Our Adult Social Care teams

In the autumn of 2022, we launched a new way of working, in partnership with Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) within Turn Furlong Specialist Care Centre in Kingsthorpe, Northampton. The new unit delivers vital short-term care for people who are not quite ready to return home after a hospital stay.

The unit has been opened to free-up beds in our county’s acute hospitals and will operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The focus of the centre is to support individuals with rehabilitation and reablement and is provided by WNC and NHFT in an integrated way. The team includes senior nurses, staff nurses, unregistered staff, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, medical staff and social care colleagues.

The new unit provides staff a unique opportunity to work with a dedicated team, with experience from both elements of health and social care, to deliver vital intermediate care for people in Northamptonshire. The team provides quality care for our people, specialising in rehabilitation/reablement and sub-acute care for people discharged from acute hospitals.

As the focus of the centre is rehabilitation and reablement, you will be working in an integrated multi-disciplinary team that includes senior nurses, staff nurses, unregistered staff, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, medical staff and social care colleagues.

Helping people to live their best life.

Our Reablement West service provides support to people in West Northants in their own homes. We work to provide a fast and responsive service to people, who without our immediate support, would be at risk of either being admitted to a hospital or care home, or will be unnecessarily delayed from returning home if they’re in hospital.

Our approach is to work with individuals, making the most of their strengths, to enable them to gain independence and confidence so they can continue to remain at home as long as they want to. Our Reablement Support Workers help people to set goals and work towards achieving them, usually for a set period of time (typically around three to six weeks) for example a person might like to be able to do their own personal care, improve their mobility or cooking.

They also support people to connect with their community by helping them become more independent outside of their home and to have the confidence to go out and about like they used to. All with the aim of helping them to live their best lives possible.

"It’s a very nice job, I am working with individuals coming out of hospitals and try to help them become more independent; it’s a very nice job. I see the person initially unable to do anything for themselves, slowly you show them and help them to become independent – it’s the best thing, it’s what I love most about the job – it’s very rewarding and makes a big difference to their lives."Valentin, Reablement Support Worker

Our three specialist care centres (based in Northampton, Rushden and Corby) are there for people who are leaving hospital or those who require respite or emergency care, and they usually stay around three to six weeks.

As with our Reablement Service, we work with individuals, making the most of their strengths, to enable them to gain independence and confidence so they can go home, and remain at home as long as they want to.

Our Reablement Support Workers and residents set goals together, and during their stay, work towards achieving them. Their goals could be being able to do their own personal care, cook for themselves or be more mobile, for example.

We have a team of Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Nurses and Reablement Support Workers in our specialist care centres who support with things such as mobility, kitchen assessments and washing and dressing assessments. We all work together to support residents to regain their confidence, strength and independence.

Our Social Workers can set up care packages, so they are able to go home, where they want to be, and live their best lives!

Residential care homes

Our care homes are a home from home for elderly people, some of whom are living with dementia, who aren’t able to live at home anymore. We do our best to enable our residents to live as independently as possible, but we are on hand 24/7 to provide all the support they need. We help our residents with everything from personal care - which can include getting up, washing, and helping them choose what clothes to wear, right through to going to bed and everything in between like medication, mealtimes, joining in with activities and so much more. The big things are the little things and everything we do is person centred – it’s around what our residents want and need, whilst maintaining their choice and dignity.

Supported living

The care we provide to those living in Supported Living is similar to our residential care homes, we provide 24-hour support, but in resident’s own apartments. Our Care Workers here also help residents with things like paying bills and setting up direct debits, supporting them to go on holidays (and going with them!). Our residents may not need support with personal care, but still need some support to live independently in the community.

Day services

Our day services support can be given in a day centre or out in the community. The support offered is shorter term, for adults with physical or learning disabilities, with the goal of enabling increasing their independence.

Our Care and Support Workers might be supporting someone to regain independence and confidence to go from their home into the community by helping them to catch a bus giving them greater access to their local community or supporting people to attend groups to give them the confidence to get to know their local community better, or helping them with cookery in the day centre. Support is personalised for each person – whatever they need, which could be anything from learning new skills, training, volunteer work or help getting out and about.

What is Northamptonshire Shared Lives?

A scheme that provides adults, who have a range of needs, with full-time and personalised support within the homes of professional carers.

Carers provide comfortable family homes for younger adults, adults with a learning disability and older people. The idea is to give as much independence as possible to individuals, while having a safe and secure home environment within the community.

A careful matching process makes sure individuals are paired with suitable carers who will treat them as members of their family, meet their needs and provide the right support.

Long-term support

Customers who are looking for a permanent home can use Shared Lives as an alternative to home care or care homes. This gives the adult opportunities to create links and develop their identity in relation to the family and the wider community.

Short-term support and respite care

We appreciate that carers may need time to themselves. This is why Shared Lives offers a dedicated short-term and respite service for carers to take time away, while providing their loved one with a safe and friendly home environment.

It involves temporarily relocating the individual into a Shared Lives carer's home where they will receive the right care and support they need from a trained carer.

For more information, see Northamptonshire Shared Lives