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How To Plan A Holiday For Your Service Users? By Barry Price of QCS (www.qcs.co.uk) When the marketing team approached me to write an article on supported holidays, naturally I jumped at the chance. But it was only when I sat down to write the piece that I began to realise the enormity of the task that I was faced with. In a time of COVID, how do you write a meaningful and helpful guide to holidays in a thousand words when the wants, needs and capabilities of service users are so vastly different? What is right for one person may not be right for another. The key point, therefore, is always to take a person-centred approach. The best services know what drives, excites and inspires the people they support, and budget permitting, they will do their level best to give them their dream break. That said, having accumulated nearly two decades of experience in accompanying and supporting service users on holiday, managing expectations within person-centred framework is crucial. So too is care planning. QCS, the leading provider of content, policies and standards, has created several policies including supporting independence with holidays, Social life stories, policies regarding Accessible information standards and Care and Risk Assessment planning documents. When considering the options, it's absolutely imperative that you involve the service user. After all, it's their holiday, not yours. In discussing options, I would recommend taking a look at a ‘Rough Guide to Accessible Britain’, which is published by ‘Motability’, the leading car scheme for disabled people.
FIRST STEPS After establishing the basics – such as where they want to go, what do they want to do and how long they want to be away from home, the next step would to discuss the level of the support they would need with a senior manager to enable the service user to really get the most out of their holiday. The mind-set should be one of never accepting “no”, but instead always asking “How”. Take a person with complex needs, who requires round the clock supervision, for instance. They may need two members of staff to accompany them on their break. Imagine, for example, that you are supporting a person with a brain injury, who has a severe form of epilepsy. It might be that that person needs to be monitored throughout the night. Therefore, you need to budget for two members of staff to provide support.
Of course, the sad reality is that the more support that a person requires, often the more expensive the break. I think that this is where outstanding planning and diligent research comes into its own, however. If the person you are supporting has brain injury or is autistic, there are often grants that can be applied for. Secondly, if you know where to look, there are some wonderful discounts available that can massively reduce the cost of a break. When I used to accompany service users on holiday, for instance, the support team found the Sun newspaper’s £9.50 holiday offer to be a godsend. Okay – while we rarely got a break for a tenner, collecting the vouchers each day, enabled a service user to enjoy a holiday at a UK Holiday Park at a hugely subsidised rate.
PLANNING A FOREIGN TRIP AFTER COVID But, what if you encounter a service user who wants to visit to the Maasai Mara game park in Kenya or perhaps take a trip to Graceland, the home of Elvis, in Memphis, Tennessee? Whenever service users came to me with such requests, while managing their expectations, I would always try my best to do as much as I could to try and make their dream a reality. How? Well, I would involve their loved ones at an early stage and try to work with them to establish if such a trip was possible from a cost perspective. It might be that they could help contribute to financing the holiday. Sometimes too, service users – particularly those with brain injuries have received compensation for their injury and future care needs. If this is the case, then cost may not be a barrier. Instead, the greatest obstacles lie in the planning, which needs to be meticulous. If, for example, a person wanted to visit a Kenyan or a Tanzanian national park, what vaccines would they need to have? Is it safe for them to have the vaccines? Are they comfortable taking anti-malaria tablets? In addition to delays and stolen luggage, does holiday insurance provide comprehensive medical expenses cover? Does it include sickness and emergency contingency plans – in case the service user needs to be flown home at short notice? Wherever the destination – whether it's local, national or international – care workers should always carry an emergency grab bag, a communication passport and a hospital traffic light document.
LOCATION AND DISTANCE That said, with the world still gripped by COVID, it is likely that longhaul holidays won't become a possibility for service users for some time. Even if they do, most people – particularly those with complex needs – prefer will look to holiday in the UK. For disabled people and those with learning disabilities, autism, and dementia, location and distance are very important factors to consider. How far away is the hotel or holiday park, for example? What time of year is best to go? For instance, a person with learning disabilities may be extremely uncomfortable in crowds or around children. So, it may be best to schedule the break outside of the school holidays. Another obstacle is planning the route. As anyone who supports disabled people will know, it can be
challenging to find service stations en-route that meet their needs. However, the ‘Changing Places’ website contains a comprehensive list of accessible amenities.
