Coronavirus response

‘A Message from Mette Le Jakobsen, Managing Director – Tuesday 2 June 2020

With most lockdown precautions ongoing, Surrey Choices is continuing to support disabled and vulnerable people across Surrey. Our greatest priority is the safety and welfare of the people we support, their families and the fantastic teams of people who work for us.

We are now able to update you on our plans for reshaping and recovering our services. Whilst we await further guidance from Government specifically relating to supporting people with learning disabilities and autism, we are not yet able to be precise about the timelines. However, below provides an outline of our planning to date in relation to each of our main service areas and the stages we envisage will apply. We will continue to develop our plans over the coming weeks and will provide updates in due course.

Day services:

We will aim to progress in three stages, linked to Government advice:

We are currently at Stage 1, which includes our virtual programme of live and recorded sessions, with limited support provided to people where they live.
Stage 2 will see a limited return to buildings; we are analysing our buildings at the moment and risk assessing which ones might safely be opened to those in critical need. Our focus will primarily be those people living with families; access will be dependent on individual assessments of the balance of risks and is likely to be offered in sessions or alternate days. In order to maximise capacity, we are considering operating across six days of the week, but this is yet to be confirmed. Transport presents a challenge and we are still considering how this will work; we may be asking those individuals and their families who have access to personal transport to make their own arrangements, leaving commissioned transport available for those who don’t have that option. Our activities in Stage 2 will be in addition to those in Stage 1.
As the UK gradually returns to normal with community facilities opening up again, Stage 3 will extend to community support and outreach, in addition to the activities described above. This means supporting people closer to where they live, and in their local communities, helping them to connect with their friends and their interests. In the longer term, this type of activity will form a significant part of the way we will support people in future.

We are conscious that a number of our customers are clinically vulnerable to the Coronavirus due to pre-existing health conditions, and this will be important to take into account as we go forward. Our priority will always be the safety and welfare of the people we support, their families, and our teams. At all times we will ensure the correct use of PPE where necessary, along with enhanced hygiene practices and social distancing measures, e.g. cleaning arrangements and one-way systems at the sites we decide to open up.

Going forward, we want to make sure that everyone has an individual person-centred support plan, matched to the four areas which emerged from our Changing Days Programme, i.e.:

Employment, Volunteering and Vocational Learning
Independent Living & Life Skills
Health and Wellbeing
Friends, Relationships & Community

Our Changing Days programme is alive and well, it’s just that the pandemic has altered our timelines and how we are planning to progress. As a result, some things will happen differently, others more quickly and we are continuing to work with the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) to take forward this important initiative. If you would like to read more about our Changing Days Programme, about the future of Surrey Choices Day Services, please click here

Short Breaks Banstead:

At the moment we are operating at 50% capacity (3 beds) with some limited daytime support.

Over the coming weeks and months, we will aim to get back to 100% capacity. We will aim to link our increase in capacity with the availability of test, track and trace for staff and people we support in order to ensure that we can operate a Covid-Secure service.
The aim is to start the gradual reopening to Stage 3 (community support and outreach as described above), but the timing of this is subject to ongoing risk assessment.
We will continue with an enhanced programme of cleaning, hygiene practices and use of PPE to protect the people we support and our employees.
Over time we intend to offer a flexible breaks programme, with community based support away from the building in Banstead.

Shared Lives:

Shared Lives Carers have continued to support those in full time placements, with respite services suspended.

We will seek to open up for respite placements during Stage 2 as described above.
This will be on condition of being able to limit, or fully prevent multiple care setting crossover, so as to protect both the people we support, their families and our Shared Lives Carers.
Shared Lives Carers will continue to be provided with the correct PPE for their circumstances.
The Shared Lives Team will continue to work remotely for the foreseeable future.

EmployAbility & Future Choices:

During the current stage, the service has been offering remote support as well as some limited outreach, e.g. to support people with their daily exercise.

At Stage 2, EmployAbility will start to provide a face-to-face outreach service, on a one-to-one basis, in circumstances where social distancing can be maintained. Support will not typically take place in our buildings, but in the community. Grouped activities, e.g. job clubs, will continue to run virtually.
At Stage 3, small group activities can be run where safe social distancing is possible.
Employment Support Specialists will continue to work remotely for the foreseeable future.

Our senior staff and back office teams (HR, Finance, IT, Quality Assurance) will continue to support the organisation remotely and access to office spaces will be limited to a small number of people who need to come in for essential reasons.

We intend to develop a ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ page which we will publish in due course, and of course an Easy Read guide to help explain our plans.

We continue to welcome referrals, whether for short term support during the pandemic, or for ongoing support. If you or a family member are already receiving support from us, and you have questions or concerns, please do contact the team on 01483 806806 or via email talktous@surreychoices.com

If you are a commissioner or practitioner wishing to make an inquiry, we would be delighted to hear from you; please use the contact details above.

We are thankful for all the support and well wishes we have received during the pandemic and wish all our customers, families, friends and associates good health and wellbeing. Please take care and stay safe. Thank you.

Mette Le Jakobsen,

Managing Director