Danielle spends the day with supported living service in Ipswich
Our supported living service in Ipswich, Suffolk provides six self-contained one-bedroom flats supporting male and female adults with learning disabilities and additional complex needs. The focus is on supporting individuals to live as active and meaningful life as possible within the local community and achieve greater independence in line with specific needs.
At Consensus not only do we encourage the people we support to succeed but we also support our colleagues to take on new opportunities and experiences where they can. If a goal is important to them, we will ensure they are supported to achieve it.
So, when Danielle, our Quality and Compliance Auditor from the Central Support Team, contacted Shayne, Service Manager at our Supported Living service with the premise to volunteer her help at the service for the day, Shayne jumped at the opportunity.
Shayne says, “Having known Danielle for a few years and knowing her to be enthusiastic, engaging, and positive, I jumped at the chance of her coming here for the day and supporting Diane, one of the people who lives here.”
As soon as Diane, a person supported at the service, learned that Danielle would be coming to the service for the day, she was keen for Danielle to spend the day with her at the farm in Stowmarket. So that is exactly what they did!
Shayne says, “Danielle adapted very quickly and came to the service with her sleeves rolled up and most importantly with a big smile ready to greet Diane. Diane had an instant bond with Danielle and hit it off talking about pets they have or have had in the past. Diane was also keen to tell Danielle how she is independent in the community but also how she likes support with some activities at times.”
Travelling 20 mins by bus from the service to Stowmarket, Danielle and Diane took great pleasure in visiting each resident of the farm including horses, donkeys, goats, sheep, pigs and more. They had great fun feeding the goats and Diane was so fascinated by the turkeys that she wanted to bring one home back to the service (which made everyone chuckle)!
Danielle says, “As part of the induction training for my new role as a Quality and Compliance Auditor, I wanted to arrange shadow days at several services to understand the day to day running of them. Although I have worked for Consensus for just over 4 years, I have had no previous care/support work experience, so I felt that this would be a good opportunity to meet the people we support whilst helping the support team too.”
Before getting the bus home they both enjoyed lunch at the farm whist debriefing on their fun day out. Shayne says, “Both Diane and Danielle had a fantastic day out and Diane would love to do something similar again. Danielle is very welcome to come back to support any of the other individuals and that invite extends to others within Central Support. It is really great to see Consensus encouraging this approach and involving the Central Support Teams with hands on support, as this gives them the opportunity to see things from a support side.”
Danielle says, “The thing I enjoyed the most about the visit was seeing first-hand how happy and excited Diane was during our visit and seeing the animals. It was also good to see the difference staff make to an individual’s life when providing the best possible support. Shayne informed me that the individual was excited to tell him about her visit the next day which was lovely to hear.”
#TeamConsensus