Company Website: www.childhoodfirst.org.uk
Contact: Gary Yexley
Position: CEO
Telephone: 020 7928 7388 / 07956 910528
Email: referrals@childhoodfirst.org.uk

Type of Provision: Residential Therapeutic Care, Education and Treatment; Therapeutic Fostering; Community-based Placement and Family Support; Independent Living Programmes, Clinically Licensed Training.
Total number of children’s homes & other services: 4
Total number of registered beds: 30
Size range of homes: 4 - 18
Age range on admission: 5-11; 10-17; 12-17 varying between services.
Specialist services: Therapeutic childcare: residential and fostering – iST and iTF
Registered school: Residential schools – Kent and Norfolk provision available through partnership provision.
Therapeutic provision: Group and Individual Therapy; Residential iST; Family-based iTF

Childhood First is a national charity, registered as the Institute of Integrated Systemic Therapy and has historically provided services to children suffering emotional and behavioural disturbance, often arising from early life trauma. We offer:-

• Residential care, treatment and education, based on our unique Integrated Systemic Therapy (iST).
• Integrated Therapeutic Fostering (iTF), which deploys the same approach in a family context.
• Therapeutic support to networks of adult carers.
• IST training for our staff, accredited by the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP), so that all our child care staff are qualified as, or working towards Child Psychotherapeutic Counsellor status.

Each home deploys a multi-disciplinary clinical team, tailoring our work around each child’s needs, based on regular clinical assessment of need, using our multi-dimensional Assessment,
Planning, Treatment and Transition (APTT) model. All offers are supported by the specialist research and development of our Institute of Integrated Systemic Therapy. IST transforms young lives,
delivering outstanding outcomes for traumatised children and young people across the age range 5-19 years.

Our schools offer the full national curriculum, and we provide class-leading preparation for leaving care. 87% of our school leavers go on successfully to employment, further education or university.
We accept children with a range of mental health diagnoses and conditions. Children typically come to us suffering the effects of early life trauma, sexual abuse and other forms of abuse and neglect; with attachment, behavioural, conduct or eating disorders; self-harming or experiencing suicidal ideation.

Our residential services are in Kent and Norfolk.