Over 18s

What we Offer

We offer the chance for young adults to meet up with friends outside of the school/college environment and help develop the social skills that can build confidence and self-esteem, all with a person-centred approach.

Our focus is on small friendship groups (typically 2-4 young people) who will always be supported by a member(s) of staff. This group size allows for a better quality of friendship to develop. Typically, our support shifts last between 2 and 4 hours depending on availability and budgets.

We are not a day centre. We offer a flexible and individualised program to meet the needs of each person we support. We work from Monday to Sunday. Our support time ranges usually from 10am – 10pm but this can be longer depending on certain activities. We always work with what you want to/can do.

Some service users access our support multiple times a week at various times, and some regularly access the service once a week at a set time. We are incredibly flexible but urge consistency to allow the bonds of friendship sufficient time to grow.

We run throughout the entire year, including bank holidays, half terms and summer holidays. We do however close briefly over the Christmas period to allow staff to spend time with their families.

Activities we do

While most of our support is community based, we can support people from home to gain confidence to meet out in the community. We have a base in the Victoria Shopping Centre that has cooking and leisure space but we like to access all that the local area has to offer.

A key point we always stress with our service is that our users choose what they want to do. We do not have a set programme but are led by our clients. Staff will be on hand to suggest and prompt but this helps build independence and decision making. Staff will work with friendship groups to plan activities in advance so everyone, including parents, knows what the plan is.

Some activities we regularly do include football, gaming, cooking, bowling, snooker, cinema, gym, swimming and going for food. This is just a short list of the things we do but the possibilities are endless.

Click here to see a more comprehensive list of all our activities.

If your interest or hobby is not on this list, feel free to let us know and we shall update our list.

Beyond activities, for our regular clients we also offer the chance to go on supported holidays. In the past we have gone on domestic holidays to Butlins, Stubbers and Centre Parcs while also having overseas holidays to Spain, Turkey, Ibiza and Disneyland Paris/Florida. More information on holidays will be given once we have built up a connection/relationship with a service user.

Click here to view our Facebook page to see all the activities we have been up to recently.

Cost of Service

Hourly Staffing rate for Over 18’s Direct Payment: £17.36 (Southend) £13.64 (Essex)

Hourly Staffing rate for Over 18’s Self-Funding: £8.00

This covers staffing costs only. Expenses for food, transport and activities are an additional cost charged separately. Staffing costs for Self-Funding and Direct Payment (DP) clients will be invoiced each month (See Below).

(A Direct Payment (DP) is funding from your local authority, to help you pay for the cost of the services you want to access. The DP Rate changes yearly.)

Invoices are sent out via email every month for payment. Attached to the invoice is a copy of the shift notes written by staff on Rotacloud and used as backing evidence. For DP clients once the invoice and backing sheets have been viewed, they must be approved for payment by sending them to either Vibrance (Southend) or Penderels Trust (Essex). The two backing sheets must be attached to the approving email.

We also have regular larger group activities (Football, Film Night, Freedom) that are charged £8 an hour for both Self-Funding and DP clients. Click here to see more about our activities.

If a support shift is cancelled, with less than 24hrs notice, we still charge for the support booked, as staffing will have been put in place.

Progress & Outcomes

Every young person will have a Support Plan which outlines the support they need. We also have a Personal Development Plan (PDP) for each client. This is centered around their journey with the charity, detailing any changes that have occurred and obstacles they have overcome. The young people are encouraged to be involved updating in their PDP, so we can monitor, and they can see their achievements and outcomes. This resource is available for when clients have reviews with other professionals and services.

Transport & Travel

Our aim is for young people to be as independent as possible when travelling. Young people who have a bus pass with a companion entitlement, will be encouraged to use this during their support times. We will meet the client and support them to travel on public transport to build confidence and experience. In some circumstances we may be able to provide transport in private cars, but this is limited. All staff using private cars are fully insured to take clients. Costs for this start from when the young person is picked up and dropped back home again and is charged at a rate of 45p per mile 5p for additional passengers.

Paying for Activities & Transport

The young people are prompted and encouraged to pay for food and activities independently, with support from staff when using cash or a card. Sometimes it is helpful for clients to have a bank ‘cashcard’ to use when out with the support workers where parents and careers have transferred a set spending amount. Costs for food and activities for young people that need additional support with understanding money & cost, are charged via SumUp on the day of the activity. A charge is made by sending out a payment link to a mobile phone or using a card reader. There is a 2.5% charge for each transaction.

There are several discount schemes in the area that can help bring down the cost of activities. (Advantage card for Southend Leisure and CEA card for cinema/theatres) Please ask a staff member about how to apply.

Use of staff telephone numbers

Clients will be given the telephone numbers of the staff that are supporting them. This is to organise, confirm or amend shifts that were not made during their previous support time. Contact outside of support time should be minimal. Any young person repeatedly trying to make contact, will be asked to delete the staff members number and communicate with the coordinator instead. Staff will block clients that are persistent in calling or texting during their personal time. Staff will support and prompt clients to follow these guidelines.

Social media

Clients should not have contact details of staff’s personal social media accounts; staff can create a separate work Facebook account if they want to interact with clients through the charity’s Facebook page, but it is not compulsory for staff. Clients are encouraged to communicate via text, and to keep phone calls to a minimum.

If this sounds like something you or someone you care/support would like to be involved in please click the link below to fill out an online referral form

https://forms.office.com/e/RnkMnE0hnU

Or alternatively, download a Microsoft word document of the Referral Form and email to [email protected]