Coming soon.... the Children's Homes Leaders Conference 2023!
This is the conference that informs, networks and celebrates Registered Managers, Responsible Individuals, owners and those who support their leadership.
Children’s homes leaders are privileged to care for some of our most vulnerable children and play a significant role in their development and achievements. There are big changes proposed for the children’s homes sector by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care. Right now, throughout the changes and beyond, leaders need to be informed, inspired and innovative.
This event celebrated the excellent and unsung achievements of the majority of homes by launching the awards ceremony for Registered Manager of the Year, Responsible Individual of the Year and Regul
Highlights of 2022
“Absolute phenomenal day …. Excellent line up of speaker and fantastic workshops to match” Children’s Home Area Manager
“It was amazing to spend a day with people who share every day of their lives doing the same things for the same purpose. There isn’t many opportunities to experience such an amazing networking. We all drove home with our batteries charged and full of ideas!” Registered Manager
“What a day! So much inspiration and creativity in one room!” Owner / Director
“….. what really struck me was the passion and enthusiasm in our sector to do better for our young people” Residential Operations Manager.
“It was so educational, emotional and insightful. I was proud to be present around such passionate people and it’s given me hope that together, we can change our children’s life experience in the care system. My head is buzzing with so many ideas.” Registered Manager
Make Care Incredible For a summary of the speaker presentations, click here
For the workshop presentations, click here
2023 Training
Click on the date for more information and to book.
Date TBC , 10- 1pm
All children matter- we know that. This ‘Black Children Matter’ workshop considers how children’s homes leaders can specifically explore how they help black children in their care know that they matter. This session will explore challenges and ways of nurturing their black identity and achieving positive impacts from culturally aware care. This is designed to be a non-judgemental learning space where participants from all backgrounds feel safe to ask any questions, share current issues and leave empowered to actively and confidently, engage with race and culture.
CHQ Registered Managers Network
Next Session- October 18th 2023, 10-12.30
February 8th 2024
April 17th 2024
Following the success of our Registered Managers Training Days and the numerous request we receive for an ongoing opportunity to meet, we are delighted to provide the CHQ Registered Manager’s Network!
The Registered Managers role in children’s homes is critical to children receiving high quality care, and in the home achieving good inspection outcomes. This is a professional role that is broad, demanding and rewarding. An Ofsted Commentary (February 2020) stated that in successful homes, Registered Managers value their personal development and access to support is an important theme. These quarterly sessions are designed to Inform, Discuss, Learn, Share and Nourish.
CHQ Responsible Individuals Network
The Responsible Individual is vital in providing management oversight and driving children’s homes to provide high quality care.
Each session will cover:
RI Reflections: Opportunity for RI’s to share concerns, management issues, good practice, generate ideas and problem solve.
Sector Section: Focus on any developments within or impacting on the residential childcare sector, including Ofsted issues and relevant research.
Regulatory Review: This will consider a specific aspect of legislation, SCCIF and discussion regarding what this means in practice and how RI’s can best monitor and evidence this.
Future Focus- agreement regarding the specific regulatory focus for the next session or specific topics that RI’s would like to cover in more detail.
Our last session included a presentation from an ex Ofsted Regional Inspection Manager on the RI role in preparing for and supporting inspections and taking action following inspection.
Next sessions are October 17th 2023, February 7th 2024, April 17th 2024, 10-12pm. These sessions are open to those who have attended CHQ Responsible Individual Training. For more information contact: office@childrenshomesquality.com
Contextual Safeguarding for Children's Homes Leaders
This training provides critical learning on the risks young people face outside of children's homes to assist managers promote their safety. Contextual Safeguarding is an approach to safeguarding adolescents, which responds to their experiences of harm outside of the family or placement home. Young people may be safe in their homes, but exposed to risk, threat and harm, beyond the front door, and outside the range of their carers’ influence. This training is based on the work of Dr Carlene Firmin, and introduces the concepts of extra familial harm, the importance of context, the limitations of a traditional safeguarding approach, the contextual safeguarding approach, lessons and resources emerging from the contextual safeguarding network and research, and an application of the approach to a children’s home experience.
Crisis Intervention – hope in the hardest of situations.
