Freephone 0800 234 6282 - Fostering Enquiries

The significance of the Safehomes framework in our practice

This month our UK Senior Systemic Practitioner talks about Safehomes, our new approach to creating the best possible home setting for the young people in our care. This work mirrors activity already occurring in our Isle of Man homes.

What is Safehomes?

After a successful bid funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, St Christopher’s were granted funding to roll out Safehomes. This is a framework of interventions which was originally adapted from Safewards developed by the Institute of Psychiatry.  The approach provides our children’s home and support accommodation teams with tools to manage complex behaviours and ensure strong relationships are in place, in order to support our young people as effectively as possible.

Our aim is to continue to provide quality care for the young people we support.  They are at the focus of what we do.  At St Christopher’s Safehomes allows us to think about the multiple factors that contribute into their lives. Within the home we consider their family dynamics, friendships groups, environment and educational support. Alongside this we also factor in regulations, the needs of our staff and any health related aspects.

We understand that these contributing factors can play a huge role in the lives of our young people. It is important that we work for their best interests. We also recognise that those in our care are often with us for a short period of time. Whatever the duration, we want them to have positive lived experiences at St Christopher’s.

At St Christopher’s we really care about the future of the young people we support and do our best to help them prepare for adult life, honing skills and confidence along the way. We are mindful of this even when the young people first join us and invest time from the outset to help them get ready. We also have support in place for when they do leave us with our Staying Close programme.

Our aim is to embed a best practice Safehomes culture across all our homes. Empowering our staff and the young people in our care to ensure their needs are met. Providing approaches and tool to build resilience and trust.

How do we implement Safehomes with our children’s homes and supported homes?

Our UK Senior Systemic Practitioner regularly works with our staff teams and management and trains them in the Safehomes model. With insight from the needs on the ground, these sessions are tailored. The voice of our young people is also a crucial factor and is built into the day to day. Our ambition is that inside the next two years all our UK homes will run this way using the same framework.

What are our aims in the next two years?

  • Further improvement in the wellbeing of the children and young people in our care
  • For staff to continue to feel confident in handling conflict and being able to build good relationships
  • For staff to feel well equipped to work in partnership with the children and young people and continue to build a true community within each home
  • That all UK homes operate with the overarching framework of Safehomes at St Christopher’s

We are committed to this and are developing Safehomes resources, alongside providing training tools for staff teams to use confidently. By ensuring our children are the core focus of our practice, we will continue to create homes the young people feel happy in and brighter futures for them for when they leave us.