Children, Schools
and Families
Statement of Purpose and Function Children’s Residential Home
Ripon Road
PUBLICATION SCHEDULE NUMBER: / CSF3625PUBLICATION DATE: January 2007 / ISSUE NO: 5
AUTHORISING OFFICER: / Ann Domeney
Deputy Director, Social Care and Prevention
AUTHORISING OFFICER’S SIGNATURE: /
AUTHOR OF PUBLICATION: / Lynn Knowles/Sandra Gracie
POST: / Head of Children’s Residential Homes/ Registered Manager
UNIT: / Looked after Children
REVIEW DATE: / January 2008
TARGET AUDIENCE:
/ CSF department staff, Designated Teachers for Looked after Children, Corporate Parenting Panel, CSCI and families
PUBLISHED BY Children, Schools and Families
CONTENTS
No Description Page(s)
1. Introduction – Aims & Objectives 4
2. Facilities & Services 6
3. Registered Provider 8
4. Qualification & Experience 9
5. Details of Staff 9
6. Staffing 10
7. Organisation Structure 13
8. Definition of Client Group 13
9. Admissions Criteria/Referral Process 13
10. Number of Young People Looked After 15
11. Philosophy 15
12. Arrangements for the Promotion of Health 16
13. Education 17
14. Promoting Children’s Participation 18
15. Young Person’s Involvement 18
16. Positive Approaches to Care 19
17. Arrangements for the Protection of Children 19
18. Absconding, Unauthorised Absence, Missing Children 20
19. Electronic Surveillance 20
20. Fire and Emergency Precautions 20
21. Religious Observance 20
22. Arrangements for Contact with Parents, Relatives and
Friends 21
23. Arrangements for Dealing with Complaints 21
24. Arrangements for Reviews/Placement Plans etc 23
25. Details of any specific therapeutic techniques 23
26. Anti-Discriminatory Practice 24
Appendix 1 Organisation Structure 25
1. Introduction – Aims & Objectives
The Children’s Residential Care Service provides residential care for children who are Looked After by Hertfordshire County Council. It is an integral part of Children, Schools & Families and is placed within the Operations Division and is managed by the Head of Children’s Residential Homes and the Manager for Disabled Children’s services where applicable.
There are 8 homes, which make up the residential child care service, with consistent policies and procedures. Each home has a distinct client group and role and some homes in addition to the core function offer complimentary services such as support and outreach.
The Residential Service comprises:
· Brocket Road – a long term 8 bedded home for 11-18 year olds.
· Burydale – a 6 bedded long term home for 11-16 year olds and a 4 bedded ‘towards independence home’ for 15-18 year olds.
· Datchworth Turn – a six bedded long term home for 5-11 year olds which provides pre and post placement support and advice.
· Durrants Hill Road – a short term and assessment home for 13 – 18 year olds.
· Stanfield – long stay home with two houses, Lilliput for 11-13 year olds and Lemsford Cottage for 13- 18 year olds.
· Ripon Road – which is a 6 bedded long term home for children with a disability aged 11- 19
· Wilbury House – a six bedded respite home for children with a disability aged 5-19 which can offer an outreach and support service.
· Woolmer Drive – a 6 bedded respite home for children with a disability aged 11-18.
Aims
The overall aim of the service is to provide care of the highest quality which allows children to feel safe and nurtured. The Residential Service sets its aims and objectives with reference to Governmental Legislation and Guidance, Hertfordshire County Council’s Policies and Procedures, The Children, Schools and Families Plan, CSF Looked After Strategy, and other relevant documents and guidance’s.
The service aims to meet the five outcomes for children: being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution, and achieving economic wellbeing by;
i. Providing children with a positive home environment that creates security, has clear boundaries and structures and encourages growth and belief in themselves to help them achieve their full potential with regard to personal, social, educational and health development.
ii. Providing a consistent approach and giving opportunities for play, leisure activities and positive new experiences using wherever possible local resources.
iii. Providing support for children to understand their past and the impact it has had on them enabling them to make full use of their current opportunities and preparing them for their future.
iv. Involving children wherever possible in the decisions concerning their day to day life and giving them opportunities to contribute to their long term plans.
v. Offering planned care that meets individual needs.
vi. Assisting children in understanding their feelings and behaviour and coping with the consequences of their actions.
vii. Encouraging children to gain and maintain a positive image of themselves and their heritage by respecting and valuing their religion, culture, ethnicity, language, gender, sexuality and disabilities.
viii. Promoting a positive attitude towards education, training and employment.
ix. Ensuring that children are protected from harm and are kept safe.
x. Providing children with good role models in order to assist them in forming secure positive attachments and build positive relationships.
