Eden Futures Newsletter - Winter 2014

eden eyes news

Winter 2014

2014 – An Award Winning year p3

Bestwood Hospital Celebrates National Award

Sharing Lived Experience Ashley Speaks at the Autism Show p7

p6

Proud to be Sponsoring Disability Rocks for festival information see p14

Launch of Eden Staff Awards to Celebrate Our Fantastic Staff

photos and video p9 & 10

www.edenfutures.org

I am very pleased to welcome you all to this latest edition of Eden Eyes – for the very first time it has news that covers all the areas of our group from East Yorkshire down to Exeter.

2014 has been a great year for Eden Futures, with many areas of our business winning awards for excellence (see page 3), and the company continuing to grow and expand both through likeminded organisations joining the Eden Futures Group (see Select Living Options and Supported Homes on page 2), and through the opening up of new services (see Bluebell court on page 6).

2015 is set to be an even more exciting year for Eden Futures with expansion of our existing services being planned across the company. We already have several new houses opening in Gloucester and Lincolnshire, and 10 further properties planned covering both Learning Disabilities and Mental Health.

Whilst all of this growth is fantastic for the company, it is my belief that we have to ensure we maintain high standards of care as we grow. As a result our Director of Quality (Sam Wellington) is establishing systems that will allow us to better monitor quality across all our houses as we expand.

In addition we will be introducing an on-line reporting system (ERIC) that will allow us to capture all incidents and share learning across the company.

But whilst growth and quality systems are key parts to the company success, the most important parts of our company remain our staff and those we care for. Without our staff, quality does not happen.

Without Quality, commissioners will not send vulnerable people to our new services. Everything stems from us as employees and the positivity we bring to work. I hope you will read all of the great stories in this edition of Eden Eyes, and see how that positivity is affecting the lives of those we care for.

To all colleagues, if you have any ideas on how we can make the lives of those we care for more positive, please let a member of the management team know. I would also ask you to review the article on Page 8 about service user holidays so we can ensure that those we support can get the most enjoyment and benefit from breaks.

Have a very Happy Christmas

Andrew Lennox – Eden Futures CEO

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Select Living Options and Supported Homes join Eden Futures We are delighted to welcome our new colleagues and service users to Eden Futures.

During the last quarter of 2014 Eden Futures achieved further growth. In September Select Living Options joined the group. Operating in the West Midlands and South West they comprise of Inclusion Care, Assisted Living South West and Assisted Living Solutions. Shortly after in November Supported Homes, who are based in the North West, West Midlands and Wales, also joined the group.

As we bring the organisations together to work as one, it will be business as usual for our service users, commissioners and front-line support staff. Select Living Options & Supported Homes, like Eden Futures offer personalised care and support for individuals in their own homes and in community settings.

Andrew Lennox said: “It is a very exciting time to bring the organisations together into one company.

Going forwards I expect us to become a significant influence in the market as we look to better the lives of our service users. There will also be great opportunities for all staff as the company grows – the talent of our people is key to the outcomes of our service users.”

Over time we will all communicate as Eden Futures to our stakeholders ensuring that everyone knows that all our services are supported by the wider group with a huge resource of specialist support knowledge and experience.

Together we provide support and partnered housing solutions for around 800 people with a range of disabilities across England and employ over 2000 people. With services from Cumbria in the North West, across to East Riding of Yorkshire, and all the way down to the Cornish border, Eden Futures is truly a national care provider. The regional infrastructure will remain in place and the finance functions across the group will be consolidated to our Head Office in Newark, Nottinghamshire.

Accreditation success Congratulations to our North West, West & Wales services who have recently passed their annual ISO:9001 review with flying colours.

Achieving this internationally recognised award demonstrates commitment to providing quality services and to the continuous monitoring and improvement of standards.

ISO 9001 Registered Firm

International Accreditation Board

Certificate No. GB2004668

Registration No. 0044/1

This group of services have also recently passed their 3 yearly review for their Investors in People status. Providing exceptional levels of care relies on us being able to employ the very best staff, and Investors In People helps us to do just that.

