Our Approach in Action

Our vision

To provide a home where children do not simply live but belong: a place where they can feel safe enough to be themselves, supported enough to face challenges and encouraged enough to recognise their own strengths and possibilities.

Our mission

Our mission is to provide highly individualised residential care that combines genuine warmth with skilled and accountable practice. Through Love-Led Care, PACE-informed relationships, Positive Behaviour Support, trauma-informed care and strong partnership working, we aim to help children build safety, trust, communication, resilience, confidence and independence.

We believe childhood should include fun, adventure, celebration, friendship and ordinary experiences. Our role is not limited to managing risk or meeting basic needs. We support children to discover interests, participate in their community, experience achievement and build positive memories while maintaining the safeguards required by their individual circumstances.

Our values in practice

• Love Led

  Kindness, patience and emotional availability within safe professional boundaries.

• Respect

  Dignity, fairness and communication responsive to identity, culture, disability and understanding.

• Belonging

  A welcoming home where children are included in daily life and decisions.

• Growth

  Realistic ambition, individual goals and recognition of meaningful progress.

• Integrity

  Honesty, accountability, accurate recording and professional curiosity.

• Excellence

  Improvement through training, supervision, reflection, feedback and audit.

Love-Led Care

Love-Led Care is the culture children should experience every day: warmth, patience, kindness, consistency and genuine interest. It does not mean weak boundaries or unstructured practice. Children need adults who are compassionate, dependable, honest, safe and professionally accountable.

PACE-informed relationships

Our staff use PACE-informed principles of Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy to strengthen connection and reduce shame. Adults seek to understand communication through words, behaviour, silence, body language or changes in presentation, while maintaining safe limits and adult responsibility.

Positive Behaviour Support and trauma-informed practice

At Our House, behaviour is treated as communication. Positive Behaviour Support helps the team understand distress, identify unmet need, make appropriate environmental or communication adjustments, teach skills and improve quality of life. Trauma-informed practice helps staff understand how adversity and disrupted attachments may affect trust, emotional regulation, learning and relationships.

Staff use co-regulation, predictable routines, preparation for transitions, calm responses and reflective learning. Any restrictive intervention must be lawful, necessary, proportionate, the least restrictive available response and used only in accordance with the child's assessed needs, plans, training and applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

Independence develops gradually and safely. Depending on age, ability and plans, support may cover cooking, nutrition, shopping, budgeting, self-care, travel confidence, digital literacy, healthy relationships, education and employment pathways, and practical life skills. The aim is meaningful progression towards the greatest level of safe autonomy each child can achieve.

At Harmony Haven Housing, our home has been developed around the Children's Homes Quality Standards, with a clear focus on providing safe, nurturing and individualised care for children with learning disabilities, autism, communication needs and complex needs.

Our aim is to ensure that every child living at Our House feels safe, understood, valued and supported to make progress at their own pace. We believe that high-quality care is not just about meeting basic needs — it is about creating a home where children can build trusting relationships, develop confidence, express themselves, enjoy positive experiences and feel a genuine sense of belonging.

Committed to the Nine Quality Standards

Harmony Haven Housing is committed to working consistently towards the nine Quality Standards set out within the Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015: Quality and Purpose of Care; Children's Views, Wishes and Feelings; Education; Enjoyment and Achievement; Health and Well-being; Positive Relationships; Protection of Children; Leadership and Management; and Care Planning. These standards are embedded throughout our Statement of Purpose, care planning, safeguarding arrangements, education support, health and wellbeing practice, children's participation, positive relationships, leadership, governance and continuous improvement.

At Our House, the nine Quality Standards are not treated as a checklist. They provide a framework for how we care for children, how we evaluate the quality and impact of our work, and how we continuously improve children's experiences and outcomes. For children, this should be visible in real life: feeling safe, being listened to, receiving care that fits the individual, accessing education and healthcare, enjoying childhood, building positive relationships, living in a well-led home and experiencing care that is properly planned and reviewed.

Leadership and quality assurance

Leadership arrangements provide accountability, reflective practice and continuous improvement. Oversight includes management monitoring, supervision and appraisal, workforce development, safeguarding review, medication and health and safety audits, children's and professionals' feedback, complaints analysis and learning from incidents.

Independent Regulation 44 visits and Regulation 45 Quality of Care Reviews form part of the wider quality assurance framework. Findings, recommendations, trends and feedback are expected to result in action, not sit in reports. The central question is whether the home's practice is improving children's experiences and progress.

Our standard for decision-making

Every major decision should withstand a simple test: is it lawful, safe, consistent with the child's plan and Statement of Purpose, informed by the child's wishes and feelings, and likely to improve the child's experience or progress?

The purpose of Our House is to provide a small, warm and carefully matched children's home where children receive consistent, relationship-based care from adults who understand their individual needs, strengths, communication styles and life experiences.

Our staff are supported to understand the aims of the home, the outcomes we want each child to achieve, and the plans in place to support their safety, wellbeing and development. Care is personalised to each child and is shaped through their care plan, risk assessments, education needs, health needs, communication profile, sensory needs and emotional wellbeing.

