About
Getta Life is small, not for profit and responsive to each person it supports. We develop a team to work alongside one person - Staff are expected to like the person they work with, enjoy spending time with them and share experiences together.
What we do
We work with people to build a meaningful life based on the person centred plan, each person has a planning day facilitated by an independent person. Family and friends help with planning too. We change the planning tools and methods to suit each person and where they are in life. The person centred plan is the guide for the team in their work alongside the persons support plan.
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People do very different things in their day to day, this ranges from volunteering at a playgroup, working in the office, going swimming, going to the gym, providing help to family, walking , meeting friends, theatre, cinema and much more.
We intentionally work on helping people contribute and be known in their community. People become proud of the difference they make. David has taught a whole succession of children about disability and difference in the Little stars play group. We believe people want to be appreciated for what they bring and their gifts.
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We offer life-long support as long as we can meet someone’s needs. We have supported two people to die at home and believe this is an important part of providing person centred support
"It's the job of Getta Life to support each unique individual to emerge and become more themselves"
Sue Deeley, Getta Life
How we do it
We have a strong culture of reflection, learning and personal growth. We believe that the support someone receives each day is only ever as good as the member of staff they spend their day with, this is because relationships are our work.
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We try to match people, where a relationship between the person and a team member is not right we support the staff member to change their approach. We listen to what the person being supported tells us- by spending time together we can see if the relationship is right. We all need different styles of support – sometimes a team member who is struggling to work well with one person might be exactly right for someone else. People should not have to accept people in their homes who are not in the right relationship with them.
Team manager’s work in the team on the rota- they supervise their team. We have three styles of supervision – a catch up / traditional type, a reflective supervision and an observed supervision. These contrasting styles of supervision enable us to check that people are staying true to the values of Getta Life and providing the right support.
Team meetings are regular, seldom cancelled and everyone attends. Directors and Assistant Director go to the team meetings for the teams they manage. Team meetings usually include the person being supported. They are all done in a way to suit the person. Ketan’s usually involves a walk and shared food. Vicky chairs her own, John’s always includes a game of bananagrams.
We work to understand the person’s purpose – this helps us to know what people want in life. Peter’s purpose was to teach us the value of simple pleasures. Good food, friendship and journeys were what he enjoyed most. Peter taught us to value what we have and to appreciate life.
"It's only relationships that matter"
Julie Smith, Getta Life
Training
Our staff talk about much training they do and how this helps them to do their work well, feel valued and encourages them to develop further. We are an approved centre for OCN (WM) and all of our staff follow a progression of accredited courses.
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Preparation to work in Adult Social Care (Level 2)
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Listening skills
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Personal Development
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Understanding yourself and others
Team managers go on to either Level 3 Counselling skills at a local college or level 5 NVQ through apprenticeship scheme
On top of this we offer all statutory training and refreshers delivering these in house means we can be sure of the style of delivery and the person centred emphasis that is so crucial to our work. We don't believe in trying to tick boxes.
Our training plan each year offers other opportunities and is planned to develop the practices across Getta Life. This has included things such a Being with Me, community connecting, healing and right relationships. We have some great links with outside facilitators and have built up strong relationships with them to ensure we have selected facilitators with the same passions and values as ourselves, two of our facilitators helped us write our book "We've Got a Life" which now forms the basis of our induction training.
Some of the people we support participate in the teaching of our induction, they have made films about their lives and loves and we show them with their staff, family and friends. We sue very little Power Point teaching, preferring to use facilitation or groups, exercise and reflection along with films, Ted talks and internet campaigns such as the recent Rightful lives website and Mencap's treat me well campaign.
During out training we ask people to use their own experiences to think about how they would choose to be supported, we ask them to think about who they are, what their influences have been, their values and beliefs, explaining that the more you understand the yourself the more you can offer to the person you support and the better able you will be to develop a real relationship together.