Balance is a specialist support to people with learning disabilities and enduring mental health needs. We provide a range of outreach, supported living, horticultural and employment support services in SW and W London. The people we support largely live independently with a range of differing skills and abilities, are over 18 and are geographically dispersed across our constituent boroughs of Kingston, Richmond, Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster. We support people who are referred to us on the basis of a social care assessment in addition to privately purchased services.
All of our services and support are tailored and built around the individual support requirements of each person we work with. We use a strengths and assets based model of support that builds independence and confidence in managing life's daily challenges as well as its opportunities. Our interventions are built around the following 5 key Objectives.
The charity offers the following specific areas of service delivery:
Outreach Services - We support people living independently in properties across Kingston, Richmond and Merton with small packages of support ranging from 2 hours to 18 hours per week depending on their needs. There is a dedicated team providing permanent staff who are able to offer a named worker to every client who will advocate for and support each individuals long term goals and day to day needs.
Supported Living Service - operating in Kingston only, this service provides dedicated support team of 18 staff to individuals living in 5 shared homes across the borough. Teams in each home ensure that daily living skills, independence and personal opportunities are maximised for each household tenant.
Community Employment Services - Kingston. The Employment Support Service in Kingston is an Employment Advice in IAPT service, offering specialist advice and targeted support to individuals with mental health support needs to get back into work. It works closely with NHS talking therapy practitioners with a small team of 4 staff working intensively on a one to one basis with each individual referred.
Community Employment Services - Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster. The Supported Employment Service is a specialist provision working with employers and a range of referral agencies across each borough to increase access to work for people with a range of learning and physical disabilities. A dedicated team of up to three specialists job matches and provides on going coached support to sustain each new referral into new work based placements , volunteering opportunties or training.
Community Employment Services - The Stud Nursey and Cafe Richmond. The stud is a two hectare horticultural nursery in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace offer training and supported employment to adults with a learning disability. It is a social enterprise growing and developing products for resale, running targeted learning and skills projects to those referred to its services and works with a range of partners to increase access to the site and its resource.
We matter because we are the principle provider of learning discabilities services to people in the borough of Kingston, with our specialist skills and working approach increasingly available to a growing audience in other boroughs. We have a strong and firmly embedded ethos that centralises the individuals we support in shaping and guiding how and where we work with them. We ensure that those using our services are both visible in and very much part of the communities in which they live. We work closely with families and carers to sustain tenancies and to generate a genuine partnership in getting the most out of the organisation and its resources.
The charity delivers the following outcomes to ensure it meets it primary objectives.