Have you ever felt that you have got to “the end of the road” with a child or young person? You and your colleagues have tried everything, and the situation isn’t getting any better and maybe it’s getting worse? This is the course for you. It is the opportunity to learn how to create a new perspective and, most importantly, develop a plan to help move things forward. It is based on practice and research developed in In-Patient Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, but Clair Davies MBE adapted it to successfully work in Children’s Homes for many years. It considers all perspectives respectfully and engages children, young people and those working with them in a way that provides some hope in the hardest of situations.
This session is led by care experienced Mary-Anne Hodd. This is about the impact of the language we use, from a child's perspective, and how to make our words more caring and dignifying.
While the politicians and government officials are rearranging the sector, managers and staff are resolutely focused on making a difference to the children in their care. The ‘early plans’ of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care’s identified ‘love’ as ‘perhaps the most important foundation’ of a good childhood (IRCSC, March 2021). This has prompted many children’s homes to really consider how to create environments where love between staff and children can safely flourish. Join us on as we explore how to create this and how the regulatory framework can be used to support and evidence Lovin' Care.
“I wanted the adults and myself to attend Lovin Care training because of it’s views on making a change to how ‘residential children’s homes’ are perceived. The training was by far the best training I have attended and it was refreshing to meet others with an enthusiasm for change. Lovin Care has given us even more drive and ambition to ensure that the children we care for feel like we are their home and feel unconditionally loved. Furthermore it has given us the confidence to challenge those around us and to proactively change institutionalised perceptions” Michelle Wright, Responsible Individual
Best practice training for leaders of children’s homes .
One in every ten looked after children will go missing compared to an estimated one in every two hundred children generally. This disproportionately high number places a responsibility on children’s homes to understand the key factors contributing to children in care going missing, and to respond with the best possible practice.
In this workshop we aim for children’s homes leaders to gain the knowledge and skills required to reduce the risk of young people going missing from care in the first place, and to be confident in how to respond safely and appropriately when they do. We look at the role of the children’s home before, during and after a missing episode and ensure that approaches consider both local and national guidance.
Quality Standards in Practice
The Children’s Homes Quality Standards was incorporated into legislation in 2015 and radically changed the way care is provided and measured. All managers and staff working in children’s homes are required to have a good understanding of this and ensure that whatever their role, they contribute to children receiving high quality care.
Reflective Supervision for Children's Homes Training
Registered Manager Training- 1 day:
Venue: Victoria, Central London
November 2nd 2023 10am - 4pm
This one day face-to face training is back! This has been an essential training for aspiring, new and existing Registered Managers to understand their regulatory responsibilities, how to practically fulfil these and how to demonstrate effectiveness at inspection.
Responsible Individual Training
We have been providing training in this area for over 5 years . We have adapted our popular face to face Responsible Individual Training to a virtual training session with the same trainer. This training provides an understanding of the legal requirements related to the Responsible Individual role and effective ways of putting these into practice.
Restorative Practice and Why it Works
Trauma informed therapeutic childcare is based on relationships. Practitioners create healthy attachment relationships with the children and young people in their care and this leads to healing from trauma. When a child or young person acts in a way that hurts themselves or others, they damage their relationships. Restorative Practice is a way for the carer to help the child or young person to repair their relationships. It is a theoretical approach which provides lots of practical advice about what to do to restore relationships. It is structured, non-judgemental and it works. Join Clair Davies MBE, who has thirty years’ experience working in Children’s Homes to find out what it is and why Restorative Practice is so helpful and successful.
Reviewing the Quality of Care: Regulation 45
Regulation 45 reports are a vital part of homes monitoring. It is designed to enable homes to evaluate the quality of care and contribute to continuous improvements. CHQ are holding a virtual workshop to help managers take an in depth look at the regulatory expectations around this requirement. This will include exploring practical approaches to completing meaningful and impactful Reg 45 reports.
Risk assessments - imbedding effective risk management systems in Children's Homes.
Keeping children safe is everyone’s responsibility and this is especially true for those of us who work with children and young people in care.
Children in care are additionally vulnerable. They are at greater risk of going missing, of being sexually exploited and of being drawn into crime. Yet the requirements Ofsted most frequently make when they inspect children’s homes, are about risk management; in particular making sure that providers are writing appropriate risk assessments for children.
