Community Inclusion Team

Adults and Communities, Leicestershire County Council

The Community Inclusion Team helps older and disabled people living in Leicestershire to access community services and facilities to support them in improving their quality of life.

We work with service users to produce support plans that identify their desired outcomes and help them to organise their own support to achieve these. We assist them to access direct payments and community-based alternatives to traditional day care provision.

Overall, we aim to free up the resources tied up in traditional models of service in order to provide a range of less restrictive personalised services.

Some service users have used direct payment for a personal support assistant to help them to undertake hobbies such as swimming or art groups; others attend a residential home on a day basis thereby preventing admission to fulltime residential care. Local church groups, lunch clubs and volunteering support have also helped increase service users’ confidence and reduce their social isolation in more personalised ways than traditional day care has previously.

The team was established following extensive consultation with service users, carers and staff. We have developed an information database of community facilities and helped to develop these where they are needed.

This has all been achieved with very moderate resourcing and has resulted in savings estimated at £240k gross per year. We have achieved this, while ensuring that each of the 800 people referred to us since May 2009 has received a service that is truly personal to them no matter what the level or type of need.

We also help people to move on as their needs change, for example as confidence increases. Utilising and developing existing services and facilities has given control back to the individual.