A MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD OF CARE
2009! What a rollercoaster of a year, highs and lows, happy times and sad times all mixed together. Without the committed support of Footprints and Redwalls staff teams, lesser men (in my case woman) would have crumbled at the first hurdle. It is with this in mind that I would personally and publicly like to offer my most sincere thanks to those who have shown true dedication to our children and young adults. Angels lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering to fly. We have had a tough year with the sad loss of two of our beautiful boys, the knowledge that this year we will be saying goodbye to another couple of our precious children who are going to live elsewhere. What does make us happy is that they have made such good progress through all they have had to endure. They are heroes as are all the children who come to stay with us. There have been many happy times, the Blackpool holiday, the music sessions given by students, outings to the races, the theatre, panto, a revamped sensory garden and woodland and parties upon parties the list is endless!
It all sounds good fun and it is, but there is always a but
and this is a BIG BUT. Footprints prides itself on high standards in all respects of care given to the children and these are guided by many policies and procedures. There is a very serious side to maintaining the standards expected by our regulatory body, Ofsted. But the Ofsted reports have not been good over the past year. We don't spend enough time and effort with some of the recordingand sometimes miss asking regulatory questions. An awful amount of hard work has been put into raising the standards in these areas where we fall down. We had our last inspection in September 2009 and are awaiting for another in order, fingers crossed, to gain a satisfactory report.
What I am proud to say is that Footprints has always had good reports about the standard of care provided to our children. This comes not only from Ofsted but also other professionals that work along-side Footprints staff team, the children???s community nurse, OT???s and physio???s to name a few. So 2010 what will it bring? One event that we know about is the coming of age of our young man Dean. Congratulations Dean for reaching your 18th Birthday. Dean will move to our adult home Redwalls, so not only will he be able to maintain contact with the staff he has come to know and trust at Footprints but also to be able to remain next door to his sister who lives at Footprints.
NEWS FROM REDWALLS
In October Tijen turned 21 and had a cracking party at the Sandyacre Community Centre with all her friends and family. David's day celebrated in the Chopsticks Chinese Restaurant with an all you could eat lunch. The prawn eating competition left 3 bloated, 2 stuffed and 1 unable to leave the restaurant till last Thursday ??? YIKES! Over Christmas there was a visit to the Peter Pan Pantomime and The Snow Queen on Ice. There was also some volunteering as Santa???s Elves at the Kent Kids
grotto on Canterbury Market., and the best snow ball fight ever, in which no one was left un-pelted including the manager. But for some the absolute highlight of this Christmas season was meeting Peter Andre at the Blue Water shopping centre, he even promised to talk to his manager about supporting the charity. We wait in hope.
New arrivals include , Dean who is due to move over from Footprints when he turns 18 and new staff, Louise, Chloe, Dominique, Callum and Benjamin. Further additions include new pets Snowy the rabbit and the budgies.
Ongoing fundraising for a new sensory room includes Amin???s themed restaurant nights, keep your ears and noses open for Bangladesh Night coming to you from ???Little Sylet???. Also a sponsored Leg waxing... OUCH. And powered wheelchair football match...OUCH again.
Next birthday party is in Ashford nightclubbing by invitation only I???m afraid, sorry to disappoint. Planned trips to the London Aquarium and National History Museum will also be happening. We hope London is ready for the Redwalls crew.
