Neath Port Talbot People - Bringing people together online

Community Portal

What is People & Places and who is it for?

People & Places is a secure, moderated, social-networking website for people from vulnerable community groups. It is also for people who work and support people from these groups.

What is its purpose?

We believe many people from vulnerable groups would benefit and enjoy using social networking sites. Unfortunately many people do not have the confidence or the appropriate skills to do so safely. The great news is that People & Places changes this once and for all! People & Places provides a safe, moderated online environment for those who want to stay in touch with their friends and family online. It also provides users with the opportunity to meet new people who share similar interests and activities. People & Places offers methods to effectively support communities of users who wish to become more self sufficient.

Does it support Person Centred Planning?

People & Places enables all those people that support a person with a Person Centred Plan to ensure that the stated goals and ambitions of a person are realised and achieved. For those individuals that come to website without a Person Centred Plan it is a simple task to build one with the support of tools within the site.

Does it support independent and moderated use?

We believe that People & Places is a tool that can support, encourage and develop a person's independence. It is designed to promote a person's self-sufficiency and gives them the confidence to try new things. This promotion of independent use is enabled because of the support and moderation present in the site at all times.

Can you building new communities?

People & Places provides people with a place in which they can exchange ideas and experiences and learn from each other by sharing their stories. The primary goal of site is to encourage and foster natural friendships that supports communities by bringing people together.

How does it benefit Local Authorities and Service Providers?

The role of social care is gradually changing, People & Places is a unique tool that enables an individual, their family and the professionals around them to work closely together to effectively utilise the resources available to them. It gives the individual the opportunity to share resources and find a community supported solution that could become 'cost free' to the Local Authority.

How does it sit with Education and Transition?

People & Places is a practical alternative to traditional mainstream learning platforms for Special Educational Needs schools. It can help make the transition process seamless and support a young person during their educational years throughout the school or college into adult services.

Want to find out more?

Register your interest now.

Person Centred Planning

What is Person Centred Planning?

Person Centred Planning is a process designed to assist someone to make future plans.

Person Centred Planning is about:

By 2011 Person Centred Planning will be at the centre of the application, the site will gather information from all the different people in their lives, identify the members goals, set targets and actions for different people to take forward. People & Places will have a selection of Person Centred Plan templates which will help a person to decide what's working in their life, what needs to change, where they are already succeeding independently and where they need additional support to achieve something.

When lots of different services support a person, it is essential they are all aware of the incremental progress being made and build upon it together. Keeping a Person Centred Plan up to date is easy when using People & Places, as the daily planners and diaries enable professionals to see where they need to target their specialism to support a person's outcome and the collation tools allow someone to see where they are making progress and where extra support needs to be added.

As long as the person's goals are at the centre of everything a professional delivers, everybody wins.

Service Providers

How does My People & Places benefits Service Providers?

The role of social care is gradually changing, we seem to be returning to increasing investment in community collateral, giving people the opportunity to be supported locally. Individuals and their families will increasingly look to local authorities to support them with the tools and information they need to take control of their lives.

In this current climate, financial restraints on budgets are causing Local Authorities (LA) to rethink how they spend their money and how can this be done more effectively. Instead of looking to social services for the expected cuts that usually follow these crises, families are increasingly looking to LA for the tools and information to support themselves in their local communities.

With the introduction of direct payments and personal budgets, individuals and their families are struggling to find local solutions.

My People & Places is a unique tool that enables an individual, their family and the professionals around them to work closely together to effectively utilise the resources available to them. It gives the individual the opportunity to share resources and find a community supported solution that could become 'cost free' to the Local Authority.

We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to choose whether a friend, a volunteer, or a paid person supports them.

My People & Places offers this by giving a person a way to meet new people, share activities, share transport, mutually exchange skills in a time banking style scheme and pool funding if paid support becomes their choice. It offers a community a way to develop its social collateral and so in time not rely so heavily on the automatic assumption social services are the only solution to them achieving their goals in life.

Building Communities

How will People & Places help build my Community?

