News
July 2010 updateAnd the big news is that we have won a contract in Cornwall. It is to assess 360 service users in that county in July and August. So if you are an OT with social services experience and would like to earn extra money over the summer in Cornwall, please contact us.
We have also ongoing work in Southwark undertaking mobility assessments and we need more OTs to undertake this type of work. Again please contact us.
Welcome to 2010 and hope you feel fully rested after Christmas and ready for the challenges which await in 2010.As part of the new site we now have this 'News" section to keep you updated on 'recent activity" at Access Independent including new contracts, service developments and reviews, staff changes, events we have held or attended. Also don't forget to let us know about things you have been doing or have heard about that might be of interest to us as an organisation
Listed below under the following titles are what we have been up to recently.......!
Bradford Social Services
In Nov we set up a new contract with Bradford to assist with their backlog of cases, despite the weather our assessors continue to plough (!) through the cases with an end date for assessments of March 31.10
We have also formed new partnerships with the following Local Authorities:-
Brent Housing Partnership, London Borough of Barking & Dagenham, Hampshire, Solihull and Wrexham either to assist with a 1 off blast or on an ongoing basis.
We continue to work in partnership with other regulars such as Kingston, Oxfordshire and Southwark.
At present we are looking for Assessors in the Bradford and Wrexham areas see under " make contact" as to how and who to contact at Access Independent.
If you are a Manager for a Local Authority who is looking to clear your waiting list why not contact our sales team today - please see under 'making contact" contact details.
In 2009 we set up 3 new Mobility Clinics to assist with 'discretionary" mobility assessment of both new and renewing applications for blue badges and disabled Freedom Passes with Centro (West Midlands), Royal Borough of Kingston and London Borough of Southwark. It has been reported by the Transport Managers within these authorities that this move away from using GPs for a 'discretionary" decision has been successful reporting a significant reduction in approved permits. Obviously this has caused a few grumblings with some local residents and their representatives especially for renewing applicants who no longer meet the criteria.
In Oct 09 we were awarded a national contract with the Royal British Legion to be an exclusive provider of Occupational Therapy services to 18 of their 36 offices. We have worked with the British Legion for a no of years building up good relations at local level so we were very proud to be chosen from a no of OT Service Providers to deliver this service to their members.London, Midlands, and Home counties, Southern (East and West) and Ireland both North and South.
In 2009 we started working with a no of organisations supplying OT Assessors on a regular basis including:
Accent, Aldywch and Leicester Housing Associations, charities such as Numast and EEIBA, a no of Case Management>Insurance companies including AIG, Argent Rehab and HCML.
All these companies benefit from purchasing from a company like ours to ensure consistent delivery of service.
We are delighted to announce the launch of this new service in addition to the Assessment service we already provide which will be further developed over 2010. This service has come about as we have been asked by a no of Case Managers to organise the 'deliver and fit" of aids and adaptations recommended by the OT. For an additional cost we can organise the delivery of daily living aids and/or adaptations through a product co. or local contractor.
If you are an organisation or individual person that would benefit from this service then please contact Will Mclintock for details. See below for how to contact him
In 2009 we took on 2 members of staff to assist with delivering services.
In Nov sadly we lost Jon Blackbourn who left us to become a regional sales rep for a printing co (which was his background) but pleased to say Will (who some might have known) stepped into his shoes as our new Sales Administrator. He has certainly proved his worth and now has a great incentive to increase sales as he is off to climb the Himalayas in March and needs the cash to do so!
We have continued with this award since we set up the company in 2003 this is a way of saying thank you to our assessors to show our appreciation of their commitment to our organisation. This year our winner is Lynne Drum who has worked as a sub contractor with us for a no of years and in 2009 became our first Senior Practitioner assisting us to develop this new service to support our field work assessors.
A big thank you to Lynne for all her hard work and to others too many to mention who have assisted us to ensure great delivery of service to all our customers.
We have continued to work with our Business coach Andre Goodison in 2009 who assists us with strategy, development and expansion of our services.
I came across the following quote recently
"A business that is not moving on one direction or the other is not a business at all" how true that is!
– another mobility course was held in London in April 09 for OT Assessors either working as a mobility assessor for Access Independent or elsewhere. It has been recognised that this is a developing area for OT's and further training days on assessment and decision making process would be beneficial. There was group consensus that it was difficult to measure some aspects of 'activity" especially levels of pain. Standardised assessment tools such as scoring matrix would be beneficial.
The feedback was good generally and AI hope to put on more courses of this nature in 2010 so watch this space.
If any of the news items you have read are of interest to you either as an OT, Manager of OT services or as an organisation looking for OT's to carry out assessment of needs for your clients, members and/or tenants etc and you wish to find out more about becoming either an assessor, request a quotation or want more information about the services we offer please contact one of the following within our organisation
If you are registered but want to find out about different types of work please contact any of the following personnel
Janine Grant our OT Contracts Manager at Janine.grant@accessindependent.co.uk
Delia Naylor – Sales Director at delia.naylor@accessindependent.co.uk
Will McLintock – Sales administrator at will.mclintock@accessindependent.co.uk
If you are an organisation requiring either a quote or information then please contact our Sales Team either Delia or Will on above email addresses or call on 01223 501603.
Look forward to speaking with you very soon