Visiting as many homes as you can is an essential part of the decision making process you need to go through at Transition.  In many cases, Home From Home Care is the first visit parents have made so they are fairly new to the process.

Here’s three questions we get asked by nearly every parent who wants to visit and our advice on what to do and why:

1.  Can we visit at the weekend? 

This is something that we try to avoid and we think it is worth explaining why.

It is all about recognising that there is a difference when people have left schools and colleges and they are living in their own home.  At school and college people ‘plug in’ to a common structure.  When in adulthood, that structure is totally individualised around each person.

The thing to consider is, would you want to have somebody you’ve never met to come to your home to look around when really it’s your chill out time?  During the week we encourage full days and many activities.  But like any adult, you cannot have that level of intensity all the time otherwise it becomes just another boring routine.  So weekends are used in the same way as you or I would use them, as more leisure time just doing activities which might have an active aspect to them but it’s a different, more relaxed structure.

If you are serious about finding the right placement for your son or daughter you are going to need to put some time aside during the week.

2.  Can we see people doing activities?

This answer is based on the same premise as visiting on the weekends.  When people are at school or college they tend to be doing the same activities and all do things together.  That very rarely happens in our homes, particularly with more complex people for whom the activities are totally structured to their needs.

There will be some things which people are encouraged to do together because they may be lower intensity, they might be more pleasurable in a group environment but actually it’s the one to one stuff that is really important.  Even when people like Laura are not funded one to one,  there are occasions when she gets one to one support to achieve something she needs to achieve on a completely personalised basis.  And that’s her personal time – it’s not for others to observe.

3.  Should I bring my child?

Generally we say to people it’s not a good idea to visit a potential home with their son or daughter.   Firstly, in many cases it can be quite daunting for the young person to come and visit without being prepared properly.  Secondly it means that your focus and your ability to ask any number of questions can be limited by the distraction.

So if you can, do put aside some time when you can visit on your own on a weekday and then you can really focus on the questions you need to ask and get the information you need to make a decision