About us

Secure Children’s Homes are managed by Local Authorities except for St. Catherine’s in St. Helens, which is managed by Nugent Care and Orchard Lodge in London run by Glen Care. S.A.N. represents secure children’s homes and works to actively promote their role, to represent their work and to develop good practice in secure care.

Staying Safe: Keeping Safe
 Individual risk assessment and management that starts the moment a referral is accepted.
 Individual and group work opportunities to teach harm reduction, risk avoidance, and positive anger management skills.
 Programmes to promote decreased risks once a child is discharged.
 Constant supervision of children to minimise risk of harm to self or others.
 A team of workers who devise and deliver bespoke intervention programmes for each child.
 A well qualified and experienced staff team with staff to child ratio of 1:2.
 Close links with Primary Health Services to meet needs of children placed.
 Close working relations with host Local Authority Safeguarding Unit
 Complaints systems that link into and are responsibility of the host LA’s complaints system.
 Rigorous staff recruitment procedures that are Warner compliant
 A focus on resettlement from the outset of a young person’s placement in secure care, with the secure placement being seen as one element in the continuum of care/overall package for the young person

Achieving Economic Well-Being and Future Success
 An individual educational assessment of literacy, numeracy, learning style, and any learning difficulties. This can be aided by the support of specialists such as Education sychologist/SENCO/SLT
 A minimum of 25 hours of formal education work each week for each child aimed at meeting the needs of each child from remedial input through to achievement of GCSE.
 IT equipment for students to use in order to enhance learning and engagement in education.
 Small education groups with a high teaching staff ratio to children. (1:4/5 or less)
 Five hours structured homework time per week with numeracy and literacy support.
 An evening and weekend programmes of practical enrichment activities which supplement formal classroom education.
 Self Care and Life Skills development work (each day) for each child.
 Purpose built classrooms with additional gym, art, technology, multi-gym, careers and library facilities.
 Provision of an on site Connexions Worker to aid in career and future educational choices.

Making a Positive Contribution
 Contact arrangements for family and friends
 Involvement of young people in unit meetings to confirm their responsibility for planning and resolution of any group living difficulties.
 Implementation of agreed intervention plans based on multi-disciplinary assessments
 Involvement of young people in the recruitment and selection of staff, confirming their own importance and developing communication and self confidence.
 Commitment to identification of young people’s needs at the point of admission/referral and to meeting these needs through recognised LAC/YJB placement processes.
 Weekly confidential advocacy services.
 Procedures and resources aimed at promoting equality and diversity delivered by staff who have received awareness training
 Individual consultation prior to each review with a written submission from each young person to the review process.
 Daily life skill tasks to aid in a group living environment, and develop independence skills.

Being Healthy: Assessment and Treatment
 A thorough assessment of health needs and an individual health placement plan for each child.
 Access to health care based on this plan to meet primary and specialist health care needs whilst placed.
 Individual work on specific health care issues.
 Access to packages on Substance Misuse, Alcohol Misuse etc. as required.
 No smoking and help to kick this habit.
 Access to CAMHS Services to meet specialist needs.
 Close links to care and education to ensure that health is a fully integrated part of the placement plan.
 Opportunities for daily physical exercise as part of a healthy living regime including diet and fitness choices to enhance or improve lifestyle choices.

Enjoyment and Achievement
 Opportunities for structured enrichment activities each week (twice) to further enhance and promote positive lifestyle skills/hobbies.
 Regular reviews for each child to ensure all are working to achieve set objectives and to confirm any positive achievements that a child exhibits.
 Regular feedback to Social Workers and parents from a designated key worker for each child. The key worker provides regular sessions per week of quality individual time for each child.
 A rewards and privileges scheme that reinforces positive behaviour and confirms lasting change in terms of the child’s self-esteem efficacy.
 An individual bedroom (generally with en suite facilities) and potential for the child to individualise the living space to make it their own.
 Regular group living forums for young people to express themselves, learn how to interact in a group, and learn to achieve and develop.
 An opportunity to be safe and to confront the reasons for being in secure care with supportive adults with the aim of promoting positive change for a safer lifestyle.
 Promotion of constructive use of leisure times utilising both the resources of the unit and, where a young person has mobility, the resources in the community