The Meadows

The Meadows (as Marian House) awards finalist!

The Meadows is a warm, welcoming and safe family environment where dedicated, experienced and qualified staff provide the best care for children and young people aged 12-17 who are vulnerable, traumatised, disadvantaged and at-risk, who have been assessed as needing the positive experiences and the stability a nurturing residential setting can provide.

It is a specialist step down provision for young people leaving secure accommodations and provides a nurturing environment for children or young people who are often traumatised through their previous life experiences, leading to a variety of support needs. They need the space in which to express themselves, with the opportunity to be involved in many activities. Some of these children and young people have been in numerous placements and we at the Meadows aim to offer stability and consistency.

The service offer is a psychologically informed, therapeutic environment to support young people to move from a model of physical security to relational security.

Young people who require high levels of support in order to achieve a successful transition to residential settings have often needed the safety of secure care.

In order to achieve this The Meadows provides:

Residential care; a stable and consistent staffing team delivered through complex care packages. A minimum staffing ratio of 2 staff to 3 young people dependent on individual levels of need and risk. Staff are skilled to manage complex formulations through an enhanced training offer.

Education offer; the option to procure an education provision from Nugent House School. This collaborative offer, with established protocols regarding joint placements with experience in offering specialist placements for young people with complex needs.

Health offer; whilst in secure care young people benefit from access to substantial input from a contracted health service. This includes psychiatry, clinical psychology, nursing, occupational therapy, transitional support and specialist speech and language input. This service offers both direct clinical input, and informed and specialist support to the frontline staff. This includes clinical supervision, case formulation and collaborative and reflective care and risk planning.

The management and staff at The Meadows are committed to ensuring that the children and young people we care for aspire to reach their full potential and achieve good outcomes; personally, educationally and socially; in accordance with the Children’s Homes Regulations and the nine Quality Care Standards:-

• The quality and purpose of care
• The children’s views, wishes and feelings
• The education
• The enjoyment and achievement
• The Health and well-being
• The positive relationships
• The protection of children
• The leadership and management
• The care planning

Implementing good care programmes in accordance with the Quality Standards, The Meadows aims to support young people by working in partnership with their parents/carers and all involved agencies. Careful preparations are made to enable the child or young person to return happily to their own family, to be successfully placed with a new permanent family, to move on to supported living or live independently in the community.

Key principles

• Children in residential child care should be loved, happy, healthy, safe from harm and able to develop, thrive and fulfil their potential.
• Residential child care should value and nurture each child as an individual with talents, strengths and capabilities that can develop over time.
• Residential child care should foster positive relationships, encouraging strong bonds between children and staff in the home on the basis of jointly undertaken activities, shared daily life, domestic and non-domestic routines and established boundaries of acceptable behaviour.
• Residential child care should be ambitious, nurturing children’s school learning and out-of-school learning and their ambitions for the future
• Residential child care should be attentive to children’s need, supporting emotional, mental and physical health needs, including repairing earlier damage to self-esteem and encouraging friendships.
• Residential child care should be outward-facing, working with the wider system of professionals for each child, and with children’s families and communities of origin to sustain links and understand past problems.
• Residential child care should have high expectations of staff as committed members of a team, as decision-makers and as activity leaders.  In support of this, children’s homes should ensure all staff and managers are engaged in ongoing learning about their role and the children and families they work with.
• Residential child care should provide a safe and stimulating environment in high-quality buildings, with spaces that support nurture and allow privacy as well as common spaces and spaces to be active.

Ethos

We embrace the nine Quality Standards and wholeheartedly work towards achieving them.  Our standards of care are such that we would be happy to receive them if we ourselves stood in need of them.

It is our belief that all children and young people should live in an appropriate family setting and being in a residential setting should not be a discriminatory factor for them, as all young people should be offered the same opportunities. At The Meadows we provide a warm, homely atmosphere with caring staff, to try and replicate a family setting.

The Meadows has attractive, nurturing environments in which children and young people feel safe, free to enjoy the space and time to grow in confidence and achieve their potential.

The home provides security and continuity through good yet flexible routines; balancing individual needs with communal responsibilities, giving young people firm boundaries

The Meadows provides stability and care, through good trusting relationships between experienced, committed staff, who work with the children/young people in a professional non-judgemental way.

We meet the young people’s needs through individual care plans which have been developed with the young person, family and relevant professionals.

An atmosphere is created where children and young people are valued and treated with dignity and respect, showing them that they are people of worth; enabling them to feel good about themselves and confident in their abilities.

The Service provides for the individual needs and rights of the young person in relation to age, gender, race, sexuality and disability meeting specific dietary, cultural, religious and language needs.

We ensure that physical care and comfort is provided for young people encouraging a good diet and a healthy lifestyle; plenty of activities with good facilities for relaxation.

The Meadows is proactive in providing a full health care programme with treatment for specific health issues from professionals to enhance the well-being of the child/young person.

We ensure children and young people have access to Education or training appropriate to their age, ability and level of attainment, promoting it as a high priority.

For more information about The Meadows contact info@wearenugent.org.