Kedleston Group, which has 13 specialist residential and day schools as well as two children’s homes, across the UK has appointed Catherine Fieldhouse as its new Care Quality Assurance Lead.

During her career Catherine has taken two registered provisions to Outstanding judgements from regulator Ofsted. Starting out as a residential support worker, Catherine progressed to Registered Manager setting up a specialist trauma and trafficking service and moving to act as Deputy Manager in a Tier 4 mental health service.

She will be responsible for quality assurance across the group’s two children’s homes and three residential schools.

Chief Executive Paul Brosnan said: “We are delighted to announce Catherine’s appointment. Catherine brings with her many years of operational experience in residential care settings, across a breadth of different specialist provisions, and has taken two of her provisions to outstanding ratings from Ofsted.

“Our focus is always on quality and Catherine is an important addition to our team.”

Catherine said: “I’ve been very impressed by Kedleston’s schools and homes since I joined the group.

“A large part of my role will be to spend a great deal of time auditing the homes to ensure quality and care standards are high across the board, and that the ethos and values of Kedleston are always on show.

“Part of my role is also to ensure all of the evidence is in place to help local authorities and our regulator when they inspect our quality and they have everything they need to do so.

“As well as working with our staff teams, I will also engage with the children to get their feedback on quality. It’s an additional layer of advocacy and gives the young people the chance to air their views, and have them acted upon, which is so important.”

Kedleston’s 13 homes and schools support children with social, emotional and mental health difficulties and those with an autism spectrum condition.