Acorns
Acorns is a detached house built in 1900 consisting of two large lounges, large dining room and kitchen and six bedrooms for children and staff. It is set in large gardens at the end of a cul-de-sac, near to playing fields, woods and recreational centres.
The home is very cosy and children are able to have privacy when they wish using a variety of rooms available. We provide residential accommodation for four children aged eight to fifteen years on admission. This will be dependant on a number of factors including the personality, maturity, intellectual functioning and history of the child together with the needs of the existing residents.
We will not accept placements for children whom we think will significantly disrupt the dynamics of the existing group or who would be likely to compromise the safety or well-being of children already living at Acorns. We offer ready access to many local clubs, recreational activities and sporting venues, which our residents regularly participate in.
Acorns have frequently been successful in supporting residents moving into Family Placements and maintaining links with these children after their move. We have good links with local education providers and mainstream schools and have integrated many of our children into mainstream education successfully and continued to support them once there. This is seen as a crucial part of the process in assisting children to move on to Family Placement given we have found that for many potential carers the fact that a child is well settled back into mainstream education is of massive assistance in managing the transition from residential care to foster care.
Many of the children who are referred to the Acorns will have suffered from neglect, physical, sexual or emotional abuse or a combination of these factors, as well as children who have insecure attachment patterns or relationship problems with their primary carers e.g. birth family or fostering and adoption breakdowns. Typically such children will exhibit a range of behavioural problems, which may be linked to developmental delay, inappropriate parenting and ongoing trauma.
We are happy to discuss placement plans for children who fall outside of these past experiences and can offer a range of possible interventions subject to the child's assessed needs. Our aim will always be to explore and hopefully help to facilitate an eventual move on to a Family Placement, a return to the child's birth family or if this is not possible to a foster care placement, which might, if appropriate, be arranged through families@familycare.
