Doncaster Council selects Care UK as partner to run supported living service

Company news

Nov 07, 2013

Care UK has taken over responsibility for a learning disability service commissioned by Doncaster Council which supports over 130 people.

The service supports adults living in more than 40 houses across Doncaster. 245 colleagues who were formerly employed by Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust (RDaSH) have transferred to Care UK ensuring that the quality and continuity of people’s support has been maintained. The contract is initially for three years with an option for a further two years if both parties are keen for it to continue.

As part of the tendering process, Care UK has pledged to build on the good work established by RDaSH whilst bringing a more up-to-date approach to delivering the support that service users receive.  Business development director Libby Eastley said: “Care UK has a lot of experience of providing support for adults with learning disabilities.  Many years ago, we adopted a person-centred approach to our service which means that we make every effort to involve service users in deciding how their support is delivered and identifying  goals that they would like to achieve.”

She continued: “Our approach is to do things with people rather than for them which brings all sorts of rewards and, in many cases, greater independence as people learn new skills which can be anything from shopping for food to gaining employment.  We have already received very positive feedback from people who receive our service in Doncaster and from the team who continue to support them.”

As part of the transfer of the employees from RDaSH, Care UK protected the pensions of existing employees, has pledged to create more permanent jobs and will aim to make employment arrangements more equitable across the teams.

Care UK has already recruited 34 new people on permanent, full-time contracts to fill gaps in the team which were previously covered by temporary employees or colleagues working overtime and continues to see strong demand from candidates keen to work for a national provider with a good track record on training and career progression.

Care UK brings significant experience of supporting adults with learning disabilities to Doncaster. The provider already runs three successful residential houses in Castleford, just 20 miles from Doncaster and other services include an outdoor adventure centre in the Scottish countryside,  supported living homes throughout  Scotland , the North East, the North West and Essex  and small highly regarded residential care homes in Surrey as well as support in people’s own homes in many parts of the country including Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.