woodview young persons guide - 3 dimensionsy… · if you would like to manage your own medication...
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2017
7/1/2017
3 Dimensions Residential care and education
for young people including specialised support
for SEBD, ADHD, Asperger’s and ASD
Woodview Young Persons Guide
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A Warm Welcome to Woodview
We would like to welcome you to your new home at Woodview, part of
3 Dimensions.
This Handbook is designed to introduce you to your new home, the
staff, what you can expect and also what will be expected of you
during your stay at Woodview.
This will be
your home.
This guide should answer most of the usual questions, but we are certain that
there will be more that come to mind.
All the team are here to help and support you, so feel free to discuss any
questions or thoughts you might have with anyone.
We are all very happy to have you come and stay and look forward to
getting to know you better.
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More about Woodview
There are only four places at
Woodview. You will be one of
the four young people aged
up to 18 years old sharing the
home.
This could be your bedroom.
You will have your own spacious room equipped with a bed, new bedding,
wardrobe and chest of drawers. We would like you to personalise your room
and make it your own. You can bring posters and belongings with you and
we can help you to choose soft furnishings so that you can enjoy your
personal space.
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The house is split into two levels, which are like flats. Each flat can
accommodate two young people and you will share the kitchen,
bathroom and living room with them. There is also a garden at the back of
the house, where you can spend time outside.
Music systems are allowed in your bedroom at a reasonable volume and
level of use. There may be other items that you wish to earn through our
house reward scheme, which can be explained in more detail.
Woodview is based in a good position in the south west of England, in the
county of Devon. We are situated in a prime position to access local
facilities as we are only a 45 minutes’ drive from Exeter city, Taunton or 10
minutes from the beach.
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The Registered Manager:
Emma English
Emma runs the house
It’s her job to make sure everything works
smoothly, from the daily plans to staff
rotas.
Emma is your main point of contact, she is
there for you.
Donna Callow
House Senior
Donna is the House Senior and
supports Emma with daily tasks. She
is there to talk to if Emma is not.
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Our Commitments to You
We look after you and keep you safe
You can expect to have all your essential needs met, these include good
food, clothing, comfortable housing and an inspiring education.
Providing these will be our priority and carried out to the best of our
ability.
We are also committed to caring for your emotional needs. We aim to
help you find the things that make you special and support you to
achieve personal goals and targets. Everyone at Woodview will help
you, respect you, listen to you and will do our best to understand your
needs. We will take care of you and keep you safe.
We will help you find activities that you are interested in joining and will
help you make friends in the community. Our aim is to help you build a
bright future for yourself, together we can explore how to build on your
strengths, setting you up for the future.
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Being happy and enjoying the food we eat is
all part of a healthy diet & lifestyle.
Health & Well-being
Although there will be some healthy restrictions on food types (i.e. limited
junk food), there will not be restrictions on healthy foods such as fruit and
veg.
Balanced weekly menu plans along with snack menus and treats will all be
planned in advance with you.
When we eat well – we feel well and are
capable of doing more.
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We will register you with a local doctor, optician and dentist, soon after
you arrive and keep up with all the proper health checks.
While we are getting to know you, we will keep any medication you are
taking in a safe place and make sure you take the right dose at the right
time.
If you would like to manage your own medication and you have shown
yourself to be responsible, this can be arranged. This will need to be
discussed with other people who have responsibility for your health, this may
be your parents or your social worker.
We will be encouraging all young people to learn to cook the food they
eat. One day a week each young person will take a turn to cook a meal
for the others.
We also encourage exercise this may be in the form of joining a local group
or by getting out and about on local beaches, woods and parks. Exercise
helps to build your stamina and will increase your health too.
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You will be encouraged to keep yourself clean and well groomed.
Personal hygiene is important, we will supply you with all the toiletries that
you need. As you become older you will be encouraged to manage your
own toiletry budget and to arrange your own appointments at the
hairdressers.
Clothing
Good clothes to wear are important and you will be receiving a monthly
allowance to shop for and choose clothes you like to wear.
Some of your clothing will need to be practical, as we will be spending a
proportion of our time doing activities. You will also be able to choose
appropriate fashionable clothing that you enjoy wearing.
