We have had some really good feedback from a service today that gives us some great things to work on to improve our visits in the future. However, there were also some really positive and immediate outcomes as a result of our report that have helped to improve the lives of the people that live there so great news all round!! We also had some feedback yesterday from the manager of a service that we have visited in the past. They said that they had never seen the people they support more open and animated when talking about their support services as they had been when The Q-Team visited! We are very proud!!

The Q-Team recently visited Chailey Heritage to interact with some of the people that live there. The team found the visit really inspiring and were really impressed with how people are supported and helped by technology to communicate how they feel. With each visit, The Q-Team are developing their knowledge and experiences that they can share with services and service users that they visit in the future. A full report will be sent to Chailey Heritage soon!

Hi, I'm Andrew Walker. I've been on The Q-Team for two years but I started helping others four years ago on the Its My Life project. On Its My Life we visited services to help them to improve their tenant's meetings.
When we finished the project we thought that there was more that we could do to help!
We then started a project that was initially called "Stop Whispering, Start Shouting!" that later became The Q-Team.
The reason why I joined the project and The Q-Team is because I like to help people with learning disabilities get what they want out of their lives and ensure they get what is quality for them.
I like playing football, I love watching wrestling and I play in a band. My favourite team is Leicester City, my favourite wrestler is John Cena and my band is called The Revs.
One thing I always say is "people with learning disabilities are no different from anyone else!" 

A new member has joined The Q-Team and will be starting their training later this month. We will post a profile of all The Q-Team on the blog shortly with new members being updated as they join the team. We are in the middle of a recruitment push at the moment and have 9 people lined up for interviews soon. Follow us here to meet the new team members.

The Q-Team will be co-producing a new Q-Kit specific for day services, speaking to peers about what makes a great day service, what is boring and what it could or should be like. Updates here!

The Q-Team visited a service earlier in the year where the staff asked us "yes, but how does The Q-Team help people to manage expectations?" After a short pause where the team considered what had just been said to them they replied "our role is to speak to peers about their lives, and what they want and would like to do. It is your job to try your best to help them to make those dreams a reality. The only person stopping you from doing what you want to do is you. For your service users they have not only to overcome their own insecurities but they may have to fight their way through their support to access the things that you take for granted. I think that you need to spend more energy thinking creatively about what you can do to support the people you work with to achieve as much as they possibly can and less energy thinking of why it is impossible."

The Q-Kit includes a "New Experiences and Dreams" section that The Q-Team use to help encourage people to think about what they would like in life.

Two more video reports completed today!! The Q-Team spend time with people with a learning disability in their home and talk to them about their lives, their ambitions, their hobbies,  their social lives and much more. They help people to consider what they like and what they might like to change in their lives through peer support. The Q-Team then feedback on behalf of that person to their support staff providing an advocacy approach. Written reports are provided to staff with easy read and video reports sent to service user to let them know what we've said.

The Q-Team also offer training on how to use The Q-Kit and tips on setting up and running a team of service user quality checkers. Course participants will also be provided with access to everything that we develop (including a touch screen compatible Q-Kit and templates of all our reports) and ongoing support through our on-line Q-Kit Network.

For more information contact a.grindley@southdownhousing.org

The Q-Team will be attending their 25th visit to learning disability support services across Sussex next week and celebrating their 2nd anniversary as The Q-Team later this month. Stephen says "being on The Q-Team has enabled me to meet new friends and visit new places. I feel much more confident since being on The Q-Team and I like helping other people to have the life that they want."

In The Q-Team meeting today they talked about two services recently visited and began to write the reports. The Q-Team think that the staff are the single most important factor in determining whether a service enables people to be happy and access things that they want in life. The Q-Team think that staff may sometimes not realise that they can be an impenetrable barrier to accessing a good life.

David, a member of the Q-Team, talks to us about what makes a good quality life for him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIj5ZPW-7_A

The Q-Team have been working in partnership with Brighton University's community partnership programme to make our reports more accessible to more of the people that we speak to. We strive to ensure that service users are able to control the direction of their support services aided by peer support and advocacy. We want to ensure that service users are integral to every part of the quality check and that reports are not simply provided to services, bypassing the very people that live there.

The Q-Team have completed their first video report and will be using these to help to feedback to service users what is included in the Q-Team report sent to their staff.

The Q-Team have completed another visit. This time Andrew and Stephen visited an Eastview Housing service. The team are letting their thoughts ferment and will be writing the report next week.

Andrew

Stephen

The Q-Kit

The Q-Kit is a tool made with people who have a learning disability, to help them assess their support and to think about what they want in their lives.

The Q-Team

The Q-Team is a group of volunteers with a learning disability who want to help people to have the life that they want.