Our Service
Our goal is to empower residential childcare workers and foster parents with the understanding and skills to enable them to know what to do and why to do it! We achieve this with a two pronged approach:
1) Ongoing child focused consultations with an applied Psychologist (registered with the Health Professional Council).
2) Training in the ‘Emotional Warmth Model of Professional Child Care’ with assessed assignments for each carer. These can lead to a nationally recognised qualification.
We measure change in children’s parenting needs and emotional development with our specially designed Pillars of Parenting “Progress and Development” checklist.
Training and Development:
Our training programme covers the eight Pillars of Parenting, Adaptive Emotional Development and the effective employment of young people’s Signature Strengths.
The Eight Pillars of Parenting:
1) Providing Primary Care and Protection;
2) Encouraging Secure Attachment and building Warm Relationships;
3) Promoting Positive Self-perception;
4) Ensuring a Sense of Belonging;
5) Enhancing Resilience;
6) Teaching Self Management Skills;
7) Improving Emotional Competence;
8) Developing Personal and Social Responsibility.
Adaptive Emotional Development:
To enable carers to understand some of the different emotional phases which the child experiences following emotional trauma, Kate Cairns in her book “Attachment, Trauma and Resilience”, (published by the British National Association for Adoption and Fostering in 2002) outlines three important milestones in the journey to help children integrate their early negative experiences with their current, and hopefully more positive, situation.
Phase 1: Stabilisation
Phase 2: Integration
Phase 3: Adaptation
Signature Strengths
We have developed materials which enable residential and foster parents to identify children’s signature/ character strengths and help children and young people to utilise these strengths effectively in their everyday lives.
Open College Network Qualification
The training programme has been accredited by the Open College Network (OCN) and on successful completion of the course, carers are awarded the certified qualification ‘The Emotional Warmth Model of Professional Childcare.’ This can be awarded at Level 3 which is equivalent to A Level and at Level 4 which is equivalent to a Foundation Degree.
The qualification will take up to 18 months to complete and will include a reflective practice log to maximise professional development and to demonstrate sound knowledge and understanding of the psychological needs of traumatised children.
The programme will be assessed by Marjon University College of St Mark and St John in Plymouth, with a view to providing access to a degree programme.
