Birmingham Multi-Care provides a range of services which are designed for people with learning and physical disabilities or complex needs, and their carers. Our original service was one of home support – care for people to enable them to remain living at home for as long as possible. Domiciliary Care is still our core service and the majority of our staff, about 70 in all, work in this part of the organisation. Services are available to people of all ages who live within the city of Birmingham.

Care is provided to enable the family carers to take a break or to enable the person with disabilities to participate in activities within the community.

Referral

We can be contacted by telephone, by letter, by e-mail or by calling at the office personally. Any professional in the field of learning or physical disabilities can make a referral too. This could be a teacher, a community nurse, a social worker or a health visitor.

What happens next?

We have a manager and two deputy managers. The deputy manager responsible for the area where you live will come to visit you at home to talk to you in confidence about exactly what help you need. They will also discuss with you how your care will be funded.

Assessment

The manager will ask you about your son or daughter’s disabilities, about the care they need and about the sort of support you want and when you want that support. An assessment of needs is carried out which will include risk assessments for the service user both in and out of the family home. Then, in discussion with you, an individual service statement will be drawn up which details the precise service our staff will give. This statement will be reviewed annually or more frequently if the service user’s needs change.

Support Workers

The care service manager will try to match one of our support workers to your requirements. If we do not have anyone suitable, we will ask you to go onto our waiting list while we recruit someone specifically for you. If you are not able to wait, we will refer you to Social Services who will suggest another service provider. Support workers have a range of qualifications, which include NVQ 2, 3 and 4 in care, NNEB, registered nurse with relevant specialism and BTEC in childcare. Many of our staff have relevant experience when they join us. All are given in-house training and the opportunity to gain National Vocational Qualifications. When we introduce a support worker to you for the first time, we ask you to give them training in your home so that you are sure that your son or daughter has continuity of care. After all…… no one knows them as well as you do! Specialist training will be arranged for the support worker if your son or daughter has a particular need which might include elements of nursing care.

RECREATION SERVICE

Evening Clubs We run group activities for adults in the evenings. Our adapted minibus collects people from their homes and we head off into town to visit restaurants, the cinema, the theatre, the bowling alley or any other activity which our service users may choose. Saturday and Sunday Centres On Saturdays and Sundays we run group activities for children. These are based at our centre in Sparkbrook. We have indoor activities like arts and crafts, a soft play room and an outside play area which is covered in a soft asphalt-like surface called ‘Easifall’. We also use our minibus to go out during the day.