In Safe Hands

Child Protection, safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is everybody’s responsibility although our individual roles in the process may be different.

Sequel Support works in liaison with the local and placing Children’s Services office and has developed an in-depth Child Protection Policy and local procedures, all in accordance with Regulation 16 of the Children’s Homes Regulations 2015.

All Safeguarding issues will be taken seriously and in no circumstances will they, or the disclosures, be taken lightly or ignored. These issues will be investigated according to the local and placing authorities’ Safeguarding Procedures.

All team members are trained in recognising, understanding and reporting safeguarding concerns. The registered manager is the designated safeguarding officer. Our safeguarding policy is available on request from any of the staff team at Sequel Support.

Anti-Discrimination
& Children’s Rights

Sequel Support has an Anti-Discriminatory policy, procedure and online training which ensures all practice is underpinned by awareness, challenge and reporting systems. The training will allow the staff to educate the children on respecting one another’s individuality. We will celebrate differences and ensure that any discrimination is addressed immediately with children, visitors and or staff as appropriate.

Training makes clear to all team members their responsibility to challenge and report discriminatory practice and behaviours. Where necessary such practice is addressed with those concerned through supervision, or in more serious cases through the disciplinary procedures. As a safeguarding measure children have the opportunity to share anything they have seen, heard or experienced through a range of routes including one-to-one and group meetings, talking to any member of the team and through the responsible individual and Regulation 44 visits.

We work with the children to understand their own rights and responsibilities. We do this through keyworking, house meetings and with information contained within the children’s guide. We continue to review this with the children to ensure that they know what their rights are and how this relates to them on a day to day basis. We will ensure that our information is formatted to meet individual communication needs.

Preventing Bullying

Sequel Support recognises that bullying can happen to anyone at any age. Bullying can be defined as aggressive and threatening behaviour that is designed to intimidate or persecute other people and can come in a variety of formats typically categorised as; verbal, physical, social, emotional and cyber bullying and can be further broken down into a variety of kinds of bullying that include; homophobic, racist, sexist and ableist.

During induction, team members are made aware of the homes bullying policy and are given guidance on how to recognise bullying and instructions on how to respond to any incidents of bullying.

Children at Sequel Support are made aware of the expectations regarding bullying through the children’s guide, meetings and also during key worker sessions.

All children are encouraged to report any occurrences of bullying to team members. Where incidents of bullying occur, these will be thoroughly yet sensitively handled and resolved. We have a zero tolerance to bullying within Sequel Support.

Absconding or Missing Children

Sequel Support has a strict set of procedures for notification of a missing child or unauthorised absence. We understand that children residing at our homes are particularly more vulnerable and each child will have a specific contingency for such an event within their individual risk assessments.

When children are late, stay out beyond a designated time or have left the home without permission, team members will initially make all attempts to locate them before reporting the absence to the police. Attempts to locate missing children will continue at regular intervals until they are either located or they return and an on-going risk assessment will continue until they have returned to a place of safety. In deciding when to contact the police, team members will take into account the child’s age, what time of day or night it is, whether the child has gone missing before and whether they consider that he or she might be in danger or at risk.

Team members will work with returning children to establish strategies in order to reduce risk and minimise triggers. Where possible we will encourage the child to have a home discussion with their social worker or advocate.

All policies and procedures with respect to Safeguarding, Preventing Bullying, Missing Child are held in the office and online and are available if required.

Behaviour Support

The staff at Sequel Support provide a warm, caring and supportive environment with an emphasis on treating children with respect. This will be underpinned by clear boundaries, expectations and accountabilities. We want to provide a nurturing environment and therefore practice the PACE model of therapeutic parenting which was designed to support and care for children who have been through trauma.

Sequel Support has a comprehensive and individual policy for managing behaviour in accordance with regulations. This enables our children to develop socially acceptable behaviours through providing firm, fair and consistent boundaries and expectations.

Mayfield Lodge uses positive behaviour support in order to

  • Manage the environment to reduce the risk of conflict, harm and/or physical intervention.
  • Help reduce challenging behaviour by teaching children to different ways to express their emotions.
  • Support children to engage in things they enjoy.
  • Support children to progress with life skills and independent living.
  • Reinforce and support the children when they make positive choices.

A copy of our behaviour management policy is available upon request from any of the staff team at Sequel Support.

Location Risk Assessment

At our Children’s Home, we believe that all children need to feel safe in the area surrounding their home. Just as any parent would want for their child to live in a safe area, so too is our belief and desire to offer a safe surrounding to the children placed at our homes.

A home can be located in an area with some local risks and still be safe if these risks are well managed. Consideration of risks in a local area, and what steps should be taken to mitigate these, should be part of the care planning and placement decision process. We are committed to working with both placement and local authorities as well as local agencies to ensure every child is valued and any risks is effectively managed, but at the same time still nurturing and allowing children to develop and grow.

As part of the process of establishing the home, we were required to produce a Local Risk Assessment Report which is available upon request from any of the staff team at Sequel Support.