Bedrooms

Contents

1. Bedroom Furniture, Facilities, Equipment and Decoration
2. Bedroom Security and Keys
3. Staff Presence in Bedrooms
4. Visiting and Sharing Rooms
5. Alarms and Monitoring Devices

1. Bedroom Furniture, Facilities, Equipment and Decoration

Children's bedrooms should be pleasantly furnished, equipped and decorated in a manner appropriate to their individual needs, interests and choices.

Children should be encouraged to personalise their bedrooms, with posters, pictures and personal items of their choice.

2. Bedroom Security and Keys

Children should be provided with appropriate furniture, such as a lockable cabinet or drawers to securely store personal items, including any personal information. Children should have appropriate lockable storage for their belongings and medicines (if they are permitted to administer their own).

If it is necessary to do so, for example to protect children or their belongings or to develop their sense of independence, bedrooms may be fitted with locks or other forms of security. If locks are fitted, keys may be made available to children.

3. Staff Presence in Bedrooms

Children's privacy should be respected.

Unless there are exceptional circumstances, staff should knock the door before entering children's bedrooms; and then only enter with their permission.

The exceptional circumstances where staff may have to enter a child's bedroom without knocking or asking permission are as follow:

• To wake a heavy sleeper, undertake cleaning, remove soiled clothing. In these circumstances, the child should have been told/warned that this may be necessary;
• To take necessary action, including forcing entry, to protect the child or others from injury or to prevent likely damage to property. The taking of such action is a form of physical intervention.

See Use of Restraint and Physical Interventions Procedure and Searching Children / Bedrooms Procedure.

4. Visiting and Sharing Rooms

Children should have separate bedrooms, though it may be appropriate for siblings under 10 to request to share. Any request to change or share a bedroom should be given serious consideration by the home’s manager.

Children may not receive visitors in their bedrooms unless has been agreed and risk assessed, the child's views and wishes have been obtained and considered and the arrangements are outlined in the relevant Placement Plan. Bedroom doors should remain open in this case.

5. Alarms and Monitoring Devices

The child’s social worker or person with parental responsibility must give consent in writing to any monitoring or surveillance in the home. This consent is within the delegated authority paperwork for each child. The use of CCV is regulated by the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 and the Surveillance Camera Code of Conduct (Home Office 2013).

See: Surveillance and Monitoring Procedure.

If agreed, the home should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression.

To ensure the safety of young person or others, it may be appropriate to monitor exit and entry from a child's bedroom outside of normal waking hours with the use of a silent alarm that is triggered when a door is opened.

Some children may require monitoring or telemetric devices to assist with management of a health need, such as epilepsy.

Such devices may only be used if outlined in the home's Statement of Purpose and the arrangements set out in relevant children's Placement Plans. In all cases the Registered Manager, or delegated ‘on-call’ manager must agree to their use in any emergency or out-of-hours situation.

If used, every effort must be made to ensure the child's privacy, dignity and rights whilst the system is in use.

• Their use is assessed on an individual basis and usually agreed to in the Care Plan by a social worker;, however the Registered Manager reserves the rights to agree to their use in an emergency situation or circumstances where needed to immediately safeguard a child or children;
• The child is made fully aware of their use and the reasons why the decision is made;
• Any use of the door alarms is reviewed regularly and at least monthly, as to their appropriateness of use;
• Any use of medical devices is with the agreement and in accordance with plans outlined by the child’s medical professional or GP.