Specialist activity wear (i.e. wetsuit, waterproofs, etc.) will be bought for
you by the house.
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Emotional Needs.
We believe in keeping things steady.
We try not to change the staff around if it can be helped. We also like to
plan for new young people joining Woodview and meet them first. This is
so you can have the chance to have a look around, but we know that it’s
not always possible.
Either way, your transition will be made as comfortable as possible by the
house team and we are confident that you will settle into your new home
in no time.
We have routines in the house that run from getting up in the morning,
mealtimes, to night-time lights out.
We aim to create as much of a homely, healthy environment as possible.
If you have lived with us for some time and we feel you are responsible, you
may be allowed to have a small pet to take care of. We would expect that
you contribute towards the upkeep of the animal and help to take care of
it.
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How we live in the
house.
It is important that we all live together
as happily as possible. We will help you
to do this. We may ask you to
contribute to the running of the house.
This could be by, keeping your room
tidy and joining in at meal times.
We will help you to develop a routine
so that you are able to make plans
and be on time.
We know that it is also important at
times to have your own space and
privacy is respected.
If you are having a problem or finding it difficult to cope, we hope you will
ask for help so that we can work through any problems together.
Contact with Family
We understand the importance of preserving family
ties and connections that are close to you.
With the agreement of your Social Worker, we would
make arrangements for your family to visit the home, always make
them welcome and would be happy to provide a private space
where you could have time together, or we will transport you to
arranged visits. We can also help you keep in contact by phone or
letters. To help you do this you can make an address book of those
people you would like to be in contact with:
After we have got to know you, with the agreement of your social worker,
you may be able to use a personal mobile. There would be rules around
this which would be discussed with you.
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Communication and consultation
Communication is a key factor to all successful relationships.
Key worker
You will be encouraged to
choose your own key worker. Key
work sessions are an opportunity
for you to explore your choices,
express your feelings and discuss
any concerns or issues that you
may have.
Your key worker is there to
support you and you can of
course talk to them or another of
your carers at any time. This does
not have to be during a key work
session. You may also have
tutorials where your keyworker will
cover educational topics with
you.
If you have a difficulty discussing your fears or feelings we will help you try
and express these.
We may recommend a key worker that can help with any speech
difficulties you might have, for example, helping you to use signs or
symbols for communication.
In these sessions we would like to talk with you about your feelings around
how our home is run, how you feel about past or present events, fears
worries or problems.
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This way, Emma will get to hear what everyone is feeling in the house and
can discuss strategies on how the points raised can be answered. All of
this will be fed back to the house team as necessary.
House Meetings
There are monthly house meetings in which time is put aside by the
House Manager, for you to discuss any aspect of life in the home
together.
It’s always a good idea to write down a list of the things you want to talk
about so you don't forget anything.
If you need help with this, your key worker will be able to help you put
your thoughts onto paper and support you in the meeting wherever
possible.
Safeguarding you and others
We want to help keep all the young people in our care safe, therefore we
will always treat you fairly.
This means that you will be respected and will be asked to respect others.
Feeling secure
We make sure that the staff we employ are safe to work with you so you
can feel comfortable and not worry.
If you are ever worried, talk to a staff member you trust, your key worker or
Emma.
Bullies
It is important to us that all young people in our care feel safe.
If you ever feel bullied you would need to tell a member of the staff or
management team and steps will be taken to ensure this does not
happen again.
If a young person is found to be bullying another, a meeting will be called.
During the meeting there will be a discussion around why the young person
is behaving in this way. The young person may be asked to explain how
we can help them try and prevent this happening again and show how
they will try to repair the hurt they have caused.
(I.e. a written or verbal apology)
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When we share our feelings openly we can manage anger and form
relationships that work.
About Our De-escalation, Physical intervention.
The only time we physically intervene in managing young people’s
behaviour, is if we feel they are going to hurt themselves, somebody else
or cause a lot of damage to property.
We do hope that there will be no need to use this, it is a last resort as we
are interested in finding solutions to problems.
If you have troubles, our aim will be to sit down, highlight problem areas
and find practical ways of making things better.
