It is said that "when services step in, communities step back." At iDirect, we are very careful about this. We want our services to be just one of the support mechanisms not the only one.

We develop an individual service design with our customers and people who know them well. This identifies housing, staffing and routine needs, outcomes and preferences. After this, we hold a planning day to develop a path with the customer and agree the initial Working Policy, which is a detailed document that  covers everything for the staff team about how best to support the customer.

Once the service is in place, we have regular reviews to gather views from the customer and people close to them to see if we are doing what we promised at the first place? If we don’t, we acknowledge, improve our processes and carry on.

Like any of us, our customers have their ups and downs. Sometimes they express their emotions in a challenging manner and sometimes it is nuanced but we know there is a sense of purpose to their behaviour. Times like these are not easy for our customers and us but we stick together and see it through. We organise meetings and involve those the customers trust, including their friends, relatives and other professionals and discuss and move on.

"Inclusion is a good word, connection is a better one." (Late Mr. Carl Poll, Founder of KeyRing)