Fleming Gardens Project

ISSUE 17 October 2009

Here’s our Newsletter to update you all on our progress and future aims!

Fleming Gardens is a voluntary sector supported housing project which aims to give young women a chance to have their own tenancy along with the extra support they need to live independently with their child/ren. Our outreach service supports young mums who are either currently looking for their own tenancy or are already in their own tenancy and need support to maintain it.

Wentworth Valley Networking Lunch

On Thursday 9th July 2009 Fleming Gardens held a lunch for all professionals who work within the Wentworth Valley team; we were also joined by a number of our residents.

For lunch we had a gorgeous Curry with Rice and Chapattis. The event enabled us to get to know agencies that work in our locality team, like health visitors, midwives, nursery nurses, Education Welfare Officer and Social Workers.

The event was a huge success and we were able to provide information about the support and services that Fleming Gardens can offer, provide a brief presentation and access feedback from our local Social Workers about the support which they would find helpful, taking into consideration the huge pressure and staff shortage they are experiencing at the moment.

Some of the ideas which were presented were:

1. Support in taking and typing up minutes at Core groups.

2. Supervising contact sessions.

3. Completing Initial Assessment – where a qualified worker would be available.

4. Completing some of the direct work with families around life skills.

Since this event we have been working hard to try and fulfil some of these suggestions.

Thank you to all who attended this event.

Fleming Gardens & Social Care Joint Working.

Fleming Gardens work closely with Social Care and it has come to light through discussions with Social Workers that they are currently under a great deal of pressure and many teams are very short staffed. An email was distributed around the voluntary sector asking if any agency could provide support to Social Care.

Fleming Gardens have been able to offer support and have agreed that the Manager Sue Phillips who is a qualified Social Worker and Dee Barron a Project Worker will be seconded to the Wentworth Valley locality team for one day per week.

Fleming Gardens Twins!

We have just been joined by our first set of twins, they are called Cody and Leona. They are 16 months old and full of energy.

Equality and Diversity Training

Donna has recently passed her Equality and

Diversity Training.

Thinkuknow Training

You may remember that last year Sue Phillips Project Manager attended The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) centre in London to become a ThinkuKnow Ambassador. This training enabled Sue to provide training to professionals so that they can deliver the Thinkuknow programme to children.

Sue is glad to announce that this training has now begun and all Project Workers at Fleming Gardens are fully trained and registered with the Thinkuknow website. Sue is hoping to cascade the training across all the Sheffield YWCA projects by the beginning of 2010.

If you would like more information about the Thinkuknow course or you would like to access the free training contact Sue Phillips at Fleming Gardens 01709 703471.

Supporting People Review

Supporting People came out to review Fleming Gardens on the 2nd & 3rd July and we are able to confirm that we achieved 13–A’s and 4-B’s in the QAF.

Core Objectives:

C1.1 Needs & Risk Assessment A

C1.2 Support Planning A

C1.3 Health & Safety A

C1.4 Protection from Abuse A

C1.5 Fair Access, Diversity & Inclusion B

C1.6 Complaints A

Supplementary Objectives:

S1.1 Informing Service Users A

S1.2 Consulting & Involving Service Users A

S1.3 Empowerment & Supporting Independence. A

S1.4 Participating in the Wider Community A

S2.1 Privacy & Confidentiality A

S2.2 Rights & Responsibility A

S3.1 Service Description A

S3.2 Choices, Sensitivity and Responsiveness A

S3.3 The Living Environment B

S4.1 Continuous Improvement B

S4.2Staff Recruitment, Management & Development. B

RMBC Team of the Month August 2009

We are very pleased to announce that the Fleming Gardens team have been nominated by the Joint Leadership Team as Team of the Month for August, 2009.

Sue Phillips, Project Manager was invited to the Children and Young People’s Services Joint Leadership Team Meeting on the 24th September to celebrate the success of Fleming Gardens.

Sue would like to congratulate all the Fleming Gardens Team for their hard work and dedication.

‘Not until I’m Ready’ Conference

On the 23rd September Donna attended a Conference in Newcastle on behalf of the local PCT Teenage Pregnancy Strategy Coordinator. This conference was around young people and sexual decision-making. A group in Newcastle called Streetwise put together a project named `Not until I’m Ready`. The group is funded by the Camelot Foundation to undertake research into young people’s attitudes to sex and relationships.

Donna enjoyed the day very much and found it very useful. The information has been fed back to the PCT and a resource pack will be sent to them.

Thank you for taking the time to read

our Newsletter. If you know of anyone

that would benefit from receiving our

Newsletter please telephone Fleming Gardens on 01709 703471.

We will be happy to send you one and add your company to our mailing list!

Fleming Gardens Project