financial assessments, many people had their local authority-funded provision either reduced or withdrawn. Many of these clients felt that they were unable to fund the service themselves and as a result, provision in Medway has reduced by 755 hours in comparison with the previous year. The impact of this reduction was lessened by increasing provision in Kent as the service became more widely known and understood. As a result income has fallen to £349,228 in 2010/11 from £366,235 the previous year. The reduction in hours provided as well as a reduction in overheads has also lead to a fall in costs from £387,389 in 2009/10 to £376,537 in 2010/11.
Our aim for 2010/11 of agreeing a pricing structure for the Sight Support Service with local authority funders was achieved in November 2010 and whilst the service is still in it infancy hourly levels have been stable throughout the year.
During the year the Intervenor Service, which started towards the end of 2009/10 has expanded and whilst it remains a small proportion of overall one to one support services income it continues to offer ongoing support to service users as well as being attractive to local authorities wanting to purchase short-term intensive support.
As part of the overall organisational strategy, extensive work has been undertaken in the year to review the way in which the GC service functions. The process aimed to achieve a more unified approach to service provision and ensure an excellent quality of provision across all areas. A minor restructure during the year has seen two part-time Senior GC posts replaced with a full-time Deputy Manager post to streamline the support provided to the GC team. GC training and core competencies have also been reviewed and new accredited training schemes are now mandatory for all GC staff as part of a more rigorous induction programme. Several risk reduction measures have been introduced including revision of the GC Handbook and the provision of additional training in risk assessment and financial controls.
It was expected that both the local authority contracts for the GC service in Kent and Medway would be put out to tender in 2010/11 but due to other pressures on the local authorities this has been delayed until 2011/12. A key aim for KAB this year is to keep abreast of the changing requirements of the service from the local authorities, and ensure that we are best placed to submit strong tenders. With economies of scale also challenged by any reduction of purchased hours we will also seek to continue to look for ways to cut overheads and improve awareness of the availability and quality of the service to ensure service users who would benefit from the service are able to access it.