Heal
Safety first. Steady, predictable, gentle care that helps a nervous system settle and trust begin again.
Tribe Care Ltd · Hall House · Leyton, East London
A future where children are defined by their strengths, their identity and their dreams, not by trauma.
Hall House is a small, two-child therapeutic home for young people aged 10–17. We offer relationship-led, trauma-informed care built on the PACE model: Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy. A home that feels like a home.
- 2
- children, never more, so care knows each child deeply
- 10–17
- years · all genders welcomed
- 24/7
- awake staff, day and night, 365 days a year
Regulated underChildren's Homes (England) Regulations 2015
Therapeutic modelPACE & trauma-informed practice
Clinical partnerOT Practice, weekly therapeutic input
SpecialismSEMH / EBD · ages 10–17
Learn
Confidence grows. School re-engagement, new skills, and pathways most children in care never get to try.
Grow
Into themselves. A young person who knows who they are, what they can do, and where they are going next.
About Tribe Care
Care that is intentional, relational, and lived daily by a team who genuinely care.
Tribe Care Ltd was founded by Dean Stewart to do residential childcare differently. Small enough to know each child completely, and rich enough in relationships and opportunity to change the story of their time in care.
Hall House is our first home: a refurbished Edwardian town house on a quiet residential street in Leyton, Waltham Forest. It is registered for just two children at a time. That number is a deliberate choice. It means the staff team knows each young person deeply. What they like, what is hard for them, what their behaviour is communicating. And it lets them respond with the consistency that rebuilds trust.
We care for children who have experienced adverse childhood experiences and trauma, and who present with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) or emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD). Our work is grounded in a trauma-informed, relational approach, and we are explicit in our commitment to anti-racist practice and LGBTQ+ inclusion.
“Safety at Tribe Care is not accidental. It is intentional, strategic, and lived daily by a team who genuinely care. Every child deserves to feel secure, respected and protected.”
Realness
Honest, down-to-earth relationships built on truth. We follow through on what we say.
Belonging
Children feel safe, accepted and part of something, valued for who they are.
Empowerment
Independence, self-awareness and personal responsibility, in the child's own hands.
Confidence
We focus on strengths, celebrate progress, and stay alongside children through setbacks.
Empathy
We respond to behaviour with understanding, looking for the story behind the action.
Restoration
Steady, consistent care that rebuilds trust and emotional safety.
Voice
Children are active participants in decisions about their care, their home and their future.
Growth
Every child develops emotionally, socially and educationally, with the belief to move forward.
Our therapeutic approach
PACE is not a programme we deliver to children. It is the way we are with them.
Developed by Dr Dan Hughes and used widely in trauma-informed residential and fostering practice, PACE is the daily stance every staff member takes, in every conversation, every difficult moment, every repair. It is named in our recruitment, our induction, our supervision and every behaviour-support plan.
Playfulness
A light, warm, hopeful tone. We use shared humour and warmth to keep the relationship open, even in difficult moments.
Acceptance
We accept the child's inner world of feelings, beliefs and fears without judgement, even when we challenge a behaviour.
Curiosity
We wonder about the meaning behind behaviour. Not “why did you do that” but “I wonder what was happening for you.”
Empathy
We sit with the child's feelings. We do not rush to fix or minimise. Empathy is felt by the child, not just spoken.
Behaviour communicates. We stay curious.
- Connection before correction. We attune first, then teach.
- The relationship is the intervention. We work with the child, never against them.
- Restriction is always a last resort. Never a first response, and never punitive.
- We name behaviour, not children. No child is ever defined by their hardest moments.
- We reduce restrictive practice over time. Every restraint is followed by debrief, learning and change.
- Clinical reflection is built in. Fortnightly reflective practice with our therapeutic partner, OT Practice.
The home & what we offer
A real home, with opportunities most looked-after children never get to touch.
Creative & vocational pathways
Tribe Care is distinctive because of the network around our practice. Through Dean Stewart's links across the entertainment, music, sport and digital industries, children at Hall House can access pathways that are usually closed to young people in care. Each one is used purposefully and recorded in the child's plan.
