Family Care

Family-owned.
Improving children’s lives since 1988.

“Relationships matter. The currency for systemic change is trust, and trust comes through forming healthy working relationships.

People, not programs, change people.”
Bruce D. Perry Tweet

Select to find out more about the service:

"Clearly defined therapeutic approaches enable staff to “have a better understanding of how young people’s experiences affect them, considering their emotional needs and fostering resilience"
SCIE Tweet

Foster Care

Family Care Fostering is led by David Barrow, an experienced social worker of more than 25 years.

Our fostering team follow therapeutic approaches to the care they deliver, underpinned by the Secure Base Model.

Foster carers are supported directly by a team of in-house therapists, to help meet children’s needs.

Get in touch: David Barrow is our Registered Manager. His email address is david.barrow@family-care.co.uk.

"Placement stability rates are good. Many children benefit from long term stable placements, allowing them to feel part of their foster family"
Ofsted

Foster Care Support

Our Foster Carers are valued members of the team around the child (TAC).

Foster Carers are treated as professionals and receive extensive support including:

Direct support from a team of in-house therapists
SSW caseloads of 12-14 (max)
Child support team organising up to 20 activities a year for young people
Therapeutic training and focused training to meet the needs of a young person (if required)
Level 3 and Level 5 diplomas fully funded

We have supported many amazing outcomes for children and young people.

The support we put in place (above) comes as ‘standard’. However, we can also provide additional support and bespoke packages of care.

NEED A PLACEMENT?

You can get in touch with our placements team by calling 0800 5 677677 or emailing dutynw@family-care.co.uk.

Bespoke Packages of Care

We are able to offer bespoke packages of care tailored to a child’s need, including training for the foster carer.

This includes:

Highly trained in-house support workers that provide time-specific, focused pieces of work such as:
- Support around relationships
- Supporting children with their identity
- Specific work around their past experiences and one-to-one sessions
Providing therapeutic life story work as part of the care package
Focused and task-centered work around independence
Support packages for post-18 children to remain with carers whilst supporting YP with a planned move (Staying Put)
Support gaining Psychological Assessment/updates for children and young people

For more information on our bespoke care packages, please get in touch with David Barrow.

Residential Care

Ged Williamson set up Family Care in 1988 when he opened a children’s home.

Since then we have grown to offer five residential homes, including three homes for children with physical and learning disabilities:

EBD homes in Telford and Shropshire
Homes for children with learning/physical disabilities in Formby, Oldham and Wythenshawe
All homes rated ‘Good’ or ‘Oustanding’ by Ofsted

Get in touch: Liz Hiley is our Residential Operations Manager. Her email address is liz.hiley@family-care.co.uk.

Our Homes

Our homes are just that. Homes.

They are warm, welcoming family environments that we would be happy to live in.

We have an excellent track record of supporting children with different needs. Although we use similar approaches, each home is unique in it’s own way and specialises in different needs/behaviours.

All our homes are rated ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted. In fact, our two most recent Ofsted inspections have been awarded ‘Outstanding in all areas’.

BERRI and PBS

We deliver therapeutically-informed care tailored to the needs of children and young people.

Secure Base is our foundation, but we use a specialist approach for children with learning disabilities.

Positive Behaviour Support (PBS)

The PBS Model is a person-centred approach to supporting young people with learning disabilities.

PBS looks at bringing about a quality-of-life improvement (QoL).

What is needed to achieve a quality of life, and what that looks like for each of us, will be different because we all have different needs.

Support plans are therefore personalised and unique.

BERRI

How can we know placements and services are effective if we are not measuring outcomes and progress?

BERRI allows us to identify, track and improve children’s outcomes. With this information, we can compare outcomes from different types of placement or service.

This helps local authorities evidence value for money from their outsourced services. When progress is not being made, they can easily evidence the need for a new placement or service.

SEN Education

Access School

Location: Wem, Shropshire
Age range: 6-16
Registered for: Attachment and Trauma, SEMH ASD, PDA and MLD

Access School is vibrant, pro-active school with a fantastic reputation for achieving the best outcomes for its pupils.

Converted from a working farm in the heartland of rural Shropshire, the school provides around 6 acres of land for teachers and pupils to use every day.

There are sensory toys, safe spaces, and other therapeutic tools you would not normally find at a mainstream school.

Get in touch: David Page is Head of Access School. His email address is david.page@family-care.co.uk.

Eden School

Location: Macclesfield
Age range: 6-16
Registered for: ASD, PDA, SEMH, SPD and Anxiety

Based in Macclesfield, Eden School supports children who may have been out of education for significant amounts of time.

The children attending have EHC Plans and present with needs such as autism, high levels of anxiety and sensory processing disorders.

Pupils are involved in shaping their own curriculum which improves pupil engagement with their learning.

Get in touch: Jen Lamidey is Head of Eden School. Her email address is jen.lamidey@family-care.co.uk.

Rodenhurst School

Location: Telford
Age range: 6-16
Registered for: Attachment and Trauma, SEMH, ASD, PDA school anxiety

Rodenhurst School is a brand-new SEN school in Telford for up to 15 pupils.

The school will be rolled out in three phases, culminating in Family Care’s first post-16 education offering.

Get in touch: Chris Gorden is Head of Rodenhurst School. His email address is chris.gorden@family-care.co.uk.

Support Services

Therapeutically Informed Care

At Family Care, we adopt the Secure Base Model throughout all our services.

Our in-house therapy team train all our foster carers and staff to work within the Secure Base framework.

Therapists work alongside us to promote the benefits of therapeutic practice and ensure everyone is confident using these approaches.

This enables our staff and foster carers to deliver care with confidence.

In-House Therapists

Most of the support our therapists provide is included in our ‘standard’ offer.

This means working with foster carers, residential childcare workers, teachers and other staff to help them meet children’s needs.

Training and Development

We place a great deal of worth in continuously training and developing our staff and foster carers.

As well as training from our in-house therapists, a comprehensive training programme is delivered annually for all carers and staff.

We invest heavily in our team. Several members of staff have recently been supported to complete their social work degrees. We have also funded level 5, 6 and 7 qualifications for others.

By investing in our staff we are investing in the outcomes of the children and young people we care for.

We are also active members of the Consortium of Therapeutic Communities, and the Institute of Recovery from Trauma.