Your essential round-up of all your Bethphage news for friends and family beth pagesfriends and family
Summer 2018 Edition
Loose Talk .... Welcome to the early Summer edition of beth pages. I hope you find the varied content both entertaining and informative. We have created this special edition to enable us to share Bethphage news more widely with our friends and the families of people we support. It is no exaggeration to say that our sector is facing some of the biggest challenges in its history, as we await the outcome of the Mencap Court of Appeal decision and hopefully seek the long awaited clarity that is needed for sleep ins. As soon as there is news we will update www.bethphage.co.uk/sleep-ins. Regardless of which way the decision goes, the Government must provide clarity and resolve all the confusion that has arisen over the sleep in crisis. To this end Bethphage has been supporting the Provider Alliance and the Mencap campaign. You will read in this edition the efforts we made to support the BBC’s efforts to raise awareness with the wider public and place pressure on the Government not to leave Charities like ours with a huge bill which could arise as a result of Government advice. Despite all the uncertainly, we have lots of useful updates for you including an exciting new service we are about to launch in Ruckley. We also introduce you to three new managers. We are also delighted that Amazon Smile have recognised Bethphage as a charity to which they will give donations for each penny spent. Please read how you can help and, please encourage your friends and family to support Bethphage! Before signing off, I would like to thank everybody who participated in the Investors in People Review. We anticipate receiving our report by the end of this month and we will update you fully once we have had time to digest the contents of the report. Peter Loose, Chief Executive Our Investors in People Report is due soon .... A huge thank you to everybody who participated in our Investors in People review, either by completing the survey or meeting the assessor Estelle. We are expecting the full report in the next few weeks, together with the results of the survey. Once EMT have digested and made sense of the result we will share the findings with you, together with our action plan in the form of "You Said; We did." Amazon Smile Amazon Smile is the new Amazon site that supports charities—the same Amazon you know. Same products, same prices, same service, except that Amazon donates 0.5% of the net purchase price (excluding VAT, returns and shipping fees) of eligible purchases to the charitable organisation of your choice AT NO COST TO YOU. To Support Bethphage, start your shopping at smile.amazon.co.uk and select Bethphage as your charity A BBC film crew come to Shrewsbury to listen to Bethphage... You will have heard a lot about the sleep-in crisis and you may have read the comprehensive summation on the Bethphage website. If not, you may be interested in this link above - just click the button for more information. Sleep-ins have been a common part of social care provision for over 40 years and until recently had always been paid as a fixed allowance per night (generally about £25-£30 per night). Central Government provides policy and advice which Local Authorities (councils) and providers rely upon. The official guidance on the national minimum wage (and the national living wage) called “Calculating the minimum wage” has been revised several times. The version issued in October 2014 said that staff on sleep-in duties are not entitled to the minimum wage while they are asleep or entitled to sleep but changes in February 2015, October 2016 and July 2017 changed this position without consultation, impact assessment or new funding. Even now, Government is not giving more money to Local Authorities to fund the higher rate at which workers must be paid for sleep-in shifts. However, HMRC s insisting that providers must pay these higher rates and backdate the increase by six years. It is the backdated payments which cause the biggest problems. You may know that Bethphage has been working to raise awareness of the sleep in crisis and secure a favourable resolution for support staff and organisations. To this end and, on a beautiful and sunny afternoon in Shrewsbury, we arranged for the BBC to interview one of our support workers, Dave Tupper. We also wanted to thank John, Andrew, Anne Marie, Anne and Pam who had also agreed to be filmed before the BBC film crew commitments changed and it was difficult to get everybody together on the day. The BBC sent a cameraman and a reporter up from London to spend a couple of hours filming Dave providing day-to-day support and, conducted an outside interview. Dave was at pains to reiterate in his interview, that the “support workers’ argument should not be with the employer, but with the Government as they set the rate in which sleep-ins are paid and provide the monies to Local Authorities to commission the services” Whilst the filming was taking place outside, Peter was interviewed by BBC Health editor, Hugh Pym discussing the potential impact of the sleep-in crisis on small to medium charities like Bethphage. The filming was undertaken for the evening news and will be broadcast when the Mencap Court of Appeal decision is announced. Dave and Ben, who he was supporting that day thoroughly enjoyed the experience and their few minutes of “stardom.” We anticipate a decision from the Court of Appeal in the next few weeks and will update www.bethphage.co.uk/sleep-ins promptly. Staff Conference 2018 This year’s conference was bigger and better than ever before and we were delighted that the vast majority of colleagues who attended agreed! The conference theme was “becoming a Positive Behaviour Organisation” with speakers and workshops on themes including becoming a PBO, person centred support, autism, mental capacity, professional boundaries and the characteristics of quality supported living. Our trustees joined us for the day and participated in a Question Time session and as always, we finished with the annual staff presentations and awards. We are really excited about next year’s theme which is “Better Health”. At next year’s conference on 12th April at Shrewsbury Town football ground, we will be considering how we can positively achieve better health care for people with disabilities and promote healthy lifestyles for the people we support and our colleagues. It’s a hot topic and we have been buzzing with ideas already! People said .... "Best conference ever. The workshops were well organised and delivery was great. The whole day was excellent" "No Q Team video and lunch not as good as usual. Nice venue" " A very enjoyable day. Proud to be part of the Bethphage family" "Great day - Good information - Enjoyed question period - Staff Awards positive - Great venue - Lunch needed to be speeded up -lovely spread" Bethphage signed the STOMP pledge in September of last year. STOMP is a project set up by NHS England to stop the over-use of psychotropic medication (things like anti-depressants, anti-psychotics and mood stabilisers) in people with a learning disability and/or autism. Since then three of the people we support have stopped