Dignity, Privacy, Choice, Safety, Realising Potential, Equality & Diversity

A Guide to Meeting Your Needs

The Positive Steps Partnership (Positive Steps) is a Registered Scottish Charity, No. SC 028252.

Contents Page Introduction

3

About Positive Steps

4

Our commitment to you

4

Services provided

4

The people we support

5

Housing support explained

5

Referral / Assessment process

5

Support planning

5

Choice

6

Confidentiality

6

Your rights and responsibilities

6

Complaints procedure

6

Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland Grades

7

Appendix 1: Appendix 2: Appendix 3:

Exercising your rights Pay a compliment / make a suggestion Service user views

Introduction The aim of housing support is to provide individuals with the help they need to live in the community independently and safely. If you are thinking of using a housing support service you need to ensure that it can meet your individual needs. At Positive Steps we understand this can be a difficult decision to make and this guide is intended to provide you with all the information to help you decide if the service we offer meets your individual needs. Within the guide you will find information about the services that are available and how to go about accessing those services. Additionally, it explains what Positive Steps will do to ensure that we get things right first time. This involves working closely with you to make sure that we properly assess your individual needs, identify and put in place the range of services you require in order to ensure that you have a good experience of housing support as you progress through our services. We hope that our proven track record in delivering high standards of housing support, our dedicated workforce and, our commitment to the people we serve will make your decision easier. We look forward to working with you

ABOUT POSITIVE STEPS Established in 1989, Positive Steps is a Scottish based charity with its head office located in Dundee. We are committed to promoting excellence and being sensitive to the needs, views and opinions of the people we serve’ irrespective of gender, race, culture, religious beliefs or sexual orientation. At Positive Steps we provide a wide range of services including education, training, care, support and development programmes. These services are designed to encourage, enable and support the well-being of individuals where poverty related health and lifestyle matters are an issue. OUR COMMITMENT TO YOU As a provider of housing support services, Positive Steps is guided by the National Care Standards which are based on the principles of dignity, privacy, choice, safety, realising potential and equality and diversity. We ensure that all of the services we directly provide or arrange to have provided for you are influenced by good quality standards. This ensures our commitment to Customer Care means. a. our services are of a high quality and are provided in a friendly, efficient and helpful manner; b. continually striving to improving services; c. ensuring good communication; d. having a positive attitude. SERVICE PROVIDED Our service provision to vulnerable adults in order to help them obtain and manage their own tenancies covers as follows. Visiting housing support: - This service is available between 9.00am and 5.00pm, Monday to Friday, with visiting support workers and office based advice workers available. Individual elements of the Housing Support Service are tailored to the service user’s needs and include the following.  Making the transition to independent living.  Money management and dealing with official correspondence.  Maintaining a healthy diet through food shopping.  Advice on food hygiene, safe storage and basic cooking.  Building confidence and self esteem to socialise.  Citizenship skills  Developing good housekeeping skills and routines.

    

Developing ability to deal with outside agencies. Support to attend appointments. Encouragement with cleanliness of self. Safe use of appliances and domestic equipment. Support in dealing with neighbourhood disputes.

THE PEOPLE WE SUPPORT We work with people who have a range of barriers to independent living which may include mental health problems, learning difficulties and drug and/or alcohol misuse problems. Sometimes the people we work with have to deal with more than one issue in their lives and we can provide the committed, practical advice required to overcome these barriers. HOUSING SUPPORT EXPLAINED The aim of housing support is to provide service users with all the support they will need to successfully move on to independent living. At positive Steps we pride ourselves on our wide range of services which fit the service user’s individual and often unique circumstances. Through working closely with service users at all stages of their housing support this helps to promote their independence and empower them to take control of their own lives. REFERRAL / ASSESSMENT PROCESS Referrals can be made from a wide variety of agencies including Social Work Department, Community Mental Health Teams, homeless hostels, Housing Associations, NHS Tayside and self referrals. After a referral has been made, one of our dedicated team of internal assessors would then meet with the individual to carry out a needs based assessment. Outcomes are then discussed with senior management and a decision taken on the level of support required. SUPPORT PLANNING Positive Steps firmly believes that support planning can only be effective if service users are encouraged and enabled to make informed choices about the services they receive. That is why our housing support service focuses on the individual and ensuring they have all the information they require to decide their own future. The service user and their support worker would then work together to agree the level and types of support required and this would form the basis of the personal support plan. This joint working would continue to enable the support plan to develop in order to meet the service user’s individual and or changing needs.

