Have you ever wondered what it’s like to support a young person at our School and Children’s Homes?
What we do?
- Deliver simulating, challenging and highly effective learning
- Caring and supportive homely environment – 52 weeks of the year
- Person centred support – achieve beyond expectation.
- Safe environment – supporting young people’s well-being.
- Motivate young people to communicate, giving them their own voice.
- Supporting self-regulation and resilience using our therapeutic Positive Behaviour Support model underpinning all that we do.
- • Develop independence skills & engagement in the community. Our mission to prepare children for adulthood.
Here’s Jamie’s story
Jamie* moved to MacIntyre two years ago. He is autistic, has significant learning disability and very limited verbal communication. Prior to joining MacIntyre he didn’t go to school or go out and spent his time at home using his iPad.
Jamie has a loving family but they had reached the point where they felt they would need to bring in carers to support him.
When Jamie moved to MacIntyre he had a very tricky time to start with; he was really struggling to communicate his needs so we needed to get down to his level and to build that strong, trusting relationship.
It can be a huge trauma for any young person moving to us and we understand that. Coming into residential care and leaving your family full time is really difficult so we work really closely with families to ensure that we understand their needs; that we’re able to pick up on their communication or their non-verbal communication in order to meet their needs as quickly as possible in order to settle them and make them feel safe.
Jamie had had an issue around personal care and hadn’t bathed at home for nearly four years, but in the last six months he has started to really, really enjoy having a bath and playing with bubbles, ducks and fishes! Jamie is in control of what he does; for example he has a communication book where he is able to tell us ‘no I don’t want a bath’ or ‘yes I do’.
Although our School at Wingrave is only a few minutes’ walk from the children’s homes on the same site, Jamie was initially unable to attend School … so the school staff went to him - they got to know Jamie in his home and built trusting relationships. Jamie now goes to school every day and you can hear him chuckling as he runs down the corridors. He is a delightful young man.
As well as attending school, Jamie now enjoys trips to museums, shops, the seaside…
These milestones have been the result of the support, consistent staffing and making sure we work really closely with our Occupational Therapist and Speech and Language Therapist. It has been wonderful to see his progress.
*Name changed
