Certified-DDP-Organisation-web-72RGB

Clover Childcare Services

 Who we are .…..

Clover Childcare Services is an independent organisation founded in 2007, specialising in therapeutic re-parenting, assessment, and therapy for children who have experienced adverse childhood experiences, including trauma, loss, neglect, and abuse.

We create a safe, nurturing environment where children can begin to heal, rebuild trust, and develop emotional resilience through consistent, relationship-focused care.

At the heart of our approach are the principles of Dyadic Developmental Practice (DDP) and the PACE attitude—Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity, and Empathy. These values guide every interaction and help children feel seen, heard, and understood. We are proud to be a DDP Certified Organisation since 2023, reflecting our commitment to trauma-informed, attachment-focused care across all areas of our work.

Our dedicated and creative team includes qualified social workers, teachers, therapists, and specialist consultants, who work collaboratively to provide a high-quality, child-centred service.

With over 50 years of combined experience across both local authority and independent sectors, our Directors have built a service that is both comprehensive and deeply rooted in therapeutic practice, offering lasting support to children and their families

Kath Laidlaw – Director

Kath has been a Direc­tor of Clover Child­care Ser­vices since its estab­lish­ment in Octo­ber 2007. Dur­ing this time, she has also served as the Reg­is­tered Man­ag­er for both Clover Lodge and The Old Rec­to­ry, lead­ing with ded­i­ca­tion and com­pas­sion.

With a career in res­i­den­tial child­care dat­ing back to 1990, Kath has worked exten­sive­ly with chil­dren fac­ing a wide range of chal­lenges, includ­ing learn­ing dif­fi­cul­ties, emo­tion­al and behav­iour­al needs, and the last­ing effects of abuse, neglect, and emo­tion­al harm.

Her pre­vi­ous roles with­in Norfolk’s Local Author­i­ty Children’s Ser­vices gave her a strong foun­da­tion in:

  • Man­ag­ing and super­vis­ing staff teams

  • Con­duct­ing core assess­ments

  • Han­dling com­plaints

  • Writ­ing poli­cies and deliv­er­ing train­ing

  • Staff recruit­ment and devel­op­ment

Kath’s decades of hands-on expe­ri­ence and deep com­mit­ment to ther­a­peu­tic care con­tin­ue to shape the val­ues and qual­i­ty of ser­vice at Clover Child­care Ser­vices

Dan Knight – Director 

Dan has led Clover Child­care Ser­vices as Direc­tor since its found­ing in Octo­ber 2007. He brings a wealth of expe­ri­ence from across the children’s social care sec­tor, with a par­tic­u­lar focus on sup­port­ing chil­dren in cri­sis.

Dan has man­aged both low-occu­pan­cy cri­sis inter­ven­tion units and larg­er group homes, and has worked in areas includ­ing 16+ sup­port, fos­ter­ing, train­ing, and con­sul­tan­cy focused on direct work with chil­dren. His most recent work has cen­tred on ther­a­peu­tic res­i­den­tial care, where he con­tin­ues to play a hands-on role in shap­ing high-qual­i­ty, rela­tion­ship-based ser­vices.

Pre­vi­ous­ly, with­in Norfolk’s Local Author­i­ty Children’s Ser­vices, Dan gained exten­sive expe­ri­ence in:

  • Man­ag­ing staff teams and pro­vid­ing super­vi­sion

  • Con­duct­ing core assess­ments and man­ag­ing com­plaints

  • Writ­ing poli­cies and deliv­er­ing train­ing

  • Strate­gic plan­ning and devel­op­ing tai­lored care man­age­ment pro­grammes for chil­dren with com­plex needs

Dan’s com­mit­ment to cre­at­ing safe, nur­tur­ing envi­ron­ments for vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren is at the heart of Clover Child­care Ser­vices.

What we do?

Integrated Care, Education & Therapy

At Clover Child­care Ser­vices, we pro­vide place­ments that seam­less­ly inte­grate care, edu­ca­tion, and ther­a­py. This tri­adic approach is at the heart of the progress and pos­i­tive out­comes our chil­dren expe­ri­ence.

Grounded in DDP & Therapeutic Re-Parenting

Our homes and school are built on the prin­ci­ples of Dyadic Devel­op­men­tal Prac­tice (DDP). We use ther­a­peu­tic re-par­ent­ing, guid­ed by the PACE atti­tude—Play­ful­ness, Accep­tance, Curios­i­ty, and Empa­thy—to cre­ate safe, trust­ing rela­tion­ships that help chil­dren reflect, reg­u­late, and heal.

We are active­ly work­ing towards organ­i­sa­tion­al DDP accred­i­ta­tion—a process that has led us to eval­u­ate and strength­en both our poli­cies and dai­ly prac­tices. View­ing our work through a “DDP lens” has allowed us to align every part of our ser­vice around mean­ing­ful, rela­tion­ship-focused care.

