A fond farewell to our Deputy Chief Executive as she moves onto new ventures
After 25 years at Southdown, Vikki Hayward-Cripps, our Deputy Chief Executive, has decided to move onto new ventures and will sadly be leaving Southdown today at the end of this week, on the 22 October.
Neil Blanchard, our Chief Executive, has worked alongside Vikki at Southdown for 20 years.
New ‘Substance Misuse Employment Service’ opens in East Sussex
Launching on 1st October 2021, the Substance Misuse Employment Service will support people receiving community treatment for drug and alcohol dependence who are unemployed and living in East Sussex.
The service is provided in partnership with Change Grow Live, and funded by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Stable employment is a key factor in reducing the effects of substance misuse on individuals, their families and local communities. This is achieved by:
Top 30 Family Friendly Employer
We are delighted to say that for the ninth year running, Southdown has been named in the top 30 Best Employers for Working Families.
‘Good’ CQC rating for our Supported Living Learning Disability Services
Prior to the covid-pandemic, we were required to register our 26 Supported Living learning disability services as single services with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) rather than grouped as one entity. As a result, each service needs to be individually inspected.
Following a hiatus due to the pandemic, the CQC has now inspected three of our services over the past nine months, all of which have been rated as ‘Good’.
New ‘Transition & Resettlement’ Housing Support service opens in Brighton and Hove
Launching on 1st September 2021, the Transition & Resettlement Service supports people to transition and successfully settle into independent accommodation.
The service is delivered by Southdown and funded by Brighton & Hove City Council and forms part of the Next Steps Strategy, to help ensure some of the most vulnerable people in society continue to have a roof over their heads and are helped into long term accommodation.
‘Starts at Home’ highlights value and importance of supported housing
What is Starts at Home?
Back in 2015, the government announced it was changing the funding model of supported housing. These changes would make it more difficult for the sector to build the much-needed new supported housing schemes and it risked the closure of critically important existing schemes. In response, the NHF created Starts at Home with its members, as a moment and story for supported housing.
What has the campaign achieved?
Investors In People – GOLD!
Investors in People is the international standard for people management, defining what it takes to lead, support and manage people effectively to achieve sustainable results. Underpinning the Standard is the Investors in People framework, reflecting the latest workplace trends, essential skills and effective structures required to outperform in any industry. Investors in People enables organisations to benchmark against the best in the business on an international scale.
The Assessor gathered information from the survey sent to staff and several individual interviews.
Community Roots network wins local Mental Health award
We are thrilled and proud to announce that the Community Roots network has won the ‘Mental Health’ category award of the Community Star and Care Awards 2021.
Funded by NHS Brighton and Hove CCG and Brighton and Hove City Council, Community Roots brings together 16 local providers to strengthen, develop and integrate mental health support for different levels of need, with Southdown as lead provider.
Roisin Murphy, Partnership Manager for Community Roots said:
Enrolment is open for Brighton & Hove Recovery College’s Summer Term
Brighton and Hove Recovery College, offer educational courses as a route to recovery from mental health challenges. All their courses are FREE and designed and delivered by people with lived experience of mental health challenges, together with clinical staff and other professionals.
The College is provided in partnership with the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and as part of the Community Roots network of mental health support.
NEW out-of-hours crisis prevention service opens in Brighton & Hove
On the 14th December 2021, a new out-of-hours mental health crisis prevention service called Staying Well opened in Brighton and Hove (operating weekdays 5.30pm – 10.30pm and weekends 3.30pm – 10.30pm). This new service enhances the current mental health and wellbeing services delivered in the City and is part of Community Roots network of community and voluntary sector support services.
A tribute to Sheila Clouting, co-founder of Southdown
In 1972, Sheila was a founder member of our organisation (later re-named Southdown Housing Association) as part of a small group of like-minded professionals who were working with mental health patients at St Francis Hospital and in the community. She was instrumental in setting up, in her own time, a volunteer-run Sunday Support Group and then a supported housing service in Brighton and Hove.
New ‘Discharge to Assess’ Pilot Service in Brighton and Hove
Jim Aspdin, our Director of Housing, and Gareth Liley, Team Manager of our Homeless Prevention and Mental Health Support Service in Brighton and Hove share an update on a new pilot project….
Jim says, “On the 2nd November, Southdown launched Discharge to Assess – a new scheme that offers a short-term package of support and accommodation to individuals ready to leave mental health inpatient settings.