Empeiria training for Supported Accommodation Providers
Empeiria are excited to announce that we have launched a new project working with services that support 16- and 17-year-old care leavers. We will be providing training for staff working in this sector to help them achieve the best outcomes possible for the young people they are supporting.
In April 2023 the Government published The Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations. These regulations came into effect in October 2023 and the Department of Education published the Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations including Quality Standards.
The introduction of this legislation means that supported accommodation that provides accommodation with support for 16- and 17-year-old looked after children and care leavers, to enable them to live semi-independently will now be regulated and inspected by OFSTED. Previously accommodation and support for young people who were classed as care leavers did not have any overarching regulatory body or standards to be measured by.
At Empeiria we welcome the new legislation and strongly believe that young people striving for independence who have spent their childhood in care settings need the right support in the right places from the right people.
Empeiria Training have been asked by a local care leavers organisation to help them in meeting these new standards as they strive to gain the best outcome from their upcoming OFSTED inspection. This organisation like all other care leaver organisations across the country are now required by OFSTED to evidence that they are meeting the regulatory standards.
The regulatory standards state that care leavers organisations will be required to evidence that:
There is an up-to-date record of the ongoing training and continuing professional development needs of staff.
All staff should undergo an effective and robust induction.
Staff should feel confident they have the skills to keep young people safe and provide them with high-quality support.
Demonstrate the impact of staff training on the quality of provision and the experiences of young people in the setting.
The guidance for supported accommodation providers states that employees should receive training in following subject areas:
Safeguarding
Health and safety
Supporting young people (for example, in their education, training or employment, in their independent living skills, promoting their social and emotional needs, including their mental health, and so on)
Child development and psychologically informed practices (for example, Trauma Informed Approaches, Psychologically Informed Environments, Adverse Childhood Experiences, attachment theory, adolescent behaviours, emotional dysregulation, positive behaviour support and de-escalation, and so on)
Equality and diversity
Leadership and management
We have worked with the organisation to complete a full training needs analysis and develop a two-day training programme for all their existing staff. Following this we will be providing them with a wide range of training opportunities for their staff to access going forward. All employees within this organisation will complete a range of e-learning modules and will have the opportunity to access QCF qualifications.
In addition to this Empeiria will provide staff attending the new training programme in the coming months face to face training in the following subject areas:
Company Introduction
Professional Boundaries
Safeguarding children and adults
Mental Health, self-harm and suicide awareness
Trauma informed approaches
Staff resilience
In 2024 Empeiria will be continuing to work with the organisation to offer employees face to face training in a range of different development areas for staff supporting care leavers such as:
Upskilling staff to upskill people they support to gain greater independence.
We will update our channels with learner feedback from the training we provide and impact that training has on the quality of provision received by young people.
Empeiria Training is all about offering training that is unique and bespoke to your organisation and its needs. Backed by decades of experience, we offer a safe environment for face-to-face learning, with our specialism being working with people with learning disabilities.