It’s OK to be unhappy or fed-up with something that’s going on, let’s talk
about it and sort it out. We will try and help you learn how to do this so
that you can express your feelings. We will help you to create a behaviour
management plan, whereby you can let us know what helps you to feel
calmer and how carers can work with you to manage situations positively.
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Protecting Young People from discrimination.
We believe that all people should be treated fairly regardless of race,
ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender. We will not allow young people to
be discriminated against at Woodview and will challenge any signs of
discrimination within the community.
Sometimes talking about these topics, helps young people understand
differences between themselves and others. We encourage all young
people to have an appreciation and acceptance of others who have
had very different life experiences and belief/ value systems to their own.
We want to keep all young people safe from harm. If you have been hurt
or somebody is hurting you, please talk to someone. All of the staff at
Woodview are good listeners and will not judge you.
Keeping secrets will not stop the hurt.
Staff will talk to the Manager – Emma, and she will speak to whoever she
needs to in order to stop what is happening.
Complaints
We hope that you will enjoy your time with us, but if there were any issues
or complaints, all the staff and management are easily accessible and are
committed to listening to you.
The whole team is there for you and will take real and practical measures
to help resolve any problems. We have a complaints procedure which is
set out below for you to follow:
Discuss any issues or any complaints with your key worker or any other
member of staff that you feel comfortable with. If it is a minor complaint,
the member of staff will try to resolve the difficulties you have on the spot.
You will be offered feedback in key worker Sessions without having to ask.
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If you are still unhappy
If you are still unhappy, and feel that the matter is not resolved or the
complaint is of a serious nature, ask a member of staff or your key worker
and they will help you fill in a form to write down your complaint.
The Registered Manager – Emma English, would then discuss the matter
with you and try to resolve the complaint.
Emma will take all the necessary action to resolve your issues.
At this point Emma, the Registered House Manager will inform the care
director, your social worker, parent or responsible adult and OFSTED of
any serious complaint.
Should you be unhappy with any outcome, you may always speak with
your Social Worker or The OFSTED Inspector.
You will find useful phone numbers at the end of this booklet, you can
use if you are still unhappy.
If you are unhappy with your placing authority, or social worker we can
also help you follow their complaints procedure to resolve the issues.
If you feel that you would like to speak to somebody outside of
Woodview who is not your social worker, you can contact an advocate.
An advocate is completely independent and will listen to your views.
They can also support you with making a complaint, or so you feel more
comfortable to express your feelings during meetings or at reviews.
You can contact the National youth advocacy service on; 0808 808 1001
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Pocket money, school bonus and treats
Pocket Money
You will be given a certain amount of
Pocket money every week, in relation to
your age.
This will be set by Emma when you arrive and is earned through
cooperation and being respectful.
You will be able to earn extra money each week at home and at
school.
Extra treats are there for those who earn them, Cinema trips, staying up
later at weekends and during
holidays, having friends over,
special treats for tea, weekend
activities such as horse-riding
and ten pin bowling.
These are a small example of the
rewards. We encourage you to
tell us what you would like to see
happen when things are going
well.
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Adults will always recognise, praise, encourage and reward good
behaviour or special efforts on your part.
When things go well at school, there is a school bonus.
It will be explained clearly to you, how you can earn the most amounts.
- The rest is up to you.
We like you to save some of your pocket money for things like the
summer holidays and special events.
We will help you to open a bank or post office savings account where
you can put the money you save. We will encourage you to put a
regular amount away each week and you will be surprised at how
quickly it grows.
Absent/ Missing
We will always endeavour to encourage discussion about worries or
problems and discourage any missing periods.
Should a young person become absent or missing we would have to
inform the police, your Social Worker and your parent/guardian if
appropriate.
We would then take measures to follow or search for you and return you
safely. We will always try and find out what is troubling young people who
go missing and will work with your social worker to attempt to resolve any
problems.
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Safety Aspects
The aim is to protect all of the young people, the staff and
to meet Health and Safety regulations.
Woodview has all the necessary equipment for fire precautions, fire
doors smoke detectors, extinguishers, fire blankets etc., regular checks
are taken to make sure the equipment does its job keeping us all safe.
We also have an emergency routine that we would practice every 3
months, so that if there ever was to be a fire everyone could get out
quickly and safely. We call it the fire drill and what you have to do will be
explained by the staff.
