About TishAbility

Who We Are

TishAbility was created to provide support that is practical, human and grounded in real life. We recognise that many people with additional support needs and families are expected to manage complex systems, professional recommendations, funding arrangements and support packages while also trying to live ordinary daily lives.

Plans, assessments, budgets and existing professional recommendations can be important, but they only make a difference when they can be understood, organised and implemented in the person's everyday environments. TishAbility helps bridge that gap by bringing together practical support, family knowledge, existing professional recommendations and practical person-centred support planning so that support becomes meaningful in daily routines, communication, community access, life skills, therapeutic access and wellbeing opportunities.

We also continue to offer practical support with forms, evidence gathering, signposting, Direct Payments, EHCP-related preparation and support navigation, building on the original Liberty ethos of simplifying user-led, person-centred support.

Partnership Working

TishAbility works alongside the people and professionals already involved in a person's life. This may include families, carers, schools, colleges, NHS professionals, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, behaviour practitioners, social workers, local authorities, ICB professionals, statutory professionals, funding bodies, regulated providers, activity providers, community organisations, direct payment support services and payroll or managed account services.

We do not replace existing professionals, statutory services or regulated providers. Our role is to support the wider environment around the person, helping agreed approaches become practical and consistent in everyday life.

Why We Exist

TishAbility exists because ordinary services do not always fit real lives. Some people cannot simply access a club, therapy session, leisure activity, community space, appointment or life skills task without careful support around communication, sensory needs, transitions, emotional regulation, safety, predictability and trusted relationships.

Some families are given recommendations, funding or support plans, but are left to work out how those arrangements should be organised, staffed, recorded and made workable in daily life. Some support packages are agreed on paper but become fragile in practice because the right coordination, administration, matching, training, routines and communication systems are not in place.

TishAbility exists to help make support work in practice. We support the person and family to move from "what is written down" to "what actually works" in everyday environments.

Listening to People and Families

Listening is central to how we work. TishAbility recognises that the person and their family often hold the most important knowledge about what works, what does not work, what matters, what feels safe and what support should look like in real life.

We listen to the person's wishes and preferences, their communication style, family knowledge and lived experience, cultural and personal values, routines that already work, and signs of distress, comfort, interest and enjoyment. Where a person communicates non-verbally, through behaviour, through sensory responses, through routines, through supported decision making, through AAC, or through those who know them best, we treat that communication as meaningful and important.

Our Community Purpose

TishAbility is a Community Interest Company, meaning the organisation exists for community benefit. Our purpose is to reduce barriers that prevent people with additional support needs and families from accessing everyday life, learning, communication, community opportunities, therapeutic environments and wellbeing activities.

We aim to support independence, confidence, communication, participation, family resilience, access to meaningful activities, community belonging, wellbeing, life skills, safer transitions, practical use of Direct Payments and Personal Health Budgets, implementation of professional recommendations in everyday life, and the person's right to be heard, understood and supported with self-determination and meaningful choice.

Critically, our work ensures access to social networks and social capital development for individuals and families. We believe that reducing isolation, building meaningful connections, facilitating access to therapeutic and wellbeing opportunities, and creating opportunities for people to participate in community life are essential to wellbeing. Connection and belonging are as important as safety.

We believe support should not only keep people safe. It should help people live, learn, communicate, participate and belong.

Our Purpose and Community Interest

TishAbility is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company developed to provide practical, needs-led and outcome-focused support for people with complex needs.

The organisation has grown from lived experience of supporting an individual with complex needs and seeing, in practice, how a consistent, relationship-based and holistic support model can improve access, confidence, communication, participation, family life, wellbeing and safety. This model has been developed around real support needs and real-world evidence of what works when standard services are too rigid, fragmented or unable to respond to the person's individual profile.

TishAbility exists to provide a clear, accountable and sustainable support model for people who need flexible and personalised support to access everyday life. Its purpose is to deliver support within a properly governed, insured and non-regulated framework, with any surplus reinvested into improving the service and widening access for other individuals and families.

This includes investing in sustainable staffing solutions that promote continuity, consistency and safety for individuals and their families. TishAbility recognises that safe support depends not only on the right activities, but also on the right people, the right preparation and the right staffing arrangements. We are committed to protecting everyone involved in the support arrangement — both the people we support and the staff who support them — through appropriate training, safeguarding practice, supervision, clear boundaries, safe staffing ratios and person-centred planning.

The wider aim is to build on an approach that has already been evidenced in practice and make it available to other individuals and families who may benefit from similarly personalised, flexible and inclusive support. TishAbility seeks to expand this holistic model so that more people with additional needs can access community life, meaningful activities, family experiences, wellbeing opportunities, life skills, safe transitions and wider participation.

As a Community Interest Company, TishAbility is structured for community benefit. Any surplus is reinvested into developing the service, strengthening safe support systems, improving staff training, supporting sustainable staffing, building community partnerships, improving safeguarding and governance, and creating wider inclusive opportunities for people with additional needs and their families.

TishAbility's purpose is rooted in inclusion, equality and meaningful participation. We believe that additional needs should not automatically exclude a person from ordinary life, mainstream activities, community spaces, family experiences, wellbeing opportunities, leisure, learning or wider life experiences where reasonable adjustments and appropriate support can make access possible.

TishAbility provides non-regulated support only. We do not provide personal care, intimate care, nursing care, clinical treatment, CQC-regulated activities, domiciliary care, standalone transport, taxi services, private hire, passenger transport, legal advice, financial advice, welfare rights advice, employment law advice, professional assessments, formal recommendations or emergency crisis response.

What We're Not

TishAbility provides non-regulated, person-centred support.

We are not:

• • A regulated personal care provider
• • A domiciliary care agency
• • A nursing provider
• • A clinical treatment provider
• • A therapy clinic
• • A taxi or private hire operator
• • A school
• • A children's home
• • A childcare provider
• • An emergency crisis service
• • A replacement for statutory decision making
• • A replacement for legal, clinical or specialist professional advice

Where a person requires regulated personal care, nursing care, clinical treatment or another regulated service, this must be provided by an appropriately registered provider or qualified professional. TishAbility can work alongside those providers to support the wider environment around the person.