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Chariteens Residential Family Centre

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About Us

Chariteens is an OFSTED registered Residential Family Centre situated in East London, which provides court directed parenting and risk assessments for young parents and their babies where there are child protection concerns. We provide a safe and nurturing environment for up to six young vulnerable families. We provide accommodation, monitoring and assessments of up to six vulnerable parents and their babies or children within a local community setting.

Why Choose Us

With our experienced multi-disciplinary team including social workers, psychotherapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, drug and alcohol workers and family support workers, we are able to offer a comprehensive program of assessment tailored to fit within the assessment window in care proceedings. Assessments can ordinarily be completed within 12 weeks and may be extended upon request. Assessments are based on the Framework for Assessment as incorporated in the Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018 and the Parenting Assessment Manual (PAMS) by Dr. Sue McGaw. Whilst our core service is the provision of Residential Assessments we are also able to offer free pre-admission Viability Assessments and on-going community assessment upon request. Where there is a non-resident parent we are able to provide an assessment that will run alongside the residential assessment.

Who we can assess

  • Parents where the Local Authority are considering removing their child at birth.
  • Parents who had chaotic drug and/or alcohol problems but who are now drug and/or alcohol free. We will, subject to an initial risk assessment, consider admitting parents who are currently under treatment.
  • Dependent on a specific risk assessment, parents who have mental health difficulties.
  • Mothers and their children where there are concerns regarding the mother’s ability to provide protective parenting. This may include mothers who have experienced domestic violence from their partners or mothers who have formed relationships with men who have sexually offended.
  • Mothers who are in the late stages of pregnancy.
  • Families where there have been concerns regarding physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse or long standing neglect.
  • Dependent on a specific risk assessment, parents who have a history of self-harming behavior.
  • Young unaccompanied minors who are pregnant or are mothers themselves.
  • Parents who have a level of learning difficulty that is believed to impact on the care they are able to offer their child/ren.

Aims and Objectives

Our aim is to provide you and your child with a safe, secure and comfortable accommodation. This will help you to develop good parenting skills and establish higher family functioning to enable you to provide an environment in which your child is healthy, safe, and where you make a positive contribution to achieve the assessed outcomes. We work with the local community and together we will support you to fulfil the requirements within the ‘Every Child Matters’ programme with 24/7 support.

We will provide the highest quality care and support you with the aim to improve outcomes for you and your child. Together with you, we will plan personalised sessions (carefully selected from a lot of different sessions) that focus on your needs. They will be reviewed from time to time and you will have a say. At Chariteens we encourage you to voice your views, feelings and choices and we promise to listen to you and take your views into account when supporting you.

We will consult and work with others who care about you and those involved in safeguarding you and your child by providing personal development plans for the best possible care and ultimately reintegrating you into the community.

You will be supported by carefully selected, well trained and experienced staff to meet the challenges of day to day quality service, including government policy and organisational changes.

We aim to deliver value for money by exercising and promoting best practice in the Health and Social Care Sector, and being responsible to our commitments and accountable for our actions, and upholding the spirit of excellence.