Urban-Care provides high quality one, two and three bedded accommodation to young people 16 years and older, with varying levels of support depending upon the young person’s needs. We provide smaller units that allow for a more settled home, lowers the variables young people have in their lives and maximises the support.

We are currently located in the Dover and Folkestone areas in Kent, however our service model is specifically designed to be responsive to the needs of Local Authorities and bespoke accommodation can be sourced at less than a week’s notice.

The bedrock of our narrative is sustainable arrangements of young people to reduce disruption and instability, with this in mind we recognise young peoples needs change along with the resources that support them. Our support will be tailored to the young people and delivered within a SMART framework to ensure progress is timely and auditable, enabling support packages to be reduced in line with developing independence and progression to room only packages.

We are well versed in working within a multi-agency forums, and will work alongside the responsible authority to engage partner agencies whom will assume funding responsibilities either partly of fully again to avoid disruption for young people.

Urban-Care is founded upon extensive experience of Specialist Children’s Service, with particular attention to statutory Children in Care practice and with this in mind the service delivery replicates already established practices and expectations. Referrals are initially screened by an experienced Social Worker where a formal matching process is undertaken. Placement arrangement meetings will occur within five working days to set out the agreed level of support, roles and expectations of the service.

Urban-Care operate an emergency placement scheme for young people in need of placements out of hours and in emergencies, we are able to place young people subject to bail conditions and electronic monitoring devices.

Urban-Care can cater for a range of outreach services, supporting established young people leaving our accommodation into fully independent accommodation or commissioned support to new clients. We are able to support young people with a range of tasks to improve their outcomes such as CV writing, health appointments and engagement in education.

Support to accompany young people to community activities and social trips to places of interest for example the gym or sports facilities or events can also be booked.

Outreach support will be subject to regular review with the commissioning authority and will be undertaken with the same SMART framework; to ensure focus upon agreed outcomes.

Outreach can also be purchased via Personal Independence Payments.

From NEET to EET

It is an unfortunate reality for children and young people whom grow up in the care system have lower than average educational attainment, ultimately leading to reduced opportunity in the work place.

Upon placement, Urban-Care will undertake an educational assessment with the young person setting out their goals and aspirations coupled with what is known about their abilities. We recognise not all young people can access mainstream education easily and as such Urban-Care has access to a wide and extensive range of commissioned alternative curriculum provision. Bespoke ‘re engagement’ programmes can be tailored to the young person’s educational needs with the view for them to attend an accredited programme of education.

Alongside alternative provisions there are also a number of colleges and universities young people can be supported to attend.

Young people will be supported in seeking employment and Urban-Care will factor work place expectations into the direct work throughout the placement.

There are many reasons why young people need to be placed in emergencies such as incident lead placement breakdown, unsafe to remain in the family home, discharge from hospital. More commonly this is experienced by young people whom have been arrested and cannot return home for bail condition prohibit it or they cannot be placed with children under a certain age.

Given the unknown risks associated with these placements a higher level of support will be in place for the initial 7 days where an assessment of risk and independence can be undertaken allowing for longer term planning.

Urban-Care recognise young people’s journey to successful independence varies significantly depending upon a myriad of factors, we are able to offer the Local Authority access to a well-equipped Life Skills Studio to aid in the effective assessment and training of life skills for young people in a safe and controlled environment.

Our Independence Life Skills Development Program covers practical, theory and interactive life skills essential for young people leaving care and entering into society. We intend to make a significant change in the lives of all the young people that come to our projects and equip them for the skills of life in our difficult and ever changing society.

The assessment of young people’s level of independence is vitally important within the care planning process for young people on the verge of transitions, often assessments are further complicated in light of access to adequate resource in what can often feel a constructed environment. Assessments are historically confined to children’s centres and foster carers homes, Urban-Care is seeking to offer an alternative flexible and robust assessment, either undertaken with an independent Urban-Care experienced staff member or the Local Authorities own assessor.

Elements of the modules of our program are: Budgeting, Shopping/Meal Planning, Personal Hygiene, Debt/finical Management, Keeping Appointments, Motivation & Determination, Respect & Responsibility, Citizenship, Role models, and Psychological Development & Well-Being. Assessments undertaken by Urban-Care will encompass the young person’s engagement with essential services and amenities in the community.

The Studio is equipped with a full range of cooking and cleaning equipment, our experienced staff will support young people within a clear and measurable framework to ensure progress is as timely as it can be. Urban-Care can offer a comprehensive range of either one off assessments to ongoing independence building, all plans will be formed and agreed with the young people and commissioning Local Authority with agreed reviews prior to the intervention, written reports will be completed to either support the Local Authorities assessment or an Urban-Care independent assessment.

The independence assessment can contain an arranged number of overnight stays, unfortunately although under 16’s can access the training and assessment they are not able to partake in the overnight stays, this is for the 16 plus cohort only. This is a non-staffed unit, although the young people would have access to 24-hour support whom can attend if needed.

These units can also be used to support family contact and parenting assessments as it is often unsuitable for children to return to the family home for contact of assessment sessions and attending social services buildings is often contentious.

The Dispersal scheme was introduced in July 2016 following the high numbers of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children entering Kent and the nature of the law dictating Kent assume responsibility for these young people. The Dispersal Scheme sets out the method in which these young people are ‘dispersed’ around the country.

Owing to the fact Kent has up until July 2016 cared for this cohort of young people it is well resourced in meeting their needs, such as independent specialist education providers and most if not all colleges are able to offer a range of English as a second language courses. Medical services are often equipped with translation services and there are good links with mosques and Orthodox Churches. All of which for an Authority not accustom to this group of young people will be very costly to provide.

Urban-Care will provide a holistic wrap around service for those young people while they remain in Kent where the service provision is established, resulting in minimal cost to the responsible Authority.