Education, championed
We don't just support school, we champion it. We aim to secure a full-time education place within 20 working days of admission, attend every PEP, and re-engage children who arrive disengaged through small, attuned steps.
Health & therapy
GP, dentist and optician within 48 hours. A looked-after-child health assessment within statutory timescales. Weekly therapeutic sessions through OT Practice, with outcomes measured at baseline, six months and exit.
Identity & culture
Faith, language, heritage, sexuality and gender identity are recognised, affirmed and protected. An explicitly LGBTQ+-inclusive home, with a monthly cultural meal and external mentors where the team's make-up doesn't match a child's identity.
Safety, the whole way round
Individual missing-from-care plans, the Philomena protocol, contextual safeguarding against CSE, CCE and county lines, and a children-first complaints route with an independent person children already know.
The building
A three-storey Edwardian town house with private bedrooms children personalise, a lounge, a garden, and an activity and games room. It feels calm and non-institutional, a two-minute walk from a strong local school and ten minutes from the Olympic Park.
We help young people use the online world confidently and safely, and we treat every desk, every laptop and every conversation as a chance to learn.
What we hold ourselves to, by month six of every placement
100%
Placement stability where Tribe is the matching authority
≥50%
Reduction in missing episodes against pre-placement baseline
≤20 days
To secure a full-time education place
≥90%
School attendance, or a 20-point step improvement
8 wks
To a first CAMHS appointment where indicated
≥80%
Of children report feeling safer than at admission
Measured against a baseline taken with the placing social worker at admission, reported quarterly to placing authorities, and reviewed at every Regulation 45 quality-of-care review.
The Wellbeing Hub
Practical wisdom on trauma, regulation and recovery, from our therapists and coaches.
Short, useable articles written by the practitioners around Hall House. Some are for the young people we care for. Some are for the adults who care for them: staff, carers and families. Everything here is grounded in the same trauma-informed, PACE-based approach we live by in the home.
For
Topic
Staff & carers
6 min read
Connection before correction: what PACE actually looks like at 7am
The theory is easy to nod along to. Living it when a child won't get out of bed for school is harder. A walk-through of the four-letter stance in the moments that test it most.
For young people
4 min read
When your body feels too big for the room: three things that actually help
That fizzing, can't-sit-still, want-to-explode feeling has a name and a reason. Here's what's going on inside, and three things you can try that don't involve anyone telling you to “calm down.”
Staff & carers
7 min read
Behaviour is communication: reading the need underneath the moment
Trauma rewires how a child reads safety. When we treat behaviour as a message rather than a problem to be stopped, our whole response changes, and so, over time, does theirs.
For young people
5 min read
It's not your fault, and your brain isn't broken
If you've been through hard things, your brain learned to keep you safe in ways that don't always make sense now. Understanding why can take some of the weight off. Here's the plain-English version.
Staff & carers
6 min read
You can't pour from an empty cup: blocked care and how to come back from it
Caring for traumatised children can quietly switch off your own capacity for warmth. Clinicians call it blocked care. Recognising it isn't a weakness; it's part of the job. Here's how the team holds it together.
For young people
4 min read
Sleep, screens and the 2am spiral
When the house is quiet and the thoughts get loud, everything feels worse. A few honest, no-lecture ideas for the nights that are hard, and who you can talk to when they are.
The practitioners behind the Hub
Our Wellbeing Hub is written by registered therapists and qualified coaches who work with Hall House. Therapeutic provision is delivered under a Service Level Agreement with OT Practice; all clinicians are HCPC, BACP, UKCP or EMDR-registered as appropriate, with enhanced DBS and supervision in place.
ME
Dr Maya EllisonClinical Psychologist · OT Practice
PN
Priya NairChild & Adolescent Therapist
JA
Jordan AveryWellbeing Coach
Are you a therapist or coach who'd like to contribute? Get in touch with the team →
For local authorities & commissioners
Every admission is planned. We do not accept emergency placements.
