May we take this opportunity to wish all of our families a very happy New Year for 2017. We hope that you had a wonderful Christmas break and enjoyed the New Year celebrations. Also, please (once again) accept our apologies that Decembers newsletter is coming to you a few day's late. As you will have read from the email that was sent out yesterday we have been awaiting news on our brand new boiler. Speaking of which....
Boiler On The Brink!
Whilst the New Year is time for celebration, we ran into some difficulties last Wednesday when our boiler was condemned at around 11pm. This has happened earlier in the year leading to some cancellations of care whilst it was repaired.
However, on this occasion we were told that it was "un-repairable" and two new boilers were going to have to be installed. The hope is that this will mean if one boiler fails, the second can run whilst the first is being repaired.
Frustratingly for everyone, this was not something that could be done quickly and we were told it would take at least a week. This then meant that there was no heating or hot water at Crocus Fields at all throughout this time. Sadly, this meant the cancellation of over 30 young people's short breaks, including those staying over New Years Eve. We fully recognise how frustrating this will have been to all of our families and young people and if there was anyway we could have avoided it we would have done. The boiler is being fitted as we speak and the hope is that the work will be completed for this Friday ready for the weekends stay. All care that has been cancelled throughout this time will be replaced over the coming months.
A social story has been sent to all of the schools to show to any young people worried about what is happening or why we are not open. Should any families wish to have a copy of this please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Once again, we would like to offer our most sincere apologies to everyone, families, young people and staff. We recognise that in the last few months a number of people have had care cancelled due to emergency placements and repair issues. Care is only ever cancelled as a last resort and the decision is never taken lightly.
If any families would like to discuss the cancellations with your keyworker or one of the managers please do note hesitate to get in touch.
Ofsted Inspection 2016/2017
Our Ofsted inspection for 2016/2017 took place over two days during Christmas week. As some of you will be aware last year Crocus Fields was rated as an Outstanding home in September 2015. During our interim inspection in February we were judged to have made "Improved Effectiveness".
The full inspection takes place once each year over a two day period. This inspection looks at all aspects of the running of home and gives an overall judgment of "Inadequate", "Requires Improvement", "Good" or "Outstanding".
The inspection criteria looks to evaluate "The Overall Experiences and Progress of Children and Young People Living in the Home", by taking into account: "How Well Children and Young People are Helped and Protected" and "The Impact and Effectiveness of Leaders and Managers".
We are very happy to let everyone know that Crocus Fields was rated as an Outstanding provision in all inspection areas. The inspection report will be available for all families to read once it has been published and an email will be sent out alerting you to it's publication.
Crocus Fields is keen to continue to improve as a service for young people and their families. We continue to welcome any feedback you may have for us in how we can achieve this for you and your children.
Art Project Videos
Following on from our recent Art Project with Nottingham Contemporary, we would like to direct you all to the videos which will be available via our website this afternoon. This has been put together to celebrate the fantastic work that Josh, Albert, Nick and Katie completed over the last two years.
On behalf of everyone at Crocus Fields we would like to thank the Contemporary, in particular Sam Metz and Alice Thicket who went out of their way to accommodate a number of different projects over the last few years. Also to our very own Calum Watts who led this project from our end ensuring it always happened and went ahead, often coming in on his day's off to take part in it. The videos are available via a separate blog or by clicking here.
Finally, we would like to thank Eddie Turner (our website designer) who after completing our stunning website has continued to help us manage it free of charge. He helps us edit these videos and spent a considerable amount of his own time to do so. If you would like to know more about Eddies work you can find his website here.
New Assistant Unit Manager
The New Year welcomes a new (but very familiar) Assistant Unit Manager to the team. Lucy Hall has worked at Crocus Fields for over 12 years as a student nurse, a CRSCW, and an Outreach worker. Many of you will have met her during her time with us either through Crocus Fields or Outreach. Lucy started as an Assistant Manager late in December and will be working each Thursday and Friday. Lucy is available to be contacted on 0115 8762286.
Goodbye (for now) and Good Luck Yvonne
Whilst we welcome back Lucy, we say a temporary goodbye to Yvonne Parr from the CRSCW team. Yvonne has taken a secondment to manage one of the mainstream homes for a period of six months.
All of Yvonne's key children have been assigned a new keyworker and families have been informed of the move. Yvonne is planning on returning to Crocus after her secondment finishes and so she will be back before too long.
Fantastic Training Sessions
We would like to take this opportunity to thank two volunteers for delivering training of the highest quality during our team day in December.
Steven Pinot De Moira started the day by talking to the team about having autism, having a son with autism and using Crocus Fields as a parent. This was an exceptionally good session which I believe will be remembered for a long time to come by the team. We would like to thank Steven for this outstanding and honest insight into his life and many of the challenges that come from both having autism, having a son with autism and using our service.
Following on from Steven we welcomed James Jacobs, a worker from the adult service "Space Inclusive". After we had seen an article he had written on their website earlier in the month, James came to talk to the team about having Asperger syndrome and mental health difficulties. It highlighted the huge importance of recognising the difference between the two challenges that some of our young people face. We would like to thank James for this fantastic session and encourage him to deliver more training in the future! Space Inclusive is a social enterprise day service for adults with learning disabilities based in Nottingham City. Their website is available here. If you or your family would like to know more about what they do they have said you are all welcome to get in touch with them.
The Year Ahead
Crocus Fields are in the process of putting together their plan for the year ahead.
Our service plan and proving outcomes plan runs from April to April. This year we are hoping to publish these plans via our website and as mentioned earlier, any feedback you may have on the running of the home or how we can improve would be welcomed.
See you next month.