Social and leisure opportunities are important for everyone as it increases self-esteem and self-worth. We also understand that if a person lacks interesting activity opportunities boredom sets in and this can be a trigger for our residents challenging behaviours. Social and leisure opportunities at Orchard End include a range of homely activities; puzzles and games, themed evenings, cinema nights as well as support in learning life skills such as cooking simple meals. We also use some of the great community facilities around us including the gym, leisure centre and local garden centre and café. We are also able to use facilities at West Midlands Learning Campus. The site has a leisure barn, sensory room, plenty of space for bikes and go-carts, walks within the grounds woodland area and adult size park equipment. Social events are organised between the homes to encourage residents to form positive relationships and friendships.

Our residents are diagnosed with varying disabilities; they have significant differences in cognitive ability and communicate in different ways. All adults referred to Orchard End display some challenging behaviour. This is our specialism and is what is at the centre of everything we do. All forms of behaviour are seen as some form of communication. As a team of specialists we aim to give the young adult a more appropriate way of communicating. Each individual has a Red, Amber and Green Lalemand scale, which is a holistic behaviour support plan. The Red scale gives a consistent way of dealing with a person’s behaviour and clear guidelines on what should and should not be done. We do use specific trained NAPPI physical interventions to ensure people are kept safe. However every intervention and in fact every incident, is closely monitored by the Registered Manager, as well as the onsite NAPPI trainers. We believe in a transparent approach so all incident records are shared with parents/carers and any other significant person in the person’s life. The Amber scale focuses on the person’s stress factors, those factors of an individual’s life that can cause them to move towards challenging behaviour. By recognising and understanding these, we are able to support the individual to manage stress in a more positive way. Challenging behaviours have a function of either seeking or avoid something, whether that be something sensory, a tangible activity or attention. By assessing the functions of behaviour our approaches and responses become more person specific and proactive. The Green scale focuses on those areas that make a person’s life worth living. By providing meaningful activities, we can enrich a person’s life and build their self-esteem.

Carefully and holistically devised learning, care and health outcome plans aim to foster a sense of self-worth whilst focussing on the key areas of learning. Our team work together to enable students to communicate effectively, to develop their confidence and to increase thier motivation. Support staff are trained to use various approaches, systems and strategies including PECS and Makaton to support, communicate with and develop each adult.

The main ethos driving the learning provision at Orchard End is meeting the adult’s individual needs to enable them to reach their full potential and to live as independently as possible. It is important to ensure all our residents have opportunities to learn new life skills so following this initial six weeks settling period we start to implement learning targets based on existing skills which can then be built upon ensuring the person is continually learning and developing within their ability. Together, all this forms their care plan. All staff will be aware of the contents of this plan and will work to it to ensure consistency.