Going beyond being a Corporate Parent— Friends of Tremanna and Braes

What were you trying to understand?

Tremanna and Wallace Crescent are two homes in Falkirk looking after 10 young people between them. Recognising they need to look beyond fulfilling their statutory duties, they wanted to find ways to be not just corporate parents for the children and young people in their care, but the parents that they need: both while providing care, and afterwards.

What did you do?

Initially, Tremanna was run separately from Wallace Crescent, providing long term care.  They compared the lives of the young people in their care with what they would do for their own children, and realised that they needed to do more if they were going to be good parents.

The first thing was to make it possible for their kids to come home when they needed to after they’d moved out— and to keep in touch with them, preserving the important relationships that they’d formed. So they changed the way that the service was run, providing homes for five children and young people, as well as maintaining space when people needed to come back.

Pauline Connelly, Residential, Continuing Care & Aftercare Team Manager, said:

There were things we wanted to do, like celebrating someone’s 30th birthday, or helping if they have kids of their own and were struggling to buy them shoes. Those aren’t statutory services, but they’re things your gran or grandad would do, and we need to be able to do that.

To do this, they needed to raise money which wasn’t available through existing channels, so they set up a charity called the Friends of Tremanna, to raise funds to provide this kind of essential help that you would expect a family to provide.

Decisions about spending are made by the staff who hold the relationships, as they’re the best people to make those decisions and what’s important is that this is - and feels like - just a normal part of a family relationship.

Then, during the Covid lockdown, the two homes merged. Although there were extreme challenges on residents and staff during this period, they knew that this was an opportunity to look at how things were done and they decided to take the opportunity to make some changes.

Prior to lockdown, the two homes were run quite differently, with Tremanna being a home for long term or permanent placements, and Wallace Crescent being for short term placements or ‘assessment’.  The young people living there, they knew that it was a temporary place and this led to the young people and staff being unable to move beyond the initial crisis that led to them being there.

The decision was taken to change both homes to provide long term homes, removing uncertainty so the young people wouldn’t experience unnecessary moves and retraumatise children and young people that had already dealt with too much change and uncertainty.  This allowed both the children and young people and the staff to move out of crisis mode and form the real relationships that they needed to.

As part of this restructure, they also looked at the way that they provide care. They engaged with the children and young people living there and all the staff over several months, identifying what was most important to everyone and how to articulate that. They then came up with their own promise model, which is their own local promise that they make to their children.  At this time the Friends of Tremanna was changed to be the Friends of Tremanna and Braes, providing the same level of support to the people that live or have lived at either home.

What did you learn?

The service found the speed of the impact was massive. Changing the service from short term to long term was immediately impactful, changing it from a temporary place to a real home. People who’d regularly been in crisis were able to settle and think of where they were as home.

Pauline said:

Another really important thing is relationships; people are going to have different relationships with different people. In every family there’s going to be some folk you get on with better than others, and that’s okay. We need to celebrate that: it’s about celebrating the normalness of family life.

What helped and what got in the way?

When they knew that they needed to set up a charity they weren’t sure how hard it was going to be, so they reached out to other organisations, including Staf. The team at Tremanna were grateful that there were lots of people who knew what they were doing with it, and helped get it all set up. Staf are still involved in helping to run it now, as well as helping to make the changes needed to expand the charity to cover both homes.

Merging the management of the homes happened during Covid, and was initially done because of staff shortages in order to keep the services running. The team recognised that it was an opportunity to change things, and the development of the promise model happened as part of the service recovery process afterwards. This was down to the commitment that the whole team has to making these homes a real home, and to be a family for the children and young people who need it.

What difference did it make?

As well as the tangible benefits – like being able to help with driving lessons, or having events like a school prom or outings, providing spaces to make good memories to carry with them and share – they’ve received feedback from young people who’ve lived there.

It has allowed us to continue to be involved in Tremanna activities and that keeps us feeling like a part of the Tremanna family. Even though we have moved on and got our own little families, we will always and forever have a place and support network at Tremanna.

When I live at Tremanna it felt like family. They treat me as part of their family; not just a job.

I didn't think when I was in care that I would stay in touch with them; but they made the effort to keep in touch. It has helped me even when I've not realised I've needed it.

Why does this matter?

By committing to doing things differently, to going beyond what they’re required to do and working to create a real family for the children and young people in their care, they’ve created real relationships with long lasting impacts.

The charity, Friends of Tremanna and Braes, works closely with the local community, fundraising and finding opportunities for local events which help the young people be more of a part of the community that they’re growing up in.

What could other local areas learn?

Pauline said:

We hear about being a corporate parent all the time, and that has its place, but it’s about taking corporate out of that and being a good parent. The key to getting this right is to focus on the person you’re working with, forming a real relationship and not focussing on the processes.

For practical advice, Pauline said:

When creating a charity it’s really important you have a good team behind you, especially a good bookkeeper. But as long as you’re clear on what you want to achieve and don’t overcomplicate it, it’s okay.