Congratulations are also in order for our East Midlands and South Yorkshire services who have recently had their CHAS (the national health and safety benchmark) status renewed.

Well done and thank you to everybody involved with these accreditations. Across the group we are standardising our external accreditations to ensure that we deliver consistently high quality services in all locations and to support us in our tenders.

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2014 – An award winning year Care Innovator Award David Whittock – Business Development Manager “Value driven, passionate and resilient to achieve success. Dave has had to overcome significant and overwhelming challenges in order to deliver the model of care and support, which ensures that it gets the best out of people and that all have an equal opportunity to live a good life.” - Judges comments

Supporting Older People with Learning Disabilities A support team from our Nottingham region won this award due to their outstanding commitment in supporting an alder gentleman. As he gets older and his care needs increase they have worked hard to uphold his wish to stay in his own home rather than moving into a nursing home.

Community support provider of the year This award recognises our innovative and committed approach to developing services to enable people to live in the community. It highlights the quality of the support that our staff deliver every day and their passion for community based solutions to meet peoples support needs.

Mental Health Hospital Provider – Bestwood Independent Hospital “We liked that their services are built around a very personalised approach to individuals, with a strong recovery ethos and prepares people for independence after many years.” - Judges comments

Yorkshire and Humberside Front-line Leader Award Bev Hallowes – Support Worker

REGIONAL

WINNER

2014

Celebrating Excellence Across The Social Care Sector

“It was a real honour to win this award for something that I enjoy doing so much. I always put the people that we support first and it’s great to have this belief recognised and valued.” - Bev Hallowes

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Developing New Services

New services

The Business Development Team work with local commissioners and our operational teams to ensure that Eden Futures can meet local demands for new services. Each team member covers a specific area.

Richard Clark

Head of Operations North West, West Midlands and Wales 07817 430169 richard.clark@edenfutures.org

Stepney Grove - Bridlington Working in partnership with Bespoke Supportive Tenancies (BeST), East Riding of Yorkshire County Council and East Riding of Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group, we have opened ten apartments that can support vulnerable people with a range of needs.

Rachel Watters

Eden North East 07590 904775 rachel.watters@edenfutures.org

Sue Strain

Eden West 07788 314596 suestrain@inclusioncare.com

Claire Batsford

Eden Midlands 07788 314596 claire.batsford@edenfutures.org

Stacie Ridley

Eden South West 07584 643703 stacie.ridley@edenfutures.org

David Whittock

Group Head of Business Development 07759 041126 david.whittock@edenfutures.org

We are pleased to announce that we have recently been awarded a place on the following frameworks.

The flats are spacious, with a specialist fit-out and expert maintenance to ensure safe and high quality environments.

Referrals should be made to East Riding of Yorkshire County Council’s Adult Services on 01482 393939.

Plas Canol – Newtown, Powys We have completed expansion works making two more supported living placements available in this location. This service is expert in supporting people with a range of Mental Health illnesses and/or Asperger’s Syndrome. They have successfully supported a number of people who have come directly from hospital and other long term institutional settings.

The support team at Plas Canol work pro-actively to maximise each person’s independent living skills.

To find out more about this service contact Richard Clark: 07817430169, richard.clark@ supportedhomes.com

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Introducing

Richard Clark

– Head of Operations North West, West Midlands and Wales Richard set-up Supported Homes in 2006 after a successful career in mental health nursing. Whilst working as a Care Coordinator in the Community he became frustrated that services were not meeting people’s needs, or responding to their aspirations. Supported Homes was born out of Richard’s belief that the culture of care needed to put the people being supported at the centre of the care they receive.

Now Supported Homes is part of Eden Futures, Richard’s role will be to build upon the support model he fostered with Supported Homes, ensuring our provision of excellent care in high quality accommodation is easily rolled out to new services so that every individual we work with can reach their full potential.

Lisa Nicholls

– Head of Operations South Lisa has worked in the care sector for over 20 years and has a wealth of experience, she has particularly focused on complex services for people who challenge traditional residential placements.

She will be focusing on enhancing quality and growth of services in the South to support our ambition to become a leading national provider of supported living services.

