Cowgate Day Centre
18 Cowgate Road
Greenford, Middlesex UB6 8HQ
Tel: (020) 8575 9100
Introduction
Cowgate Day Centre provides day services for up to
40 people per day to adults with learning disabilities. The service
is split into two groups for people with complex needs and
behavioural difficulties. 25 places exist for people with
complex needs - these are service users who require
additional support than what currently is provided within
'mainstream' placements, due to their behaviour or anger management
issues. The other 15 places are for service users with severe
challenging behaviour who require high levels of support and risk
management.
Cowgate supports service users who exhibit severe levels of challenging behaviour and those users who are in crisis, due to both health and environmental issues. Cowgate offers service users access to the Community Health Team who provide support for behavioural and health issues, such as psychologists, psychiatrists and music and art therapists.
Cowgate provides a forum for users to access both primary health and leisure services, and promotes equal access to services which encourage healthy lifestyles.
Cowgate aims to offer a wide range of activities which teach development and life skills, along with a range of leisure and therapeutic activities.
Admission criteria
Complex needs service users [25 places per day]
Cowgate offers 25 complex needs places per day for
people with a learning disability who reside within the London
Borough of Ealing catchment area.
Service users within this group will be assessed for admission, with regards to whether they meet the following key criteria. Users should:
-
be able to provide and meet their own personal care and dietary needs [or do so with minimal support]
-
be able to communicate and comprehend requests about their needs via verbal and physical prompts, gestures etc
-
have no identified nursing care need
-
be able to benefit from, and operate within, a staff and service user ratio of 1:4-6
In addition:
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users' behavioural or complex needs should be able to be managed with high staffing support and supervision when difficulties occur
-
if they have minor difficulties with communication, personal care, or mobility, users should be able to benefit and receive support from more intense staffing input
Special needs service [15 places per day]
Cowgate provides up to 15 special needs places per
day for people with challenging behaviour who reside within the
London Borough of Ealing catchment area.
Service users within this group will be assessed for admission, with regards to whether they meet the following key criteria. Users of this service:
-
require intensive support and supervision with regards to their challenging behaviour
-
should be able, with minimal support, to carry out personal care and dietary needs
-
should be able to benefit from and operate within a staff and service user ratio of 1-3
-
should not require any nursing care
Opening hours
The centre is open Mondays to Fridays, from
9am-4pm. Service users attend the centre between the hours of
9am-3pm or 10am-4pm. This is dependent on the transport run to
which they have been allocated.
Centre information
The centre employs a manager, a deputy, three
senior day care social workers, 14 day care social workers, one
administration officer, and a cook.
Cowgate offers a wide range of development and leisure activities which are skill-based. The sessions range from domestic cooking groups, art, craft, general studies, healthy lifestyle/living, personal care, access to the community and sports and swimming facilities, gardening and computer studies.
The centre provides sandwiches for all service users at a weekly cost of £15 (£3 per day). The centre would also be happy for service users to bring in packed lunches from home and support them to eat these at lunch times. Please feel free to raise this with staff on assessment.
Some medication is administered at the centre by the senior staff on a daily basis, however please note that staff cannot administer certain forms of medication.
Cowgate has direct access to therapy staff employed by the Local Health Authority. Currently, we have specialist input from four therapists at the centre:
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speech and language therapist (Wednesdays)
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music therapist (Fridays)
-
art therapist (Tuesday and Wednesday)
-
physiotherapist (twice a month)
In conjunction with this, the centre has access to psychology and psychiatry services via the Community Health Team based at 62 Green Lane, Hanwell, W7 2PB.
How to access Cowgate’s services
Referrals to Cowgate come directly from the care
managers at the Learning Disabilities Team (located at 62 Green
Lane), via the Allocation and Monitoring Panel.
On receiving the appropriate papers, the day centre completes a joint assessment at home and at school to determine whether or not the individual is suitable for our service.
On completion of an assessment and a placement being offered, the final confirmation of a place would be subject to a 12-week assessment at the unit.
Parents or carers can contact the Learning Disability Team for a placement at Cowgate.
Learning Disability Team
62 Green Lane
Hanwell, W7 2PB
Tel: (020) 8566 2360