Our Philosophy
We call ourselves the Infinity Alliance because we believe that only through deep, strong, foundational and successful partnerships, centred around each of our desires to succeed in any endeavour, through teamwork and support of each other; will there be any victories and lasting changes. Only through working together can we access the brightest future. And only through partnership can our impacts last.
That partnership is with us, young people, local authorities, and other agencies and businesses aiming to support and better the lives of young people.
Infinity Alliance has been built on the foundations of every young person has an amazing amount of potential and we want to help each young person we work with access this potential. We are invested in your future and want to help you find the best path for your life.
We believe that young people are all diamonds in the rough. Each is unique and valuable, with so much potential. We believe that anything you truly put your mind to can be accomplished and we want you to see that too.
Our Role in the Grand Scheme of Things
We like to refer to ourselves as the hand of the local authority and your advocate. For many young people struggle to see how this can be the case as they often have a strained relationship with the local authority The local authority commission us to look after you and support you as they act as your guardian and in many cases, they have full legal responsibility of you or they may share parental responsibility with you but ultimately they are our boss.
We must legally follow their requests which should be agreed with you and your parents where possible. They have a support plan they share with us, and we are there to ensure that the objectives are met, and you are safe, cared for and achieving your outcomes.
The role of the local authority is to support families, protect vulnerable children and adults. Parents or guardians of the young person will express their desires regarding a young person's care to the local authority and these will be taken into consideration when creating your Pathway plan. Depending on the parental responsibility and rights we are obligated to follow the decisions laid out by the local authority unless they authorise us to follow the decisions laid out by your parents or guardians. Please don’t be offended if we can’t action decisions made by your parent or guardian unless the local authority has authorised as there are rules and regulations we need to follow. For example, if a young person’s curfew has been set by the social worker at 10pm, if a parent tells us a different time, we cannot authorise this as the local authority has not agreed this with us. We would have to get authorisation first before approving this. If the local authority has stated the young person can’t go somewhere without their authorisation and the parent says they can go, we will still; need to wait for local authority authorisation. Essentially, we are saying that parents/ guardians and social workers needs to be on the same page in advance of passing on information to us. Otherwise, we will have to defer to the last update we had from the local authority as a matter of law. The local authority and your parents or a guardian however have a right to explain to you the capacity in which the local authority will be working in your life so you are well informed on how decisions will be made.
We understand that having decisions made on your behalf can be frustrating which is why we will advocate for you. We will be working with you daily so we will get to know you more, understand your wishes, likes and dislikes etc. If a decision is made on your behalf and you do not agree with based on what we know of you, we will act as your advocate to your social worker and parents or guardians so they may better understand you. An example is a curfew, we have worked with a lot of young people that were not happy with the curfew. If you need our curfew extended for example some young people go to work and may finish late and they might want to go to the gym after and their curfew does not allow for that to happen. This is something we would be able to explain to the social worker so they may extend your curfew.
We will always let your social worker and parent, or guardians know your wishes. Whatever you share with us to be shared with the social worker and parent or guardian will be done so either via email or in weekly reports. While we are also the hand of the local authority, we are also your hand as our aim is to support you to achieve sustainable independence.