HOW NWCS HELPS YOUR SUPPORT STAFF GET EVEN BETTER AT WHAT THEY DO
North West have a lot of policies and systems in place that make sure everything to do with your support runs as smoothly as possible. These policies make sure that the people who provide your support are as good at their job as it is possible to be. They also make sure that those people also know what is expected of them and know everything they need to know to make your support what it should be.
One of the most important parts of what North West does is
finding the right kind of people to support you. One of the main parts of our ‘Development Plan’ is about how North West finds the people it pays to support you.
North West also have policies which make sure that the right kind of person is picked to give you your support. The first policy is called the recruitment policy, this explains how North West find the people it pays to support you and how it checks that they are suitable. The second is called the Equal Opportunities policy. This makes sure that North West are fair when they are choosing support staff.
There are a lot of things that the person should be able to do if they are going to support you and these are written down. This is called a ‘Job Description’, and it tells the person exactly what kind of tasks they would have to do if they become a support worker. The second is called a ‘Person Specification’, this lists the kind of skills the person should have if they are going to support you. Every person who gets support should decide on the kind of things they want in this document, to get the right kind of person to support them.
Every person who gets support should be able to decide exactly who supports them. Because North West will be paying the person to support you, they will also have a say, but the main person is you. You should be involved in picking your own support staff if you want to be.
We also check to see if they have done support work or something similar before, or if they have had any training in the past.
Just finding the right kind of people to be support staff is only the start. North West wants to make sure that the people who join us are helped to get better all the time. We do this in a number of ways.
First of all we make sure that all support staff are properly trained to do their job. The first training is called the ‘induction’, this explains to new people what support work is about and how the company works. This is to help new staff to get to know what they have to do to support you.
Then, staff are put on more training courses every year. These courses are designed to help support staff get better all the time at what they do.
Second, we make sure that a manager checks that the person is doing their job properly, and is getting better at their job all the time. This is done through ‘supervision’, every month a manager or a team leader will sit down with each support worker and list the things they are doing well at, and lists what training the person might need to get better. A manager will also speak to you to find out what you think of each of your support staff and make sure you are happy with how they are supporting you.
Another way that North West make sure your support is as good as it should be is by ‘planning’. North West try to get better all the time by using what we call a ‘planning cycle’.
North West have a Development Plan which lists all of the things it plans to do to make sure your support is as good as it can be.
Every year, everybody has a chance to say what should be in the plan for the following year. Support staff get together on a training day called the ‘Retreat’ and list what they think should be in the plan. The ‘Speaking Up Group’ which is made up of people who get support from North West also get together for a day and decide what they think should be in it. The families and friends of people we support also get asked about what should be in the plan.
After the Development Plan is finished, everybody’s support team get together with the person they support and make a smaller plan called a ‘Team Action Plan’. This lists all the things that the support team will do in the next year to help you do the things you want to do. You can tell us what these things are in your own ‘Person Centred Plan’. The ‘Team Action Plan’ also lists the things your team will do to make them work better as a team.
There are other things that North West has in place to make sure things run as smoothly as possible and your support is as good as it can be.
Firstly, there is a policy about ‘Communication’. This makes sure that everybody has the right information about what is happening in the service. It is important to let people know what they should be doing and when they should be doing it. The policy makes sure for instance that everybody gets to know about anything that has been decided by people in the office. Or, that people can speak to someone in the office about anything they are not sure of. The policy also makes sure that people meet regularly to talk about how things are going or help each other to solve any problems there may be.
Finally, there is a policy called the ‘On-Call’ policy. This is an 
important policy, which makes sure that people are supported safely.
Every day of the year, day and night, there is a manager or a team leader who keeps hold of an emergency pager and a phone. If there is an emergency of any kind then you or your support team can contact this person for advice or help. There is also a support worker on stand by everyday, so if the emergency means you need new support or extra support, this person can be sent to where they are needed.