Staff are available 24 hours a day, to support and provide for our young people. Staffing levels and deployment of staff is organised on a weekly rota and will depend on the support needs of the young people using the service. Night time support will also depend on the needs of the young people in placement at the time. We also operate a staff on call support facility where support, advice and guidance can be sought at any time from a Senior Manager.

We provide sufficiently resourced units and numbers of support staff on duty is dependent on the number and needs of the young people in the placement through effective placement matching. Each young person will be risk assessed prior to moving in so that their support needs can be identified.

Any additional support needs identified for individual young people will be provided in addition to the basic staffing levels dependent of funding approval from the local authority.

All our staff have experience of working with children and young people and have or are working towards the relevant NVQ Level 3 qualifications in young persons, Health and Social Care. Our staffing policy promotes role models of both genders and values equality and diversity. Strict safer recruitment procedures are followed when employing staff as outlined in our safer recruitment policy.

Support plans

All young people will have regularly reviewed and up to date support plans reflecting their own individual needs, wishes and aspirations.

The support plan will outline areas of assessed need from their pathway plans and clearly and unambiguously outline methods needed to achieve these important issues.

The recording of these plans will be in formats easily understandable for the young person and broken down into small targets. Young people will have regular opportunities to discuss the progress and focus of the ongoing plan in keywork sessions.

• Independent Skills – Each young person will be helped to develop their skills to perform everyday tasks such as paying bills, cleaning, cooking, shopping, time management etc.
• Life Skills – Relationship counselling, Coping mechanisms, Parenting skills, Anger Management, Counselling, Time management, Money Management and Savings, Career Advice, etc – We have a team of professionals available to offer counselling and training in order to empower young people to lead a more fulfilling life.
• School and Further Education Support – We have a list of all the schools and further education establishments within our locality and are able to liaise with them to place our young people. We also offer full support to NEET young people.
• Health (GP, dentist, opticians, hospital appointments, Health Clinics) – We assist young people with registering at clinics, keeping appointments and accompanying them if required.
• Legal Support – We assist young people in handling asylum claims or other issues. We also assist in finding appropriate legal representatives and help young people understand British law if they are not familiar with the country’s basic legalities.
• Cultural and Community Organisations – We will refer young people to local cultural/community organisations that provide support for a variety of cultural groups.
• Social and Recreational Activities – We help young people to build relationships and feel a sense of community within their surroundings. We will inform them of local cinemas, cafes/ restaurants, and social clubs to promote independent living. We also assist young people to access libraries, homework clubs and language clubs etc.
• Accommodation and Allowances – We are able to administer weekly personal allowances and clothing allowances to young people with agreement from the referring/placing local authority.