How many times do the same questions get asked of residents who come into contact with a social care worker or a community health worker? From the most simple of questions such as date of birth and address, right through to what residents can and can’t do for themselves. Year after year residents in Havering and elsewhere talk about the frustration of having to repeat their story over and over again and ask themselves, do we not talk to each other?!

We’ve not cracked this chestnut completely yet, but we’ve definitely started the journey! We have integrated health and social care teams based in four health centres across the borough. Working closely with community health services means that we are able to provide a more holistic, joined up approach in our work with residents that ensures better care, helps to minimise risks and improves the experience of individuals.

Having a learning disability can mean feeling part of a community and doing the things that most of us take for granted like education, work and play isn’t always easy.  Our Community Learning Disabilities Team is determined to support people who need services to live their lives to their fullest potential.  Our team is integrated with health, so we are able to bring in the right clinical support when it is needed, including where people may have additional needs such as physical and/or sensory disabilities, speech and language difficulties, challenging behaviour or epilepsy.

The strong partnership working between Havering Adult Social Care and North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) means that our clear priority is to provide and commission high quality health and social care for adults with learning disabilities within our integrated multidisciplinary team.

Did you know that 48% of people over 85 die within one year of hospital admission? Have you heard that 10 days in hospital leads to the equivalent of 10 years in ageing in the muscles of people over 80? If you had 1000 days left to live how many would you chose to spend in hospital?

Being unwell in hospital is distressing and stressful. Most people just want to get home, back to their own space, their own bed, and their own cooking! Spending too long in a hospital bed is not good for anyone, especially as we get older.

Based in our local acute hospitals (Queens and King George, part of Barking Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust), is our multidisciplinary, multiagency Joint Assessment & Discharge Team.  Our team has staff from Havering, the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham, our community health provider (North East London Foundation NHS Trust) and the hospital trust itself. It’s a busy environment, there is no doubt of that, but the social workers and nurses that sit within the team, work with residents across Havering and Barking & Dagenham who need support to get out of hospital.  Our first priority is to support people getting home, as who really wants to take decisions about long term residential or nursing care from a hospital bed?

What is it like to have a sensory disability – whether than be from birth or due to disease or trauma – and how can we support people to maintain or regain their independence when they have a visual and/or hearing loss that affects their day to day life?

Our Sensory Team supports individuals to find solutions to challenges being faced and offers tailored information, advice and guidance. We can support with: specialist training, such as mobility and orienteering training or hearing aid management training; assistive equipment, to help individuals make the most of residual sight or hearing such as a TV listener or specialist lighting; minor adaptations around the home, such as tactile markings on the cooker or use of contrasting colours around light switches.

The Sensory Team prides itself on really listening to individuals about their strengths and aspirations as well as areas they might need support with.  Our service wants people to be as independent as they possibly can.

Most everyone likes to be involved in things that bring them together with other people, be that school, work, or socialising with friends. Why would having a disability or getting older mean that you or I are any different?

Where it fits the bill, we either commission or offer a range of activities for our residents.  An individual may be supported to access volunteering, leisure or work-related opportunities, education classes, college and other activities connecting residents with friends and family

In addition, we offer day opportunities located within specialist centres and community based activity programmes designed for each individual depending on their interests. Our internally offered day opportunity services are available for people according to their assessed support needs and are for those residents whose care and support needs (including providing their informal carers with a break) are particularly high

What would you want if you needed or started to need help to manage your house, or indeed yourself? You’d probably want support from people you can get to know and start to trust. You’d probably want services of a high quality, from friendly and committed staff, who treated you like, well, a human being.

In Havering we don’t provide services directly anymore (other than some day opportunities), so we continue to put a huge amount of effort in ensuring that services commissioned for our residents strive for and maintain quality.  Whether it be home care, residential or nursing care, or availability of services to buy via a direct payment, we work continuously with our Joint Commissioning Unit to make sure where it is needed, we have the right care at the right time for our residents.