Homestays is a home environment for young people aged 16-25 years. The Homestays Providers are not foster carers and do not follow fostering regulations though they maybe previous foster carers. The support they are required to give is 7-10 hours of care in one week. This maybe in showing a young person how to cook, budgeting or in fact anything that constitutes supporting a young person to become practised in independent living skills. Both the Homestays provider and the young person sign up to a Licence agreement that states the household expectations. This is a contract which is used to set out the expectations of the Homestays provider and the young person and is a binding contract.
The young person must be in education training or employment.
Where a Homestays provider is unable to accommodate a young person they may be considered for a support element for a young person who is living independently but requires some skills to maintain their accommodation.
Young people considered for a Homestays placement are 16+ young people who
Have been in a Foster placement and wish to move to a more independent placement.
Adoption Breakdowns (16-18)
Children in Need (16-18)
Support a Shared Lives transition
Looked After young people who may have struggled in independence.
Homestays providers are offered the opportunity to develop their skills through the Fostering Service training programme and to be involved in support groups.
They are monitored and supervised by the Homestays Advisors.
As a Homestays Provider you will have access to many courses on the Cumbria's E-learning portal.
We will set you up with a learning account if you do not already have one and you can look at what e-learning courses available that you would gain benefit from.
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The Essential 2 questions:
1.Within our walls, do we believe in every young person unconditionally and hold them to high expectations?
2.Do we sincerely believe that every child can succeed?
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We will introduce case studies and research in this area for you to read and think about.
First we will look at how attachment issues can affect the behaviour and learning capacity of young people in schools.
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Cumbria County Council have been working with Child Centred Practice on best practice based training to strengthen our overall work for the young people we have interactions with.
This sections of the website will give you some of this knowledge as well to think about and include some of the recommended reading links if you wish to take your knowledge further.
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Regardless of how effectively support is organised, from time to time emergencies can arise. It should be noted emergencies are rare and what is said in the following section should not give rise to any undue alarm. Homestays Advisers are not in a position themselves to provide direct support outside of office hours but this does not mean that you have to deal with emergencies unaided.
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Full details of training dates and schedule will be available soon.
Fill the enquiry form below to request information regarding any specific areas that you would like training to be arranged.