At Milton Road we have 8 bedrooms for students which are all furnished with bed, wardrobe, desk and chest of drawers. Some of our rooms are en-suite and some have shared bathroom between 2 students which are cleaned daily by our domestic assistant. We have a communal kitchen/diner and lounge area for students to use.
Milton Road is staffed 24 hours a day and the number of staff depends on the ratio that each young person is funded for, day support work 12 hours (8am-8pm) and we have 1 waking night staff and a sleep in staff (8pm-8am). We also have an Deputy House Manager usually working Monday to Friday but also covering weekends and evenings according to the needs of the students and service. We have a Registered Manager also on-site Monday to Friday. All of the houses attached to the Wing College have an out of hours Senior on Call facility if staff need assistance after office hours and overnight.
At Milton Road we tailor house activities according to the wishes of the students. We have regular student meetings where we will discuss particular activities and then we can arrange these and coordinate. Some activities students have enjoyed are day trips, beach, walking and we continue to include the interests of students to involve them in the activity planning also. Students at Milton Road can access £20 activity money per week so this can be used for any activities the house decides to do.
How do you help with building independence? i.e meds, travel, budgets, cooking, domestics, shopping etc.
At Milton Road our students are allocated a Personal Tutor who will then formulate a placement plan to assess where the particular student is at with their skills which can include money, medication, cooking, daily living skills, activities etc. We will then tailor the placement plan to the individual needs with an emphasis on a multi-agency approach.
We can support young people to use transport and can actively support them onto buses and trains with a view to eventual independence. We are able to administer student’s medication and we have a dedicated approach to self-medication which include stages so that this is done in a positive manner over time according to the students needs. We can offer support around managing finances and budgeting and students often go shopping with staff twice weekly to buy ingredients for the make your own dinner days.
Some Milton Road students remain at the home during term and holiday time. In this instance we ensure that over the holidays staff are still on site but it may be a little quieter due to us having less students on site. Between MIR staff, education and wellbeing team we will still run in house activities for students who remain with us.
Students who go home for the holidays are supported by staff to liaise with their family around return dates, ensuring that they have all of their belongings and we also can ensure that we maintain communication via phone, emails, video meetings where needed to continue with support whilst they are at home.
