Case studies for comissioners
Anchor Staying Put Sefton won the ‘Strategic Development and Enterprise’ award at the Foundations Home Improvement Agency Awards 2008. The agency’s most recent enterprise involves provision of a Disability Resource Centre integral to the agency’s office and a small aids and equipment service including at-home assessment and two drop-in centres. This was the first to be opened in Sefton, filling a vital gap in service provision.
Plans to develop the service in this new direction began about two years ago when a new partnership with the Community Equipment Service and NHS Sefton was formed. Joint work on projects like stairlift recycling highlighted how effectively these services could work together to progress shared objectives to increase customer choice and control. To complement the new community equipment stores, the agency was relocated to premises on the same estate and incorporated the Disability Resource Centre.
In April 2008 Anchor Staying Put Sefton won the contract for a Small Aids and Equipment Service, linking effectively with the Disability Resource Centre. The small aids and equipment, provided by the Community Equipment Service, are currently free of charge. Anchor Staying Put assists in assessing customers’ needs, demonstrating equipment, delivering it to the customer’s home and ensuring that they know how to use the aids correctly. These small aids include easy-grip cutlery, dycem (non-slip) mats, walking sticks, tablet dispensers, tactile timers, stocking aids and kettle tippers, among others.
Visitors to the centre can expect advice and information on obtaining items. Whether through statutory service provision (for those eligible) or private purchase, the aim is to give people impartial and independent advice. For some people the agency is able to assess, deliver and demonstrate low-level equipment in the home. The agency takes a positive approach to ensuring people can access the centre, with drop-in centres operating in two other parts of the borough and an ‘open door’ approach (which means that people do not need to be referred by a health or social professional). The centre is open to people of all ages and there are plans to extend the amount of equipment on display, especially items for children.
The centre includes catalogues of other items of equipment to support customers to make choices and the agency is hoping to install web access so people can browse catalogues of equipment online.
The Disability Resource Centre is funded in a number of different ways - the agency provides staff and day-to-day management, the primary care trust and social services pay the building rent and have provided some of the larger items of equipment, and manufacturers and the agency's preferred contractors have donated other equipment on display.
The resource centre was set up using a surplus the agency held over from the previous year, and the new Small Aids and Equipment Service which links with the centre was funded by a grant of £30,000 from social services. The agency employs 20 staff (including five volunteers), 12 of whom are trained as trusted assessors. This enables those staff to work across both the centre and the agency's other services.
