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About Evolution Children Services

Ethos of Evolution Children's Services

The ethos of our homes incorporates the following beliefs:

That each child and young person should be viewed as an individual and that their views, attitudes and opinions respected.
That children and young people are experts on themselves, therefore they should be actively involved in decision making about their lives.
That children and young people make mistakes; experience, help and guidance will empower and enable.
All practice and planning processes are focussed towards meeting the 'five outcomes' of the 'Every Child Matters' strategy currently being developed on a community based and national level.

About Evolution Childrens Services

Care Homes WHAT IS OUR PHILOSOPHY?

Our philosophy at Evolution Children Services is to place the needs of the young people at the heart of our service by providing care that respects young people’s choice, rights, privacy and dignity.

Evolution Children Services aims to provide the highest levels of care and service to enable young people to achieve their goals. We do this by ensuring our staff are recruited, vetted and trained against a strict framework with emphasis placed on the quality and continuity of our care workers to provide a stable and secure environment for all young people.

Child Care Homes ABOUT OUR TEAMS

Our teams have been drawn together from a variety of backgrounds and have all been selected for their own individual skills and knowledge bases. All have shown the necessary personal qualities to enable them to provide support to children and young people, (and if appropriate their families) in relation to the often complex needs and challenging behaviours of individuals within the ‘looked after’ system.

Child Care Homes SUPPORT

Evolution Children Services recognise the need for high quality, well trained and motivated staff. Staff are available 24/7 to make a child’s or young person’s experience within our homes as positive as possible.

Support for the child or young person will involve strategies geared to meet emotional, social and developmental needs, (mindful of the age range within the home), as well as practical support in relation to the development of life skills. The promotion of independence skills along with advice pertaining to health, wellbeing and personal safety will also be paramount.

Child Care Homes PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPORT

Psychological support will be provided by our in-house psychologist as and when required. This may take the form of direct or indirect observation or assessment and also through the provision of support to staff and the implementation of workable strategies, developed by the team during training sessions.

Child Care Homes INDIVIDUAL SUPPORT - AN INTRODUCTION

Each child or young person will be allocated a member of the team who will take a lead responsibility as their key worker. Careful consideration will be given to this allocation and all possible attempts will be made during the referral and planned admission stage to ensure that the child or young person has the opportunity to meet his or her key worker and thus begin the process of relationship building and ensuring that at the time of any move, they will have a ‘familiar and friendly face’ to support them in what, for many children or young people can be a problematic, frightening and stressful process.

Child Care Homes INDIVIDUAL SUPPORT - KEY WORKERS

The key worker in consultation with the child or young person will develop a support plan based upon individual need and focussed upon meeting the ‘five outcomes’ enshrined within the ‘every child matters’ agenda, via the means of clear and unambiguous care plans and pathway plans. The key worker will also support the child or young person to maintain any links he or she may have with other agencies involved directly or indirectly with their care.

The key worker will be expected to meet regularly, (usually weekly depending on agreement between the young person and their worker) and all plans, aims and objectives will be discussed to ensure that progress is monitored and that all issues are addressed in a focused and clear fashion with reference at all times to the child or young person’s individual level of communication style.

Child Care Homes INDIVIDUAL SUPPORT - INDEPENDANT ADVOCATES

Evolution Childrens Services will provide all children and young people with access to an independent advocate, facilitated by the ‘National Youth Advocacy Service’ (NYAS), via monthly visits from an allocated worker, who will if required, express any wishes or concerns and complaints raised by a child or young person. This process will be handled totally independently of the home and of Evolution Children Services as an organisation.

Child Care Homes PROVIDING SAFE WORKING PRACTICES

We are committed to working flexibly and imaginatively with all other professionals and families to ensure the best interests of every young person in our care are consistently served.

Our policies and procedures are written to provide safe services and working practices that help protect both young people and their carers.

We recognise the need for client and family choice and proactively encourage involvement during the planning and delivery of care and ensure that the service is managed and delivered in a way which meets the needs of the individuals concerned.

Child Care Homes WE KEEP YOU UP TO DATE WITH WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

We ensure all parties are kept fully informed at all times with up to date information which allows young people, their families or carers, to make informed choices concerning their care. Information can be made available in the most appropriate language or format required.

We are unreservedly committed to the principles and practices of equality. Our policy on equal opportunities is reflected in all aspects of our service to ensure we accommodate and respect all aspects of ethnic, religious and cultural groups being sensitive to their specific needs.

Our quality assurance programme ensures regular quality and performance appraisals are conducted with both young people and carers. In addition, our formal complaints, disciplinary, grievance and whistle blowing procedures ensure we are able to capture information to plan and implement on-going improvements to our services.