Daily Routines
These depend greatly on the type of education or activity we are
involved in on that day.
You will be expected to complete some routines such as having some
breakfast, washing, brushing your teeth and making sure your room is
looking reasonable before you can move on to an activity outside of
education.
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Lights out times are set by the House Manager.
The time you go to bed will depend on your age and
whether you handle later nights.
A rough guide to bedtime is:
9 Years old 8.00 pm 8.30 pm Lights out
10/11 years old 8.30 pm 9.00 pm Lights out
12/13 years old 9.00 pm 9.30 pm Lights out
14/15 years old 9.30 pm 10.00 pm. Lights out
16 and over 10.00 pm 10.30 pm. Lights out
At the weekends and during holidays, there may be times when you are
doing special activities or allowed to watch television until later. These
special occasions depend very much on your cooperation and
behaviour during the day.
Everyone will have their responsibilities in caring for the home.
These responsibilities will be talked through with you during your first week
at Woodview.
Mealtime routine
This varies in line with the activity, but we like to eat all meals together
and will encourage each other to eat with good manners.
We always help each other clear the table and wash up.
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Education.
We believe that engaging in education, empowers and enables you to
make positive choices about the way you want to live.
Whether you attend our school or another provision outside our
organisation we will support you to attend and contribute, within your
education.
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Personal Growth Programme
Each young person will have time put aside in which we will highlight
areas of personal interest, talent and identify some personal goals for you
to reach during your stay.
This can be anything from learning to swim to playing an instrument. It
could be something you have always wanted to be able to do but
thought that you couldn’t.
Together we will help develop these interests into skills by creating access
to clubs, tuition and groups, perhaps vocational experiences for older
students!
Education gives you power
Power gives you choices
The freedom to choose for yourself, the way
you want to live.
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Activities for Woodview
We do have various activities that will be available for you and were
always open to new ideas.
Activities – may be part of your activities in school time or they may be
offered outside school time, some may be a special request as you’ve
earned a chosen activity through good work.
Forest School Orienteering Go-Karting Squash
Beach Craft Tennis Youth Projects Dancing
Swimming Crazy Golf Team Building Meal Out
Youth Projects Dancing Cooking Trampolining
Environmental
studies trip
Cycling
Water Park
Tennis
Theatre
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Identity
If you are practising in any form of religion, we will facilitate your visits to a
relevant place of worship in the area.
If you have not made a choice in this area and wish to investigate
different religions and cultures we will help you do this.
It is important to find out about your heritage, where you are from, and to
maintain links, you may also discover new information. We would help you
do this.
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Respect
We encourage young people to respect each other’s differences and
each other’s rights. These will be explained to you, so that we can help
you understand what this means.
Pets
Pets can be a wonderful addition to our lives. Animals need to be able to
rely on the person that looks after them to be responsible. This means that
we need to know that the young people will feed and give their pet water
and will clean out where it lives very regularly. We need to ensure that we
think this before they are able to have a pet.
Children and young people do have pets at Woodview and have shown
that they are able to care very well for their pet.
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Our aim
Our Aim is to empower young people. To enable them to go
out into the world with their heads held high, because they
feel good about what they have achieved. We aim for young
people to respect themselves, others and to have the ability
to live safe and fulfilling lives.
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Come and Visit
We hope you can visit us before your placement begins.
When you arrive, once settled we would have a placement meeting with
you and your Social Worker to agree your placement plan and set goals
to achieve.
After one month with us, we would hold a four week review with both
you, your Social Worker and our Education Manager present, to look at
how you have been doing.
We would discuss with you how you feel your achievements have gone
and make any further plans.
A further review would take place after three months with us. We would
encourage you to take part in these reviews as they are a chance for
you to share your views and ask any questions that you have. It will also
be a chance to discuss any future plans.
After this the reviews will be held every five months, but you can always
talk about any concerns that you have at any time.
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Feedback from Young People
Woodview is probably the best care home in Devon.
There might be more, but to me this is the best one
yet. This is only my opinion and it doesn’t matter if
you disagree with me.
There are some lovely carers here who do their best
to support you and they make sure that you receive
all of the things that you need.