Curi­ous what our staff think about DDP? [See their reflec­tions here.]

Transparent, All-Inclusive Fees

Our wrap­around ser­vice is ful­ly inclu­sive, with no hid­den or incre­men­tal costs. Every­thing we pro­vide is cov­ered in one clear fee struc­ture.

📩 Get in touch
For details about place­ments or fees, please email us at:
enquiries@cloverchildcareservices.co.uk

.

Health

Understanding the Children We Support

The chil­dren referred to us have often faced ear­ly trau­ma, includ­ing sep­a­ra­tion, loss, neglect, abuse, and insta­bil­i­ty. These expe­ri­ences can shape a child’s view of the world, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult for them to trust adults or form secure rela­tion­ships.

Many of the chil­dren we care for have expe­ri­enced:

  • Attach­ment dif­fi­cul­ties

  • Mul­ti­ple place­ment break­downs

  • Chal­leng­ing or entrenched behav­iours

  • Devel­op­men­tal trau­ma

At Clover Child­care Ser­vices, we under­stand the deep impact of these experiences—and we work to rebuild trust, safe­ty, and con­nec­tion through con­sis­tent, ther­a­peu­tic care.

Education

Education That Builds Resilience

At Clover Child­care Ser­vices, we see edu­ca­tion as a key foun­da­tion for build­ing resilience in chil­dren and young peo­ple. It brings struc­ture, pur­pose, and a sense of achieve­ment to their dai­ly lives.

We believe that every young per­son has poten­tial, and with the right sup­port and envi­ron­ment, they can suc­ceed and thrive in their learn­ing.

We cel­e­brate progress at every level—recognising and reward­ing even the small­est achieve­ments. This helps to build con­fi­dence, boost self-esteem, and reignite a love of learn­ing in chil­dren who may have strug­gled in tra­di­tion­al edu­ca­tion­al set­tings

Recruitment

The Right People Make the Difference

At Clover Child­care Ser­vices, we believe that hav­ing the right team is essen­tial to deliv­er­ing high-qual­i­ty ther­a­peu­tic re-par­ent­ing for the chil­dren in our care.

That’s why we use a com­pre­hen­sive, three-stage recruit­ment process designed to ensure we select com­pas­sion­ate, skilled, and com­mit­ted indi­vid­u­als. This includes:

  • An infor­mal meet­ing to get to know the can­di­date

  • A safe care inter­view to assess safe­guard­ing aware­ness

  • A for­mal inter­view to explore expe­ri­ence and val­ues

We’re com­mit­ted to build­ing a team that tru­ly reflects our values—and one that can make a last­ing, pos­i­tive impact on children’s lives.

👉 Inter­est­ed in join­ing us? View our cur­rent vacan­cies here.

Our Recruitment Process – Finding the Right People for Our Children

At Clover Child­care Ser­vices, we take great care in select­ing the right peo­ple to sup­port the chil­dren in our homes. Our three-step, two-day inter­view process is designed to ensure that every can­di­date not only has the right skills, but also the right mind­set and emo­tion­al readi­ness for the work.

Step One: Setting the Emotional Tone

The first day is about more than just interviews—it’s about set­ting the tone. We intro­duce appli­cants to the rela­tion­al cul­ture of our organ­i­sa­tion, focus­ing on the emo­tion­al qual­i­ty of the rela­tion­ships we build with chil­dren and the pro­fes­sion­al respon­si­bil­i­ty that comes with it.

This ini­tial stage is about hon­esty and clar­i­ty. Res­i­den­tial child­care is not for every­one, and that’s okay. Our chil­dren deserve con­sis­tent, emo­tion­al­ly avail­able adults who are com­mit­ted to their well­be­ing. This process helps us—and the applicants—determine whether the role is the right fit.

Those who feel aligned with our val­ues and approach are invit­ed to con­tin­ue to day two.

Step Two: Understanding the Person Behind the Professional

On the sec­ond day, we go deep­er. Because we ask our staff to be attach­ment fig­ures, it’s impor­tant that we under­stand their own sto­ries. We invite appli­cants to share their child­hood expe­ri­ences and reflect on how these might shape their rela­tion­ships with the chil­dren they’ll sup­port.

This part of the process is inspired by the prin­ci­ples of the Adult Attach­ment Inter­view, help­ing us iden­ti­fy adults who are capa­ble of form­ing the secure, nur­tur­ing rela­tion­ships our chil­dren need to heal and grow.

Step 3 — Pro­fes­sion­al Inter­view 

We’re not just hir­ing for a role—we’re care­ful­ly match­ing the right adults with the right chil­dren. Our chil­dren rely on us to get it right

The Triad for Stability