The City of York Council and York St John University are celebrating the success of their first Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) which has been set up to help improve the independence, confidence, and mobility of the people in York who are using homecare re-ablement services.
Businesses wishing to improve their competitiveness, productivity and performance can be supported by a KTP, by using the knowledge and expertise from UK colleges and universities. Re-ablement is about changing the culture of homecare, putting as much focus on engaging with service users to regain skills, and by helping service users to identify meaningful goals.
The KTP between St John and Council has been a two year initiative which has enabled the development of a training programme accredited by York St John University and delivered by Occupational Therapy staff at City of York Countil. The programme aims to introduce social care staff to the re-ablement approach and empower them to embrace the culture within their own practice.
Working with York St John University, Wendy O’Connor, the re-ablement development project leader said “Previously, homecare has been solely focussed on doing things for the customer such as assisting with showering, meal preparation or dressing. This training programme is about encouraging staff to think differently, and help the customer to be as independent as possible following a period of illness or other crisis”
She continues: “The training helps to develop a toolkit for workers to use, including telecare, equipement and re-ablement techniques, such as helping customers to establish more energy efficient routines or changing how tasks are done in order to make them easier or safer. Changing culture is difficult, and cannot be done purely by training, but engaging all services in the approach will help to embed the concept”
