Out-of-Home Care Programme

Mission Statement
 
To ensure that the best interests of all children and young people who cannot live with their birth families are appropriately safeguarded through the provision of a continuum of out-of-home care options which prioritise a family-like environment.

The Service
 
To implement its mission statement, the Out-of-Home Care Programme co-ordinates three types of service provision:  

  Specialised Home-Based Care
  Freeing Children for Adoption 
  Co-Management of Residential Homes  

 
Aims & Objectives
  • To identify those children and young persons who cannot live with their birth families and whose needs cannot be met within the current out-of-home care provision;
  • to encourage, recruit, train, assess and support individuals and families who are willing to accommodate and care for these children and young persons within their homes; 
  • to match children and young persons who need specialised care with individuals or families who are able to provide it; 
  • to support those individuals and families who are providing this type of service in order to ensure that the needs of the children and young persons continue to be met; 
  • to identify those children and young persons whose best interests would be more appropriately safeguarded had they to be adopted; 
  • to ensure that the possibility of adoption is available to these children and young persons; 
  • to implement all procedures necessary to attain adoption for these children and young persons, together with all persons involved in their lives; 
  • to continue to support adoptive parents who care for children and young persons who are eligible for specialised care; 
  • to collaborate with organisations involved in the current provision of residential out-of-home care to make this provision better able to deal with children and young persons with particular needs; 
  • to implement a policy whereby children and young persons being cared for within residential facilities receive more individualised services; 
  • to encourage and support providers of residential out-of-home care services to move their services into the community, thus working to minimise the stigma associated with being cared for within residential facilities;
  • to regularly evaluate all the services being provided by the Out of Home Care Programme to ensure that they continue to meet their objectives and to safeguard the best interests of those children needing the Programme’s services. 
     
This section also provides the High Support Service.