Supporting more Londoners

Despite the challenges of the pandemic, we were thrilled to be able to start supporting a number of new people and welcome their support teams into Certitude.

At the start of 2020 we were supporting just over 1,500 people across 16 London boroughs. These exciting new developments mean we now support over 1,800 people, across 17 boroughs.

Camden

In October 2020 we began working in the London Borough of Camden providing support to people who have learning disabilities and / or autism. The change was particularly significant for five people with autism and learning disabilities who recently moved into a beautifully refurbished new building.

Cluster Manager, Emma Lee-Tobin is inspired by her team who managed the transition:

“Many people were surprised by how quickly everyone settled into the new house and I think it had a lot to do with the resilience of the people themselves as well as their amazing team who worked incredibly hard to make this a smooth change. It was fantastic how everything got unpacked so quickly. It’s been a transformational move to a really beautiful new house, and it’s been wonderful to watch people become more engaged with their team, one another and their local community.”

Richmond

We are very pleased that in the London Borough of Richmond, we have begun supporting four more people who have moved into their own flats.

“In these fabulous new self-contained apartments, we are able to offer specialist, intensive support for people who really value having their own front door,” explains Head of Service, Karen Hayes.

“As well as providing one-to-one support, we are on hand to support and connect with each person’s wider ‘circle of support’ – family and friends, community networks and other support providers and clinicians.”

Our aim, as always, is to ensure people have as much choice and control over their lives as possible and we are pleased to be seeing the progress people are making in their lives from forming new relationships to getting jobs.

Hillingdon

We’re really excited to be working with the London Borough of Hillingdon to support more people. Until recently, we had been providing support to five people in the borough and are now supporting 50 people across the borough, some of whom share houses together and others who live in modern, self-contained flats with 24-hour onsite support.

Area manager Paul Kilburn believes this flexible approach works well for many people. He says:

“Each person has an individual support plan so while some people might only need two hours of support a week, perhaps with their finances, other people might be receiving 12 hours of one-to-one support each day. Our philosophy is to support people so well that they don’t need us anymore!”

COVID-19 has presented a particular challenge for people living on their own, so colleagues have had to work really hard to ensure no one felt isolated. Paul says:

“We started getting to know people in the middle of a global pandemic. Some of the people we support have diagnosed mental health conditions in addition to learning disabilities making sure we were able to build and maintain supportive relationships and networks over the past year has been hugely important – for all of us.

Bexley

We were also delighted to start supporting 25 people living in the London Borough of Bexley in September 2021. It has been great getting to know people and their families and to start building relationships and we are looking forward to supporting people to get the most out of life over the coming months and years.