An insight into opening a Residential Service.

It takes a village to raise a child.

I sometimes think back to our decision to open a home. The sector is currently in a really testing time, whether you work in foster care or children’s homes. The national crisis that results from a lack of foster parents, the ongoing press claiming children’s homes are bad because they’re all about profiteering is a story tabloids love to tell, meaning that the care of our most vulnerable children is in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. This at a time where the sheer volume of children being taken into care is increasing month by month and the mental health situation for children is starker than it has ever been.

So, ask me again, why did we do this? Or in fact why did I do this. I started in residential care 25 years ago (yes in the last century for colleagues of mine who like to chuckle about how long I have been doing this). My career has been pretty varied. I have worked in all roles in and around children’s homes, I have worked for all sorts of organisations whether this be private companies or charities, and my last role was working for the national regulator of social care. All of this has allowed me to see the very good (of which there is loads) and the very bad (of which thankfully, there is very little).

So, when I sat down with the CEO here at evolve Therapeutic Children’s Services, to discuss me joining and whether I thought opening a home was a good idea, it was something that took me a while to answer. On some levels of course it’s not. We need to find a home, we need to think about the significance of location in terms of neighbours and how we can get support from the community, staffing in homes has become a post covid headache everywhere, the needs of children has gone up meaning the risks are higher in every sense……but……what I knew for certain is the positive impact we would have. I was already aware of the incredible work our team at evolve have on children through fostering and our work with Connect B4 Correct. I was assured of our organisational ethics and values so I knew we would not be trying to take over the world in a year (I wouldn’t be here if we were) and I also know the needs of the child are at the centre of every decision made here. This being the case, I knew we could do something truly exciting.

So ‘yes’ it was and off we went on this journey.

First thing was finding a house. How many children we can care for, where should it be, what are we trying to build? Luckily, we found a home quickly. We were clear we wanted to be rural, and somewhere that contributed to our therapeutic community, so we needed somewhere specific. We found that place, and it had previously been registered as a children’s home so that was great. Not so great was the fact that it had been left to ruin by the previous tenants, all power supplies were off, and the environment was hellish as a result. But the potential was seen, tenancy was agreed and off we went.

Secondly was to find some staff. How do we do that when no one can find Residential staff? Safe to say we have been lucky. Lloyd (Our registered manager) was someone who I’d worked with before and he was excited to set up from new. Then when we were ready for our team, we posted on social media. This seemed to get the interest from people we knew, or people that knew the work. By the time we properly advertised, we only needed a few more members to join our team and were lucky to find those. As we prepare to open, we have a lovely mix of experience, aspirational, and brand-new to the sector. Perfect combo needed for this venture.

Finally, how do we make a house a home? This was about being bloody minded and persevering. We had to take the house right back; we took walls down that had been put up, reconnected all services, and started to do what was needed to make a home. Initially this was a few of us walking round every 2 weeks thinking about next stage planning. Eventually it was about proper site management with various trades in and out and finally carpets, decorators, electricians and everyone in the office spending a day as a first-class gardening team until we finally got there. There are times we were working all hours (I never imagined being an RI would involve putting Ikea furniture together, due to delayed deliveries, the night before a registration visit) but all the way through discussions we were having with social workers, colleagues and at external events like conferences, was reminding us why we were doing this.

And then the visit came. I’ve done loads of visits as an inspector and I’ve led several services, of course I know what to expect and it will be fine?  Well, its safe to say there were still some learning points for both we as a service, and me as an RI, but despite this we were successful in our registration on the 1^st attempt.

We are so excited about what happens as a result of this. A beautiful home, an immediately caring and skilled staff team, a model of care based on an existing working model and everyone with an appetite for truly child focussed care. Has it been stressful? Yes. Were there times where I thought we were mad for trying? Definitely. Have I had to think about writing and creating things I hadn’t even thought about? Absolutely.

Would we and will we do it again? – without a doubt!

The phrase “it takes a village to raise a child” originates from an African proverb and means it takes many people (“the village”) to provide a safe, healthy environment for children, where children are given the security, they need to develop and flourish, and to be able to realize their hopes and dreams. If ever a phrase exemplified us as an organisation, this is it. We are that village; we will provide security, and we will do all we can to help realise children’s hopes and dreams.