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The hydrotherapy pool at Bayis Sheli (Photo: Daniel Ben-David)[Missing Credit]
It is also equipped with a sensory room and sensory garden, a cinema, a music room, a soft-play area and games rooms.
An IT room housing several computers, enabling independence and providing the space for residents to pursue their own interests, is being created too. Residents and staff go together on myriad trips to parks, petting zoos, ice rinks, museums, bowling lanes, aquariums, famous landmarks and – a personal favourite of several residents – a ride on the bus.
“Everything we do, whether it’s our approach, what we offer or how we offer it, we do with our residents in mind,” says director of care Micki Herzog. She is speaking to me in a large common room, where all the residents, and at least as many adults, have assembled for a party and dancing.
Residents of Bayis Sheli (Photo: Bayis Sheli)[Missing Credit]
Residents are off school for Purim and participating in a jam-packed festive schedule that includes “joyful davening” in the morning, baking hamentaschen, fun on a bouncy castle, a walk in the local park, dancing, face-painting and the reading of the Megillah.
“We are constantly striving to meet the changing needs of each individual, and each package of care is regularly reviewed to ensure each person is thriving and becoming more confident and independent,” says Herzog.
As Bayis Sheli is the only home of its kind in the country, some of the parents who send their children there because they are no longer able to fully or effectively care for them live as far away as Salford.
Bayis Sheli[Missing Credit]
The home has overseen “miraculous” changes in the temperament and socialisation of residents, according to Herzog, including one girl who, since moving in, has become toilet trained – a feat that previously seemed unattainable to her parents.
Bayis Sheli has achieved an Outstanding rating from Ofsted three years in a row, with the latest report in February noting how the home’s actions “contribute significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences” to its young people.
Herzog says: “It’s so important to us that all of our young people are very involved and in control of their own lives, are very socialised, very much part of the wider Jewish community, and have not just a great quality of life, but are all constantly achieving the very best they can.”
Bayis Sheli residents enjoying some of the activities (Photo: Bayis Sheli)[Missing Credit]
The purpose-built home, which is divided into two wings – one for children and one for young people – cost £7 million when it was built in 2015, with a large proportion of the funding coming from the Wohl Foundation, which the building is named after.
To ensure there is always ample care for the residents, the home employs 70 members of staff, the majority of whom are non-Jewish, and takes great care to ensure they are trained to be sensitive to Orthodox Jewish practices.
A lot of attention is also paid to ensuring staff are happy, because “a happy staff means happy children”, says chair Jacob Sortozkin. “We have a very low turnover of staff compared to industry rates, largely because people enjoy being here. It really does feel like one big family.”
