Referrals & placements
We cannot take a referral yet. Which makes this a good time to talk.
Most conversations between a placement team and a children’s home happen with a deadline sitting on them. This one does not have to.
Oasis House is progressing through registration, so a referral cannot be accepted today — and that is exactly why a conversation now is worth having. Nobody is trying to fill a room, so we can be genuinely honest about which children this home would suit and which it would not, and you can find that out before it matters.
Where things stand
There is a line, and it is worth being precise about which side of it we are on
Now What we can do today
- A conversation, with nobody under pressure About a child you are planning for, a cohort you commission for, or simply what this home is and is not. No form, no reference number, and no obligation on either side.
- An honest read on whether this could fit We will tell you plainly if what you are describing sounds like a child we could not meet the needs of. That answer is more useful early than late, and it costs a placement team nothing to get it now.
- Our model, in enough detail to plan around How the home is designed to work, what our matching will involve, and what we would need from you when the time comes — so that nothing about us is a surprise later.
Oasis House is currently progressing through the Ofsted registration process. We welcome enquiries from local authorities, commissioning teams and professionals who would like to discuss future placement availability. Referrals will be accepted once registration has been granted.
Once registration is granted What becomes possible, in this order
- A referral, with the child’s information Sent through the placing authority in the normal way.
- A matching and impact assessment Written down before any admission is agreed, covering the child, this home, and any child already living here at the time.
- A pre-placement planning meeting With the professionals involved, the child where that is right for them, and family members where appropriate.
- A planned admission, and settling in A first day that has been prepared for rather than improvised, followed by a structured introduction to the home.
No timescale is given for registration, because giving one would be guessing. What we can say is that nothing above the line is waiting on it.
A first conversation
You do not need a child in mind, and you certainly do not need their file
A useful first conversation is usually about shape rather than specifics: the children you commission for, what has broken down before, and what you would need a home to be able to do.
If you do have a particular child in mind, talk in general terms — that is enough for an honest answer, and it keeps their information where it belongs until there is a referral to attach it to.
We would rather say “probably not” early than have a placement team find it out at the point of crisis.
Matching and admission
The assessment is written down before anyone agrees to anything
A placement will not be offered on the strength of a phone call and a room being free.
Before any admission is agreed we will complete a matching and impact assessment: the child’s needs, risks and strengths; whether this home can actually meet them; and the effect on any child already living here.
Because the home is designed for two, the second decision is always also a decision about the first — and where two children should not be in one house together, we will say so.
What that assessment weighs
The needs themselves
What this child actually needs day to day — not the label at the top of the referral, and not what the last placement decided was the problem.
Whether we could genuinely meet them
Honestly, and with the staffing, skills and support this home would really have — rather than what it could stretch to on a good week.
Risk, and how it would be held
Known risks to the child and from the situation around them, what would reduce them here, and what we would not be able to change.
The effect on both children
A house of two is a relationship, not two rooms. Each child’s needs are weighed against the other’s, in both directions.
Whether it could last
A placement that ends badly in four months costs a child more than the wait for the right one. Stability is part of the match, not a hope attached to it.
A vacancy is not an offer. Having a room free is the beginning of the question, not the answer to it — and we would rather hold an empty bed than fill it with a child this home cannot do right by.
Where a placement cannot be offered, the placing authority will be told why, and it will be recorded. The reasoning behind that judgement — what we are weighing and what our limits are — is set out in full on Who We Support.
What Oasis House offers a placing authority, in four phrases
Small home.
Up to two children, and no plan to be anything larger.
Careful matching.
Written down, weighed both ways, and willing to end in no.
Strong safeguarding.
Built into how ordinary days run, not bolted on as a policy.
Clear outcomes.
Named at the start, reviewed honestly, and described in a child’s terms.
For later, not for now
What we would need from you, when the time comes
Listed here so a placement team can see it in advance. None of it should be sent today — there is no referral to attach it to, and it is a child’s information.
- The care plan
- And the placement objectives it sets — what this placement is actually meant to achieve.
- Risk assessments
- Current, and honest. A risk we do not know about is the one we cannot plan for.
- Health information
- Including anything affecting day-to-day care, medication or appointments.
- Education arrangements
- Where a child is on roll, any EHCP or PEP, and what has and has not worked.
- The child’s own view
- Where they have been able to give one, and however they gave it.
Talk to us
A conversation, not a submission
The routes below go directly to us — by email if you would rather have it in writing, by telephone if it is quicker to talk.
Please do not include confidential or personally identifiable information about a child in a first message. Describe what you need in general terms. Anything identifying a child belongs in a referral through your authority’s own secure route, once registration has been granted.
Enquiries from local authorities, commissioning teams and other professionals are welcome, and so are enquiries from families.