Thera Trust
Thera East Anglia is a not for profit organisation supporting adults with a learning disability to lead independent lives.
Thera East Anglia have embarked on a journey to support people with a learning disability to gain meaningful employment. As a Company, we value the benefits of a diverse staff team and the different qualities and skills people with a learning disability can bring.
We are passionate about supporting people to reach their full potential.
We will design a package around the person to meet their individual needs and goals around employment. Each person will have a personal development plan; within this, a pathway will be identified, including who will support at each stage of the journey.
Employment goals does not just mean a traditional paid job. We can support people to achieve a number of different goals. For example-
- Self-employment
- Full/Part-time work
- Volunteer
- Complete training programmes. (82 Craft and Creations/ IT courses)
- Access to a range of qualifications tailor designed to meet the individual needs. (Gateway )
- Work experience opportunities
- Experts by experience (support to deliver training to different companies/groups)
Thera East Anglia are offering a unique and person specific experience, tailor-made to meet the needs of people supported. We want to support ALL adults and young people with a learning disability with no restriction or criteria.
We believe everyone has the potential to achieve their goals with the right support in place.
Not only will we be working alongside people with a learning disability, we will work closely with local learning disability partnership teams, other health care professionals and employment services.
A big focus will be working proactivity with the employer. We believe to enable a person with a learning disability to reach their employment goal we need to work with the employer to build sustainable relationships. A person’s employment journey doesn’t stop the moment they start a job; we will offer on-going support as long as the person and the employer requires us to.
Currently we have one member of staff employed full time. In April 2018 we have 12 members of staff taking part in TSI training with Remploy to build up a bank staff of job coaches.
Funding streams
Due to the project just starting our funding streams are limited, we are exploring funding option, currently we receive funding from local authorities
We are in the process of applying for Adult Education funds/ direct payment funding option. Currently we are not looking at any DWP funding.
The Quality Company
The Quality Company is part of the Thera Group. We believe that every person has the right to the best support to lead their lives in the way they want.
The Quality Company quality checks support across England and Scotland to make sure that people with a learning disability are living their lives as they choose. The Quality Company is a member of the Association of Quality Checkers.
We employ people with lived experience of a learning disability in different roles across the company.
We provide learning and development opportunities for people to progress in their careers. This can include providing short term work experience placements.