MANAGING EXPECTATIONS, OVER-EXCITEMENT AND ANXIETY There’s also the question of when you tell a service user where and when they are going. Earlier in the piece, I wrote that service users should be heavily involved in the planning stage wherever possible. However, there is always an exception to the rule, and it does not mean that in not involving the you are being any less person-centred in your approach. Take a person with severe learning disabilities who is fascinated with animals. If you were to tell him or her that you are scheduling a trip to London Zoo or Longleat Safari Park in a fortnight’s time, they may not be able to think about anything else and they could become very anxious. Equally, on the flipside, there are some service users, who not only need to be heavily involved in the planning process, but need to be suitably mentally prepared to go somewhere different that breaks their routine. Take an autistic person for example. They are likely to much more comfortable if they know what they will be doing each day. The Autism Friendly Caravan is one such company that really understands the sometime complex and varying needs that an autistic person might have, due to the fact that the owner’s son is autistic. They understand the inherent value of picture book and story books, for instance, to prepare a person for a caravan holiday. Whenever I accompanied people with learning disabilities or autism on holidays – whether they were hotel or caravan based – I would call the manager and ask them to send me photos of the grounds, of the room that the person would be staying in and the communal areas. I would then make a story book and show it to the person every day up until the holiday. That I found was the best way to mentally prepare a person for a change of schedule. Finally, it’s important to recognise the fact that not everyone wants to go on a holiday. Some service users want to sleep in their own bed every night. Sometimes, carefully selecting several day trips over the course of a week or a fortnight might prove to be the best option. Whatever you and your service users decide to do this summer, from everyone at QCS, have fun! To find out more about QCS, contact our compliance advisors on 0333-4053333 or email sales@qcs.co.uk? Alternatively, if you're seeking a new challenge, QCS is hiring. For a list of current vacancies, click here https://www.qcs.co.uk/current-opportunities/
Heightened Profile Of Care Sector Has Increased Demand For UK Care Businesses Specialist business property adviser, Christie & Co, has today released its mid-year review of the care business property market, which analyses the market in 2021 so far, gives an outlook for the remainder of the year, and shares views from its latest operator sentiment survey.
the forward-looking demographic demand drivers and the structural undersupply of future-proof care beds in the UK. Development activity in 2021 remains very strong thanks to the high demand from a range of institutional, sector specialist and overseas investors for new build care homes let on long-term leases to good quality operator
The Road to Recovery
covenants.
After a challenging time for the care sector, which was exacerbated by a second wave of the virus Christie & Co notes promising signs of recovery. Thanks, in part, to the success of the vaccine rollout in the UK, the rate of COVID-19 infection levels and deaths within care homes has dramatically decreased, enabling homes to accept new admissions. Similarly, relatives and prospective residents are now more confident of moving into a care setting due to reductions in self isolation and the fact that regular family visits are now much easier to achieve. Average occupancy is showing signs of improvement, but overall increases are slow and many providers are focussed on maximising income from local authority or CCG funded clients with complex needs. Christie & Co conducted a survey of care operator market sentiment across the UK, and reports that 45 per cent of respondents said their occupancy has recovered, yet 39 per cent said their occupancy levels were below 80 per cent which shows that there is a still a way to go before the sector returns to pre-pandemic levels. Transaction Market Supply & Demand Demand for care homes remains strong across all buyer groups as it was pre-pandemic, but the second wave of the virus delayed some care homes coming to the market as owners grappled with COVID-19 outbreaks and occupancy challenges. The strength of buyer demand, coupled with a relative shortage of stock, means that pricing is holding up well, with multiple offers being
As with the going concern market, a relative shortage of opportunities has resulted in strong interest and a compression of yields for such forward funding opportunities. Christie & Co expects this trend to continue as new capital enters the market with many investors actively targeting healthcare due to its strong needs-driven underpin and operational real estate exposure. Pricing & Funding routinely received. There is improving appetite across the market spectrum, with the top end of the market fuelled by strong investor interest which is cascading through the rest of the market. 20 per cent of sentiment survey respondents said they are looking to sell their business in 2021, whilst 29 per cent are looking to buy, which highlights ongoing operator confidence in the sector. Market Activity & Investment Appetite After a pause last year, investment activity has kicked-off with increased institutional interest in the sector as well as strong interest in the UK care sector from overseas capital, with European consolidators becoming increasingly active in the UK market. Specialist markets remain strong as they have been relatively unaffected by the pandemic and the secure income streams continue to appeal to private equity groups and infrastructure funds. The development market continued largely unabated through 2020 as developers and operators took a longer-term view off the back of
Multiples and pricing for care businesses have remained largely unaffected by the pandemic, however operational challenges have impacted many operators’ financial performance. 45 per cent of sentiment survey respondents believe values would increase during 2021, with 33 per cent expecting little improvement. Lenders are closely monitoring occupancy levels and supporting operational performance across their client groups with indications that many providers fared better than expected. Richard Lunn, Managing Director at Christie & Co, comments, “The pandemic has thrown a spotlight on the industry and, in many respects, has shown the importance of care provision in the UK. As a result, we have seen an increase in the demand for homes from providers looking to grow their portfolios.” To read the full mid-year review, click here: https://www.christie.com/news-resources/publications/july2021/care-mid-year-review-2021/