Lara Bywater, CEO at LDC Care Co on how award winning Chris Jones and team facilitated a successful transition of a high risk placement
Chris is a brilliant Head of Operations for LDC Care Care Co. Chris remains absolutely grounded in his first days as a support worker – like so many of us he fell into being a support worker whilst he decided what to do. Thankfully he has remained within the sector having realised that Social Care is where he belongs. Even as he has climbed through various management levels his core values around ensuring people are at the absolute heart of what we do rings loud and clear.
Chris has been critical in enabling LDC Care Co to be placed on the Positive Behavioural Support (PBS) Framework in Kent. In the early stages none of the PBS providers really knew how this was going to translate into the delivery of care. All we knew was that the individuals were at very high risk of placement breakdowns and, worse still, becoming long term in-patients of clinical settings.
Everything Chris, and indeed LDC, has ever done fortuitously placed us in a position to design a placement of care and support for an individual, working with the person, the family, and the wide team of professionals involved.
We were told that one of the first people we would be working with was Nicky, that he may take up to 3 years to be ready to move, and that we should design a transition plan that allowed for this. Chris worked with Nicky and his family – especially his Mum, Siobhan. Lots of time was spent gathering as much information as possible from Nicky’s school, people that had worked with him, and of course Nicky himself. Chris identified staff who could develop a good relationship with Nicky, learning how he likes to communicate and what he likes to do.
There was still the big challenge of how LDC would support Nicky to even consider moving into a new home. Social stories were created to introduce Nicky to LDC’s very own teddy, Hunny Bear, who lived at Hunny Pot Cottage – Nicky’s new home! Nicky’s love of teddies became a theme throughout his journey into his new lifestyle.
After a lot of intensive work and support, Chris led the team to encourage Nicky to cross the threshold of his new home after a phenomenal 3 months. Everything was a success. The meticulous planning, use of social stories, learning from set-backs, being flexible and agile, and the support of family expertise all played a part. The transition was a success and Nicky continues to flourish and maintains a wonderful relationship with his family.
This is just one example of how Chris has led the team at LDC to provide bespoke packages of care to people. Chris has worked with many other people who have required similar levels of thought and planning to ensure they have a home that will meet the needs of the individual, making sure we can respond to ongoing changes in need.
This platform has firmly established LDC as a provider who will truly think outside of the box, and go above and beyond to try and make sure the needs of the person are identified and met. Chris is a true champion of ensuring we all remember that we have the privilege of working with people who are vulnerable and who absolutely deserve the very best level of support and care.
We were so thrilled for Chris when he won the “Putting People First Award”, we know he truly lives by this ethos.
