Acorn House aims to:
- Provide well supported foster care placements for children and young people looked after, that offer a stable and consistent experience of family life, to enable them to maximise their life opportunities.
- Recruit and retain foster carers from diverse backgrounds thus ensuring a range of appropriate placements for children and young people.
- Respect and promote the racial, cultural, religious and linguistic backgrounds of children and young people.
- Consider the gender, suitability, disability of fostered children and young people when making placement decisions.
- Promote a child/young person centred approach.
- Provide a responsive, supportive, professional, 24 hour service for foster carers, children/young people and local authorities.
- Provide a commitment to the ongoing learning and professional development of the agency, foster carers and staff.
Our key objectives are to:
- Develop our services in order that children and young people can develop and grow within the ‘five outcome’ areas of Every Child Matters:
- Be Healthy.
- Stay Safe.
- Enjoy and Achieve.
- Make a Positive Contribution.
- Achieve Economic Wellbeing.
- Prepare, support and train foster carers to enable them to provide high quality foster care.
- Continuously monitor the services provided by the company to develop the provision accordingly.
- Support children and young people within their family placement to optimise their potential in all areas, including: physical, educational, social, psychological, and emotional development.
- Ensure that a Care Plan for the Child’s future is acted upon within the timescales and parameters, set at each review.
- Work in close partnership with local authorities to promote and safeguard the best interests and welfare of the child/young person.
- Establish, review and maintain policies and procedures that will comply with legislative and statutory requirements and expectations.
- Retain foster carers and staff through a strategy that ensures they are appropriately supervised, supported, rewarded, developed and valued.
- Establish the company on a sound financial basis, so that it continues to offer placements that provide continuity for our customers, children/young people and their carers.