About Protocol Healthcare Services

Protocol Healthcare provide individual packages of support to enable people affected by Autism, Learning Difficulties and down syndrome to live life in the community.

We believe in working in partnership with the people we support, and where possible their families and all stakeholders involved within the individual’s circle of support so as to ensure a person centred approach.

We believe in establishing and maintaining a planned and consistent support system which is reviewed regularly. We support Service Users in various settings which include Supported Living Projects and Outreach / Domiciliary Support in the persons own home.

Protocol Healthcare Services is a regulated service which is registered with the Care Quality Commission as a Domiciliary Care Agency. This is a standard of excellence, with the aim of improving the quality of support for people affected by an Autism Spectrum Condition.

We use a structured approach to skill development, teaching a ‘system’ which can then be generalised, our approach at Protocol Healthcare Services is to be person-centred; enabling the people we support to live an ordinary life, regardless of the complexity of the individual’s needs.

Supporting the staff team on an on-going basis is fundamental to a sustainable and consistent service. 

We support Service Users in various settings which include Supported Living Projects. All support packages provided by Protocol Healthcare Services are designed around the individual.

Building a successful placement depends on getting to know the person through a detailed assessment process and then developing a service around the person’s needs.

What We Do

We provide the following support to our staff.

• Consistent teams – one co-ordinator to a support team of about 30 staff
• Regular team meetings / contact with a manager
• One-to-one-supervisions
• Observations of practice to help identify development needs
• Evidence-based support
• On-going workshops / training – often related to new situations / complex behaviours
• Crisis intervention management
• Debriefing support
• Team building
• 24 hour On-Call support
• On-going compliance related training

We also have a rigorous staff recruitment process and probationary period that ensures there is clarity over the detail of the role and the organisation’s expectations.

Our Service Users

We support Service Users in various settings which include Supported Living Projects, Registered Residential Care and Outreach.

Before we commence any service we always undertake an initial assessment of needs and risks. This usually takes the form of meeting the individual and the person’s family.

Case Study 1 – Home Outreach

We truly believe that only by working with parents and close family can we fully support an individual, this is all the more relevant when supporting an individual within the family home. 

We were approached jointly by a school and a parent to provide support to a young man affected by Autism and a Severe Learning Disability.  We undertook a full assessment of needs of the young man and worked with the school and the parent to understand how best to support this person to maintain, develop and importantly transfer skills from his school environment to his home. 

The parent was involved in the recruitment and selection process and subsequent workshops where the staff team and the parent re-grouped to look at what was working well and what needed to be reviewed.  The parent was also central in the shadowing / initially supporting our staff in the home environment and in the community to understand the expectations and ways of successfully supporting this young man.  

We believe key to meaningful and consistent support is the need for support staff to be reflective in their practice.  This can only be achieved through ‘non-contact’ sessions such as team meetings and workshops where ways of working with the individual can be explored, agreement reached on how to deal with certain scenarios / situations and importantly a clear understanding of the rationale behind the accepted approaches. 

Case Study 2 – Supported Tenancy

This service was set up for a young man who has a diagnosis of Autism and a Learning Disability. During the assessment period, towards the end of his residential school placement, the young man’s parents, school staff and the Health team identified one of the significant considerations for a sustainable placement was a physical environment which was not only ‘robust’ but also in a setting which allowed for easy access to open space, for his parents to visit him on a daily basis and where heightened noise levels would not affect neighbours.

A property on the edge of a park was identified and the necessary adaptations undertaken.  During this period the young man’s parents were involved in the staff recruitment and subsequent workshops relating to how to effectively support this young man. 

The staff team shadowed at the young man at school and were supported to understand how to help this person communicate and how to reduce his anxiety through meaningful daily structures which also encouraged choice and developed decision making skills.

This person continues to successfully maintain his tenancy and enjoys a predictable environment which has reduced his anxiety. This is supported by a consistent staff team who know the young man’s baseline behaviour, understand potential triggers, and are able to anticipate situations which may cause him distress. 

Case Study 3 – Supported Tenancy

This service was set up for a woman with a Learning Disability who had experience multiple placement breakdowns.   We worked extremely closely with the local Social Care team and the Health team to ensure we carefully transitioned this person into a setting with a staff team who had a clear understanding of this person’s needs and hopes for the future.

This was achieved by our team shadowing the existing Health team and establishing clear ways of working and importantly the trust of this person. Running in parallel was an individualised staff induction programme which included understanding the persons underlying medical condition, the use of communication systems in supporting choice and decision making and agreeing de-escalation protocols. 

During this transition period we also purchased suitable accommodation and made a range of adaptations including sound proofing and installing specialist flooring.   
This person has now lived in her own flat with our support for over 5 years.  There have been no significant incidents and her levels of medication have been significantly reduced.