We aim to provide care that is calm, consistent, structured and nurturing, while still allowing children to have fun, make choices and enjoy everyday childhood experiences.

Children's voices are central to how Our House is run. We support children to share their views in ways that work for them, including through speech, visuals, objects of reference, communication aids, social stories, feelings charts, key-work sessions, creative activities and everyday conversations.

Children are encouraged to make choices about their routines, bedrooms, activities, food, hobbies, goals and the way they are supported. We want every child to know that their views matter and that adults will listen, respond and take them seriously.

We support children to access education in a way that is realistic, positive and individual to them. We work closely with schools, virtual schools, education professionals and placing authorities to promote attendance, engagement and progress.

For children who may have experienced disrupted education, we focus on rebuilding confidence, creating routine and celebrating small steps of progress. Learning is not limited to school; we also support children to develop independence, communication, social skills, emotional regulation and life skills within the home and local community.

Children at Our House are supported to enjoy safe, meaningful and age-appropriate activities. This may include creative play, sensory activities, baking, gardening, sports, music, community visits, local parks, hobbies, celebrations and trips out.

We recognise that achievement looks different for every child. For one child, achievement may be attending school more regularly; for another, it may be trying a new food, joining an activity, expressing a feeling, sleeping better, building trust with staff or managing a difficult moment safely.

We celebrate progress in all forms.

Children's physical, emotional, sensory and mental wellbeing are at the heart of our care. We support children to attend health appointments, maintain routines, understand their bodies, develop healthy habits and access specialist support where needed.

Our approach recognises the impact of trauma, communication difficulties, sensory needs and previous experiences on children's emotional wellbeing. Staff use calm, predictable and nurturing support to help children feel safe, regulated and understood.

We believe that safe and trusting relationships are the foundation of good care. Staff at Our House are expected to be warm, consistent, boundaried and emotionally available.

We support children to build positive relationships with staff, peers, family members and professionals where this is safe and appropriate. We also help children understand feelings, friendships, boundaries, conflict, repair and trust.

Our home is built on kindness, respect, patience and emotional safety.

Children are supported by consistent adults who build trust through everyday reliability: spending time together, listening, keeping promises where possible, maintaining fair boundaries, celebrating progress and remaining available during difficult moments. Each child has a key worker who supports care planning, goals, education, health, relationships, independence and the child's wishes and feelings.

Where safe and consistent with the child's Care Plan, Harmony Haven Housing supports relationships with family members, siblings and other important people. Contact arrangements are planned with the placing authority and reviewed in response to the child's needs, wishes and safety.

We work openly with social workers, Independent Reviewing Officers, education providers, Virtual Schools, health professionals, therapists, advocates, police and other relevant agencies. Effective care depends on clear information, respectful challenge, shared planning and timely action. No single organisation can deliver the best outcomes for a child in isolation.

Safeguarding is embedded into every part of Our House. Children are supported by safer recruitment, clear policies, staff training, supervision, risk assessment, missing-from-home procedures, online safety guidance, behaviour support planning and strong management oversight.

We work closely with placing authorities, safeguarding professionals, schools, health services, families and other agencies to ensure children are protected from harm.

Staff are expected to remain professionally curious, report concerns promptly, share information lawfully and proportionately, and act in the child's best interests.

Our safeguarding approach considers risks inside and outside the home, including abuse, neglect, bullying, peer-on-peer harm, child sexual exploitation, child criminal exploitation, county lines, grooming, online harm, missing-from-care episodes, radicalisation and other forms of contextual risk. Individual plans are informed by the child's circumstances, current information from partner agencies and the home's Location Risk Assessment.

Children are helped to understand safety in ways that reflect their age, understanding and communication needs. This may include work on healthy relationships, consent, personal boundaries, online safety, road safety, community safety, bullying, discrimination and how to seek help. Children can raise worries with staff, their social worker, Independent Reviewing Officer, advocate, Ofsted or other trusted professionals. Complaints and concerns are taken seriously and used as a source of learning.

Harmony Haven Housing is committed to strong, reflective and accountable leadership. The home will be led by managers who promote high standards, safe practice, staff development and positive outcomes for children.

We use supervision, team meetings, audits, reflective practice, quality assurance and feedback from children, families, professionals and staff to continually improve the service.

Our leadership approach is centred on doing what is right for children, not just what is required.

Every child at Our House will have care that is carefully planned, reviewed and tailored to their individual needs. We work closely with the placing authority and professional network to ensure that each child's plan is understood and followed in daily practice.

Before any child moves into the home, we consider whether Our House can safely meet their needs and whether they are suitably matched with any other child living in the home. This helps us protect children's safety, stability and wellbeing.

Our planning focuses on helping children feel settled, make progress, maintain important relationships where appropriate, and prepare for their next steps in life.

Our commitment is to provide a home where children are not defined by their difficulties, diagnoses or past experiences. At Harmony Haven Housing, children are seen as individuals with strengths, potential, feelings, wishes and futures.

Our House has been created to be more than a placement. It is a home where children can feel safe, build confidence, be listened to and experience the care, stability and opportunities they deserve.