Our Services
Our home has a clear goal: to support young people to fulfil their potential, grow into independent adults and have happy, successful futures.
Services for young people
Havenvale works with young people leaving care. Our home and service are designed with young people at their very heart – that way we can ensure they are fit for purpose, offer the right support and achieve the best outcomes.
As the problems facing our young people change, we look at how we can adapt to their needs. We develop new services that are “sector firsts” and refine best practice for children’s social care.
Semi-independent accommodation and support
Our semi-independent home is more than just somewhere to live. The home aims to bridge the gap between childhood and adulthood so that a young person is prepared for the challenges of living independently.
Some young people refer to leaving care as ‘the instant expectation of adulthood’. They are suddenly expected to know how to cook their own meals, run a home and manage their finances, all in one go and without any support.
This is why living in a Havenvale’s semi-independent home before leaving care can be hugely beneficial. We provide safe, comfortable homes for care leavers, homeless teenagers and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, where they can learn the essential life skills they will need when they transition to independent living.
The type of accommodation we offer is a seven bedroom with en-suite bathrooms. However, no matter which one of our bedrooms a young person lives in, staff will always support our young people to work towards their goals and build their confidence for the future.
To maintain the standard of our home, we conduct annual inspections in line with Ofsted standards and ratings. This is unique to Havenvale’s and means we can offer better quality care, support, and housing because we have to answer to our Auditors.
For care leavers our Aftercare team offer advice and support to help them on their journey to independence. Their drop-in service is available to any young person who wants to seek advice from staff on issues like managing tenancies, drugs, and alcohol awareness, or securing employment.
Havenvale’s Keeping Close service aims to improve the experiences of young people moving from residential care to independence. We provide a stable home, opportunities to maintain important relationships, and tailored support.
We wanted expert help to make sure the service is the best it can be – so care leavers and young people in care have taken the lead.
What is life experience like for care leavers?
In the UK, 50% of young people still live with their parents at 22 years old – but care leavers do not have the same luxury. There is a big jump in responsibility as soon as they leave care.
Suddenly they are expected to manage everything that comes with being an adult, even though they are still very young. They can feel isolated as they struggle to pay bills, stay in education and maintain their accommodation, all on their own.
They want to maintain the relationships they built with staff, but this can fall by the wayside as the challenges of adulthood take over.
On top of this, care leavers are sometimes given accommodation far away from where they have been living. Being far away from their support network of friends, family and staff is difficult and can make care leavers feel isolated.
They become trapped in a cycle of surviving rather than living. All of this impacts upon where care leavers end up as they progress into adulthood.
Keeping Close changes things for care leavers. The service flips the narrative so that young people are in charge of their transition to independence. They decide what support will help them the most and work with staff to come up with a care plan. This means care leavers know they have someone who they can rely on for when they need a bit of help.
Keeping Close provides good quality, semi-independent accommodation that is within family connections.
Unlike other services, we empower young people to own their futures. Within Keeping Close, they decide when they are ready to move on instead of a third party making the decision for them.
When we asked our young people what the best thing in their home was, 100% told us it was the staff and access to family. That’s why Keeping Close offers planned and regular opportunities for young people to meet with and work within their community. Structured, co-produced plans will support these relationships to flourish and resemble those you would find in a family home.
We all know that moving to a new house can be stressful but this can be amplified for young people in care. Therapeutic support is available to help with their mental health needs as they grow towards independence.
Our art therapist provides one to one art therapy sessions with young people to ensure they have access to mental health services.
Young people’s participation is really important. Only they can know how things really are for them, so we give them the opportunity, confidence and skills to work collaboratively with adults. They create plans to shape the way people work with them and the support they receive.
Care leavers shape the service delivery by taking on a specialist role too. They train as peer mentors to guide staff and ensure the relationships they build are sustainable for life.
Transitioning to independence is one of the biggest challenges a care leaver faces, so it’s important to get it right. A dedicated life skills worker runs sessions to meet young people’s practical needs that they will need for their transition to adulthood.