National Minimum Standards for Residential Family Centres

1.	Purpose
2.	Quality of Care
3.	Parents' and Children's Rights
4.	Protection
5.	Staff
6.	Premises

Introduction
This is a summary of the information contained in the Residential Family Centre National Minimum Standards (NMS) & Regulations 2002. This page also provides a version of the full NMS, available as a pdf document as well the Children's Rights Director's children's guide.

The standards are minimum standards, rather than best possible practice. Many centres will more than meet the minimum standards and will aspire to exceed them in many ways.

Residential family centres are centres where parents undergo a residential assessment of their ability to care safely for their children. This is usually arranged by the Local Authority and can sometimes be directed by a court.

1. Purpose

The centre has a written document, normally called the statement of purpose, which describes what the centre sets out to do and how it will operate. There are list of things that MUST be included in the document including:

• The facilities that will be provided and the type of accommodation
• Qualifications and experience of the manager and staff
• Charges and fees
• The conditions for deciding if someone can be admitted to the centre
• How people will be monitored, supervised and assessed
• How complaints will be dealt with
• Rules for residents and circumstances in which placements could be ended.
• Rules on drugs and alcohol
• How privacy and dignity and confidentiality will be respected
• How children and parents under 18 will be protected