Warrington children’s services have worked to improve processes and care year upon year. There are always improvements that we can make to better help our young people in care.

In Warrington, there are higher than average numbers of children in care and some teenagers who coming into care quickly or in a crisis, stay in care for lengthy periods of time.

A focus for our services is to reduce the number of Warrington young people are being sent out of the area to care placements. Our children’s services also strive to support young people who are not thriving, facing issues such as not being in education, employment or training, going missing, receiving emergency care in hospital or being arrested and charged.

For young people who need to enter care, we want to ensure they are in placements that are right for them, are close to home and their school, and provide the best life chances.

Warrington was shortlisted and selected as a partner council for the No Wrong Door programme, as the council’s and local children’s services aspirations aligned well with the model. The programme will provide stability for Warrington’s young people who may need help the most.

The Warrington No Wrong Door scheme will develop Warrington services to become more successful in supporting young people in and on the edge of care to reconnect with their families, reduce risky behaviour and improve their aspirations.

The programme is expected to reduce the number of young people coming into care and the number of family breakdowns in Warrington.

It will also help us to improve young people’s aspirations, their engagement in the community and will help to reduce the number of young people experiencing harm.

Some of the key benefits that we expect from the scheme include:

• fewer children in care
• fewer children in residential care
• greater numbers of young people staying in family settings
• increased numbers of young people living within a long term stable or family environment
• fewer children at home on care orders
• better school attendance and engagement after coming into care
• increased numbers of young people engaging in recreational activities and hobbies
• a reduction in the severity of offences
• fewer children engaging in criminal activity
• reduced time between referrals and support accessed, and reduced waiting times
• reduced spending on external and out of area placement settings

The Lighthouse offers Edge of Care and Edging to Care outreach to young people and their families in the community who are open to social care. The purpose being to prevent young people from coming into the care system.

The Lighthouse also offers Placement Support to children already in care who are at risk of moving into external residential settings or who need support to return to a foster placement or family setting.

The Lighthouse has four short to medium residential beds and two emergency crisis beds. The Lighthouse does not offer respite. Whilst allocated a bed at the residential home, a young person can transition into an alternative provision. Their bed remains allocated to them throughout the transition period until they are ready to move permanently into one of the settings.

The Lighthouse will have two community hub carer placements. Carers will also work in the home as sessional staff to hopefully develop relationships with the young people in our care.

• There will be two enhanced supported lodgings placements.
• There will be two supported accommodation flats.
• Bespoke placements can include holiday homes, caravans etc. for up to 28 days.

Alternative provisions are only available for young people with a bed at The Lighthouse.

The Lighthouse is a multi-agency hub including a Police Liaison Officer, Police Intelligence Researcher, Communication Support Worker and Life Coach.

There are six Portfolio Leads specialising in Risk and Uncertainty, Rebuilding Relationships, Health and Wellbeing, Transition, Activities and Education to provide holistic oversight of the young people’s needs.