Style Acre provides support to almost 300 people with learning disabilities and autism living in Oxfordshire. From 24-hour care for those with complex learning disabilities, to a few hours of support a week for those who live more independently, Style Acre helps people to fulfil their potential in the way they choose.
Becky Speight, Director of Operations, talks about how technology means care is a more collaborative process.
What made you want to go digital?
To begin with, we brought it in about eight years ago for our supported living to help with CQC and reporting. But then we realised we could do so much more, and we wanted to look at what good outcomes meant for the people we support. It’s helped us to shape the way we’ve done things over the past few years.
How have things changed?
We’ve worked hard to personalise people’s timelines and interactions to make them specific to them and for it to be a collaborative process. That’s what really set Nourish apart for us because of its ability to personalise every interaction. We complete the records together with the people we support by having a conversation. They’ll even use the device themselves to write their thoughts, then we add to it.
It’s far from just being a record-keeping system. We really want it to feel like we complete care records together, it’s not something that is being done to someone. And eight years in with using Nourish and it’s been game-changing to help us level up and keep focusing on personalisation.
How does Nourish help you personalise care?
One of our biggest fears at the beginning was that it wasn’t going to be personalised. We were worried that we’d be led by the technology, and it would be too structured. But this isn’t the case at all. When you look at the way that we record things, people’s days aren’t mapped out in the same way. We might be looking to record the same information, but the way that we’re describing that through the platform will be tailored to that person.
For example, there are people we support who don’t want to be asked how they are in the morning. Not being asked is important to them. So, we take that away from their record and there’ll be a note to say that we greet them in a different way.
What impact has it had on the people who draw on your services?
One young lady had severe epilepsy and was having 17 seizures a day. She had a real determination to want to work, but the number of seizures was stopping her. Nourish enabled us to record information about her seizures, like when and why they were happening, across all our services.
Over a period of time, we gathered information to allow her consultant to change her medication and her seizures have dropped to two or three a day. This has allowed her to get a job in a shop, which she is loving, and we couldn’t have done this without the information Nourish gave us.
How is recording interactions supporting care at Style Acre?
There’s a lady that we support who has a pet rabbit and her ability to have a good day completely revolves around her interactions with her rabbit. Now we have a profile on Nourish specifically for the rabbit and the lady we support has her own access to the profile to complete its interactions. That gives us a different way into a conversation with her about her day and the records we’re making.
That’s game changing for her. It’s completely ordinary and completely wonderful at the same time, which is exactly how it should be. It should be about capturing the wonder that is in somebody’s every day in a way that’s accessible and this has given us the ability to do it.
What’s been the biggest benefit from embracing technology?
Our files and recording had got quite out of hand. What it’s done for the people we support and the people we employ is to give them back time. It gives people back the time to have meaningful conversations with people about their day. What they’re looking forward to tomorrow and how we can help them achieve that. It’s an incredible thing. To give anyone in social care back time into their working day is an absolute gift.
It also literally frees up space. Now if I go into somebody’s house, it feels like their house again, I haven’t got a cabinet of paperwork. It feels like anyone else’s home which is exactly how it should feel.
How has it helped staff?
Staff turnover is something we all struggle with. Having Nourish really set the staff up to have a great relationship with somebody from the get-go. They have all the information, prompts and reminders that they need. They don’t have to worry about getting it right for the person by remembering all the specific details. Everything they need is right there in their hand.
