Skills Group continues to be a successful and much valued day service. We provide support to over 100 members who use the service for anything between half a day and five full days per week. We operate from a number of building bases and through a wide variety of community based activities. Our members attend from Manchester, Tameside and Cheshire as well as from the Stockport area.
Skills Group in Trafford
Our Trafford Skills Group is based at Meadowside in Urmston. This service has gone from strength to strength and is growing steadily. We have recently begun a partnership with Sale and Altrincham Mencap and are soon to launch a state of the art Karten IT Suite at their Rowans building base.
A Skills Group continues to maintain a consistent staff team with very low turnover which ensures high levels of experience, expertise and knowledge of members’ needs. Due to an increase in referrals this year we have been able to enlarge our staff team.
We had an unprecedented response to advertising and have been fortunate to recruit a number of excellent staff to the new position of Support Worker. These staff bring a range of experience, qualifications, skills, new ideas and enthusiasm.
Kitchen at Stockport Skills
Following our successful grant from the Wolfson Foundation for the refurbishment of the main catering kitchen we have been awarded a 5 star food hygiene scheme rating from the Environmental Health and Trading Standards. This is their highest rating. The refurbishment of the kitchen that took place in 2010 transformed the old kitchen into a modern, stainless steel, high-tech catering environment, fit for purpose. The new kitchen enables the catering staff to continue to provide high quality, home-cooked and nutritious meals which will be enjoyed and valued by members for many years to come.
John Lewis Charity of the Year
We were very fortunate to be nominated John Lewis’ Charity of the Year last year. We were very grateful to staff from the company who took part in a number of fundraising events and raised over £40,000 in total. Staff members from John Lewis also gave their time and expertise in carrying out some of the refurbishments themselves. The areas covered by this very generous donation of time and money were as follows :
- The Audio/Visual room was redecorated and rewired and new specialist sensory equipment supplied and fitted.
- The Physiotherapy and Relaxation room was fully refurbished with new overhead tracking and spa chairs.
- Remaining monies will be used for refurbishment of toilet areas and decorating the dining room and corridors.
The partnership with John Lewis has made a real difference to all those who use the service and both staff and members are delighted with the outcome.
Bruntwood Support Skills
In October 2011 Skills Group were very fortunate to recieve support from Bruntwood. A team from Bruntwood visited Skill Group at Granville House and fully refurbished one of the toilets and decorated the corridor that runs from the front door up to the dining room and decorated upstairs too. Skills Group is extremely grateful to Bruntwood for all their kindness and support.
The Show Must Go On
Our creative and performing arts groups have continued to provide high quality performances this year. Drake Music remains a very popular session with Skills Group members. Our band ‘The Prospectors’ gave a superb performance at Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council’s Putting People First conference at The Alma Lodge Hotel in October 2010. In addition, the band played at last year’s Stockport Beer and Cider Festival where they were fantastic. The Skills Group dining room was packed for the performance of the Panto-Nativity last Christmas. The members gave a wonderful performance of festive drama, music and singing. The performance was the culmination of months of dedication and commitment from the staff team and members in the production of scripts, props, costumes and scenery. The quality of the production and performance is a real credit to them all.
Summer 2011′s production of ‘Oliver, with a Skills Twist’ produced a fantastic show which the large audience of family and friends thoroughly enjoyed. Well done to all involved. Due to the growing popularity of this now regular event it was held in the Heaton Moor United Church Hall.
A very successful Christmas Fair was held at Skills Group. The Fair, complete with Santa in his grotto, was very well attended and raised over £500. We were very grateful to staff, members, parents and carers for donations of food items, goods and prizes for the various stalls and fundraising activities. Following consultation with members, monies raised from this event were spent on equipment and resources for the Art room.
