Kindre

Accreditation Summary

Date: 12/09/2022

Summary:

Kindre is a new centre which opened in April 2022 to provide supervised and supported contact in the Stoke and Hanley areas.

[Please note, the accreditation summary below is regarding the premises of Kindre prior to the change of venue in November 2022].

The contact centre is based in Hanley Business Park with its own small car park and is 10-15 minutes’ walk from the bus and train stations. It currently rents rooms from the United City Learning Academy (UCLA), which is an independent alternative school provision for children with challenging behaviour.

There is only one entrance and exit but there is a separate waiting area so that parents do not meet and a video camera of the car park and entrance so that action can be taken if parents arrive together even with staggered arrival times. The entrance is buzzer controlled so no-one can enter the building unnoticed. The rooms available consist of one main contact room, a waiting room and an alternative room for meetings with parents or seeing older children. The assessor saw a wide range of toys and games in the contact room, with the second room being simply furnished where older children might wish to chat rather than play. There was a good supply of toys and art materials. There is also an open plan area which will be used for supported contact at weekends once demand grows. All rooms are on the ground floor with good disabled access although no specific toilets with disabled facilities. There is a Student Lounge which can be used for older children or meetings with parents. There is also a large open plan room “the Classroom” which will eventually be used on an open plan basis by several families for supported contact.

There is a very detailed welcome pack which in combination with the website provides information on the location, opening times, services provided, contact details, premises, the referral process, charges, and rules for service users. The centre has also produced its own welcome pack for children. This is attractively presented in colour with pictures of the rooms and toys and the staff the children will meet. It includes some games and a feedback form. Preparation sessions take place with both parents prior to contact starting with pre–visits for children also being offered. The organisation allocates two workers or one plus an experienced volunteer to each family. Usually only one is present during the session with the second available if needed in the office onsite. Reviews are built into the Family’s Workplan with the planned number of sessions stated from the outset. If contact takes place off-site then the venue is risk assessed in advance with a recent example being a nearby soft play centre. Neither home visits nor transporting children are likely to be offered in the near future.

The organisation currently has two paid workers, the co-ordinator and director of the organisation and another worker employed as family coach to undertake supervised contact and dispute resolution work with families. The centre also has two sessional workers and one volunteer.

The Co-ordinator has done well to establish a centre so quickly. The staff team are all very experienced In helping families with contact issues. They have an excellent welcome pack for adults and children and are very open to feedback and improvement as the service develops. Particular strengths are the good location, the experienced and highly committed staff, being very open to feedback, learning how to improve services, and being very organised in term of policies and procedures. Any recommended actions following the visit are now complete meaning the service meets the standards for enhanced (supervised) accreditation.