Wycar Leys
Snape Wood Road
Bulwell
Nottingham
NG6 7GH
Registered Manager: Mr Nick Hamilton
Direct Line: 0115 976 2111
Email: NickH@wycarleys.co.uk
We are a learning disability and autism service based in a suburb of Nottingham City. Our service comprises two homes - The Homestead and The Cottage - each having ten bedrooms. Each home has a specific staff team, vehicles, daily management and evaluations of their support, which is paramount in ensuring that people receive a highly individual service within the umbrella of the whole.
All staff receive autism training and mandatory care training, both within an induction process and thereafter, to ensure that knowledge of specific approaches is used in line with highly detailed autism-specific support planning documents. The plans are very comprehensive and continually reviewed, producing a detailed, highly person-specific support plan for each individual. All aspects of the person’s life are risk assessed to ensure they are safe, whilst being given opportunities to follow known interests. We use autism-specific planning formats, including sensory profiling, to ensure that the person’s needs are understood, enabling the staff team to work with them proactively every day.
A structured activity programme, with built-in choice, is carefully considered around each Service User’s known likes and dislikes, providing both individual and small group activity, as required.
All bedrooms have en suite facilities and reflect the wishes and choices of each person who lives with us. Both homes have their own dining and kitchen facilities, coupled with large amounts of communal space indoors and within the grounds. The perimeter of the site is secure and everyone has the necessary supervision to ensure their safety whilst those who are able are also given the opportunity to self-structure their time.
We have adapted our environment and even our vehicle fleet to alleviate possible problems in interaction between Service Users. With regard to staffing, we ensure the service has firm foundations to meet the needs of people with autism by offering consistency of staff and sustainable evaluation of progress and achievement for each individual. A systematic review of possible anxiety is carried out to ensure reasons are identified at an early stage and incorporated into the weekly plans. Each member of staff is trained to proactively avoid the causes and reasons for anxiety to British Institute of Learning Disability (BILD) standards.
We have high levels of well-trained staff and the support each person requires is subject to a comprehensive assessment of needs, wishes and interests before they move into the home. The resulting package of support reflects the person’s own requirements in addition to determining the staffing level needed.
The Home Manager, Nick Hamilton, joined the company in 2009. The management team has a strong ethos founded on nationally recognised standards of good autism support practices, a detailed knowledge of person-centred approaches and significant experience of highly commended residential care services. We recognise that detailed knowledge of a Service User assists us greatly in achieving positive steps forward throughout the person’s initial days and weeks with us. We pride ourselves on developing useful and meaningful ways of working to ensure the person is able to trust our staff team to achieve their wishes.
