Where are we?

 

Situated in the friendly and welcoming village of Ash near Sandwich in Kent, we have close, supportive links with the local community and others in neighbouring villages. Ash has its own Doctors' surgery, Pharmacy and physiotherapy practice, while the closest NHS dental surgery is just 3 miles away. We also have a regular, visiting podiatrist.

 

The popular and well-supported Church of England church is just a few minutes away, with the nearest Roman Catholic Church in Sandwich. Also in the village are two hairdressers, a beauty therapist, grocery shops, two pubs and a takeaway that can deliver to the door.

 

We are on a main bus route to Canterbury (10 miles), Sandwich (3 miles), Deal (8 miles), Dover (14 miles), sea-side towns of Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs (10 miles) and beyond, with their shopping centres such as Westwood Cross and main line train stations.

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But for clients who aren't comfortable or confident travelling independently, don't worry! We have a six-seater transporter with wheelchair lift and smaller cars that your Support Worker can use to take you where you need to go. So there's nothing to stop you getting out and about, alone or with your neighbours and friends. We support our clients as they need - medical appointments, visiting and keeping in touch with friends and family, shopping - or just accessing all types of activities that we all enjoy. 

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​​​People First

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At Your Life Your Home we focus on Person Centred Planning, believing that every one of our clients has the right to choose how they live, where they live and who they would like to support them in their everyday lives. Recognizing what's important to each individual is key to promoting independence and giving clients control over their own lives - at Your Life Your Home we don't believe in a "one size fits all" approach. 

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Getting to know you

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The first step with any client is to develop a unique Person-Centred Plan (PCP), a living document that is created in partnership with the client. Part of this is an Important People in My Life: Circle of Support, which identifies key people and how best to support clients to remain in contact. We fully recognise that human relationships are important to mental health and wellbeing – something the Covid-19 pandemic illustrated very tangibly. Your Life Your Home worked hard to support clients to remain in contact with loved ones as much as possible and continues to do so.

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From the PCP, tasks and goals are implemented to enrich their lives, which we then support clients in achieving positive outcomes. Employing these approaches enables us to provide positive empowerment, no matter what level of skill our clients possess, every win is often a significant step forward.

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Finally, we create a simple one-page profile, which is a precis from all the information gathered. This provides a valuable document containing the key facts, which can be shared with support workers and relevant professionals as required. This instils confidence in our clients that their needs and wishes are understood without being required to repeat them.

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All clients have individual Daily Records, which are completed by our trained support staff and provide detailed accounts of their day. These outline the client’s activities, eating and drinking and any issues or incidents, providing a useful document for handovers. These Daily Records are assessed and reviewed regularly, updated according to changes required in support.

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Our comprehensive Policies and Procedures documentation promotes diversity across all our clients, staff and contractors.

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Choice

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Another element of Person-Centred Planning is the client’s freedom to choose who supports them. Where possible, clients are involved in the process, starting with identifying important attributes of their support worker(s).

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Through our work with the clients on their individual Person-Centred Plan, we gain a good understanding of their wishes and aspirations so can match clients to support workers more readily. It is important to ensure that all clients are placed at the centre of their care and support.

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Professional

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Your Life Your Home has good relationships with a range of external professionals including commissioners, advocates, regulators and medical experts. This ensures we provide a team approach to delivering outcomes for the clients we support. Our external consultant provides valuable support and conducts regular mock inspections to ensure our standards are maintained.

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Our current methods of record reporting, care planning, risk assessing and staff/teams’ supervisions each have a quality assurance system to measure progress against the benchmarks set by the Care Quality Commission and ensure we deliver high quality care. Through all these assurance methods we can evidence our professionalism and care, demonstrating what constitutes good practice by adopting an open and transparent culture.

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Out and about

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In partnership with clients, we support them with opportunities to become involved with our Kitchen Garden growing fruit and vegetables, then turning these into chutney, jams, desserts – or just eating fresh from the gardens and orchards. Extensive gardens also mean clients can help with gardening, picking flowers or just enjoying the fresh air, whatever the weather. We also have pigs that clients enjoy helping to feed and care for. These activities were particularly important during the Covid-19 lockdowns, ensuring we could safeguard clients’ wellbeing and mental health through simple rural activities.

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With our own holiday home in south west France, clients have the opportunity for a week or 10-days’ holiday, either in a group or alone with their support staff. We have close relationships with the local community and a wide range of activities and days out available to suit the client’s wishes.