Care

Introduction

The New Options Children’s Home at Barton upon Humber, North Lincolnshire, shares the site with the specialist autism school. It is a specifically designed environment to meet the needs of young people with an autistic spectrum disorder.

The New Options Children’s Home works together with the New Options (Barton) School to ensure an integrated approach to meet the individual needs of the children with autism.

The New Options Children’s Home offers opportunities to develop skills for life through a wide range of activities.

The Home provides a number of living areas each accommodating 4 – 6 children with autism and complex needs. Each flat has its own lounge, kitchen, dining room, several individual bedrooms some of which are en-suite. Communal areas include a cinema, music room, hydrotherapy pool, gym, sports hall and extensive gardens.

Aims of the Home

The aim of the Children’s Home is to provide an innovative positive caring environment that promotes the development of the whole child with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder. Emphasis is given to developing social and life skills including recreational and leisure skills, both within the home and the community.

Key workers liaise closely with the New Options (Barton) Autism School to provide an extended curriculum and consistency in approach throughout the child’s life.

The five outcomes have been incorporated into the principles which underpin the approach within the Home in line with Every Child Matters (Children Act 2004).

While living at the Home, children with autism are encouraged to develop skills to enable them to live as independently as possible.  This includes developing Life skills, Social Skills and Leisure interests.

Learning Opportunities

Children are encouraged to take part in a wide range of activities both on and off site.

The site has its own Bistro café, cinema, hydrotherapy pool, all weather games pitch, large field, horticulture facilities, IT suite, library, sports hall and gym as well as other facilities that are used to teach the skills needed to live independently, form social relationships and develop leisure interests. 

Many skills are taught on site and the town of Barton upon Humber is within walking distance of the site offering a range of amenities for children to access such as supermarkets, café’s and restaurants where children can use and further develop the skills they have.

There is also close access to coastal areas and the countryside where outdoor pursuit activities such as mountain biking take place.

Care Environment

The New Options Children’s Home is split into several self contained flats. Each flat has been purpose designed to specifically meet the needs of young people with an A.S.D. while having a feel of being home.

Each flat contains single bedrooms, most of which are en-suite, and have a lounge diner, bathrooms, and a kitchen.

There are several innovative design features aimed at enabling autistic children make sense of the world around them. This includes mood lighting and piped music to communal areas helping the young people understand the time of day and therefore what they should be doing.

The communal areas in each flat have been designed specifically to meet the needs of children with autism while creating a homely atmosphere.

In each flat there are 4-6 bedrooms, each with different facilities. The different facilities in the bedrooms accommodate the individual ability levels and accommodate progression.