Risk assessing forms a vital part of keeping the children in our care safe, but with little guidance out there about how to do this effectively, it can be a challenge to know that we are getting it right, and that risk assessments are actually helping to keep children safe.
Transitions and Interdependence
July 6th 2023, 10- 13.00
Independence is pushed as one of the basic goals throughout a young person’s pathway planning and leaving care transition journey. This session explores what independence really means, and considers how this might miss the mark for our young people.
The discussion moves through practical examples of independence, before bringing in the concept and research surrounding interdependence. Each approach is considered from young person and professional experiences, and considers what this looks like in practice.
Trauma Informed Practice: More than My Aces
May 15th , 2023 10-1pm
Understanding the ACES (Adverse childhood experiences) framework, and the potential impact of childhood adversity and trauma are fundamentals when supporting young people in Care. Yet, it’s also important to understand how to move beyond ACEs, with consideration for PACEs (preventative and compensatory experiences).
This session explores the reality of ACEs, referring to Mary’s personal ACEs score, what this means to her and how the score came about from the journey of her life. We move on to consider how ACEs may be reductionist or deterministic if used in the wrong way.
Tailored training for homes and organisations is also available.
All our courses are informed by discussions with those commissioning the training to ensure it is tailored to meet organisational need. . All courses are certificated.
Training for your whole team training on topics from our core offer above. Virtual or face to face, sessions include
Professional curiosity and boundaries – 1 day
To support staff to understand their professional role in children’s homes, and to develop their awareness of staying curious and open.
Safeguarding in children’s homes – 1 day
To develop a sound safeguarding awareness and culture within a children’s home; making sure that staff are aware of current risks and signs of harm inside and outside of the home, and how to respond to support children and increase their safety.
Safer Recruitment for Children’s Homes
Children’s homes must do everything they can to prevent appointing people who may pose a risk to children. In addition, they need to assure themselves that those appointed can, or have the potential to, effectively meet the needs of children placed. A consistently applied and robust recruitment process is always needed. This training draws on Choosing with Care ( The Warner Report) designed to ensure recruiting managers for children’s homes are aware of how to safely recruit staff and comply with Ofsted requirements.
Raising the Bar - Safeguarding in disabled children’s homes – 2 half days
Safeguarding training tailored specifically to address the additional needs and risks for disabled children in care. This training will increase your awareness and motivation, and develop your range of supportive and protective safeguarding activities.
Trauma and Resilience for staff – 2 half days
This course is designed to equip staff with the knowledge and understanding of what might constitute a Trauma, enabling them to Realise, Recognise and Respond to the young people, through a Trauma Informed Lens. We will consider how trauma experiences impact the Nervous System and how our own stress response can impact, and be impacted on, through this work. Building and maintaining our own resilience is essential for everyone who works with traumatised individuals, strategies and practical techniques on how to do that, will run throughout the 2 days.
A Quest for Safety – Attachment and trauma informed practice and a therapeutic approach - 2 days
An evidence-based, deep dive into children’s attachment, the impact of disrupted attachment and childhood trauma, and a practical and effective approach to use in children’s homes. The course will support the development and use of positive relationships and attachment and trauma sensitive behaviours with young people who feel unsafe and resist closeness because of their childhood trauma.
Preparation for Inspection – 1 day
Supporting you to embrace regulations, quality standards and Ofsted inspections, as positive supports to excellent care. Equipping you with practical and effective ways of making sure you are inspection ready, able to showcase your best work and tell the story of your children’s journeys in your care.
Team Development Days
We can facilitate purposeful and fun days for your team to connect and work on issues together.
Team Wellbeing Days
Give back some love and nurture to the people who work so hard and care for our children.
- Email: office@childrenshomesquality.com
- Bespoke training to meet emerging, current and urgent needs- talk to us about what you need. Email: office@childrenshomesquality.com
- Train the trainers – grow your own capacity to develop your staff. Come and learn how to train staff in key topics: Reflective practice; quality standards in practice; safeguarding in children’s homes. Email: office@childrenshomesquality.com
- Team development/away days We can facilitate purposeful and fun days for your team to connect and work on issues together. Email: office@childrenshomesquality.com
- Team wellbeing days – giving back some love and nurture to the people who work so hard and care for our children. Email: office@childrenshomesquality.com
More content to come on Meet the Trainers