Support to live at home Successful transition: supported living in Wolverhampton
St Brides, our newly acquired supported living property in Wolverhampton, is home to eight people with learning disabilities and behaviours that challenge. Before we took over the home at the end of 2017, it was run by a housing association.
Families of the people who live there expressed concerns over the support provided for their loved ones; issues included a lack of meaningful activities and opportunities to access the community. When the housing association gave notice, the local authority asked us to work at pace to transition 840 hours of care and support.
Our mobilisation team jumped to the challenge and successfully transitioned the home in just 28 days – one of the fastest mobilisations our Head of Operations Integration Jackie Hullett has ever overseen!
Quality, communication and teamwork
While we were challenged to work quickly, our teams were focused on improving the quality of support the tenants received and making St Brides.
To provide consistency of care for the tenants and create a structured yet flexible transition, most of the existing staff team stayed on at St Brides. We recruited 11 additional staff to enable our teams to provide additional activities and support that had been identified as needing improvement by the families and Local Authority.
Our operations team worked with the tenants and their family members at all stages of the process to reassure them about the transition. One person’s sister lives in Australia so, at her request, we kept in contact using email, phone and Skype to update her about her brother’s care.
We were able to mobilise at such a brisk pace thanks to the robust support and expertise provided by our central team. The manager of Voyage (DCA) Staffordshire, with support from the service optimisation team, ensured the whole process kept on track. A dedicated TUPE person within our HR team oversaw the transfer of existing staff from the previous care provider to Voyage Care. Our in-house recruitment team was able to quickly fill roles and induct new starters.
More success stories 
