London-based adoption and fostering agency have bought their first headquarters

Family Futures, an adoption and fostering agency situated in London, have received a seven-figure loan from Unity Trust Bank helping them buy their first property.

The agency, which uses arts and drama to help care-experienced traumatised youngsters, has rented premises since it launched 24 years ago.

However, having purchased a headquarters in Finsbury Park, the not-for-profit organisation is saving more than £14k a month in rent.

Jay Vaughan MBE, CEO at Family Futures said: ‘Getting a mortgage has made a huge difference to us. We talked to several banks but the moment we spoke to Matt Conroy from Unity we were absolutely clear which one we were going to go with.

‘Part of our long-term strategy is to support survival, Mr Vaughan says, ‘owning our own building now ensures Family Futures is financially viable and we can continue to support care-experienced children, young people and their families.’

With 35 full-time staff, the organisation works with around 120 children and young people every year.

The business also assesses and approves adopters, recruits foster carers and provides external training and ongoing research into the sector.

Alongside Christine Gordon and Alan OBE, Jay Vaughan set up Family Futures at a time when public confidence in post adoption support had reached crisis levels.

 ‘Children were being removed from their birth families for neglect or abuse and placed with an adoptive family.’ Ms Vaughan says, ‘The thinking was, that if you love them and give them a nice life, they will be fine, but it wasn’t working because nice holidays, clothes and food don’t make it all better.

‘Children were often only entitled to six counselling sessions back then and the parents weren’t included in the process, so it wasn’t effective and families were falling apart.

‘It was out belief that care-experienced traumatised children needed long-term support and that therapy needed to have a family-based approach.’

The registered Community Interest Company uses innovative neuro-physiological psychotherapy to help children and their families.

In 2018 Ofsted rated the company as ‘outstanding’ and outlined, ‘children and their families receive holistic care of exceptional quality, which results in excellent experiences, outcomes and progress.’ 

Photo by Benjamin Davies