taking medication that they do not need which is fantastic progress but there will be more. This is important because there are side effects of taking this medication over long periods, which affect people’s quality of life. These include weight gain, excessive hair growth, heart conditions, hallucinations, dry mouth, fatigue and constipation (but there are many others). If you would like any further information you can speak to your Service Manager or contact Clare Shaw (07738 540140). In supporting STOMP our staff’s role is to: Familiarise themselves with the medication the people you support take and the reasons why they take it Ensure people on psychotropic medication have a review at least every 6 months by the prescriber (GP or Consultant) Support them to be involved in the review using the Preparing to see a Doctor checklist Support people proactively following their Positive Behavioural Support plan and their Person Centred Plan, which will reduce the need for medication Bethphage is pleased to announce some new additions to the Management Team. Jon Paul Turford (middle of the larger photo) is the new Service Manager for our Shrewsbury Supported Living Services. JP joins us from Bryn Melyn Care where he worked with children and young people with multiple and complex needs. Moving to work with adults with learning disabilities is a big change for JP but one that he is he really excited about. JP is looking forward to getting to know the people we support and all his fantastic Bethphage colleagues who he thanks for making him feel really welcome. I hope you will all join us in welcoming JP to the Bethphage Team where he will help us work towards our vision of inclusive communities where all people have the opportunities to live the life they choose. Amanda Davidson (to JP’s left) is the Service Manager for ourexciting new service Ruckley Home Farm: Amanda joins Bethphage from Derwen College and "simply cannot wait to get Ruckley up, running and absolutely buzzing!" Ruckley is a beautiful barn conversion which will provide self contained supported living accommodation for 9 people in the stunning countryside on the doorstep of the Shropshire Hills, an area of outstanding natural beauty. Throughout her career, Amanda has worked with vulnerable people. She explains that it was during her time at Derwen College when she was Programme Coordinator for Education that she developed her passion for working with adults with learning disabilities; “the students at Derwen inspired me to work with people with learning disabilities, supporting them to unlock their potential, achieve their goals and aspirations and live fulfilling lives as independently as possible. This is the ethos I carry with me to Bethphage and I am relishing the opportunity to implement at Ruckley Home Farm.” is ready for a new challenge, "I am really excited about joining Bethphage and getting to know everyone, working with my teams to provide the best quality of care to the fantastic people we support." Ceri Burgess (Manager) and Lizzie Rowley (Deputy Manager) Oak Farm Ceri (on the right above) joins us from City Farm Edinburgh where she was learning about livestock and working with the volunteers. Ceri was, “over the moon to take over the management of Oak Farm,” where she feels she will bring lots of, “ideas, ambition and enthusiasm.” Lizzie (on the left) is a self-professed animal lover, who also enjoys the great outdoors generally which makes Oak Farm the perfect fit for her. Lizzie enjoys walking, history and the National Trust and brings her three pets Alphie, Cookie and Gillie with her to Oak Farm. Lizzie joins us from the University of Guildford where she was a large animal technician. News from Oak Farm So, it's been just over two-months since I joined the Oak Farm team and what a lovely team it is to be part of! Everyone at the farm has been very welcoming and supportive. I'm really excited about the future for Oak Farm and as a team looking at how we grow and develop the service. I encourage anybody who is interested, to join us for our Farm Festival on Saturday 1st September where we will have a dog show and lots of family fun entertainment as well as craft stalls, food and drink! Everyone is welcome including your four-legged friends - maybe they might like to enter the show! If you, or someone you know are interested in having a stall or providing some entertainment etc. Please email me cburgess@bethphage.co.uk it would be great to hear your ideas. I would also welcome you to get in touch if you are interested in volunteering your time to help with the show. Bethphage would like to introduce you to another new service—Ruckley Home Farm .... Bethphage is excited to announce the opening of another new service, Ruckley Home Farm. At Bethphage, we like to think of all our services as special, but this one really is truly unique. Ruckley Home Farm is located in the glorious Shropshire countryside, eight miles outside of Shrewsbury, near the beautuful village Acton Burnell. Ruckley is a purpose built Supported Living service, set in a superb barn conversion where up to 9 young people with learning disabilities will be able to enjoy living as independently as possible, developing their domestic, social and life skills. The accommodation is made up of four adjoining units with two bedsitting rooms linked by a kitchen with en-suites to both bedrooms. There is a communal open-plan sitting room / kitchen which is available for activities and social meals. There is a large communal garden and plenty of parking. The Landlord lives next door and the old working farm left approximate 20 acres surrounding the building where there is the potential to develop workshops and dependent on need, a care farm in the future. The hope is that this accommodation and land will help build a foundation for the young adults, and contribute to identifying their individual abilities and help maximise potential resulting in opportunities for work placements and future advancement. Ruckley opens in July and our new Service Manager, Amanda Davidson is preparing her team of Support Workers while working closely with the landlords, the people who we will be supporting there and their families to ensure that they are as happy and comfortable as possible in their new home. Amanda is still looking to recruit more support workers, if you are interested in finding our more about this beautiful new service then please Contact Amanda direct on 07712 235 530 or speak to our recruitment team on 01743 272880 or email recruitment@bethphage.co.uk . Footnote Bethphage Friends receive copies of the charity’s newsletters and occasional additional correspond- ence. Over time, we hope Bethphage Friends will be able to provide practical support and contribute to the development of fundraising activities. By sending information electronically we are able to keep membership of Bethphage Friends free, but we do encourage anybody without an email address to donate £5 a year to cover the cost of printing and posting newsletters. All you have to do to join Bethphage Friends is send an email to enquiries@bethphage.co.uk with your name, email address and the nature of your interest (family member, neighbour, social worker, etc.) |