Objectives
The service aims will be met by
i. a) Providing a safe, secure, well maintained home with appropriate furnishings and decoration.
b) Ensuring staff meet at all times the child’s need for security, affection, dignity, privacy, respect and stimulation.
c) Providing children with single rooms which lock and operating a ‘knock and wait’ policy.
ii. a) Staff promoting participation in appropriate groups, clubs and activities making use of local and community resources wherever possible.
b) Each child having the encouragement and opportunity to pursue suitable hobbies and interests.
iii. a) Expecting staff to listen and talk to children to help them try to make sense of their history and experiences.
b) Staff working to and promoting daily structures and routines for all children in line with their care plans.
iv. a) Giving each child the opportunity to request an advocate and to have access to support organisations such as Childline.
b) Ensuring that each child has access to information about HCC’s complaints procedure.
v. c) Holding weekly children’s meetings which give them space to voice their views and for staff to give them information.
d) Wherever possible giving children and their families encouragement to contribute and support the individual internal care plan.
vi. a) Writing an internal care plan on admission which will be reviewed regularly and always within 12 weeks.
b) Giving children a copy of their internal care plan and any other relevant documents.
vii. a) Staff using a range of behaviour management techniques and strategies in line with the child’s internal and LAC care plans.
viii. a) Ensuring that all care plans give consideration to the child’s need for community links, recreational, medical, educational, family, cultural, racial and religious needs.
ix. a) Staff promoting, encouraging and supporting children to attend education and training opportunities.
b) Staff attending all relevant meetings including Personal Education plan meetings, SEN reviews and pupil progress reviews.
c) Staff attending school performances and assemblies.
x. a) Staff working within all policies and procedures especially those covering child protection, bullying and keeping safe.
b) Promoting a culture where staff can identify and progress opportunities for improvement and change within current policies and procedures.
c) Ensuring that all relevant pre-employment checks are completed and all efforts are made to ensure the safe recruitment of staff.
d) Promoting and supporting the use of Responsible Reporting Procedures.
e) Ensuring good recording, reporting, monitoring and audit procedures are in place.
xi. a) Expecting staff to act as ‘good parents’.
b) Having a firm commitment to staff support and training.
c) Ensuring that all staff have supervision and appraisals in line with HCC’s Performance, Management and Development Policy.
2. Facilities & Services
Ripon Road is a six bedded house located on a residential street in Stevenage. It is a two storey house with a patio and large enclosed garden area and summer house. It consists of a sitting room with television, dvd and video, one “quite room”, one sensory room, one dinning room, one kitchen with adjustable worktops for the use of wheelchair users, four toilets, three bathrooms, a staff bedroom and a laundry room. Two of the bedrooms and one bathroom on the ground floor are fully wheelchair assessable. There is XY tracking system in the bedroom, bathroom areas and sensory room. We have two County vehicles for the homes use. The appearance of the home is very child centred with decoration, pictures and furnishing chosen in consultation with the young people. The overall aim of Ripon Road is to enable children to reach their maximum potential to enable them to live as independently as possible in the future. We follow the social model for disability.
The Manager of Ripon Road is directly accountable to the Head of Services for Disabled Children based at:
Children, Schools & Families
County Hall
Hertford
SG13 8DF
There will always be a minimum of three staff on duty during the day with staffing levels being appropriate to the numbers and needs of the children accommodated. One member of staff sleeps in the home and another staff member will be a waking night worker.
The Home Manager or the Head of Care provide an on-call service to the Home on a rota basis outside office hours. The Hertfordshire County Council Emergency Duty Team are also available outside office hours.
