News
Transitions seminar features in Norwich Evening News
21/04/08Our second free transition event for parents was a success last week. It included a presentation from Frank Crowdy of Norfolk County Council's transition team and a families perspective, given by one of the people we support, Kevin Potter and his mother Dee. Kate Jackson, our Transition Development manager and Julie Bruce, Area Manager were on hand to help find out what was working and what wasn't working in the transition process in Norfolk.
Find out more about the seminars
Michael's safari dream featured in Community Care magazine
07/03/08Over the past year, we have been running a competition to make '50 dreams come true' for the people we support. One winner, Micheal Osbourne, from Norfolk, won his dream safari holiday, covered in this week's 
Community Care magazine.
Read about the other winners of our dreams competition.
Dimensions and Adepta in talks to join forces
29/02/08
Dimensions and Adepta are pleased to announce that they are exploring opportunities to work together.
The proposed merger would see Adepta joining Dimensions, reinforcing our position as the UK's second largest provider of support for people with learning disabilities. The merger would create a group supporting over 2000 people with learning disabilities in 57 local authority areas.
Should the merger go ahead, Adepta's expertise in autism services and in supporting people with challenging behaviour will be drawn upon and improve the services provided by the Dimensions group. Likewise, Adepta will benefit from Dimensions' expertise and experience in providing support for young people in transition.
By merging we hope to be more resilient in our ever-changing sector and be better able to cope with the ever-tightening financial constraints facing providers of social care. Through achieving greater efficiencies over time we aim to be more able to respond to the challenges of meeting the personalisation agenda.
We are still in the early stages of negotiation, but if all goes as we hope, we expect the organisations to merge in the autumn.
First transition seminar helps parents in Derby
8/02/08
Yesterday saw the first in our series of free transitions seminars for parents. Thirty parents from Derby and the surrounding area met together to hear about good practice and to share their experiences of this potentially difficult time.
Chaired by Kevin Walters, a parent and a member of our board, this day included presentations from Cally Ward, a parent whose own son has been through a number of transitions and Kevin Stanner, a young person talking about his own real life experiences of transition. The afternoon session was dedicated to group discussions, where we talked about at what is work and isn't working locally, and what we could do as a result of today.
Kate Jackson, our Transition Development Manager said,
"Having the right information, at the right time is especially important for parents who are about to support their son or daughter through the transition process. We discovered that this is an area that still needs improving. Even though there is a vast amount of information to hand, knowing where to get the support or information from in the first place is still a major issue for most families. I think this day was a starting point for many families and hopefully many went away feeling empowered about the possibilities for their son or daughter after they leave school or college. The 5 big questions which looked at local practice is a real starting point for us to develop real partnerships between provider, parents and local authorities."
Feedback from parents indicates that it was a useful event for all: "meeting the Dimensions team gave me light at the end of the tunnel."