Therapy We Offer

Chil­dren referred to us will often have expe­ri­enced ear­ly trau­mat­ic sep­a­ra­tions and loss­es, neglect, abuse, insta­bil­i­ty or unpre­dictabil­i­ty. They will have formed a view of the world that makes it hard for them to trust and build rela­tion­ships with adults. Often their lives have been char­ac­terised by attach­ment dif­fi­cul­ties, mul­ti­ple place­ment or per­ma­nen­cy break­down, entrenched behav­iours and devel­op­men­tal trau­ma.

Since open­ing in 2007 Clover Child­care Ser­vices has main­tained an extreme­ly high per­cent­age of place­ment sta­bil­i­ty in each of our Homes. We offer medi­um to long term place­ments for young peo­ple: 

  • With emo­tion­al and behav­iour­al dif­fi­cul­ties.
  • With com­plex health and social care needs.
  • With a his­to­ry of inse­cure attach­ments and chal­leng­ing behav­iour.
  • Who have expe­ri­enced break down of numer­ous place­ments in fos­ter care or children’s homes.
  • Who are in need of a core assess­ment.

Wher­ev­er pos­si­ble young peo­ple will be accom­mo­dat­ed in a planned man­ner though 

same day place­ments can be accom­mo­dat­ed and will be con­sid­ered depen­dent upon the needs of the young per­son being referred and the sta­bil­i­ty and needs of the res­i­dent group. Where an emer­gency place­ment is need­ed we will ask for:

  • Receipt of as much infor­ma­tion about the young per­son as is pos­si­ble at the time of place­ment
  • Agree­ment from all par­ties that the young per­son is suit­able for accom­mo­da­tion in the ser­vice
  • Agree­ment from all par­ties that the home iden­ti­fied is able to meet the iden­ti­fied needs of the young per­son.
  • A short-term plan being in place with an agreed review date

Our expert led ther­a­peu­tic care is sup­port­ed by Dr Les­ley Ash­by, Con­sul­tant Child and Ado­les­cent Psy­chi­a­trist and Dr Ben-Gur­ney Smith, Char­tered Clin­i­cal Psy­chol­o­gist. Dr Ash­by works with the staff teams to iden­ti­fy any attach­ment, psy­chi­atric or devel­op­men­tal issues indi­cat­ed in the child’s pre­sen­ta­tion. Reflect­ing on that pre­sen­ta­tion, togeth­er we assess and devise a frame­work for effec­tive, ther­a­peu­tic inter­ven­tions that will assist with the process of change. Dr Gurney–Smith deliv­ers train­ing to the whole staff group on Facil­i­tat­ing Attach­ment Based Prac­tice as well as offer­ing Dyadic Devel­op­men­tal Psy­chother­a­py for chil­dren who have been assessed as ready to ben­e­fit from it.

Our res­i­den­tial expe­ri­ence has taught us how to con­tain the anx­i­ety and dis­tress that young peo­ple exhib­it at the point of fam­i­ly or place­ment break­down. We help them to feel safe and emo­tion­al­ly con­tained through clear, con­sis­tent bound­aries and pre­dictable nur­tur­ing rou­tines. This sta­bil­is­ing process helps young peo­ple to build trust with us allow­ing them to explore their world safe­ly. With­in these nur­tur­ing rou­tines we offer a bal­ance of activ­i­ties and pri­ma­ry play oppor­tu­ni­ties in a serene rur­al envi­ron­ment between the Nor­folk Broads and the coast.