What we at Capstone specialise in:

While the majority of children and young people placed with Capstone are single placements who are somewhere in the middle of the spectrum of need, we nevertheless have gained a reputation for high quality work in the following areas of specialisation.
 

Therapeutic placements:

In addition to the trauma of being removed from birth families, some children have suffered additional abuse or neglect which may have resulted in emotional impairments.

At Capstone we have identified four elements of therapeutic foster care. These are:

• Foster care: Capstone carers are trained to provide a high level of emotional containment and are skilled at offering themselves as a secure attachment figure to a child in their care
   
• Therapy (provided by child psychotherapists, play therapists, family therapists, dyadic developmental therapists in the Capstone team): to build up a therapeutic relationship with the child or young person and help them process past experiences so that the child can then leave the past behind and shift towards a hopeful future
   
• Education: the education specialists in the Capstone team work with carers and schools to sustain a child’s placement in school and help them to achieve socially and academically
   
• Life story work: this takes place on two separate level
  • Informal life story work provided by the model of therapeutic foster care that we use at Capstone where carers raise the child’s self-esteem and enable them to develop a positive identity
     
  • Formal life story work where a therapist seeks to provide the child or young person with the jigsaw pieces of their life in such a way that they can rewrite their life narrative
     

Siblings:

We have learnt that when children come into care they may understand why it is that they can’t live with their mum and dad but struggle far more with the reason they may be separated from their siblings – so at Capstone we work hard to keep them together, or in regular contact, whatever is most appropriate.

Research also shows that when brothers and sisters are placed together they tend to recover more quickly and have a stronger sense of who they are. At Capstone we therefore have developed a cohort of carers who have both the skills and the physical capacity to integrate sibling groups into their homes. 

Unaccompanied minors:

This specialism is the particular achievement of the Capstone offices in the London area where there are carers from over 20 countries. However, we have a number of carers in the south and south west with good experience of looking after Unaccompanied Minors.

Parent and Child:

Some carers enjoy the challenge of looking after a young mother/father and their new infant/young child. In addition to infant care training we also offer training in observation skills and support in contributing to the detailed assessments that the placing authority usually require.

Following Baby P’s death, the government has taken steps to ensure that vulnerable babies are better protected and vulnerable parents are better supported at the outset of their new parental responsibilities. More parent-and-child placements are therefore needed and Capstone has devised training and support programmes to ensure that anyone interested in offering a home for approximately three months to a parent and child/young mum and baby will have the tools and resources to do a good job. You will need to have a spare double bedroom, be able to keep a detailed diary of how the parent is with the baby, and have a good supply of emotional and physical energy.

Click here to see a profile of a Parent & child carers

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