Early Embedding is the Key to Success at KEYFORT
Formerly known as Neuro Partners, KEYFORT began trading in 2006 with a focus on providing specialist support to individuals with brain injuries in the community. Over the years their expertise and support provision has expanded to working in partnership with:
- Individuals in their own environment including people with complex nursing care needs, people who display behaviour that may challenge and rehabilitation support
- Students with a variety of conditions at colleges and universities requiring support during their academic studies
- Employers who are committed to supporting their employees to return to work and sustain employment
- Local Authorities and the NHS to meet key outcomes and success rates
- Local employers ensuring their training needs are met
KEYFORT specialise in the individuals they work with rather than any one condition. They provide bespoke, person-centred support that meets need, whether that is in a community, education, nursing, employment or training environment. To find out more about the support please see their services pages here.
Recently KEYFORT have begun a new journey into the support of individuals with Learning Disabilities and entered into a partnership with NAPPI uk to provide training to their staff teams in Positive Behaviour Support. Exceptional pre-planning has ensured staff teams have been trained prior to individuals accessing these newer services, ensuring that the team were skilled to not only provide high quality support but to also ensure that the transition period for individuals accessing the service is completed in a positive and proactive way.
The Core Values of KEYFORT of Quality, Team Spirit, Sustainability, Individuality, Positivity and Respect are reflected within the ethos of NAPPI uk.
The following questions were put to John Pope (Senior Occupational Therapist) and Kelly Geleman (Deputy Director):
Tell me about your journey into supporting individuals with Learning Disabilities; why was this an important venture for you as a group?
‘At KEYFORT, we are aware of the high-quality standards of care needed for people with disabilities to live well in the community. Supporting people with intellectual disabilities in their community environments matches well with our overall company statement;
“Passionate about working together to provide specialist services. Real people providing real support to make a real difference”.
There is a focus on the needs of the individual rather than being condition specific. This approach lends itself well to intellectual disability support. We currently provide support to a number of people with intellectual disabilities to access meaningful activity, support with personal care and other daily occupations. We strongly back national initiatives of creating packages of support for people in hospital settings ready for discharge, creating real homes with real staff. KEYFORT were provided with an opportunity to make the Transforming Care recommendations possible for a young lady who was moving into the community for the first time in her adult life.’
What made you chose NAPPI training and why was it important to you to have this training ahead of this recent care package beginning?
‘KEYFORT are aware of the importance of having skilled staff who can provide the specialist support needed for people who may present with behavioural concerns. It was vital for us to ensure support staff were trained in best practice from the outset, so any issues could be proactively managed using best practice interventions. We completed an internal exercise to identify an appropriate training provider who were also BILD accredited. This certification enabled KEYFORT to be assured the training provider had been scrutinised on their taught methodologies, ensuring they are least restrictive and always in the best interests of the person being supported. We also required a training provider who was able to demonstrate a rigorous review of their model's risk assessments and placed a strong emphasis on Positive Behavioural Support. A systematic assessment of the providers available to us indicated that NAPPI uk met the criteria for our organisation. One outstanding feature of NAPPI uk was it's a longstanding positive relationship with BILD and its ability to demonstrate a high level of success for people with intellectual disabilities.’
How have the staff team responded to the training?
‘The first NAPPI training session was held with current members of the KEYFORT team who coordinate support packages for people with intellectual disabilities. Following the training, there was a shift in thinking around behavioural concerns and this enabled a fresh perspective on some current issues. For example, one person was able to have a new positive behavioural support plan developed based on NAPPI principles. The NAPPI course facilitated the development of team spirit and confidence within a new staff team. Following the NAPPI training a team day was held in which it was clear the knowledge which staff gained. This helped in ensuring the new plans and risk assessments were developed in the most suitable way.’
Emma Holt, Patnership Development Lead at NAPPI uk had this to say:
‘Throughout the training which has been delivered it is obvious that both new and existing staff are passionate about what they do, their engagement within the Primary Prevention aspects of the curriculum has been exceptional. The desire of the team to promote positive behaviour and empower individuals they support has been overwhelming.
The willingness of the Management team to also be active within the training, from attending the sessions to being a 'resistive participant', and their use of the NAPPI documentation within support plans are all areas which will ensure the sustainability of the NAPPI model within KEYFORT and place this group within and above best practice requirements.
It has been an honour to work with this team and I look forward to following up with them in a few months to be able to share what I am sure is an exceptional story of success.’
Click here to visit the Keyfort Group website.