Children’s Guide

Each Children’s Home must produce a Children’s Guide.

The Children’s Guide must be made available to all children when their placement in the home is agreed (or on arrival at the home if the placement is made in an emergency). It forms part of the child’s transition to living in the home. Any pictures of the home environment should be updated when any changes occur as so not to confuse the child on their arrival.

The Children’s Guide must be age appropriate and provided in an accessible format. Residential Practitioners in the home should go through the guide with each child to make sure they understand it.

The Children’s Guide should help children to understand the following:

• The day to day routines of the home (‘what happens in the home’);
• The information which the home keeps on them and why including who it might be shared with;
• Their right to access their case file;
• The care and support they will receive while living in the home;
• The homes’ Statement of Purpose;
• How to make a complaint in line with the home’s Complaints by and On Behalf of Children Procedure;
• How to access an Advocate or Independent Visitor (See Leeds Children’s Rights Service);
• How to contact the Office of the Children’s Commissioner.

The Children’s Guide should be reviewed regularly; this review should incorporate feedback from children and young people living in the home, gathered during the ‘children’s meetings which take place in the home.