Aran Hall School House Manager wins Innovation and Best Practice Award.

Lorriane Hellawell a House Manager at Aran Hall School has been awarded the ‘Innovation in Residential Care for Children and Young People’ award. This is a category in the ‘Wales Care Awards’ which are an annual event run by ‘Care Forum Wales’ to showcase best practice across the care sector.

Lorraine was nominated for leading on the introduction and development of Active Support throughout the school. Active Support is an evidence based programme that has been demonstrated to increase rates of participation and engagement in young people and adults with learning difficulties and behaviours that challenge.  It was introduced in to the school in 2007.

The principle goal of the Active Support is to ensure that everyone; Parents, Social Workers and  most importantly the young people themselves, have an input and are fully ‘on-board’ with their education and care programmes.

The benefits seen by the school since introducing Active Support and Person Centred Planning are:

• The School are able to show the achievements of the young people more clearly.
• The young people have greater integration within the community.
• The young people have a greater say in what they do, giving them more independence and confidence and better preparing them for when they move on from Aran Hall School.

The Schools Principal, Duncan Pritchard, who nominated Lorraine for the award said:

'Lorraine was chosen to take the lead on this initiative because she has always demonstrated her commitment to the children and young people through her work.  Lorraine helped develop and present the initial staff training sessions and has continued to support and coach staff throughout the project. She has championed community integration and the development of independent living skills. She has developed links with the local youth, rugby and football clubs and participation in these activities has enriched the lives of the young people.