Our staff

Alex Hyland

Alex has over 25 years experience working with children who display emotional & challenging behaviour. His professional experience includes working with adults, children and young people who have left Local Authority care and those experiencing mental health difficulties. Alex has worked within the voluntary, public & private sectors in a variety of settings including hospitals, direct access homeless shelters and secure units. He has considerable management experience of various residential homes ranging in size from 3 to 7 bedded. Trained at Caldecott College (accredited by Greenwich University) he achieved a Graduate Certificate in Therapeutic Childcare.

Dawn Ives

Dawn has over 16 years’ experience working in childcare and is qualified with the Registered Manager Award, NVQ Level 3 and 4 in Child Care and the Assessor’s Award.

Dawn has developed her career with My Choice Homes, starting as Residential Support Worker developing and progressing within the care roles, to Acting Manager then Registered Care Manager at Kestrel House.

Dawn then progressed to Senior Management undertaking the role of Assistant Service Manager for three years, leading to Dawn’s most recent position of Operations Manager for over 6 years.

From February 2018 Dawn has undertaken the role of Responsible Individual for all the nine Children’s Homes within My Choice. Dawn is also a company Director who has Operational responsibility. Dawn oversees the care of the children placed in the homes and the progress they are making, Dawn is able to objectively oversee the children’s care by regular liaison with Registered Care Managers and working in partnership with the senior management team, who discuss the care of each child and analyse the performance of each home through regular meetings and the daily sharing of information. This information is shared back to the homes and staff teams so we as an organisation continue to strive to meet the children’s needs in the best possible way.

Dawn works closely with Ofsted, Local Authorities and consultant therapists, co-ordinating and managing the company referrals with other My Choice Directors and Care Managers. Dawn assesses young people with the relevant Care Manager to ensure placement matching and assessment is appropriate within the home. Dawn will co-ordinate with the Practice Manager and Team Manager’s to ensure all necessary records are completed within this referral process.