Sam Wellington

– Quality Director Sam, a registered mental health nurse since 1986 with an MA in leading, innovation and change, has focused her career on managing specialist mental health and learning disability services within the health and social care sector.

Now joining Eden, Sam is going to focus on ‘growing the great’ as she puts it: “I am genuinely delighted to have the opportunity to join a company that I’ve admired for a number of years for their ability to think outside of the box.”

Mel Alexander – Clinical Lead

For the past 15 years Mel has been creating tailor-made packages for people with very complex needs. Working for Eden Futures, Mel will look at clinical hotspots within the organisation as well as providing input into Bestwood Independent Hospital and the development of new services.

Speaking about her appointment Mel said: “I’ve witnessed Eden Futures development from the start and what they have achieved is incredible; providing individualised support for people with complex needs, enabling them to remain in their communities.”

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Bestwood Independent Hospital: Two reasons to celebrate

Service News

This year the Bestwood team won the highly respected Laing Buisson Independent Healthcare Award for Mental Health Hospital Provider of the Year. The win serves as a great recognition of the staff’s commitment and passion to developing and delivering this unique hospital service.

To mark this incredible achievement the hospital invited North Nottingham MP Graham Allen to unveil a plaque commemorating their success during a celebration event for staff and the people who are supported there.

“I am proud of the vital work the hospital does in my patch.

Winning this award means a great deal to all of those involved.” - Graham Allen MP

Graham Allen MP for Nottingham North unveils the award plaque at Bestwood Independent Hospital

Graham commented: “It’s fantastic that the hospital has been recognised with this award. Giving some of the most vulnerable in our community their own living space and putting them closer to their families will bring comfort to them as they are able to visit often.

The award was presented by Jenny Edwards CEO Mental Health Foundation and TV presenter Huw Edwards

Top praise for Bluebell Court Dr Glen Mason Director of People, Communities and Local Government, visited our supported living service at Bluebell Court, Heanor in June.

Glen’s visit was arranged by the Great British Care Awards/ National Learning Disabilities Awards as part of a day looking first hand at examples of best practice at work.

I thoroughly enjoyed hearing their stories first hand and seeing some of the great work they do”.

This new service recently made its first discharge. The individual had made fantastic progress within a short period of time; his stay was less than 18 months which is well within the national average for this stage of the care pathway. As well as supporting him towards his recovery, the team also worked hard to make his transition to his new home successful.

“I am proud of the vital work the hospital does in my patch. Winning For further information about this this award means unique hospital service click here: a great deal to all of those involved. Bestwood Independent Hospital

After meeting the staff team at Bluebell Court, Glen said: “I was delighted to visit Eden Futures supported living unit in Derbyshire. I was particularly impressed by the commitment, skill and passion of the staff to deliver a high quality personalised service.

“The people who used the service had a high degree of need and without such a well-run community facility, they could well have been placed in less personalised and more restrictive services.”

Thank you to all staff that supported Glen’s visit to Heanor and enabled him to experience great social care in action.

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Out and about British Institute of Learning Disability Annual Conference – From Good to Great; support that helps make great lives’ for people with learning disabilities and their families.

Our award winning team from Nottingham were asked to take part in this conference in November to share their expertise. They ran an interactive group discussion around the main areas of support for older people within the community such as rights, choice, capacity and partnership working.

Representing the team were Katherine Newton, Bridget Boggan and Lynsey Clarke; winners of the National Learning Disability Supporting Older People with Learning Disabilities award.

Finalists announced for the Independent Specialist Care Awards We are proud to be finalists in two categories: • Care Pathways – Eden Futures • Supported Living – Greenways Service Gloucester

We are also pleased to announce that Pam Mellor, Commissioning Officer – Winterbourne at NE Lincolnshire County Council, is a finalist for Best Commissioner. We nominated her due to her innovative approach to commissioning and her collaborative approach to working with providers.

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Speaking at the Autism Show When offered the chance to go to the Autism Event in Manchester and to do a presentation about my experience and time living in Eden, I said yes without a second’s hesitation because it is something very close to my heart and I’m so glad I did because I loved every second of it.

