Residential care for children

We provide residential care for children to make sure that their needs are met when they cannot live with their own family.

Residential care isn’t just about giving children food and shelter, but helping them to develop and grow in a safe environment, no matter what their needs.

Accommodation

There are three units in Knowsley area – two in Huyton and one in Kirkby. The houses accommodate young people aged 11 to 16 years who, for a period of time, cannot stay with their natural or an alternative family. One of the home provisions specialises in caring for children and young people on a short term basis until they return to their home and or have a period of needs led assessment. All of the homes are subject to Ofsted inspections and in 2016 were all graded as ‘Good’.

Accessing the service

We provide this service for children and young people who have been assessed as needing residential accommodation, following a social workers assessment. The assessment is carried out with the young person and social worker.

For further information about this service, please contact your allocated social worker directly or contact Children Services on 0151 443 2600

Placement Sufficiency Overview (for Children Looked After)

Knowsley aim to ensure that all children who require accommodation are provided with a permanent placement within the quickest timescales to maximise stability. 

In 2010 the Government published statutory guidance on the implementation of section 22G of the Children Act 1989. This section requires local authorities to take steps that secure, as far as reasonably practicable, sufficient accommodation for looked after children within their local authority area (“the sufficiency duty”). This means that local authorities should include their plans for meeting the sufficiency duty in relevant commissioning strategies and that they must be able to secure, where reasonably practicable, sufficient accommodation for looked after children within their area.

Regular presentations (copies are in the downloads section below) are delivered to the Knowsley Provider Forum every six months to give a brief overview of the current picture of placement sufficiency and needs for Knowsley. 
Details include the numbers and types of placements for children being made (both with external providers and internally with Council services), the supply of accommodation locally, and the demographics and needs of Children Looked After.  

These are intended to be informative and helpful for all stakeholders, including those providers thinking of opening new provision within Knowsley.  

If you’d like more information or a further discussion, please contact a member of the children’s placements team on [email protected].

A detailed Sufficiency Position Statement supporting Knowsley’s strategic intentions, ambition and commitment to improving outcomes for our Children Looked After has recently been published, and this (along with a ‘key headlines’ document) can be downloaded below.

The document aims to demonstrate a detailed understanding of Knowsley’s Children Looked After (CLA) population, the children’s placement market in Knowsley in terms of both supply and demand, whilst understanding any gaps in provision.

Moreover, the purpose of this Sufficiency Position Statement is to support the ambition of ensuring all children in care live and grow up in homes and with carers that meet their needs. Finally, it will set out what Knowsley aims to do in the future to improve our provision for children and young people in care.

Downloads

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