Turning Point (charity)

Turning Point is a health and social care organisation that works across mental health, learning disability, substance misuse, primary care, the criminal justice system and employment. In 2017, Turning Point won the contract to deliver sexual health services across 3 London boroughs^[1] and Autism Plus joined the Turning Point group.^[2] Many of Turning Point services are regulated by the Care Quality Commission.^[3]

Turning Point developed out of a project in South East London and was founded by Barry Richards in 1964.^[4] The Chief Executive is Lord Victor Adebowale. The charity was described as "one of Princess Diana's favourite charities"; she acted as its patron from 1985 to 1997.^[5] Turning Point is a social enterprise and registered charity^[6] based in the United Kingdom that runs projects in more than 200 locations across England. In 2015/16 66,104 people engaged with Turning Point services. Turning Point employs over 3,500 staff. It has a turnover of £111m, £60m of which is for the delivery of substance misuse services, £18m for the delivery of mental health services and £34m for the delivery of support to people with a Learning Disability.^[7]

Mental health services include:

• Talking therapies – providing support over the phone, online and face-to-face to support people with depression, stress or anxiety to feel more in control.
• Community services – support for individuals in their local community to set goals that improve their mental health and wellbeing. This includes providing housing, employment and welfare support and services for people with personal budgets.
• Crisis services – emotional, practical and clinical support, to help individuals resolve their crisis and develop coping strategies to prevent and manage future episodes. Turning Point's services provide a community-based alternative to hospital admissions for those experiencing a crisis.
• Specialist and forensic services – for those with more enduring needs, Turning Point provide residential services including a therapeutic rehabilitation and recovery programme to help people develop the skills needed to live independently in a homely environment.
• Carers support – Turning Point provide breaks for carers, while they take over the caring duties, including specific support for those with young onset dementia.
• Supported accommodation – supporting residents with their daily living tasks such as shopping and cooking, and also support with education opportunities such as applying for volunteer work and to local colleges.
• Individual placement and support (ips) service – the service challenges the perception that people with mental health issues cannot work, by focusing on supporting people to attain competitive employment and providing training and support on the job.

Learning disability services include:

• Supported living – supporting people to take control of their own lives by providing flexible, outcome-focused support; enabling people to have increased choice and control over their daily lives, increase their skills, independence and social inclusion, including accessing training and employment opportunities.
• Outreach – to enable people to maintain their tenancy, manage their finances, get involved with their community and increase their daily living skills.
• Day opportunities – opportunities to engage in meaningful work including one-to-one support to set and achieve personal goals,
• Residential care – Turning Point provide a number of residential care services for people with a wide range of support needs. Turning Point use assistive technology and other aids and equipment to support people to maintain and increase their independence, alongside our dedicated staff team.
• Residential care with learning disability nurses – Turning Point provides community-based residential care with nursing to individuals with a learning disability and complex health needs. Each person is supported by a team of support workers and nurses working in close partnership with local health professionals.
• Support for people under the mental health act – Turning Point deliver community-based support within a highly specialist independent service. With support focussed on enhancing people’s quality of life and reducing challenging behaviour.

Substance misuse services include:

• County-wide integrated drug and alcohol services, including young people’s services and family support
• Care co-ordination
• Supported living – supporting people to develop skills to live more independently as they move through their drug and alcohol recovery.
• Psychosocial support which can include group work and 1:1 counselling
• Residential detox – Turning Point support people’s recovery with group work, peer support and helping them to attend additional support groups and supporting people’s recovery with group work, peer support and helping them to attend additional support groups.
• Residential rehabilitation – intensive therapeutic support in an abstinent living environment to support those who may not have succeeded in traditional community settings.
• Criminal justice system – services work with clients at the point of their arrest, during their time in prison and after their release to tackle the root causes of offending and support positive integration back into the community.
• Education, training and employment support^[8]

In 2015 the charity denied accusations of "black on black racism" in its appeal against the decision of an earlier employment tribunal that Adebowale had unfairly dismissed the charity's IT director, Ibukun Adebayo.^[9] The tribunal did find that Adebayo's actions in accessing lewd emails about her from the charity's deputy chief executive to Adebowale, constituted gross misconduct,^[10] but ruled that this did not justify Adebowale's actions. Adebayo's lawyers said that the actions were unfair because the deputy chief executive's behaviour "was more serious than the claimant's by way of his seniority and position as sponsor of Turning Point's equal opportunities policy."^[9]

See also

• Care Quality Commission
• NHS England
• Public Health England
• VODG
• Learning Disability Voices
• National Voices
• Centre for Mental Health
• Improving Access to Psychological Therapies
• Mental Health Foundation
• Mental Health Providers' Forum
• Nacro
• National Mental Health Development Unit
• Together

References

External links

• Official website
• Charity Commission. Turning Point (charity), registered charity no. 234887.