Bramble Court, one of our young people’s schemes in Essex, held their 'Let Me Choose' Open Day recently to highlight progress of one of our pilots trialling out more personalised services for clients.

Bramble Court is one of 7 Family Mosaic services taking part in our pilot project addressing the Government's personalisation agenda. The pilots look at different ways of providing personalised care and support services.

Increased choice and control...

At Bramble Court, we’re giving the young people who live there increased choice and control over how we deliver their support. There are 3 elements to the support being provided at the

Bramble Court pilot:-

• A core element, kept deliberately small so that the young people living at Bramble Court get to identify and define as much of their own support as possible 
• Group activities that the young people have requested, for example cookery sessions, art classes and a sexual health session 
• "Take your pick" - aimed at focusing on young people’s individual needs and aspirations. 

We are also exploring an increased availability, and use of, customer IT access at Bramble, a number of young people living there having told us that this was their preferred mode of communication.

Giving the residents more control of their support has proved very popular; there being more uptake on group activities and young people there enjoying the personalised focus of the "Take your pick" element of their support. The open day was a huge success, the young people living at Bramble Court proudly showing what had been achieved in the first 2 months of the pilot. Some of the residents kindly showed guests around the service, showing people their rooms, and explaining the kind of changes that have happened as a result of trying out a more personalised way of working.

Comments on the day included:-

"I used to stay in my room for a lot of the time but the group activities have made it easier to meet others living here."

"Personalisation has changed the atmosphere here – it’s a lot calmer and people seem happier."