Press Launch – Tuesday 24th March 2015
Leading local childcare organisation Keys Group, based at Laganwood House, Belfast, officially launched a landmark, new, Safe & Sound Care Model today. The new model, that demonstrates a significant change in the organisations approach to offering childcare services, promises to offer psychological led residential care and education to help each child, with challenging behavior, achieve their personal best.
Keys CEO, Heather Laffin welcomed the Groups’ Senior Management team to Belfast, from all over the UK and Ireland for the Launch and Inaugural Training Event of Safe & Sound and opened the day with the introductory advise to all fifty delegates that “It’s Time To Be PICI.”
Speaking from the event Ms. Laffin said: “Residential Care for young people has changed significantly in the past decade and whilst the Keys Group have offered quality, therapeutic services to children placed in our care for over ten years now, we continue to evolve rapidly in response to changes that come about within the sector. Today we are launching the Keys Group’s whole organisation approach to a psychologically led practice that will roll out across our portfolio. Our Safe & Sound Care Model will ensure that across the Group we will consistently evidence the progress that every young person is making in relation to their health, education and emotional wellbeing, whilst in our care. We will do this using our new Psychologically Informed Care Planning and Intervention Process- our PICI Process and we will monitor and measure this to ensure that our interventions are working using our unique BERRI monitoring process – both of which will ensure that every young person that comes into our care will have the opportunity to achieve their personal best.”
Leading the introduction of the Model and coordinating its ongoing roll out and expansion throughout the group is newly appointed Clinical Director and Clinical Psychologist Dr. Miriam Silver, together with Director of Therapeutic Care Julie Hamilton. Together, they have implemented a training and development plan that will reach every employee and child in the care of Keys Group, throughout the company, to ensure the adoption and application of the approach to every corner of the business by the end of 2016.
Speaking at the launch, Director of Therapeutic Services, Julie Hamilton said: “At Keys, we have some fantastic placements and highly skilled staff. In line with the introduction, roll out and expansion of Keys Safe and Sound, we will ensure the continued development of our range of services to ensure that as a Group, we are offering care that is individualised to the needs of each child. Safe & Sound takes into account the unique story of every child, it identifies the issues they are working on and is informed and shaped by evidence about effective interventions for children as individuals.”
Dr. Miriam Silver continued “I am delighted to have taken up post with Keys Group and to be leading the new Psychology Team and group of Therapists across all homes and schools in the roll out of Safe & Sound, to make a real difference in the lives of young people. The approach launched here today at Keys has been piloted for close to two years and it is testament to the delivery of real, tangible and outstanding results for young people. I look forward to continuing to be part of achievement of these results for young people placed with Keys moving forward.”
The Keys Group, as an organisation offers residential care and education to young people in over 80 residential care homes and 15 schools throughout the UK and Ireland. The Group is committed in the long term to improving the standards and quality of care it provides and has taken significant measures to ensure its ongoing and continued success in delivering results for young people.
To mark this most recent, landmark change, which coincides with the organisations tenth year in business, Keys Group has simultaneously and strategically introduced a new brand identity – to publically mark the changes the Group have committed to implementing throughout the next two years.
Speaking on the introduction of the new brand identity, Keys Group COO and Brand Project Coordinator, Kelly Looker explained, “To mark the changes that we are making to the services that we offer for the good of all Young People in our care, we felt that the time was right to bring our brand in line with our new company vision. What we have achieved in doing this has been the engagement of our teams, our young people and our service users surrounding the introduction of Safe & Sound by making it visually apparent, that as an organisation Keys have made changes. Throughout the past ten years, Keys have made more than just changes, Keys have made progress, Keys have evolved and Keys have grown and our new brand identity has been crafted by our team to represent that.”
Concluding the day Heather Laffin said: “Put very simply, our aim at Keys is about the delivery real results for the young people in our care and as a Group we always strive to improve the services we offer for them. The development and successful launch of Safe & Sound is our latest effort and one which will be supported throughout the year ahead to ensure ongoing delivery towards the achievement of our group aims and objectives.”