Cheque for Charity!
ISS was extremely proud to be able to present a cheque to Bradstow School on Wednesday 18th November which they will use towards their new sensory garden. As you may have read in the article below, Bradstow School have been involved in the CareSys Behaviour Support System, and were indeed the brains behind the original Access version, together with John Thompson, which was then re-developed into CareSys to provide a fully scalable solution.
Following the success of the CareSys Behaviour Support System, Carolyn Elliott, Sales & Marketing Director and Jenifer Cathcart, Office Manager at ISS travelled to Broadstairs to meet with Bert Furze (Head Teacher), Sarah Dunn (Deputy Head Teacher) and some children at the school to hand over the cheque by way of charitable donation.
Bert Furze, Head Teacher at Bradstow commented "It is very encouraging to see that many organisations and schools supporting people with learning disabilities and mental health issues are able to utilise the Behaviour Support System. We believe in sharing knowledge in the community and ensuring best practice is recognised and followed for the purpose of improving the quality of care for the children and adults in care."
The team at ISS wishes everyone at the school continued success with the excellent work that is being done and which is firmly putting the Bradstow School on the map as leading the way!
CMM Insight Conference
We would like to say thank you to Richard Mills, Director of Research - National Autistic Society for his contribution to the workshop at the CMM Insight Conference in Manchester in which CareSys was an associate sponsor.
Richard gave a very interesting and informative talk on understanding and managing challenging behaviour in care settings.
Care for people with challenging behaviour has traditionally been provided in residential settings but commissioners are now pressing for this care to be delivered in supported living. The way that the quality of care is monitored and care outcomes are measured is an ongoing challenge even when all service users are under one roof but how is this possible in a dispersed environment such as supported living? Richard Mills from the National Autistic Society, explored best practice and how technology can play an important role in understanding the needs, behaviour patterns and outcomes for service users with challenging behaviour.
Introducing the CareSys Behaviour Support System
John Thompson talks about this new addition to CareSys.
It is not often that we can feel good about working with a piece of software because it is designed to help a disadvantaged sector of our society. That is why I get very excited about the potential of the Behaviour Support System. I'd like to tell you how it came about, but first let me introduce myself. My background is in IT but, before my association with CareSys, I had spent five years dividing my time between my consultancy work and working for the British Institute of Learning Disabilities. It was BILD who introduced me to Bradstow School, a residential special school in Broadstairs who work with young people with learning disabilities. They wanted something to enable the behavioural specialists at the school to easily collect and analyse information about instances of challenging behaviour. This was so that they could understand the causes, and so be more able to help the individuals enjoy a better quality of life. The first solution was a database which we, the school staff and I, created in Microsoft Access. This was introduced at the start of 2004. Althought is was only intended for Bradstow School, the word soon spread. There are now about 100 users of this version of the database in schools and adult services around the UK and also in Ireland and America. Whilst continuing to serve its user community well, the Access version lacks the scalability and potential for integration that is one of the strengths of CareSys. So CareSys developers have taken the concept of the original database, refined over six years of use, and re-written it to the exacting standards of reliability, security and performance associated with the other CareSys modules. The National Autistic Society has supported the development of the software and has invested in the system. They will be the first users of the CareSys version. Hence my delight that the Behaviour Support System, which I have already seen bring positive benefits to so many, is now available as part of CareSys.
John Thompson, CareSys Behaviour Support System Consultant