About Us
The Ferntree is an Ofsted registered Supported Accommodation, which provides support and accommodation to vulnerable 16–18-year-old young people. We have services in Luton, Central Bedfordshire, Bedford, Leicestershire, and West Midlands. Our Supported Accommodation living opportunities provides support for young people with low, medium to high level needs. We provide accommodation and support for care leavers and young people that are looked after by the local authority and are considered vulnerable. The Ferntree is committed to providing a secure, homely environment where young people can feel safe and have their individual needs met. We seek to produce best services for the young people that are in our care whilst they transition to independent living. The key to our success lies in our ability to respond to the individual needs of our young people. We involve the young people in designing their support and delivery of the services by listening to their voices, wishes and feelings. For each referral received by the placement manager, a risk assessment is conducted to find out if the placement can meet the needs of the young person being referred and that accepting the referral will not disrupt the stability of the young people already living in the placement. A Matching Policy is implemented when considering new referrals.
Our service users include:
- Child Looked After (CLA) and care leavers aged 16 to 18 years or up to 24 years in some cases.
- Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC) aged 16 to 18 years.
- UASC 18 to 21 years with no recourse to public funds subject to a Human Rights assessment.
- Young people who are homeless and those running from abuse aged 16 to 17 years.
- Young people remanded in prison through the Youth Justice System aged 16 to 17 years.
Collaborating with other stakeholders
The Ferntree work with other professionals to support young people’s pathway plans so that they are best placed to achieve results and positive outcomes. The Ferntree addresses issues related to safeguarding including Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE), Child Criminal Exploitation/County Lines, Modern Slavery and missing from care issues that may emerge with any young people in placement.
We work in partnership with other stakeholders such as the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB), Social Workers, NHS, Colleges, Police, Home Office, Immigration Solicitors, Refugee Council, Red Cross, Youth Justice Team, NSPCC, Barnardo’s, and several others to protect our young people from harm, abuse, and risk of exploitation. Working together approach helps the professionals to identify problems earlier before they escalate by sharing information. If a young person is experiencing trauma which might lead to placement break down, we will work with lead professional to undertake a multi-agency approach to agree a plan of action to support the young person to maintain the placement.
