our team
Michelle Pryce-Morally
Residential Director for Ascent Family Homes
As the Registered Manager for Ascent Family Homes, I was fortunate to have set up our 1st children’s home, for Ascent in 2022 to date.
It has been a pleasure working with a diverse selection of young people who have all individually supported our success journey at Aspen House. As a therapeutic home, I value and care for my staff and all children. I have a passion for development and supporting children to believe in their ability to achieve and work towards positive outcomes.
I have been fortunate to have worked with a wide selection of children’s service provisions and managed; children’s homes, residential supported homes, semi-independence, custodial youth settings, pupil referral units, youth offending services, and led youth initiatives. My experiences have been supported by knowledge of safeguarding children and managing presenting risks and complex challenges effectively.
I will continue to learn on my journey and explore training and developmental objectives to enhance my practice and experience. I hold relevant qualifications within Leadership and management and deliver non-restrictive behavioural management training.
Welcome to Aspen House, we are a therapeutic home that promotes the rights and views of all our young people.
Katie Wilson-Downie
Registered Manager – Aspen House
I am Katie Wilson-Downie, I am the Registered Manager for Aspen House. My background is in management for children’s residential and semi-independence. I have also been a supervising social worker in fostering for around 4 years also.
My academic qualifications are a Behavioural Science undergraduate degree and a postgraduate degree in Social Work. I have been a kinship foster carer for a teen in my family, and she successfully moved into her independent flat at 19.
I became interested in this field because I have care experience myself. I am very passionate about supporting young people who face challenges, and my expertise is supporting adolescents who have experienced trauma. I am excited to join the Ascent Family team and will remain committed to supporting my service, young people, and staff team.
Tia Parris
Deputy Manager
I joined Aspen House at the start of our residential journey and have worked to become a Deputy Manager. I have obtained my level 5 in Leadership and management and look forward to delivering high-quality services for all children within our care.
I have a dedicated passion for the development of young people’s education, and physical, mental, and emotional well-being. I aim to support young people to overcome trauma and barriers that hinder their development. I have worked within the social care sector for several years working with challenging and highly complex needs services.
Dimitri Jordan
Head of Youth Engagement and Independence
My role within Aspen House is to promote and implement Independence for our young people to help them achieve progress and the best outcomes for themselves.
I have a passion for young people and have worked with thousands of young people all over the UK for the last 11 years. My job roles have been within the Local authority directly supporting young people to work through traumatic experiences.
I have also worked with young offending services and implemented the ISSP program. This involved setting up a collective of anti-gang initiatives that aimed to reduce youth violence within the prison and community environment. Over the years I have supported and promoted anti- knife crime campaigns with the MOJ and continue to work within services that address youth violence.
At Aspen House I offer support and mentoring to all young people and continue to study professionally, currently working on my Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare
Key skills
Facilitation
Training for professionals
Mentoring
Gangs and Serious Youth
Violence Consultancy
Leanne Ellison
Trainee Deputy Manager
I am a Trainee Deputy Manager at Aspen House, I have worked within children’s services for almost 8 years, gaining experience and qualifications to effectively support our young people, the team and the service.
I support the team to strive in providing our young people with outstanding quality of care, this is evident in the home’s environment. The open plan of the home provides a family feel, with training for staff to always implement therapeutic support and individual career aspirations.
Maintaining relationships with the local authority, ensures our young people feel heard and receive not only daily support from our team, but outcomes are met within the external services.
Working at Aspen House continues to be a place which I thoroughly enjoy, with the shared view within the home of understanding our young people’s lived trauma and the impact these circumstances have on their well-being, linked with their lived trauma to explore support strategies to implement within the home.
Victoria Odelanu
Trainee Deputy Manager
As a Trainee Deputy Manager at Ascent, I am committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for vulnerable children. My role involves overseeing the daily operations of the residential home, ensuring that each child received the care they need. I work closely with our therapeutic practitioners, guiding them to deliver personalised support tailored to each child’s unique needs.
In my position, I prioritise the safety and well-being of the children by strictly following safeguarding procedures. I also collaborate with external agencies, families, and school to ensure that children receive comprehensive support for their emotional, social, and educational development.
Beyond day-today care, I help to manage the home’s budget to ensure our resources are used effectively. I focus on maintaining clear communication with everyone involved in the children’s care and support ongoing training for our staff to improve the quality of care we provide. My goal is to make a positive difference in the lives of the children. Helping them grow and succeed in a nurturing environment.
Josie Cuckow
Therapeutic Consultant
Hello I am the Therapeutic Consultant for Ascent Family Homes.
I have over 30 years experience of working therapeutically with children, young people and their families/carers, in a variety of different roles which have ranged from frontline to management of services, with multidisciplinary and multi-agency organisations (private sector, voluntary, health and local authority) across child protection and family support services, family and carer homes, schools, hospitals, respite care, residential services, domiciliary home care service, palliative care and fostering agencies, individually or part of a team.
I am experienced in working with the impact of complex trauma, adverse childhood experiences and special educational needs. I am creative and flexible, I maintain a holistic and systemic approach. I use different modalities according to the individual needs of the child or young person, their family/caregivers/staff teams.
I am passionate about children and young people experiencing wraparound therapeutic care on a daily basis and the Ascent Family Homes Philosophy of Care sits firmly with my beliefs.
Contact Us
michellepryce@ascentfamilyhomes.co.uk
or email
referrals@ascentfamilyhomes.co.uk
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Ascent Family Homes
Hillcrest House
First Floor
51 Woodcote Rd
Wallington
SM6 0LT
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