We recognise that our work is most effective when a core organisational identity and mission underpin it. A strong value base that genuinely looks to promote equality and a vision for the future that is responsive to the hopes, dreams, aspirations and needs of people is a constant focus in the support we provide. The White Paper, Valuing People: A New Strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century gives all service providers a clearer framework and targets to aspire to in supporting people with the overall aim of improving the life chances of people who are considered to have a learning disability.

Our challenge continues to be to deliver on the intentions detailed within the Valuing People framework and improve choices and opportunities available to people. We are changing and improving practice so that the quality of the service reflects the rights of people to excellent support that continuously seeks to be open to new possibilities. Over the last year we have continued to strengthen the rights of people who use our services, examples include:

Due to limited space it is not possible to highlight all of our developments and achievements over the last year. The following is a flavour of the direction of our services during the last year.

Demand for places within both our supported living and day services continues to be high. Over the past 12 months this has led to a 10% growth in the number of staff employed. If we can continue to deliver services that are valued by the people that use them and their families, and at the same time improve the quality of services then this demand is likely to continue.

During the year four new houses were opened in the Chorley and South Ribble areas in partnership with local housing associations. These have provided opportunities for people who had previously lived on the Lisieux Hall campus to move into more appropriate long-term accommodation and also for the reprovison of existing tenancies to better quality housing. With the reduced number of people living at Lisieux Hall we have now closed six of the eight flats on the site with a further flat to close as part of moves from the site during 2005-2006. The reduction in the number of people living at Lisieux Hall has meant that almost everyone now has their own bedroom. At the same time we are faced with the challenge of maintaining the campus with large reductions in income.

Over the last three years we have substantially improved the quality of housing for the people we support in tenancies. This programme which has been undertaken principally with Progress Housing association will be completed early next year. We believe that we now have very high quality accommodation that will meet the long-term needs of the people supported within these tenancies. At the same time we recognise that our partnership with local housing associations is fundamental to our success as a supported living agency.

We have focused a great deal of our energy over the last two years on the future of day support services. We are fully committed to taking up the challenge of modernising day services and this is supported by our intention to invest resources into new aspects of service provision. This has been demonstrated by recruiting a Project Development Manager whose role has been to promote forward thinking and changes within our current day services and to support the development of new businesses that follow more closely a social firm model.

Already this change of emphasis is opening up new opportunities. The most significant of these has been the opening of the White Bear Marina Café in Adlington. The aims of this project are to provide exceptional quality service to customers and excellent training for people within a realistic work environment that will help them to prepare for future paid employment. There is also the challenge of generating significant income so that the café can become less dependent on the resources of the service. Initial signs are very good. The café is located in a canal side marina in the heart of a village, a place where reputation is everything to the prosperity of a small business. Everyone involved is under a degree of pressure to make the project a success and it is clear even at this early stage that it is working. People are learning new and useful skills and thriving in an environment that is very different from the setting they previously experienced. Customer levels are far higher than anticipated and this is helping to promote the café throughout the local area, generating increased interest and even more customers.

Our services to older people continue to evolve away from the Lisieux Hall campus.

The vision of being a fully community-based service has been achieved. The clubs are fully integrated into local communities and are open to all retired people irrespective of their background. Feedback from people who attend these groups remains very positive and this encouragement has been the foundation for continued growth and success. Most of the clubs have extended the scope of support they offer, providing older people throughout the area with more opportunities to be involved in activities and meet new people. Throughout this period of change the staff team has worked exceptionally hard to help realise the redefined role and purpose of services to older people. The energy, innovation and enthusiasm over the last three years have been the vital ingredients that have made all of this possible. We marvel at the new friendships that have been made and the richer scope of opportunities that are available to a wider group of people.

Recent reports have highlighted the popularity of the Connections Service, which provides individual support to people with a wide variety of needs, making full use of community resources and opportunities. The popularity and subsequent growth of this service, allied to the merging with the longer established Individual Support Team led to the decision to split into three distinct geographical teams. It has been particularly important to support this process of change effectively and ensure that values, principles and aims that are vital to undertaking this type of work successfully remain common throughout each of the teams. To enable this to happen a number of meetings and development opportunities were arranged throughout the year to discuss and plan the future of Connections. The separation into smaller teams has taken place and all are now in a better position to respond to the hopes, aspirations and individuality of the people who use the service and promote real and positive change in their lives.

During the year we have done a significant amount of work to improve the standard and availability of our policies and procedures. A comprehensive manual is now available in all areas and our staff handbook complements this. Reviews of some policies and introduction of new policies have taken place throughout the year.

With our continual commitment to training and development as a key component of ensuring quality services we opened our new training facility during the year. This is an excellent venue for training and is increasingly used by external agencies for their own events. We have also applied for a National Training Award for our training course on Drug Handling and Administration. We will know the result of our application next year.

Our links with wider aspects of the Brothers of Charity Services continued during the year. We supported four Brothers of Charity from Africa and Indonesia as part of their studies in Special Education through the Canon Triest International Institute and the Catholic University of America in Washington. Support also continues to be provided to the Brothers of Charity in Papua New Guinea and their project to children with disabilities in the remote West Highland Province.

We continue to be involved and support wider aspects of services to people with learning disability in Lancashire particularly through our involvement with the Lancashire Learning Disability Consortium and the Provider Network. Staff have assisted in a number of groups that have been developed via the local Chorley and South Ribble Partnership Board particularly in looking at person centred planning, quality, modernisation of day services, health issues.

Over the next year we face a number of challenges, not least the future of our Supporting People funding which continues to be threatened with substantial reductions. We are all aware of the enormous difference this funding has made to the lives of people living in our supported living services and are concerned that reductions may lead to changes in the support that people receive.