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Pathways - Residential Care for Children and Young People with Disabilities
Services and organisations that have the Local Offer flash have filled out inclusion information, meaning that they meet the needs of people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)

Pathways is a countywide service based in St Blazey, St Austell and is managed within short break services for children and young people with a disability.

Pathways is a 3 bedded residential children’s home, catering for the needs of young people from 5-18 years with emotional and behavioural difficulties and with learning disabilities, who may require individualised holistic support from a specialist team to enable them to move forward with their lives and self manage challenging behaviour and complex needs.

The Short Break Service provides county wide planned residential short breaks for children and young people with learning disabilities and associated complex needs.

This valuable service, enables carers to have a break from their caring responsibilities and for the young person to enjoy some independence with their peers away from their families.

A collaborative assessment is time specific and our specialist team work towards positive outcomes, using a child centred approach.

Short break provision aims to provide a positive experience for each individual, and offers each child or young person the opportunity to join in a variety of fun activities, alongside promoting social inclusion, and positive outcomes for young people as in the Every Child Matters agenda.

Who to contact

Contact name
matthew Pearce
Contact position
Residential Services Manager
Telephone
01726 815964
E-mail
matthew.pearce@cornwall.gov.uk
Website
www.cornwall.gov.uk/.../default.aspx

Where to go

Name
Pathways
Address
Doubletrees
St Blazey
Par
Cornwall
Postcode
PL24 2DS

Other details

Availability

Age ranges
From 5 years 0 months to 17 years 11 months
Referral required
Yes

Inclusion details

Saint Piran's Flag
How we make our service inclusive

Pathways, is a county wide service, offering personalised care and support to children and young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties, or a diagnosed disability. This may include: long term residential care and/or crisis and assessment support.

Pathways has been designed for accessibility for those individuals with mobility needs and offers visitor parking adjacent to the building and further parking within walking distance.

Staff SEND experience

The management team in the home consists of a Responsible Individual, Manager, Deputy Manager and Senior Residential Care Worker. All have extensive learning disability experience and are qualified at post graduate; graduate and Level 5 levels. The team of care staff are Level 3 qualified in relevant childcare qualifications as a minimum and are skilled in supporting young people with autism, disabilities and complex needs including challenging behaviour. They have augmentive communication skills and are skilled in supporting and understanding young people with attachment related trauma.

How our service supports providers / schools / colleges

Every child has the right to an educational placement.

 Pathways will ensure that children have an education, health and social care plan in place and the staff team will support each young person to achieve against this plan, in a way that is meaningful to the young person.

Each young person will be allocated a keyworker who will establish a collaborative relationship with the school and regular meetings will ensure appropriate information sharing and review of educational plans.

Staff will support the child with extra-curricular activities and be part of helping them celebrate their educational achievements.

Collaborative working with supporting professionals such as: teachers and teaching assistants, SALT, OT, school nurse, consultant paediatrician will ensure that educational attainment is viewed in a holistic manner with regard for the young person, their individual needs and wishes.

Support at key transition points

The home supports children and families at key transition points by adopting a person centred approach. Key transitions include introductions to the home; changes in educational provision and preparation and transition into adulthood, or a placement change.

The staff are skilled in capturing the views and wishes of the young person and work in collaboration with the multi-agency team to ensure transition plans are child led and outcome focussed.

Other local or national support

All children in the home are supported to access community based activities. Information is available in the home for parents and children in regard to resources in the local community and parents are able to access information from the Family Information Service and Council for Disabled Children. The home is registered and regulated by Ofsted and parents and children are fully involved in the Inspection process and receive information prior to and following inspection, and have an ongoing opportunity to shape and develop the service provision to ensure it continues to meet the needs of the children and families it supports.

Weekly newsletters are sent to parents by schools that children attend, and parents are invited to attend events within the community or gain knowledge of National developments.

Resolving disagreements, mediation and making complaints

Children have an allocated Keyworker and it is hoped that a good relationship with the key-worker and an understanding of the child’s needs will enable most complaints to be resolved through open two-way communication.

If the child thinks that they are not being listened to, they can talk to a parent, independent visitor, advocate, social worker or alternatively contact Childline, OFSTED or the Children’s Rights Commissioner, or their independent reviewing officer.

We recognise that young people who live in the home may be non-verbal and be unable to voice a complaint or understand corporate complaints procedures. Pathways use active listening techniques and are creative in how they listen to children’s views, record, and act on them. Our belief is that every child has a voice, and a right to be heard. We have a ‘We are Listening’ format, we record through observation and use data collection and analysis to help us ‘hear’ the child’s voice.

We encourage parents/carers to be fully involved in nurturing and caring for their child and support them to advocate for their child. Social workers and the wider multi-agency team also take on a role in advocating for the young person and we support the involvement of independent advocacy and independent visitors.

There are systems in place to receive regular feedback from all stakeholders and use this to shape and develop the running of the home. We promote an open culture and our aim is to use feedback and see it as an opportunity for development. All complaints are recorded and actioned following Cornwall Council’s Complaints, Compliments and Comments Policy – 23.01.13 http://cornwallcouncilintranet.cc.cornwallonline.net/need-to-know/strategies-and-policies/compliments-comments-and-complaints/

Last updated: 27/03/2017

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