Whilst other organisations have recently looked to scale back operations and cut staff, at northerncare, we believe that now is the time to invest in the delivery of services for young people in care in order to raise standards and give them the best possible chances in life and thereby reduce their long term dependence on local authority resources.

We have made a significant investment in the improvement of our services in order to achieve the positive outcomes we all desire for young people placed in our care. This improvement will be delivered by the reinforcement of our frontline services with the appointment of three Children’s Standards Champions, three Education Managers and two Education Training Co-ordinators.

Children’s Standard’s Champions will ensure that our homes are not only operating to the legal requirements, but to the highest of standards based on the best available evidence, keeping children safe and healthy and enabling them to achieve positive outcomes. Children’s Standards Champions will provide a quality assurance oversight of each service, offer valuable support, guidance and advice to home managers and ensure a co-ordinated approach to the constant improvement of care is adopted throughout the organisation. They will liaise closely with the Participation Manager to promote the active participation of young people across our services and ensure staff have their personal training and professional development managed by the Training Co-ordinators.

Working alongside these Children’s Champions will be three new Education Managers who will seek to improve and build upon current best practice to deliver the best possible education to children in order to help them achieve positive outcomes and future economic well-being. Education Managers will formulate northerncare schools improvement plans to ensure positive outcomes are being achieved by monitoring and evaluating educational programmes, ensuring that, throughout, children are actively engaged in their learning. They will liaise closely with other professional bodies and regulators and promote staff development through a close working relationship with the Training Co-ordinators.

Supporting the above, will be two Education Training Co-ordinators who will liaise closely with them all to standardise and improve training to ensure that all our staff are equipped with the skills to meet the changing and varied needs of the children they look after. They will support staff at every level to improve practice through a comprehensive induction process, appropriate training plans tailored to meet individual employee needs and assist their professional development to meet Government objectives.

These new appointments will help us to continue to improve our level of care and education and ensure the highest standards are constantly met, whilst still offering value for our local authority partners.