Scandal hit Rochdale Childrens Home. Fundamental failings obvious

Posted by Mark Raw in Childcare Industry Harmony Childrens Services

I have a great news app that seeks out all news articles related to Childrens homes on the net every day for me to help me keep upto date with happenings in our industry

Today it flagged this article up:- http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/the-venture-capitalists-and-the-scandalhit-childrens-homes-7782676.html

It is about the privately owned Rochdale Childrens home, central to the first Rochdale CSE case.  However it is believed this is not connected in anyway to the second recent arrests and subsequent investigations going on regards another group of men, again from the same ethic heritage inRochdale.

I find it hard to believe that such a large organisation, which provided 2:1 care, at a very expensive weekly fee , even for a 2:1 child had to have Ofsted tell them the fundamentals to our industry in a public report that they needed to have some CSE training. 

You have to wonder what the placing authority had to say to this when they forwarded on the report to the commissioners.

 They have coincidently sold up to another large faceless venture capitalist company days before the obvious guilty verdict was made.

Something you’ll never get from Harmony.  Where here for the long term, I have no interest in selling out and compromising our high level of care or ethics for a quick buck.  You will always receive a personal and honest service from those running Harmony or those within the homes it operates.

 At Harmony we always do things  in a professional matter.  If possible prior to any new admission or if not, very quickly after placement we, my self included, as a whole staff team undertake extensive training or refresher training on any significant issues or behaviours linked to the individual resident that will benefit their quality and level of care, ensure and support greater safety for them. 

 These have included CSE training, attachment disorder, substance and alcohol misuse, neglect, self harm and a 2 day behvaiour management course.  We will invite relevent professionals and social workers to staff meetings to aid Harmony staff in their information gathering, placement plan writting and allow Harmony to work in a more productive manner with the new resident, and existing residnets.

Staff are encouraged to bring forward any training needs they feel they have in the scheduled 3 weekly supervision meetings they attend and these are discussed and acted upon in a planned and timely manner.

 Our registered training provider Orchard Rock http://www.orchardrocktraining.com consistently provides ourselves a very professional and prompt service.  We use them as they specialises in health and social care training, have friendly and caring trainers and can tailor the sessions to the individual needs of the residents and staff and not just a one session fits all approach.

 If you need to find a placement, or wish for Harmony to look over a referral for a young person between 9-17 who can benefit from our professional approach to residential child care services please do not hesitate to contact myself on 07702 050 890 or at mark.raw@harmonycs.co.uk or alternatively you can contact the home manager Julie Cuttell directly on julie.cuttell@harmonycs.co.uk .  If you wish to have a brief look around Harmony you can see the high quality home and facilities offered at our web site www.harmonycs.co.uk and find out more about our services.

 Myself and Julie will be attending the forthcoming NCTCC event at Swanick on the 9^th and 10^th or July.  If you wish to meet with ourselves for a coffee and chat about the value for money service Harmony can offer for you as commissioners or social workers for your young people please contact us and we will be happy to meet up at the event.

Mark Raw

Managing Director

A massive “undefeated all season” achievement from my boys & girl football team.

Posted by Mark Raw in Harmony Childrens Services

I just have to let you know how proud I am of the achievements of my under Maccabi 9’s football team I jointly coach, the team includes my twin son and daughter.

 We play every Sunday in a good standard competitive league and have gone all season undefeated by any team, that’s 18 matches.  That has guaranteed the team at least a second place finish, and depending on results of only 1 other team next Sunday, we may win the league winners title this season.

We have found out that no team in our clubs history, or the league’s history has managed this level of performance.

We had our annual end of season meal last night for the team with a special celebration to acknowledge their achievements and awards were given to individuals with different praise, however I was especially proud that my son was awarded the golden boot for most goals scored within our team.

Lets hope we can mirror this type of performance next season and continue on to bigger and better things next season, however what I am most looking forward to is my Sunday morning’s back for a few months till it all starts again next season.

Tony Forster must have been a special type of Home Manager

Posted by Mark Raw in Childcare Industry

A lot of admiration for Nicole who is cycling Lands End to John O’Groats in memory of her past childrens home manger.  http://www.thisisscunthorpe.co.uk/m-cycling-length-country-memory-Tony/story-15990281-detail/story.html  Tony has inspired Nicole to follow a carrer in social services and make big differences to other children in care.

Donations can be made at Nicole’s just giving site at www.justgiving.com/nicolesendtoendchallenge

The dreaded PE lessons, now it’s official

Posted by Mark Raw in Childcare Industry Harmony Childrens Services

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17873519

Having read the article by the BBC on how teenage girls or opting out of PE,http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17873519 I am pleased to see the creative ways in which this is being address by some schools and at the same time unsurprised at the widening gap between boys and girls.

Some interesting points raised was the competitive and somewhat elitist side of PE, and concentrating on only the best pupils, you have to wonder if this is all about the good Ofsted score for their lessons?

The article raised the issues of girls being “body conscious” and therefore not wanting to get changed in to PE outfits as it sets them apart at times. I remember my PE days as great fun, but also recall that the girls stopped playing the same sports as we did in the second year when I was a Boston Spa comprehensive school. We were all allowed to choose what sessions we did for each half term. If I remember the girls had the staples of hockey, trampolineing and net ball, but I don’t remember them opting out. Maybe we had more of an eagerness to be up and moving about, playing games for the sake of playing and more motivations that to be on facebook, twitter and BBM’ing than kids nowadays.

However the issue was highlighted in March 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/7288175.stm where they were asking the questions to find out what stops girls from joining in. As mentioned earlier I like the innovative approaches taken by some schools using different and more youthful forms of exercising like Zumba and rollerblading to encourage participation.

Great ideas, but I wonder what other sports could be played in the teenage years that would get girls more involved. I’m surprised that there is no sort of “industrial” sized Wii or Kinetix style game system that could be used during the colder months.

That is the type of creative thinking we like to do at Harmony, it finds ways that allow the overall aim to be achieved, that allows everyone to be on board. We make good use of the Wii in group and single player games, involving everyone and find it develops supportive relationships within the home, more self confidence and the thrill of achieving goals, something important to us all.