CHOICE It is important that you have a choice about the service you are provided with and this should cater for your personal and social life. At all times then Positive Steps will provide you with good information in relation to choices that are available to you. For specialist advice you can also seek the services of an independent representative and, our housing support staff can make the necessary arrangements for this. CONFIDENTIALITY You have the right to confidentiality and staff will respect this at all times. There might be occasions however when it is helpful to discuss your needs with other care professionals. This would only happen however with your permission. As you progress through services, you will be fully involved in developing your personal plan and this will explain how any information relating to you will be handled and how your confidentiality will be protected. YOUR RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES It is important that you keep your rights as an individual. To ensure this happens, you will be fully involved at all stages in developing your personal plan. The personal plan effectively sets out the support you will receive from Positive Steps and, this will be reviewed at agreed intervals to cater for your own expectations and changing circumstances. At all stages of support planning you can involve another person of your choosing and arrangements for this can be arranged by support staff if you wish. As a user of housing support services, you also have legal rights which include being provided with a written agreement which clearly states the service you will be provided with to meet your needs. Additionally, you must have access to the Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (SCSWIS) inspection report relating to the service. The most up-to-date inspection report can be obtained in any of the following ways. a. by request from any of our support staff; b. accessed directly from any of our offices; c. accessed from the SCSWIS website. For further information on your rights, please see appendix 1. at the rear of this booklet.

COMPLAINTS PROCEDURES As your service provider Positive Steps will encourage and, where necessary, assist you to make your views known in relation to any part of the services you receive. It is important that you know how to make a complaint or pass comments about the service, as well as registering complaints directly with the Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland. Also, you do not have to provide your name when registering a complaint either with Positive Steps or the Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland. For further information on our complaints procedures, please refer to the “How to Complain” form which you can obtain from our support staff or any of our offices. Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland Grades Positive Steps is committed to providing you with the highest possible standards of housing support. This is achieved through a set of customer care standards which is set by the Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (SCSWIS). We receive annual inspections from the (SCSWIS) and in 2014 we were awarded the following grades. Quality of Care and Support: 5 – Very Good Quality of Staffing: 6 - Excellent Quality of Management and Leadership: 6 - Excellent CONTACTING POSITIVE STEPS For further information please contact: The Manager Support Services Positive Steps East Wing 2 Explorer Road Dundee DD2 1DX Tel: 01382 561822 Email:[email protected]

Appendix 1

Exercising your rights To ensure you keep your rights as an individual as you progress through your housing support service, your service provider will work to National Care Standards guidelines over the following established rights. 1. Your personal plan will explain your rights and responsibilities as a user of the service, and you know what is expected of you and what you can expect of housing support staff. 2. You will not suffer any form of abuse from housing support staff. 3. You have the right to confidentiality, unless any specific legal provision applies. Your personal plan explains how information about you will be handled and how your confidentiality will be protected. 4. You do not have to give the housing support provider any information which is not essential for your housing support services. The housing support provider will tell you why they need information about you. 5. Your personal information will be kept secure and easily available to you and anyone else you want to be able to look at it. 6. Your housing support worker will respect your privacy when talking to you and when talking to other people living in or visiting your house. 7. Your housing support worker will not gossip about you, your home or your family. 8. You will have a housing support worker who will be your usual contact with the housing support service provider. 9. Your housing support worker will deal with your requests for help politely and quickly.

Appendix 2

Pay a compliment/make a suggestion Please complete this form if you would like to pay a compliment or make a suggestion in relation to any of our services or a member of staff. Service

Support Services / Step Up

(Please Circle)

Member of Staff:

Detail of Compliment / Suggestion:

Your Name:

Your Address:

Your Tel No:

Your Email:

Any information you provide in this form will be used only to help us to improve services and or shared with the Care Commission for inspection purposes. We will not use the information about you for any other purpose or share it with anyone else, unless you have given permission to do so. Please return completed form to: Positive Steps, East Wing, 2 Explorer Road, Dundee, DD2 1DX

Appendix 3

SERVICE USER VIEWS “...mental health At Positive Steps we are interested in hearing your views on any area of the services we provide. It is through your views that we know what works well and where we need to further develop services.

...issues can affect everyone. Isolation begins to creep in & you feel powerless to change things yourself. Without Positive Steps I would still be very insular..."

Here are the views of just some of our existing service users. Hopefully their views will convince you that Positive Steps is the organisation of your choice for meeting your housing support needs.

“...feeling worthless ...my friends gave up on me & I had no one or nowhere to turn to. Without the support of Positive Steps I know I'd have sunk far deeper, now I’m doing really well, it's a life change..."

“...being part of ...the community again has enabled me to take better care of myself. I’ve been able to go out to socialise, meet people & enjoy the little things in life. My self esteem has improved so much...

“...drug misuse ...I was homeless with the wrong crowd, no help. Now I’m doing an HND at college & life's far better. It's hard sometimes but I know I have support & that's amazing..."