South West RI Network

UPDATE:

Next RI Network Meeting Dates are:

19th March 2024 10am-4pm at Kenn Centre, 3 Exeter Rd, Kennford, Exeter EX6 7UE

25th June 2024 10am-4pm at Kenn Centre, 3 Exeter Rd, Kennford, Exeter EX6 7UE

24th September 2024 10am-4pm at Kenn Centre, 3 Exeter Rd, Kennford, Exeter EX6 7UE

10th December 2024 10am-4pm at Kenn Centre, 3 Exeter Rd, Kennford, Exeter EX6 7UE

Our quarterly face-to-face network meetings have resumed and we are also continuing to run weekly support meetings every Wednesday morning at 10am for responsible individuals, with commissioners joining on a bi-weekly basis.  If you would like to join these, please email your request to  admin@dialogueltd.co.uk

The SW RI Network events are open to responsible individuals across the South West and is a great opportunity to share ideas, seek support and improve practice. We develop the agenda with members and share ahead of each event. Typically there is a strategic focus, with reflection on the role of the Responsible Individual and the joys of managing Registered Managers.

Through the pandemic we moved to an online RI Network and members have asked that we keep this going. We have moved the online element of RI Network to a new membership from January 2022 ‘Residential Leadership Group’ – with the pandemic price rises your membership fee doesn’t quite cover the weekly online meetings and the face-to-face events! RI Network members will have a 25% discount to attend these online monthly sessions throughout the year. The sessions all include an update on what is happening in the residential world, impact of the pandemic, peer group support sessions and a CPD focus area.

You can register by visiting the page for our Residential Leadership Group.

Welcome to the SW RI Network.

You will find all the resources you need on the day and those from previous events.

We hope you find it useful.

Click to launch session

The course is run on the Zoom platform. There are sometimes YouTube videos.

If you’re not familiar with Zoom you may find the following videos helpful before the course. It is reasonably intuitive, so you should not worry. We will also move you into small groups and ask you to vote on questions – these instructions will appear clearly on your screen.

Being involved – our courses are pretty relaxed, interactive and work best when there are lots of questions. Please feel free to chip in during a gap, use the ‘raise your hand’ button or put a question in chat at any time. Chat is one of the assets of using Zoom as it makes sure you can get your question in. Our trainers try to avoid reading the chat when they’re speaking, but do look at very regular intervals and should come back to your question. If they’ve missed it please chip in or ‘raise your hand’.

Video and sound – We like to see you! It’s good for the trainer to be able to gauge the reaction of the group and that everyone is engaged with the training. Do check your background prior to going live to make sure there’s nothing that might embarrass you. There is a function in Zoom to hide your background if you wish. Ultimately, if you really cannot face having the video on this is ok. Please mute your sound unless you want to speak so that background noise does not affect everyone else – the trainer may mute everyone if there is interference. Don’t forget to turn it on before speaking!

Doing other work/dealing with other issues/breaks – safeguarding is important training. If you miss key elements of the course you may miss an opportunity to intervene to keep a child safe so you should not be doing other work while the course is running. We recognise that people are working from home and this brings its own challenges. If you need to respond to something please do, but where possible try to limit this to the breaks. During breaks you should take an opportunity to be away from the computer screen where you can. Feel free to bring back coffee and cake!

If you need to leave the course please let the trainer know why using a private chat. The subject material can be difficult and it is important to look after yourself. We can point you to helpful sources of support during the breaks or after the course.

Problems accessing the course If you have difficulty accessing the Zoom platform on the day, please contact admin@dialogueltd.co.uk or contact us on 01803493030. We will do our best to help you join, although we do not offer technical support.

The waiting room will be open 15 minutes prior to the start of the course. If you are coming in place of someone please Private Message the host at the start of the course. Otherwise, please ensure the name on your Zoom is the name you have registered with (see above if you need to change this).

To launch each of the sessions, please click the button in the left column. If you have problems joining check the advice on using Zoom and troubleshooting options above. If you require them, the Meeting ID and Password are:

Meeting ID: 831 7388 4759

Passcode: 165233

If you have difficulty logging on read our Zoom guidance, above.

10:00 – Introductions – John Woodhouse and Chris Freestone

10:15 – Sector Update – Chris Freestone

11:15 – Coffee Break

11:30 – ‘What we’d like from inspection’ – Chris Freestone

Overview of inspection process, reviewing aims/purposes and challenges with a strong focus on ‘so what’.

13:00 – Lunch break (with Commissioners joining)

13:45 – Understanding the Residential Sector project  – John Woodhouse and Chris Freestone with South West Commissioners

We’re aiming to do some work to bring together members/mayors, senior leaders, commissioners, RIs, children’s homes and young people to create a stronger and open understanding of the costs and needs of residential care. The aim is for us to see provision of effective and affordable residential care of young people as a joint endeavour rather than an externally commissioned process with the media/ADCS/CMA perception of profiteering

15:45 – Plenary

16:00 – Close

Your feedback is important – if you could please take a few minutes to complete our online evaluation, we’d be grateful. For the question on ‘venue’, please comment on the ease of access and use of technology.  To start the evaluation, click here.

Archive

Agenda:

10:00 – Introductions – John Woodhouse and Chris Freestone

10:15 – Sector Update – Chris Freestone

10:45 – ‘Outstanding leaders / Outstanding homes’ – Chris Freestone

Challenges from an RI perspective, with peer reflection and discussion

12:15 – Reviewing the RI Standards – Chris Freestone

Please download a copy of the current RI standards using the button below, so we can review and discuss for 2023 revisions.

13:00 – Lunch break

14:00 – Recruiting Residential Staff – Andy Simms, Nick Scribbins and John Woodhouse

Recruiting staff in residential care is high cost, high risk activity with limited success for many. We’ll explore successful strategies together and consider how we might work regionally to bring more staff into the sector in a more cost and time effective way, building on the discussion in the RI coordination meeting on 25th October 2023.

15:45 – Plenary

16:00 – Close

South West RI Standards final v6 – 4th December 2023

Outstanding leader equals outstanding home or does it 4.12.23

Sector updates December 2023

From Christine’s presentations

PowerPoint logoRI Network meeting 7.2.22

From John’s presentation

PowerPoint logo  Presentation

From Maryann’s presentation

PDF iconPresentation

  From Independence to Interdependence – article

If you’d like to book Maryann to come and speak to your team or organisation, please contact us.

Click below for PDF download of presentation for talking with trauma-experienced young people, by Rachel Shepperd

Talking with trauma experienced young people

Click below for PDF download of presentation for the three Vital Questions, by Ruby Parry

3VQ presentation