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The Lioncare Group has one aim: To improve
the lives and prospects of the children and young people in
our care.
We firmly believe in
the importance to children and young people of a sense of
continuum in the care and support they receive.
Our extensive experience of caring for children
and young people has shown us the potential harm
that can occur through poor planning and misinformed decision-making around the ending
of placements.
The
current financial and economic pressures on local authorities to
make cost efficiency savings raises serious
implications for the level of consideration that
will be given to the benefit of Out-Reach
and After-Care support provided by the adults
that have been caring for the child or young person and
with whom the child or young person has established a
trusting working relationship.
The Children (Leaving Care)
Act 2000 Guidance and Regulations states:
These other agencies will
include those who are caring for young people,
who might be encouraged to
assume
responsibility for preparing the young people
they are caring for, for the time when they
leave care
(voluntary
organisations and children’s homes do, of
course, have a duty to do this). Local
authorities will also wish to encourage
them to provide aftercare for young people who
have left their care.
We offer every
child or young person leaving our care with the
necessary ongoing support and assistance to
enable them to successfully move to their next
placement, or leave the care system, and be able
to look back and view their stay with us as a
positive, rewarding, meaningful, and integrated
stage of there journey through childhood to
adolescence and into adulthood. We
aim to support the child or
young person during the transition period
between placements and beyond, through close
co-operation and liaison between their current
carers and their allocated key worker.
Indeed, The
Lioncare Group has for many years provided
planned and structured programs of Out-Reach and
After-Care to all children and young people who
have moved on from our care.
The program initially allows for twice weekly
visits to the child or young person by the key
worker, for the purpose of assisting them
through the transition period between
placements, maintain continuity of important
attachments the child or young person has formed
whilst in our care, and support them in
establishing positive relations with their new carers.
Similarly, the registered manager meets with the
new carers to offer support, guidance and
practical advice where requested on ways to best
care for the child or young person, strategies
that have previously proven effective, help in
gaining an understanding or awareness of
the emotional factors underlying aspects of the child's
behaviour or
actions, and opportunities for sharing with the
new carers aspects of the child's developmental
history and memorable experiences allowing the
new carers to take responsibility for 'keeping
these real' for the child or young person.
The
transition program can last for between 6 - 12 weeks
depending on the wishes of the child or young
person, the placing authority, the new carers,
and the foster support team. The frequency
of outreach visits decreases in a planned way
over the duration of the programme and finish
with a celebratory meal for the child or young
person that marks the formal ending and
'handover' of their out-reach care by adults
from The Lioncare Group, and celebrates the
start of their new life with their foster
family.
Westfields has developed a more comprehensive
programme of out-reach and after care for young
people leaving the care system and moving to
semi-independent (or interdependent) living in their community.
Through appropriate discussion and agreement by
all parties, the program can be tailored to meet
the individual needs of each young person
leaving Westfields, and to the wishes of the
placing authority. The programme offers the
young person their own accommodation (a property
purchased by The Lioncare Group and 'rented' to
the young person) with ongoing adult domiciliary support and guidance,
both emotionally and in terms of practical
assistance, in managing interdependent living.
It runs for a minimum of 12 months, with adult
support hours gradually
reducing in frequency and duration over the
course of the programme. It is presented
as a separate care package or service that can
be purchased by the placing authority.
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