Independent Living Services
QEF Independent Living Services is situated just outside Leatherhead in Surrey, provides a unique service to young adults with physical and learning difficulties. The focus is on raising skill levels and confidence to promote greater levels of independent living for disabled people and raising their awareness of choice.
Independent living for disabled people
QEF Independent Living Service’s main building is called Dorincourt, specialises in supporting the transition from childhood to adulthood. As a result, many of our clients are in the lower end of our age category of 18 to 65, and come to Dorincourt after school or college. Dorincourt is very highly regarded as a leading service in delivering independent living for disabled people. The service provided is unique in that it is entirely person-centred with each client setting their own goals through individual learning plans and having a full and active daily time table of sessions and activities. Our focus is to help achieve a greater degree of independent living for disabled people by enabling them to become as self sufficient as possible, from money management to shopping, from planning a social life to arranging and directing any support that they need.
QEF Independent Living Services also provides daily input from a range of relevant services and therapies. Health psychology, physiotherapy and occupational therapy are on site while a range of activities is provided by both QEF staff and visiting tutors.
This person-centred approach to independent living is driven by the team of Life Coaches, who take the lead on ensuring that each client gains maximum benefit from their time at Dorincourt. In addition, Dorincourt also offers the chance to experience different styles of living for limited periods of time to enable clients to make a more informed choice of how they would like to live when they leave Dorincourt. This provision includes a 6 bed group home and 14 self-contained independent living flats. The accommodation gently introduces independent living for disabled people and allows them to take some responsibility for their own welfare, often for the first time. They can put the skills they have learnt into practice, within a supportive setting, before they move on into their chosen style of living.