My Presentation Lorna Durant (Eden Futures Service Manager) started off the presentation explaining everything about supported living and Eden. I could feel my heart bumping, my legs going to jelly and my hands were shaking, but I was determined to do my bit.

So I started off by introducing myself, and then I tried my best to explain my experiences of living in a shared house, and the challenges and difficulties I faced with that, and how I, and my brilliant Keyworker Richard,

by Ashley Phillips

managed to work hard to get me into my own single dwelling bungalow within Eden. I then moved onto how much happier I am living on my own, explained that there were teething problems but nothing that a bit of communication and understanding of my needs couldn’t sort out.

Being Involved It was my first time public speaking, and I think I’ve come along way, because if you asked me just 3 or 4 years ago I would not have had the confidence or belief in myself to do that.

I am proud to have Asperger’s and do think it has helped make me the person I am today. When I was younger as a kid I didn’t accept it, I was in denial. But now I’ve accepted it I am confident with the person I am, but still willing to learn and improve, and never stand still or go backwards. We never stop learning after all.

Laing Buisson – Northern Long Term Care Conference Our CEO Andrew Lennox & Head of Business Development David Whittock presented at the Northern Care Conference. The presentation was titled - ‘Innovation in Supported Living - Collaboration is the Key’ They discussed the changes in the sector and how true partnership working between all agencies, with the person at the centre of the discussion, will lead to support and housing solutions that best meet local needs and individuals preferences.

Involvement Strategy update: Holiday policy review Eden Futures want the people who are supported by the organisation to be involved in all aspects of what we do. One way in which we hope to achieve this is by asking people we support, their friends and family and the workers who deliver their day-to-day support to contribute to the review and updating of the Policies and Procedures that form the basis of the work undertaken by Eden Futures.

The Quality Team is currently looking at the Service User Holiday Policy with a view to updating it and ensuring that it works for service users, staff who accompany service users on holiday and the Commissioning bodies. We are especially keen to include the views of service users in the process. We want to know what people think should be included in the policy. It will be helpful to hear the experiences of people who have been supported on holiday.

• What does the policy need to include about how holidays are planned?

• Are the financial arrangements for support workers’ expenses good enough? How can problems with finance be avoided?

• What are the expectations of support workers behaviour, e.g. drinking alcohol, smoking, engaging in activities, whilst they are supporting service users on holiday?

If you would like to be involved in developing the new Service User Holiday Policy please contact Lara Cowen, Quality Officer: lara.cowen@edenfutures.org or 01522 683857

Great British Care Awards 2014 – Our great care champions A huge well done to all our finalists it is a fantastic achievement to make it to the final stages of these awards.

This year we had the following finalists:

North West – Care Team Award; Cumbria Care Team West Midlands – Best Care Newcomer; Ryan Pleavin South Yorkshire & Humber – Frontline Leader Award; Bev Hallowes East Midlands – Housing with Care Award; Bluebell Court Tea Good Nurse Award – Nomsa Kumire Dignity In Care Award – Debra Harbottle

Congratulations to Bev Hallowes who won the Yorkshire & Humber Frontline Leader Award and will attend the national finals in 2015.

REGIONAL

WINNER

2014

Celebrating Excellence Across The Social Care Sector

Ceri Lennon, Head of HR ,comments “As an organisation we really value these awards as they enable front-line workers to be recognised and celebrated for the fantastic work that they do; work that often goes unnoticed.”

The awards received support from across the social care sector, including the Department of Health, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), United Kingdom Home Care Association (UKHCA), Care England, the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), the National Skills Academy and Skills for Care.

Staff Update Tech Support Corner by Ben Solomon We are working towards a better, faster and more reliable IT system.

The first innovation is ‘People Planner’: a modern digital rota that considers the past and suggests rota patterns.

This is greatly beneficial for those service users who prefer to have familiar faces, and creates a sense of consistency in shifts. As well as making rota writing much more efficient it will keep staff up-to-date with training and alert the team of refresher courses, ensuring we offer the best service we can.

