Special People Overnight Care

What is Overnight Care?

Special People provides overnight care and support for children, young people and adults who need assistance, monitoring, reassurance or a professional presence during the night.

Overnight support is delivered in the person’s home and arranged around their assessed needs, routines, health requirements and preferences. It can provide reassurance for the person receiving care while also allowing family carers to rest.

We offer two main types of overnight support: waking-night care and sleeping-night care. An assessment is completed to determine which arrangement is suitable.

Waking-night support

During a waking-night shift, the support worker remains awake and available throughout the agreed hours. This arrangement is suitable for people who require regular, planned or unpredictable support during the night.

Depending on the person’s care plan, waking-night support may include:

• Regular observations and wellbeing checks

• Personal care and continence support

• Repositioning and pressure-area care

• Assistance with prescribed overnight medication

• Epilepsy monitoring and seizure response

• PEG or enteral feeding support

• Respiratory support and observation

• Catheter or stoma support

• Support during distressed waking or behaviours of concern

• Responding to changes in health or wellbeing

• Completing overnight care records

• Providing a handover to family members or the daytime care team

Any clinical tasks are provided only by staff who have received the appropriate training and competency assessment for that individual.

Sleeping-night support

During a sleeping-night shift, a trained support worker stays overnight in the person’s home and is permitted to sleep when support is not required. A suitable sleeping space must be available.

The worker remains available to respond when needed. Sleeping-night care may be appropriate where support is occasional rather than continuous, but the person should not be left without assistance overnight.

Support may include:

• Reassurance and help with settling or returning to sleep

• Support following anxiety, confusion or distressed waking

• Assistance with occasional personal care needs

• Medication prompting or support, where included in the care plan

• Responding to unexpected health or safety concerns

• Contacting emergency services or the on-call team when necessary

• Recording any overnight events or interventions

• Providing a morning handover

Where a person begins to require frequent support throughout the night, their care arrangement may need to be reviewed and changed to waking-night support.

Who is Overnight Care for?

Our overnight service may be suitable for:

• Children and adults with epilepsy or nocturnal seizures

• People with autism who experience sleep difficulties, anxiety or distressed waking

• People with learning disabilities who need reassurance or personal care overnight

• People with physical disabilities or reduced mobility

• People who require regular repositioning or pressure care

• People with neurological or complex health conditions

• People with respiratory, feeding or continence support needs

• People recovering after surgery, illness or hospital discharge

• People living alone who have been assessed as needing an overnight presence

• Families who need respite from overnight caring responsibilities

Suitability is determined through an individual assessment.

Care planning and assessment

Before overnight support begins, our team completes an assessment with the person and, where appropriate, their family, representatives and involved professionals.

The assessment considers:

• The person’s usual night-time routine

• How frequently they are likely to require support

• Health conditions and clinical risks

• Medication and treatment arrangements

• Seizure, respiratory or feeding protocols

• Mobility, repositioning and pressure-care requirements

• Communication and sensory needs

• Known triggers for anxiety or distress

• Emergency procedures and escalation arrangements

• The home environment and available facilities

This information is used to develop a person-centred care plan and determine whether waking-night or sleeping-night support is appropriate.

Responding to emergencies

Overnight workers follow the emergency procedures recorded in each person’s care plan.

Where an urgent health or safety concern occurs, the support worker will provide assistance within their training, contact emergency services when required, inform the appropriate family member or representative and notify the on-call senior team.

All significant events are recorded and reported in accordance with the person’s care plan and the organisation’s safeguarding and incident-reporting procedures.

Flexible overnight arrangements

Overnight care can be provided as:

• Regular ongoing support

• Temporary support following hospital discharge

• Short-term support during illness or changes in circumstances

• Respite for family carers

• Part of a wider 24-hour care package

Support is subject to assessment, staffing availability and confirmation that Special People can safely meet the person’s needs.

Referrals

We welcome referrals and enquiries from:

• Individuals and families

• Local authorities and social workers

• NHS Continuing Healthcare teams

• Hospital discharge teams

• Health and social care professionals

• People who are self-funding

• People using a Personal Health Budget

Following a referral, our team will assess the person’s needs and determine the appropriate overnight-care arrangement.