Duke House

Duke House is a medium-sized detached 5 bedroom property set in its own adequate and well maintained private grounds. Duke House is located in a middle-class residential area, and although urban in nature, the home is within 300-500m of expansive playing fields and large beautiful parks in all directions. This provides an extremely attractive, quiet and safe setting, with no known anti-social or risky elements in the immediate surrounding areas.

The ground level of the home comprises of: an entrance hall and hallway; an adequate sized living room with 3 sofas, a large flat screen tv and full access to digital tv services; a large open kitchen diner with both dining table and breakfast bar; a large well lit sunroom/conservatory with sofa, chairs and a selection of board games; a laundry room; small toilet; a care team and management office.

On the 1st floor are: 4 of the 5 bedrooms, 3 of these being large double bedrooms for the young people including 1 en-suite room, all well-furnished including TVs and entertainment systems; the smaller fourth bedroom which is a staff sleep room; family bathroom including large corner bath, shower, toilet, sink and wash facilitates, etc. In the attic is the fifth bedroom which is an en-suite sleep room for the care team. The last room in the house is the large games room which is in the cellar and has a pool table, games console, TV and stereo system, darts board and recliner chairs.

Although Duke House is a residential area it is only located around a mile from Halifax town centre and is therefore close to all the facilities, services and amenities located within a town centre. Due to the close proximity these facilities are easily within walking distance, and also via public transport with the home being situated close to numerous different bus routes. The home has use of a new and well maintained vehicle ensuring that any services or facilities not present in the locality can be accessed. This is also the case for meetings, appointments and family contact for those young people placed out of authority, as we appreciate how significant the ability to maintain positive contact and ties with a young person’s geographical origin is.

The local college is also within close walking distance to the home making education provision for any post 16 young person easily accessible. In addition to the college the home has strong links with the LEA and Virtual School Head, as well as several other private education providers for children and young people with more specialist needs.

Key to GBA Care’s model of care the home has excellent links and relationships with many of the local amenities such as youth clubs, sporting organisations and recreational activities. These include: local rugby and football teams; an indoor climbing wall; an indoor adventure activity centre; the local central youth club and services; an air rifle club; an athletics track; a snooker club; a boxing club; a ten pin bowling alley; a gaming club. This list is not finite however and does not include more universal paid activities found in abundance such as cinema, laser quest and go-karting. Finally on this point, all young people are given access to the local active lifestyles cards which afford free entry to all local authority leisure provision such as five a side football, swimming, gym, squash, etc.

The care staff ratio provided at Duke House is in general 2:1 however if a young person’s needs are such that 1:1 support is required this can also be accommodated. The home operates with 2 members of the care team on sleep duty throughout the night, settling after their shifts are completed. Again however, in certain circumstances it may be possible to commission a waking watch staff member as part of a young person’s care package.