In Birmingham and Solihull, we want small organisations to make a big difference.
We are working with small, local organisations that are confident and capable of supporting people with a learning disability or autistic people to live in their own home, with bespoke support.
The focus is on the small scale of the organisation and the bespoke support, where the person and people important to them are at the heart of decision-making.
Small support organisations will have a desire to remain small, local, community-focused organisations and will be run by highly person-centred, creative and skilled leaders, with a passion to support people with a learning disability or autistic people to live active and meaningful lives in their community.
They will offer support which is “bespoke” to each individual and centred around the person’s needs, so that services are designed around them, support is recruited and trained specifically to support them and they are enabled to achieve things like work or volunteering, maintaining and developing friendships and relationships, developing skills or hobbies, contributing as local citizens.
Small support organisations will be confident in supporting people robustly but flexibly enough to adapt with the person and be comfortable with the importance of risk taking.
NHS Birmingham and Solihull is working with Birmingham City Council, Birmingham Children’s Trust and Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, as well as the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) and ADASS West Midlands.
Locally, our ambition is to increase the choice of providers of this type of care, and promote the opportunity to local people to set up and run their own small support organisations.
We understand that setting up a new small support organisation, or perhaps changing the direction of an existing small organisation, is challenging, so we are keen to do what we can to help. This help might include:
- Support to understand and navigate the sometimes complex NHS and local authority processes.
- Supporting discussions with commissioners to enable small support organisations to be financially viable and stable.
- Support your development through access to existing small support organisations who can offer guidance and advice.
- Assist you to access local organisations who guide and advise small business or voluntary organisations to become established and grow. Depending on how you choose to establish, this might include support to access limited ‘start up’ funding.
If you have any queries, please email: nhsbsolicb.smallsupports@nhs.net.