It will be the responsibility of the Manager to maintain the most appropriate staff presence within the service as a whole. Staff allocated to particular responsibilities will be expected to work flexibly.
Professional Services Available in the Community
· Child and Family Clinic (Psychotherapy)
· Medical (dietician, Community Doctor etc)
· Family Placement Teams
· Advisory Teacher/Tutors
· Child and adolescence mental health team
Services Offered at Ripon Road
Our objective is to develop the physical, social, psychological and emotional well being of the disabled children we look after.
In order to facilitate this we offer help in the following areas:
· Life and social skills
· Self-care/personal safety
· Loss
· Bereavement
· Identity/self-esteem
· Anger management
· Relationships
· Group living
· Inappropriate sexual behaviour
· Safe expression of feelings
· Speech and language
· Sensory stimulation
· Independence training
The following systems are in place to achieve this:
· Care plans
· Linkworking
· Good primary care
· Appropriate role models
· Life story work
· Group work
· Individual work
· Recreational activities, diversion work, crafts
· Joint work with families and/or relevant persons/organisation
· Clear and factual information on health issues
· Staff training.
Daily Routines
The Home will keep a daily record of what happens. This records all occurrences, absences, visitors and incidents. The aim of the record is to formulate the patterns of behaviour of each child, identifying useful and helpful strategies for working with that child both in the here and now and in the future. The daily records form the basis of regular and Statutory Reviews, providing documented information.
Shift plans are recorded using the appropriate CSF Forms.
Handovers
At the end of each shift, staff going off duty will hand over to staff coming on duty. This will involve discussing the last 24 hours and any significant events, discussing each child’s current situation, checking diaries for appointments for staff and children and planning for the next shift - what needs doing, who does what, etc.
Reference: Residential Child Care, Standards, Policies and Procedures, Volume 1, Section 8, Care Practice 1.
Linkworking
All children will have a named Linkworker. This person is allocated to the child before admission where possible. The Linkworker is responsible for keeping records up to date and focused on the child’s needs and is the member of staff who ensures all the activities reports and meetings in relation to the child are undertaken in liaison with allocated social workers.
The Linkworker will have dedicated time a minimum of one hour a week to spend with the child to help them understand what is happening to them, discuss their future, encourage them to maintain a positive image of themselves, fulfil their potential and assist in helping them understand and cope with the consequences of their behaviour and actions. All link work is supervised regularly and monitored.
Reference: Residential Child Care Standards, Policies and Procedures, Volume 1, Section 7, Care Planning 5.
3. Registered Provider and Responsible Individual
Hertfordshire County Council’s elected members are the Registered Provider and have appointed John Richards, Head of Service, Looked after Children as the Responsible Individual acting on their behalf to ensure that the home meets the required standards of care.
The contact address is: Children, Schools & Families
Hertfordshire County Council
Pegs Lane
Hertford
Hertfordshire
SG13 8DF
Registered Manager
Sandra Gracie, CQSW, is the Registered Manager of Ripon Road.
The contact address is: 330/332 Ripon Road
Stevenage
Herts, SG1 4NG
4. Qualification and Experience
The Registered Manager Sandra Gracie has 27 years experience in Residential Childcare, 17 of which have been within management team positions in Hertfordshire. During this time she has opened and run several satellite projects attached to homes and closed a 3 month emergency home due to a crisis in the service and has been seconded to the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham to manage their residential provision.
Sandra has a Certificate of Qualification in Social Work and an NVQ 5 in Management.
.
5. Details of Staff
1 Manager
1 Head of Care
3 Assistant Managers
Number of shift leaders 3.41
Number of care staff in total is 9.00 CCW.
Number of waking night CCW 4.72
2 part-time Cook
1 Domestic assistant
1 F/T Admin
Bursar 0.50
1 Handyman
Head of Care-Qualifications and experience
There is one Head of Care Position at Ripon Rd who holds a minimum of a Diploma in Social Work or equivalent qualification. They have a minimum of three years experience in childcare, with at least one year’s managerial/supervisory experience. The Head of Care holds in depth knowledge of relevant childcare legislation, procedures and responsibilities.