News

Throughout the IHC Group we are committed to providing quality person-centred services to the people we support.

Over the past couple of years in IDEA Services we have been turning and facing the people as we remain ever focused on constantly improving the experiences of the people we support.

Many of you have told us that you would like to take a different approach to embracing opportunities and experiences. We have also heard this from our staff.

This, combined with some other thinking and our experience during COVID-19, has shown us that we need to think about a whole of life approach to our service delivery.

That means that in addition to looking at our vocational services we are now also going to look at how things like activities, interests, professional development and social and community engagement interact with our residential services including supported living.

Over the past couple of months, we have been running activities from our homes. This has meant some restrictions certainly, but the feedback we have received is that aspects of this have been enjoyable and meaningful for many.

We know that many people are looking forward to getting out of their homes, meeting up with people and engaging in activities that they enjoy. However, we are also hearing that many have enjoyed not having to get up early and or having their days dictated by the timings of van runs.

We previously indicated that the vocational review would have an impact on residential services. Now I want you to know that feedback and recent experiences have highlighted a greater need to look at our combined service delivery in order to ensure we are taking an overall look at people’s experience.

We want to provide the best services and experience and to position ourselves so that even more people will want to use IDEA Services in the future.

We also need to respond to the changes in the sector and ensure we are financially sustainable in the face of tight funding.

We know a lot of organisations are doing it tough – but we want to buck the trend. This is about us growing our business and being the best, not reducing the service we deliver or the number of people we support. A key part of that is making sure this is a great place to work.

This review will take time for us to gather information, consult and come up with some ideas for us to consider. In the interim we will largely be continuing to provide vocational programmes and activities from our houses.

However, we don’t want anyone to miss out and we know that there are people who are living with families who are missing our vocational services. We are now looking to reopen some day bases or social hubs on a limited basis for those not already getting our support in their own homes. If that applies to you, our staff will be getting in touch with you as soon as possible although you are also welcome to contact them.

We will be consulting with many of you and we look forward to those conversations. We also look forward to updating you as we go along.

Ralph Jones
IHC Group Chief Executive