We are also upgrading our communication across the whole company by moving to a new mobile network supplier, one that has significantly more network coverage.

We understand how important oncall phones are to staff members and the need for easy and reliable communication.

Printers will also be getting upgraded, and to improve data confidentiality a PIN number system be introduced.

Since the last Eden Eyes, we have added lots of new advice and instructions on our forums page: support.edenfutures.org Thanks to everyone who has put forward suggestions for topics. We will continue adding more content, so check it out if you have an IT issue.

We are also connecting Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire to our network and would like to invite them to start using support.edenfutures.org as their go to site for IT support.

Finally a special thanks to the Gloucestershire team for being so cooperating and helpful.

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Staff Awards 2014 On Tuesday 2nd September nearly 200 colleagues and service users got together to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Eden Futures by recognising and highlighting the great support that staff give every day.

There were 10 categories | Over 200 people nominated | 44 Finalists | 10 Winners The winners are: • • • • • • • • • •

Best Listener - Bev Rodgers – Mansfield Most Helpful - Tracy Cumberland – Newark Most Fun - Steve Hudson – Rotherham Best Team Player - Audrey Drummond – Newark Unsung Hero - Haydn Young – Head Office Role Model - David Draper – Mansfield New Comer - Vicky Kay – Lincoln Significant Achievement - Mel Proctor – Nuneaton / Coventry The Kevin Dixon – Team Awards - Kevin Dixon Team – Tuxford Best Support Worker - Hannah Owens – Mansfield

Sam Wellington, Quality Director, said: “It was a privilege to join colleagues from across the organisation in celebrating the differences everyone makes to people’s lives – on a daily basis. It was a particular joy to share the celebration with people who use our services. It is my hope that we continue to publicly praise all that our people achieve with similar events over the coming years.”

There are more photos to see on our Facebook page and website.

Have you seen the video?

Find it on edenfutures.org and our YouTube channel.

All the winners of this year’s Staff Awards

Many thanks to our VIP hosts Giselle Parkin & Claire Batsford and Lorna Durrant & Sharon Walker. And also to bingo callers Colin Hanson and Lara Cowen.

A big thank you from the Involvement Strategy Group and to all who visited expressed an interest in the groups. See page 8 for the latest Involvement Group news.

Andrew Lennox, CEO and Sam Wellington, Quality Director present the Best Support Worker to Hannah Owens - Mansfield.

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BIG

A thank you to everyone involved in making this event happen; by sorting rotas, booking transport organising staff and service users and all the other tasks that were needed to enable the event to happen.

Would you like to help with next year’s event? To get involved contact Ruth Stallwood, Marketing Manager.

Don’t forget to watch the video CLICK HERE

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Eden People

Volunteering at Rhubarb Farm with Kia

Charity head shave

Rhubarb Farm began in 2011 to involve people from the local community in setting up a social enterprise whereby volunteers can be actively involved with the development and running of horticultural production.

Anne-Marie Harris from our North Nottinghamshire region donated her hair to charity after her grandfather began to lose his due to chemotherapy.

Ann-Marie made the decision to cut her long hair off and donate 13 inches of it to the Little Princess Trust which makes wigs for sick children who have lost their own hair.

Her parents Diane and Trevor were very proud of her, Trevor said: “She is very close to her Granddad and goes to see him every weekend when she is home. When he started to lose his hair she said she had plenty spare and decided to donate it to charity.”

Volunteers with a range of long-term needs work at the Farm, ranging from people with mental ill health and learning disabilities to ex-offenders and people recovering from drug and alcohol misuse. Their Buddies Project works with people with mental health support needs and learning disabilities, as Volunteer Co-ordinator Debbie Reynolds explains: “The aim of Buddies is to support people to learn new skills and build confidence. We work with each volunteer to determine the type of support they require and tailor a programme suited to their individual abilities and desires.”

Being a working farm most activities centre around horticulture and the Farm sells veg boxes and eggs to regular weekly customers. During the winter

months other activities take place such as making Christmas wreaths to sell to the local community.

