Pictured: (l-r)  Sue Rigby, Senior Personal Assistant (PA), Katie Knox (checked shirt), Senior PA, Cath Leyland (mum), Alexander Leyland, brother Samuel, Mr Leyland (dad) and Sue Briley, Personal Assistant

There can be nothing more crucial for a commissioning manager or care manager, than to be given the ability to make a well chosen and of course, cost effective decision about on-going Paediatric care. 

This is why the Complete Group, a Telford-based specialist provider of paediatric support services, is striving to provide as much information as possible to enable managers to assess all the options available to them before making that decision.

Sally Yandle, managing director at Complete Group said: "Our experience of working with children with complex disability needs or brain injury has shown that decisions can be made to place children into care homes or to use expensive agencies because there are no other options.

"There is a perception that specialist provider's like us are far too expensive for NHS budgets to allow for. This is not the case at all. 

"We are passionate about keeping families together in their own homes and as such work with care managers to do just that with services that are flexible, are cost effective and take into account the constraints of today's climate, but are most importantly tailored to the individuals needs.

"The Complete Group sees the child, not just as an individual in their own right but as part of a collective family group and that ethos is what drives our service provision".

The Complete Group's paediatric service identifies all the needs of a child with complex health care needs and puts in place a care programme tailored to their individual and their family's needs and is one that respects their dignity and choices.

The aim is not to break up the family unit, but to keep it together with as much freedom as possible in their own home.

Sally continues: "Support is provided by personal assistants, who undergo comprehensive training, prior to providing one-to-one care with ongoing supervision and support from experienced paediatric nurses".

One family, which has benefited from Complete Group's paediatric service, is the Leyland family from Leigh in Lancashire.

"My seven-year-old son Alexander has severe cerebral palsy," said mum Cath. "He is cared for and very much loved by myself and my family and up until recently we provided that care for him alone"

After being introduced by their care manager to the Complete Group that isolation has been removed.

Cath continues: "Their service has helped us in so many ways, the most important being given support that now allows us to spend time with our other children and "playing" with rather than just "nursing" Alexander.

"Until we were introduced to Complete Group it was hard to try and fit everything in, we worked closely with their team to choose a personal assistant that we trust and is good with Alexander and we are very happy with this."