Leading Supported Employment Service achieves Support With Confidence accreditation for 8th year!

Optalis Supported Employment Service is proud to have achieved Support with Confidence (SWC) accreditation for the 8th year. The Supported Employment Service provides specialist coaching, training and support to people who need additional help to find and stay in work. The service is also ranked first in the South-East, for the number of people with learning disabilities in paid employment, despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Donna Morgans, Head of Supported Employment Services acknowledged the on-going demands and praised the team saying, “Many of our customers are experiencing challenges within their job roles and the team are doing a brilliant job supporting everyone."

Support With Confidence (SWC) is a Local Authority scheme, coordinated by Trading Standards, which provides a list of approved care and/or support services that have been vetted on the grounds of quality, safety and training. This allows SWC to provide a pre-approved list of businesses and individuals to reassure anyone in the community who wishes to use a support service either for themselves or a loved one, that the service will be delivered safely and to the highest quality.

Attaining SWC accreditation requires consistently high-quality standards and excellence in providing services for customers and our communities. As the team pointed out, "Trading Standards put us through our paces. It was a little tougher than previous inspections.”

The Supported Employment Service was assessed against a range of criteria including measuring excellence in customer care, equality and diversity. The accreditation also recognised the level of safeguarding training carried out for staff and the robustness of the organisation’s Quality Assurance Framework, which enables customers to give feedback.

Team member Tracy was singled out for praise for her diligence in recording, collating, and providing the necessary evidence. The Supported Employment Service team are justifiably proud in continuing to provide, “high-quality standards and excellent service to customers and the community.”