Kia attends Rhubarb once a week and also volunteers at the Langworth Show held on grounds adjacent to the farm. At first Kia came with his support, but now visits on his own, he said: “I’ve been coming since 2013. I like doing everything here, weeding and planting. Today we made Christmas wreaths and we also have food baskets and eggs for sale. It’s really good here.”

Rhubarb Farm is always looking at developing opportunities that will help people move forward.

Debbie added, “Currently we are looking at providing accredited training courses on-site, so that people who might not access training in more traditional settings, but feel comfortable coming here, can gain qualifications that might lead them on to something else.”

For volunteering referrals and enquiries, please contact: debbie@rhubarbfarm.co.uk Tel. 01623 741 210 www.rhubarbfarm.co.uk

Kia and Debbie Reynolds at Rhubarb Farm

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Jamie is a winning volunteer In June Jamie Quinn who is supported by our Rotherham service won the ‘Volunteer of the Year’ award at the South Yorkshire Police and Partners Together Awards. The Rotherham actor Dean Andrews (pictured) well known for his parts in Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes and Last Tango in Halifax was there to present the awards.

Jamie receiving his award.

Jamie was nominated due to the positive impact he has had in police training. He helps officers hone their techniques with role

Learning to dance with GDance

play work at the South Yorkshire Police’s Training Centre so that they can learn to communicate well with people on the Autism Spectrum as they encounter them in their work in our communities Speaking about winning the award Jamie said: “I felt really proud and honoured to win the award.”

He added: “I really enjoy the training course, and enjoy meeting all the top ‘brass’. I have learnt a lot since I’ve been volunteering and I find it really interesting”.

Judging the Yorkshire & Humber Care Awards Dave Whittock, our Group Head of Business Development, was thrilled to be asked to join the judging panel for the Yorkshire & Humber region of the Great British Care Awards. On the 3rd October he judged The Care Home Activity Organiser and The Care Team Awards.

Tayla and Debbie took part in GDance’s 20th anniversary celebrations. GDance is a Gloucester organisation which brings together people of all abilities to produce professional and inclusive shows.

In November they celebrated this landmark anniversary by holding a performance event. Tayla and Debbie performed with others in an interactive piece that was performed to music from Lord of the Flies, which got the audience dancing too!

This was a new experience for Debbie who joined the company in September. Tayla has been with the company for three years and has been involved in many performances. She says that she loves to perform and has even choreographed routines in the past.

She had previously been awarded a fellowship by GDance so that

she could develop her leadership and choreography skills, she said: “This support meant that I could gain more understanding of the role of a choreographer and the task involved. Also, it meant that I could gain other peoples point of view and opinion. It was great to get some dancers into the studio to start developing creative work on a theme that I’m interested in.”

Dave commented: “It was an honour to have been asked to sit on the judging panel for the Great British Care Awards. The standard of finalists was very high and it was an absolute pleasure to meet the them and hear about the great support that they give every day” Dave won his own award for Care Innovator of the year at the national Great British Care Awards 2014.

Interested in joining a dance group? Gloucester area: GDance run an inclusive performance group that meet Mondays 5.30-7pm at Milestone School and Saturdays 2-5pm at Cityworks in Gloucester.

For more information about either of these courses, please contact Ailsa Lane ailsa@gdance.co.uk or call 01452 550431.

Nationwide: To find out about other dance and disability art organisations in your local area visit: www.disabilityartsonline.org.uk or www.communitydance.org.uk

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Eden People Grimsby people get together

Our Grimsby region raised £80 for the Macmillan Coffee Morning on Friday 26th September, by selling cakes and biscuits they had baked.

People we support from Grimsby chose to take a trip to York. They visited the The Shambles and The National Railway Museum. Everyone had a fabulous day out and will be visiting again soon.

First-time Festival Fun This summer Music lover Rebecca from the South West decided that she would like to start attending concerts and festivals. Rebecca, her support team, family and care manager got together to make a plan to enable this to happen for her.

Achieving her goal was split into three stages. Firstly this summer she went to the Bicton Festival in East Devon, a local two day festival where she could travel back home after each day. Next summer she plans to go to a festival further away and join in with the camping. Rebecca’s ultimate goal is to go to the UK’s biggest and most famous festival Glastonbury.

