New Roads service

New Roads is a dedicated service for young people aged 12-25-years-old, who are being supported by Children's Services.

The service gives young people access to a dedicated support team that sticks with them, understands them, and helps them to achieve and succeed.

Based out of two hubs, in Dereham and Norwich, the service provides young people with education, life coaching and speech and language therapy. The service also gives young people access to short-term residential beds and foster care placements to help meet their needs.

The aims of the service are:

To reduce the time young people spend in residential settings, like children's homes
To support children and young people to live in family-based care, such as foster care, when they cannot live with their own families
To reduce the number of children and young people in care
To support children and young people to live closer to their family, friends and their community, wherever possible
To help prevent young people from going missing, getting arrested or going into hospital

We have converted two of our children's residential homes into New Roads hubs.

The hubs will continue to provide residential beds for emergency placements. But they will also provide greater wrap-around support for both the young people staying there and other young people, on an outreach basis.

Each hub will also be supported with:

Two dedicated supported accommodation trainer flats for 16-18-year-olds
Two high-needs supported lodgings hosts. The hosts will be able to provide a room within their home and be the stepping stone for young people moving towards living independently.
Two hub community families. These will be supported and supervised by our fostering team and can call on any of the specialist hub support at any time.

Young people living at any of the placement options will continue to be supported by the New Roads service and professional specialist support.

For more information about New Roads please contact newroads@norfolk.gov.uk.