Dalveen Farmhouse

Dalveen is a substantial Victorian farmhouse nestled at the foot of the Dalveen Pass a few miles from the village of Thornhill in Dumfriesshire, offering up to four places on a long-term basis. Adjacent to the house is our educational facility, Merrick School.

This is our largest house with four beds available to both girls and boys.Dalveen’s care programmes provide a flexible package that is unique to each young person. We believe that a child’s experience of being in care becomes part of their life history. Scroll for more...

The team at Dalveen endeavour to make a young persons stay with Common Thread an inclusive, positive experience that looks to maximise life chances. The houses team works in partnership with each young person and the placing authority to formulate the objectives and direction of each care package. We at Common Thread are committed to offering each young person a variety of life experiences in a challenging but safe environment, unlocking talents and providing new areas for positive achievement.

The team at Dalveen come from all walks of life and are able to share their life experience and skills with our young people. A  number of them are very experienced but we also have staff that are new to childcare who can often offer a refreshing new take on a situation.

The team are committed to looking after young people who are in need of an imaginative, effective, challenging and flexible service. The most important aspect of this is developing trusting, respectful relationships whilst also offering good experiences to build confidence and self esteem. The team can often use their own interests as a ‘way in’ to engage with our young people.

As with all house teams at Common Thread the team at Dalveen are encouraged and supported through the process of getting the qualifications to meet SSSC requirements, in combination with these statutory requirements Common Thread continues to encourage more in depth learning in any relevant area of the trauma and attachment model used in our residential childcare services at Common Thread.

Among the many resources we have at Dalveen there is a dedicated playroom used for play work with children as required. The staff receive supervision and training in this from David Pithers a man with 40 years of knowledge in residential childcare and who happens to be our Childcare Consultant. We also have Merrick School right on our doorstep which accepts young people from across the organisation and external organisations as day pupils and also supports the education of all young people staying with Common Thread.