As a housing provider the association has long recognised the important role support can play in enabling people to manage their home and sustain independent living in the community.

We were confident that with the right opportunities we could deliver effective support packages which would not only promote independent living, but enable people to grow and realise their potential.  The community support service has developed from a vision into reality in a short space of time and has now been in operation for more than seven years.

Our services receive funding from a variety of sources, such as Supporting People and Manchester's Directorate of Adult Services.

People First would like to thank the service users who attended our festive focus group meeting in December.

The event was an opportunity for our clients and staff to meet and celebrate the end of the year and for us to thank those who attended and contributed to the focus groups throughout the year.

We enjoyed Christmas music, mince pies, crackers and - best of all - festive bingo, through which everyone went home with lovely prizes!

We also played the 'Miracle Question'. This was an opportunity for clients to write about what they would do if a miracle of their choice occured. The game allowed them to set their goals and aspirations for the New Year.

It was nice to see everybody enjoy themselves and everyone who attended is looking forward to the next focus group. We welcome more service users to come next time and have their say. Please look out for the date in the next newsletter, on our website or speak to your support worker for further information.

Our annual community Support Speakout event was held on 24th June, at Portland Basin boat museum. It was a great success with service users and support workers all enjoying a leisurely boat trip on a narrow boat and then a fish and chip lunch.

Everyone joined in the ‘guess who’ competition and general knowledge quiz, and everyone went away with a raffle prize. A big thank you goes to all those who attended and gave us feedback on how we can improve our support service. Another big thank you goes to Thahmina, Ade, Danielle and Rob for organising the event and not forgetting the volunteers at the boat museum who made sure everyone had a good time.

If you were unable to attend on the day but would still like to give us some feedback on our support service then please contact Claire Bates on (0161) 235 6905.

Most of our staff now work in community support.  Visit our jobs page for more information on current vacancies and why you should consider applying for a position at People First.

People First would like to thank the service users who attended our focus group meeting on Friday 25th February 2011.  The meeting was successful and we agreed a lot about ideas for future focus groups and our annual speak out event.

We had a guest speaker from Ackers Solicitors who talked about preparing wills and the option of having a Power of Attorney which the service users found very interesting.  We would like to thank Tasneem Ackers for attending.

The service users participated very well and came up with some good ideas about what they would like from People First and how we could improve our focus groups, for example, to invite someone to discuss the current changes to all benefits and also to discuss the new housing allocation and banding rules as well as many other ideas.

We welcome more service users to come to the next focus group, to have their say and we look forward to planning for the next meeting.  If you are one of our support clients, please look out for the date in the next newsletter or speak to your support worker.

Our annual Speakout event, held on 17 September 2010 was a great success.  A big thank you to all those who attended and contributed.

We met at Hulme Garden Centre and enjoyed good weather and good barbie-cooked food.  Around 20 service users attended and gave us feedback on how we are doing as a service and how we can improve.  Everyone went away with a raffle prize, ranging from a microwave to piggy banks.  We took plenty of photos and will report back soon on the feedback we received through our newsletters and the website.
We look forward to another successful Speakout next year!

Having set up our first services in 2002 to incredibly tight deadlines we now work across four offices in the North-West, supporting more than 250 households and employing around 40 support staff.  We have been able to build on these firm foundations, successfully securing new contracts and expanding services.  This additional growth has been achieved against a back-drop of cuts in Supporting People grants and a climate of uncertainty across the sector.

Central to our approach has been the delivery of services at a local level.  With offices in Manchester, Cheshire and Rochdale, we are well-placed to respond to the needs of service users.  Primarily we provide floating support services, but we also have some supported accommodation in Cheshire.

Our expertise in delivering support has developed over the last few years and we now work with people who have a range of issues and come from diverse backgrounds.  For example, we work with:

• Asian women in Rochdale
• Elderly people who are showing early signs of dementia in Manchester
• Members of Manchester's black and minority ethnic community who have issues around mental health
• Irish men in Manchester with issues around alcohol misuse and homelessness
• Homeless families and young people at risk in Cheshire

In practice people can not be defined by specific ‘problems’ and categorised into neat groups.  Many of the people we work with have a range of problems.

During the development of the community support service, we also had to gear up to the challenges presented by Supporting People.  We have had successful reviews in all areas of operation and received positive feedback on the quality of services we provide.  This has been echoed by our own consultation with stakeholders.  Our success in getting the services up and running and securing contracts is to a large extent attributable to the commitment of the staff who work at People First, the vision and support of the Board and the partner organisations we work with, who have given us opportunities to develop new services.

Our biggest challenge now is to ensure we retain our contracts in a time of great uncertainty about funding, but we are confident we can achieve this if we ensure we continue to put ‘people first.’  This means regular consultation with service users, stakeholders and partners and working towards continuous improvement and excellence.  Crucially it also means ensuring continued opportunities for our staff to develop and grow.  We have built a strong base from which to develop further and ensure our continued success.