Good matching is about belonging, not just availability. Because Hall House cares for only two children, the impact of every new placement on the child already living with us is weighed carefully. We share our Location & Area Risk Assessment and matching framework with you as part of the process.
- 01Referral & information gathering
Placing authorities email a referral with the care plan, recent risk assessment, education, health and missing history. The RM and RI review it alongside the existing resident's situation.
- 02Pre-admission assessment
A three-stage impact risk assessment. We consult the people who know the child, including carers, school and health, and we consider the voice of the child already at Hall House.
- 03Placement decision & offer
A written offer setting out terms, any enhanced staffing and fee, signed off by the Registered Manager, only where we are confident we can meet the child's needs safely.
- 04Transition
Where time allows: a visit to the child's current placement, a tour, a tea visit or overnight stay, and an introduction to the keyworker, all paced to build familiarity.
- 05Admission & planning
A personal welcome, a ready bedroom and welcome pack, and a 72-hour placement planning meeting. The Placement Plan is signed within seven days.
No fixed age-gap rule
We don't apply a blanket maximum age gap between children placed together. Matching is led by need, presentation, peer dynamic and emotional readiness, not by chronological age alone. Where the framework flags a likely peer-dynamic risk, the admission is paused, not progressed.
Careers at Tribe Care
Come and do the most important work there is, properly resourced to do it well.
We recruit for values first and train hard for skill. If you believe behaviour is communication, that relationships are the work, and that children should never be defined by their hardest moments, you'll recognise yourself here.
Funded qualifications
Every support worker is enrolled on the Level 3 Diploma within their first year, fully funded, with protected study time. Clear routes to Level 4 and 5.
Real clinical support
Fortnightly reflective practice with OT Practice, supervision every 4–6 weeks, daily PACE-informed handovers, and an Employee Assistance Programme.
Staff who are protected
You are never expected to absorb abuse as “part of the job.” Wellbeing, debriefs after incidents and a restraint-reduction culture are built in.
Small by design
Two children, a consistent team. You get to actually know the young people you support, which is the thing that makes this work, work.
Roles we recruit for
- Residential Support Worker day
- Waking Night Residential Support Worker night
- Senior Support Worker senior
- Therapeutic practitioners & coaches clinical
All posts are subject to enhanced DBS with a Children's Barred List check, two references with at least one verified verbally, and a values-based interview, in line with Schedule 2 of the Children's Homes Regulations 2015.
Express interest →Safeguarding
Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility, and it runs through everything, not alongside it.
Hall House operates under Regulation 34 of the Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the Waltham Forest Safeguarding Children Partnership procedures. Our Designated Safeguarding Lead is the Registered Manager, with a deputy DSL and a fully independent person who visits every month.
Contextual safeguarding
Active work against child sexual exploitation, child criminal exploitation, county lines and gang risk, informed by a detailed local risk assessment and ongoing engagement with police and the local exploitation panels.
Children first, always heard
Weekly children's meetings with a “you said, we did” loop, an independent person children already know, and the right to complain freely, including going straight to Ofsted, Childline or the Children's Commissioner.
Restraint reduction
Physical intervention is a last resort, never a punishment. Every restraint is recorded, debriefed and reviewed, and we track and reduce restrictive practice over time.
Trained & supervised
Every staff member completes safeguarding training at induction and annually, with Team-Teach physical-intervention training, Philomena protocol training, and condition-specific training per child.
If a child needs help right now
Childline0800 1111
NSPCC0808 800 5000
Children's Commissioner, Help at Hand0800 528 0731
Ofsted0300 123 1231
Emergency999
Contact
Let's talk, whether you're referring a child, looking for work, or want to contribute to the Hub.
Hall House · 51 Hall Road, Leyton, London Borough of Waltham Forest, E15 2BT
Dean StewartFounder & Responsible Individual
Doreen NamboRegistered Manager & Designated Safeguarding Lead
Ore WilliamsDeputy Manager
Florence ChiwetuIndependent Person (Reg 44 & Reg 39)