If you feel that you need to see your family, inform
staff when it is a good time and they can try and
arrange with your social worker. Believe me, I have
asked Emma, the manager of Woodview about
“home visits” and she had kindly helped me arrange
for me to see my mum once a week during school
time and then in the holiday it will be different. My mum and I are happy together and that is always
a good thing. Woodview makes sure that “home visits” are safe and happy for the young person to be
sure that they feel secure.
If you would like to get to know you’re housemate who may be new to either Woodview or to yourself,
you may need to wait for them to settle in and then once she feels comfortable with the place as well
as the staff, you may introduce yourself and get to know each other. You also need to check if it is the
right time.
Woodview helps you with your hobbies and helps to keep you entertained. Like me, I attended
CLOKS, a local drama club in Chard and that has helped me gain my confidence on stage and I have
performed many plays that my housemates as well as staff come and watch. I might even be lucky to
see my mum and stepdad in the audience. Now after that, Woodview can see how a fantastic actress I
really am! I like to write my own novels and I have done loads lately. Woodview allows me to go on
my computer to type them up and there is a rule for laptop timing. During the school holidays as well
as weekends, you get the opportunity to have the maximum of four hours on your computer. But you
are not supposed to have all the four hours altogether. You can have two hours in the morning or one
in the morning and one in the afternoon and then two in the evening. But in between the two hours
they always make sure that you have a half an hour break. Yet again, Woodview is just keeping an
eye on your eyes!!
There will be times where you might feel cross with the carers and you might storm off to your rooms.
Believe me, my housemate and I have been through that a lot of times. Carers wait until you have
calmed down to talk to you about it and try and sort it all out.
From time to time, Emma will come down to have house meetings with you and your housemates
about Woodview and about several issues that you had. All of these issues and subjects were talked
about in staff meetings. As you are in care, you will have PEP meetings, personal educational plan, to
do with your school. This is to help you with your learning and Woodview is trying to make education
best for you.
They will make sure that you will receive exercise to keep you fit and healthy. Like they might decide
that you can go swimming, scootering, a walk out, badminton or unfortunately the gym bike they have
here!!
Woodview will also try and help you develop your independence for you to understand and handle
the big adult world. Believe me, you will need all the advice you can get, for when you leave care or
leave Woodview yourself.
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Woodview is a lovely care home and they make sure that you feel secure here. They make sure that
you are entertained and well looked after. You will like it here, I promise.
My Feedback on living at woodview When I first came to woodview I felt excited because I was going to get a new room.
But I was a little nervous because I didn't know what the people here were going to be like but they
turned out to be really nice people.
They help you in lots of different ways like help you with your anger issues,
and problems with your family.
they can help you with your confidence, to build it up ,so you can be more independent.
Woodview is a caring and friendly home and they will look after you and make sure you are treated
fairly.
I like woodview because it is very homely and it has pictures around the house of things that you do,
like activities and parties and special occasions.
You get nice bedrooms where you can choose what colour you want for your walls
and decorate it with the things you like.
There are other children living here and they are nice and welcoming
The carers don't let you get bullied. The school is nice and the teachers are nice to you they help you
with lots of different things, like maths or anything you need help with.
When I came to Woodview I felt fine and relieved to be somewhere safe and looked
after properly.
I have built relationships easily with carers it helped me to understand what good
relationships are and how to keep them, this has helped me for the rest of my life. If I
have a problem I will talk to people here and my keyworker.
My relationships with my family have improved massively because Woodview have
supported me with this and also my family which is good, they have done a very good
job, well done to them.
Woodview have helped me with independence by preparing me for the future by letting
me go out when I was ready.
I have learnt budgeting and now like saving money for things that I want, I was
surprised when I came here and thought I had loads of money!!
I have made friends here and at my activities, I have had lots of times out with them, if
things have not gone well I have learnt from these times and had help, some of the best
in my life.
School has been good, for the first time I learnt stuff and am now going to go to college
and learn more.
I have had alot of activities on my own and with my friends and these have been very
good.
You are allowed to keep in touch with people when you leave and Woodview will never
reject you which is really good too.
Just be grateful to come to this place, there are a lot more worse places out there you
know.