People & Places was born from an idea in a Service Providers forum meeting in 2005, they wanted to provide a place that was safe for their community to interact with others. Peoples lives are becoming more fractured, with people moving day services, schools/colleges and homes it is sometimes hard to maintain those important friendships. So with the help of the Steering Group, which is made of members from Service Providers and Local Authorities we created People & Places, it provides a safe place for members to communicate with their friends, support staff, family members and service providers.

When you join the site you are able to search for old and new friends, you are able to interact with your service providers, provide feedback on the services you receive. By using the facilities on-line you are able to see service providers in your area. You can search the site for people who live near you and share the same hobbies and interest as yourself. Most importantly yours and other members addresses are never given away, these are kept private at all times.

With budgets being cut it is really important to get the local communities on board, many vulnerable communities are often able and want to be able to do things for their own community. Just one example of this is a young man called Greg, Greg is Autistic and a keen DJ, Greg runs the youth clubs disco every Friday night, the organisers at the youth club take it in turns to give back the two hours each week to Greg, this means that if Greg needs a hand to do his housework or needs assistance to go to the shops, whatever time Greg is putting into the community the community is also giving him back to him.

By using the tools and resources available on People & Places, individuals and their families can set up a comprehensive and cost free support system that works in partnership with a local 'careline service' that will enable some one to remain reduce their staff level but retain their independence.

Circle of Support

What is a Circle of Support?

A Circle of Support is a group of people who help somebody accomplish certain personal visions or goals. A member can have up to five members of their Circle of Support group working with them on the website. If for some reason the member is unable to achieve what they want from their life the Circle of Support will help them. The member is in charge of deciding who to invite into their circle. The Circle of Support members are usually made up of family members, people from the day service, service providers and social workers . Their focus will be centred around the individual.

People & Places offers a secure and accessible place that enables an individual and their Circle of Support to keep their Person Centred Plan up to date. At any point in time information such as status of achievement, work in progress, areas of difficulty still to address and that need further/additional support can be instantly gathered and displayed for an appointment or an annual review.

The individual can invite any stakeholder who supports them to view their Person Centred Plan and the goals they are trying to achieve and their daily planner. This gives those organisations the opportunity to see where they can contribute.

Being able to celebrate when things are going right and being able to be a source of experience and support for staff when things are difficult is a balance all families would like to achieve.

With My People & Places supporting an independent living placement, the communication between an individual and their Circle of Support becomes more balanced and mature. It enables the relationship to naturally shift from parent/child to parent/independent adult.

My People & Places also offers families an opportunity to exchange ideas and problem solve in the Circle of Support forums and share their successes in the 'Good Stories Library'. Learning from each others' experiences is an essential way to improve choice.

Education

How does My People & Places sit with Education and Transition?

'Every Child Matters' and 'Aiming High' are government strategies that require local educational establishments to work holistically towards a meaningful way in which services enable disabled young people to reach their potential in life. Working in partnership with families and using a 24/7 approach, lessons can be ensured to be purposeful.

The transition from school/college services to adulthood can be particularly difficult for any students with a learning disabilities and though some individuals are able to successfully transition, most are faced with significant obstacles in multiple areas as they attempt to negotiate their way into adult services, work, community participation and independent living.

As Person Centred Planning is rolled out through adult social care it will become the key tool for individuals and their families to identify if services are working for them. Those same families are now saying how valuable these tools would have been while they were in those transitional years.

Adult services have realised that they need to be engaging with young people and their families a lot earlier if they are to forward plan their services and budgets. They also understand that helping young people to identify their aspirations and goals for the future, and then working in partnership with schools and colleges to embrace those aspirations and outcomes means that each individual's learning can be tailored to suit their requirements. This way everyone can arrive at the point of transition in a more skilled and prepared state. Individuals will have wider choices and more confidence to try new things.

My People & Places is a practical alternative to traditional mainstream learning platforms for Special Educational Needs schools. It can help make the transition process seamless and support a young person during their educational years throughout the school or college. Professionals around the student are able to look holistically at the student's life and beyond the 9am'3pm day. They can identify where aspects of the curriculum can be taught in a person-centred way to give the young person the tools to make things happen in their lives outside of school. After leaving school or college the student is able to carry on using the tool to keep in touch with their friends, plan events in their lives, they are also able to make choices about the support they receive.