Sense provides 52 residential services across England and one in Northern Ireland in which we support more than 270 deafblind people.

Each of our services places the deafblind person at the centre, and our teams are trained and supported in the person-centred approach. We respect that each person is an individual with unique needs and aspirations.

Although people may share their house with others, each individual’s support will be specific to their particular needs.

We base all of our work on the core belief that communication is the key to everything.

Our staff teams are trained and supported to understand that deafblindness is a unique disability and that interacting with the world without sight and hearing can be hugely challenging.

We tailor our support to what the deafblind individual wants, however that is expressed, with our staff teams using their specialist skills to understand how each person prefers to communicate.

Our houses, bungalows and flats are adapted to ensure they are accessible to people with dual sensory impairment, and support the person to make the most of any residual vision and hearing. This can include colour contrasting, textured surfaces, modified acoustics and appropriate lighting.

Sense residential services range from single person flats to group houses with three-to-seven people sharing.

Our values

We place the deafblind person at the heart of everything we do - from planning the day to planning the future of our service delivery.

We believe that deafblind people have the right to control their own lives and decisions. We also recognise that being deafblind means it can be difficult to make your voice heard, so we train and support our staff teams to understand a huge range of communication methods to ensure we are always listening to what people want.

Choosing the right service

Sense will support you to assess your needs and make choices about which service is right for you.

Information is important when making choices, and our assessment and advice team can support you and your family to be clear about what you need and what is available to choose from.

For an initial discussion about accessing our services contact our information and advice service.

What happens next?

Our information and advice service will pass your details on. Usually, the next person you hear from will be an assessment and advice officer. They will make an appointment to visit you and discuss your needs by conducting an initial assessment.

Following the assessment, we will go through the service options we have available.

How are residential services paid for?

Most people who live in a Sense accommodation have their services purchased by the local authority or primary care trust. You must have a needs-led assessment by a social worker to be able to access those funds.

Our information and advice service can also assist you with more information on contacting your local authority social work team.

Sense provides residential services in England and Northern Ireland:

North
Leeds
Accrington

East
Lincolnshire
Louth
Spalding
Market Deeping
Peterborough
Kettering
Norfolk

South-East
Barnet
Stevenage
Walthamstow
Purley
Margate
Ramsgate

South-West
Bristol
Trowbridge
Glastonbury
Exeter
Whimple
Seaton

Midlands
Birmingham
Malvern

Northern Ireland:
Carrickfergus

Vacancies
For information on our current vacancies, please visit our residential services vacancies.