Outcome 3: Recovery

Therapeutic Recovery Team

At SACCS we believe abused children who have suffered harm to their personhood, bodies, innocence, childhood, emotional health and spiritual wellbeing should still have a right to grow up in a family. This harm; often so profound that it affects both the external and internal worlds of the child, requires a treatment programme that is capable of dealing with both of these needs simultaneously, delivered by a highly skilled and qualified team.

This group of people is the Recovery Team whose purpose is to plan, deliver, measure and review the recovery process. Each person working directly with the child plays a vital role as a member of the Recovery Team. Each team is supported by additional professionals in Education, Administration, IT, Estates Management, Accounts, Customer Services and Consultants, including Psychologists, Psychoanalysts and Psychiatrists.

The professionals needed to deliver each component of the SACCS Care service are all employees; there is a 'no agency' staff policy at SACCS. Between each of these professionals they hold and provide firstly containment, secondly development and thirdly recovery of the child's inner and outer worlds, their past, their present and most importantly, their future.

The method used to deliver the SACCS Recovery Programme is the Individual Recovery Plan (IRP). This dynamic document, linked to the outcomes of the IPA and the Children’s Care Plan holds the complete process of transition of the child's recovery. The Plan is reviewed every 3 months and updated accordingly. As internal and external behavioural changes manifest, they are recorded and acted upon by the Recovery Team. The whole process, takes up to 3.5 years on average to complete at the end of which the child has moved from a place where they had no understanding of the consequences of their actions, to where they are able to understand these consequences and act appropriately (The Treatment Levels). At this point they are ready to move to a new family. This timescale should be viewed as guidance only, as each child’s ability to internalise and positively respond to the IRP differs greatly. However, the Recovery Team do constantly monitor and evidence each child's progress towards recovery, thus eliminating difficulties in the child's care planning.

The SACCS Recovery Programme, as previously mentioned, includes an assessment of the internalised world of the child whilst working on the observable external behaviours concurrently within a contained and safe therapeutic environment.
The Programme is designed around addressing 6 development areas under the following headings: Learning; Physical development; Emotional development; Attachment; Identity; Social and Communicative development. These outcomes have been reconciled to the 5 Every Child Matters outcomes and agenda (The Recovery Matrix) and are conducive to the requirements of the Individual Placement Agreement (IPA) contained within the National Contract.