All referrals come directly to our main office and are passed from the Admin Support Care directly to our Business Manager.
We aim to get back to the placement officer concerned or the Social Worker within ten minutes of a referral coming in. In general, it will be the BM who will discuss matters with the referring authority in order to determine the most suitable destination for the referral in terms of client requirement.
The referral is then passed on to the Registered Manager of the most appropriate home who will then liaise directly with the Social Worker and/or the carer for the child or young person.
The Registered Manager will make a decision following an intensive matching process often involving further exchanges of information and/or documentation having also consulted with the Responsible Individual for the Home.
Where at all possible a planned admission is preferred whereby the placement can be further assessed either at the existing Home and/or if possible, a planned visit to the prospective home which may be an overnight stay or a tea/dinner event.
The overall objective is of course to demonstrate and to assure matching procedures are followed.
Our Managers and care staff do not get involved in the fees and contracts provided for any offered placement; this is a procedure which is conducted via our Admin Support Care and Operations Manager with the placing authority. We prefer to make a distinction between care welfare requirements from a casework viewpoint and the contractual element between provider and commissioner.
We operate an OOH service and are able to deal with emergency requests during these times.