Woodleigh hospital delivers positive clinical outcomes and prompt discharges
Woodside, our independent hospital provides assessment, treatment and rehabilitation for up to nine patients with learning disability and complex needs and is already delivering improved outcomes and successful discharges within its first year of opening.
The service vision is to provide a personalised, specialist service which ensures that service-users spend a minimum amount of time within the hospital setting. The service delivers a care plan and behavioural management approach which can be seamlessly transferred to a community setting upon discharge.Woodside has a high experienced multi-disciplinary team including Professor Read, Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr Viv Martin, Specialist Doctor and Simon Whitaker, Clinical Consultant Psychologist who together have over sixty years of clinical experience and support the nurse led support team to plan and deliver meaningful treatment plans and community rehabilitation.
Key components of the plan include service users receiving robust medical treatment, consistent behavioural management and structured engagement in occupational plans under the supervision of Woodside's Lead Occupational Therapist. Woodside opened in Spring 2011 and since then, four service-users have successfully stepped down into residential services and transition plans are already underway for other services users which is testimony to individuals at Woodside being supported to achieve positive outcomes quickly.
Woodleigh expands innovative occupational project
Following the success of Woodleigh's bakery and textiles workshop, Woodleigh has opened its third occupational project, being a horticultural project in Leeds called "Green Fingers".The project provides up to four work placements each day for people within Woodleigh's services who have the opportunity to learn new skills, have meaningful employment and integrate with others in a working environment.
The bakery started in 2010 because of the lack of suitable work opportunities within the community for people who could sometimes be challenging. Since then, many of the service users have developed their skills to work independently and the bakery also now supplies St George's Crypt, the well known homeless charity with bread for 100 people each day. Similarly, the textiles workshop which only opened in Spring 2011 is already producing items such as cushions, bears and aprons for sale.
Each project is managed by a person with many years of experience in their field and represents the first time for most people to have a meaningful job, helping build their self esteem and learn new skills and also serving as a possible stepping stone to supported employment elsewhere.
Woodleigh recognised for staff training programme
Woodleigh has been shortlisted for a number of awards, including "Best employer for over 250 staff" in the 2011 / 12 Skills for Care Accolades and the two categories of "Training & Good Practice" and "Innovation" in the 2012 Laing & Buisson Independent Specialist Care awards.
Woodleigh has always recognised the importance of a high quality staff training and development programme to ensure that our staff teams have the right skills to support our service users.Last year Woodleigh won the "Training & Good Practice" award in the 2011 Laing & Buisson awards and the latest nominations recognise the organisation's efforts to improve our staff development programmes further over the last year.
We have developed a number of bespoke training programmes, including mandatory courses at our training centre for all new staff and the Gold, Silver and Bronze development scheme based on "on-the-job" learning for experienced staff. Separately, our "secondment into management" programme provides a six month training post for team leaders to develop their management skills. Most recently, we have developed a competency assessment tool which allows people to engage in reflective learning with their line manager by assessing their core competencies, identify their strengths and areas for further development.
Woodleigh opens new "core and cluster" residential service in Yorkshire
Woodleigh has opened a new residential service called Norcott House in Liversedge in Kirklees, comprising a number of brand new bungalows, each for between two and four people to live together.This means people will live within small personalised dwellings but with the support of a large staff team in times of need. In addition to these bungalows, there are also two one-bed apartments suitable for those wishing to progress their independent living skills.
Woodleigh first introduced this so-called "core and cluster" service configuration in 2009 in Kirkside, our service in Leeds. This service configuration reduced the environmental and peer pressures from living with too many other people but at the same time, by being part of a wider service, enabled people to socialise and form friendships and have the support of a large staff team when in crisis.
For more information about Norcott, please telephone 0113 239 1507.
