Amanda Cunningham, Chief Executive Officer, Horizon Care & Education
There are so many young people still missing from the care system since COVID-19 who are not receiving the necessary support from multidisciplinary teams, including psychologists, therapists, and social care workers to address the diverse needs of young people across England.
The sector must provide additional training and support to ensure that young people receive appropriate levels of therapeutic care, including solo placements and step-down support from specialist CAMHS.
There is also a significant number of young people currently out of education and the sector needs to increase the availability of alternative learning provision. Our HEAL (Horizon Education Alternative Learning) provision supports young people between the ages of 5-19 who have lost their love of learning and help them transition back into education, workplaces, or training.
Funding restrictions can play a significant role in shaping the effectiveness of our sector, especially during the current economic downturn and rising cost of living. Despite this, Horizon remains committed to quality and puts therapeutic practice at the heart of what we do.
It is important to acknowledge that social care workers can experience burnout, and emotional challenges due to the demanding nature of their work and exposure to complex situations. Providing ongoing support, resources, and training ensures their continued resilience and well-being. We provide extensive wrap-around support for our colleagues to ensure their overall health and well-being. We have a fantastic therapeutic team embedded across all our services to support our key workers and a dedicated People Team focused on mental health, employee wellbeing, reward, and recognition. We are also proud to pay our colleagues the real living wage.
Better opportunities for career progression, learning, and professional development will not only address the shortage of qualified candidates but also retention challenges within children’s services. Our career advancement opportunities and professional development pathways ensure colleagues gain the right skills to achieve their career aspirations. Our Horizon Academy offers a comprehensive induction and training programme which outlines our therapeutic model to help colleagues acquire the necessary skills to support our young people.
We are looking forward to the new opportunities that the regulation of supported accommodation for 16 and 17-year-olds will bring. We believe that regulation will help to drive up standards across the sector and, crucially, support young people to achieve high-quality outcomes as they move towards independence. As one of the largest providers of supported accommodation in England, we have split our portfolio into five registrations, each with dedicated management teams to ensure rigorous oversight. Three of the providers are fully registered and pre-registration inspections have been carried out for the remaining two providers which we expect to be registered imminently.
Over the next three years, we aim to increase the availability of our homes and specialist schools in a variety of localities to address the number of young people still lacking therapeutic care, support, and education. We also hope to open more complex facilities such as assessment units to ensure young people in crisis get alternative support if there is no CAMHS available.
This growth will allow young people to still have close relationships with their loved ones and receive valuable family therapy. Building therapeutic environments that are characterised by warmth, compassion, and connection is essential to supporting young people who have experienced trauma and adversity.
I visit as many young people as possible to share their experiences and see the fantastic progress that they are making. Our young people are truly remarkable, and their achievements are a testament to their dedication and the exceptional quality of our workforce.
I have the pleasure of working alongside extraordinary key workers. They possess a high degree of empathy and compassion, which enables them to connect and understand the individual needs of our young people. Their genuine care for the welfare of others fuels their resilience and enables them to make a real difference to the lives of our young people.