Rebecca has started off her festival journey on a high – she was thrilled to meet Luke Friend from X-Factor. We look forward to sharing Rebecca’s adventures over the coming years.

Reindeer Winner

Well done to Tom from the Telford region who recently won first prize in a reindeer making competition. The competition was held at Attingham Park where he volunteers once a week to help out with the park grounds’ maintenance. He was presented with a certificate, a bottle of wine and a beautiful wooden carving of a saw made from Attingham trees.

Turkey and Tinsel trip They say ‘word of mouth’ is the best kind of marketing and it certainly worked at our Nuneaton services.

What started out as a few friends making plans for a pre-christmas getaway turned into 30 people deciding that they wanted to join in on the trip. Collectively they chose to spend a week in Brighton.

Jody Cashmore, Support Worker, said: “it was a great trip, everyone loved it. Groups of friends chose to do different activities, and there was plenty to see and do.”

Having a Christmas dance

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Ready for lift-off

Down on the Pier

Skates at the ready

Happy House Warming in the South West Bernadette from our Devon region is set to move into her new apartment.

She was living in a 24 hour service but had set a personal goal to move into a more independent setting.

Bernadette, her care coordinator and Eden Futures’ staff have all worked together to plan out the steps that Bernadette needed to take to be able to move into independent living. Bernadette has developed her independent living skills which has reduced the number of hours of support she requires and this coupled with assisted technology has enabled her to feel ready to move on.

Bernadette had looked at several properties before finding the perfect one to call home. She has picked the flats colour scheme and given the decorators their instructions!

Bernadette is now busy planning for her moving date and for her house warming party. Congratulations to Bernadette on her new home.

Disability Rocks!

We are thrilled to announce that we are sponsoring the Disability Rocks festivals - summer 2015.

Eden Futures are the main sponsor for the Midlands event being held in Derbyshire, and we are really looking forward to being part of this great adventure.

This summer four friends from Telford spent a few days in Weston-super-Mare.

Darrell, Andrew, Kerri-Louise and Chris had a mid-week break together and also visited Brean and Cheddar Gorge. Kerri-Louise especially enjoyed the cheese tasting at Cheddar Gorge and highly recommends the smoked cheddar.

Disability Rocks organise accessible festivals for people with disabilities, their friends and families. The events have the same essential ingredients as any other festival; great music, performance, workshops, food, crafts and more.

If you’d like to find out more about the festivals or would like to get involved as a volunteer you can contact them directly at disabilityrocks.org or speak to our communications Team: 0115 9603 264 / 07976 461 811.

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Working Together, more than the sum of our parts...

Eden Futures is made up of several organisations that are expert in providing personalised support.

Each organisation was born out of the belief that people have the right to live how they want in their own community, not hidden away from it. The shared desire to give people a voice in society and the dignity and respect they deserve is at the core of Eden Futures’ values. Support Enablement and Independence is at the heart of our work.

We provide support for people who have: • • • • • • •

a learning disability Autistic Spectrum Conditions an Acquired Brain Injury a physical disability enduring mental health support needs been detained under the Mental Health Act complex and challenging support needs

Our services offer a diverse range of quality, community-based support options, including: • • • • • • • •

supported living services complex supported living outreach and community support domiciliary care independent hospital service residential care homes single-person residential care homes support through personal budgets

We’d love to hear your news. If you have any ideas or suggestions for the Newsletter please contact the Communications Team: comms@edenfutures.org / 01159 603 264 Communications Manager - ruth.stallwood@edenfutures.org / 07976 461 811 Communications Assistant – pete.morris@edenfutures.org / 01159 603 264 Deadline for content for the next issue is 1st March 2014.

Eden Futures Head Office. Friary House, 17a Friary Road, Newark, NG24 1LE. Info@edenfutures.org 01636 676 054

Find us on online www.edenfutures.org www.inclusioncare.com www.supportedhomes.com For all the latest news, photographs and other media from across the organisation follow Eden Futures on your favourite social media platforms.