Rights of Young Persons

We take young people’s views, wishes and feelings seriously at RefineStart. We ensure that we incorporate the views, wishes and feelings of young people in our assessments and as part of the care planning process. We engage our young people in placement meetings and key working sessions to explore their views, wishes and feelings. We ensure that our young people are kept safe and protected by listening to their views about how things are with them at the placement to improve service provision.

We respect the privacy and dignity of our young people. We knock before entering their bedrooms and we also seek their permission before having a look at their bedrooms. At RefineStart, staff always knocks before entering young people’s bedrooms.

We however will enter young people bedrooms to complete a bedroom search if young people are deemed to be at risk of harm or in the even that seeking young people’s permission will jeopardise their safety and wellbeing.

We aim at instilling discipline in young people by ensuring that young people adhere to the placement boundaries. We have reward systems in place at RefineStart to reenforce positive behaviour. At RefineStart, we also withdraw privileges from young people such as not taking them to cinemas or places of their interest to discourage negative behaviour.

At RefineStart, we encourage our young people to keep in touch with staff and to advise staff of their whereabouts when they are not at the placement. We report young people missing to the Police and to the Emergency Duty Team (EDT) when young people do not adhere to the curfew arrangements and they stay out of the placement unauthorised.See our missing person’s procedure.

Our goal is to support young people to develop resilience and to enhance their self-esteem. We therefore provide young people with the support and opportunity to engage in manageable task and to make informed decisions about certain life decisions in guiding young people to consider different options / choices before making life decisions.

Semi Independent and Life skills

We provide young people with life skills on how to find employment and to make themselves employable, we also assist young people in maintaining positive lifestyles; maintaining their placement, assist them in taking responsibilities; developing positive network of friendships and helping them to understand the importance of forming positive associations and relationships.

We provide young people with practical life skills and independent living skills for example showing young people how to pay and manage their bills, engaging young people in cooking key working sessions to help them in preparing their own meals, supporting young people to complete applications forms, engaging young people in sessions to enhance their understanding about the importance of attending appointments and maintaining healthy lifestyles.