7 The Highway
The Highway Supported Housing Service
The Highway is a welcoming residential supported housing service, with the capacity to facilitate the support for five adults with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, complex needs and learning disabilities. The current resident service users are from various boroughs.
The service provides specialist support to adults who have difficulties in communication, and display varied degrees in levels of challenging behaviour. Regular training is undertaken by all staff to ensure that each individual is supported specific to their needs, in line with current best practice. Staff support service users to be involved in all aspects of their daily living, inclusive of supporting them with their finances and other varied activities of involvement in the wider community, such as shopping, bowling, swimming, cycling, and visits to the local gym, in addition to supporting the running of the home.
The Highway aims to enable individuals to have fully inclusive fulfilling lives, and ensure their individual needs are met by:
Supporting the development of self-esteem and confidence
• Promoting autonomy and self-reliance to best of each individual’s capability, and appropriately affirming efforts and achievements.
• Supporting individuals’ where practically possible to make choices, and involve them in the decisions making process about their daily living.
• Encouraging individuals’ in new social interactions and activities, making available to them a wider variety of options in which they can participate.
• Support individuals’ to enhance existing skills they possess and introducing them to new skills for progressive development.
Providing a Safe and secure environment
• Offering a supportive, safe and welcoming home environment.
• Supporting individuals’ in the area of health and wellbeing, ensuring medical, dental and other health appointments at kept.
• Ensuring the safeguarding of all residents, in that people are protected from abuse and avoidable harm.
Providing an Effective, Well-led, Caring and Responsive service
• Effective management and leadership that provides treatment and support that achieves good outcomes, promotes a good quality of life and the organisation assures the delivery of high-quality person-centred care, supports learning and innovation, and promotes an open and fair culture.
• Treating service users with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect, organising the service so that service user’s needs are met.
How we work
Staff compliment consists of individual’s highly trained to work in Autism, challenging behaviour management and interventions (MAPA), alternative communication methods such as PECs, makaton etc.
Staff compliment consists of individual’s highly trained to work in Autism, Challenging Behaviour Management, and the use of appropriate interventions (MAPA). Staff are also trained in alternate methods of communication such as PECs, makaton etc.
• The staff are passionate team who support each other and ensure their skills and shared knowledge reflect best practice, and continually strive to improve the quality of support.
• Each service user has an allocated key worker responsible for supporting the individuals within the service with their achievements, aims and progress.
• The service adopts a person-centred active support (sometimes referred to as PCAS or active support) approach, which is a way of working with people that means they are able to make choices about things in their lives. Things are not done for people but with them.
• Staff work closely with all service users; spending time with them in various settings to ensure that the highest quality of support is offered at all times.
All developments made by service users since residing here have been significant, and reflect the level of quality of support they have received from staff in the service.
Facilities The Highway provides:
• Individual bedrooms, some with en-suite toilets or showers.
• Large enclosed garden with a trampoline.
• Large living/lounge for residents to relax and watch TV.
• 24 hour support with waking night staff.
• Large home with a bright spacious kitchen and an adjoined dining area.
• Support to access a range of daily activities.
• Service vehicle for residents use.