Children's Home run by Liverpool City Council in Liverpool

SC035969 Unique reference number 8 December 2009 Inspection date Michelle Moss Inspector Random Type of Inspection

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This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the source and date of publication are stated.

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You can obtain copies of The Children Act 2004, Every Child Matters and The National Minimum Standards for Children's Services from: The Stationery Office (TSO) PO Box 29, St Cripins, Duke Street, Norwich, NR3 1GN. Tel: 0870 600 5522. Online ordering: www.tso.co.uk/bookshop

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About this inspection

The purpose of this inspection is to assure children and young people, parents, the public, local authorities and government of the quality and standard of the service provided. The inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000. This report details the main strengths and any areas for improvement identified during the inspection. The judgements included in the report are made in relation to the outcome for children set out in the Children Act 2004 and relevant National Minimum Standards for the establishment.

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The inspection judgements and what they mean

this aspect of the provision is of exceptionally high quality Outstanding: this aspect of the provision is strong Good: this aspect of the provision is sound Satisfactory: this aspect of the provision is not good enough Inadequate: 3 of 6 Inspection Report: SC035969

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Brief description of the service

The children's home provides short-term breaks and respite for boys and girls between the ages of eight and 19 years. The home cares for up to seven children with learning disabilities and physical disabilities at any one time. Many of the children use non-verbal methods of communication. The home is a purpose built detached property, within easy distance to local parks, cinemas, shops and schools.

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Brief description of the service

At the time of the visit there were six young people accessing the service.

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Summary

This was an interim inspection that has looked at the progress the home has made in regards to three actions and three recommendations raised at the last full inspection. Also, staying safe and organisation have been re-inspected to reassess outcomes for children.

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Summary

The home has addressed the majority of the previous identified shortfalls. In doing so, recruitment has been enhanced, more diverse communication aids have been developed to secure participation and the home has received additional funding to improve the premises. However, despite these positive improvements, there are couple of areas that are still not fully met. These relate to maintaining accurate records for physical interventions and obtaining copies of children's statement of special educational needs. Also, there are two new areas requiring improvement that have resulted from this inspection relating to recording of complaints and training. Nevertheless, the quality of care, coupled by strong leadership continues to ensure outcomes for children remain overall good. The overall quality rating is good. This is an overview of what the inspector found during the inspection.

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Improvements since the last inspection

The home has taken action to improve outcomes for children. This includes the home investigating different methods of communication that can be used in supporting children. This has strengthened the commitment to involving and consulting with children during their stays, inclusive of their care plans. The action taken by the home is helping to remove barriers that previously limited participation being secured.

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Improvements since the last inspection

The manager is signing off physical restraints and commenting on the appropriateness of any restraint. However, despite this improvement, there remains a shortfall in the accuracy of recording to meet regulations. For example, the duration of the actual restraint is still not always clearly recorded and hinders validation of how long a child has been required to be restrained. More positively, increased safeguards have been made by the home to ensure all workers have on their personnel files, a recent photograph, to help validate their identification.

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Improvements since the last inspection

The home has managed to secure additional funding. This is aimed at improving the level of living space available to children. In doing so, it will offer more choice and greater flexibility to meet the diverse needs of young people. The work is planned to commence in January 2010.

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Helping children to be healthy

The provision is not judged. 4 of 6 Inspection Report: SC035969

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The provision is good. The safety of children continues to be well promoted through a wide range of practices and records made by the home. This is centralised around the initial assessment and then drawn into the placement plan. This includes assessing known risks and formulating strategies that provide beneficial support to help keep children safe. This extends to countering bullying, protecting children from abuse and having safeguards in place if a child was to go missing.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The staff team recognise that children's difficulties and associated needs are often inherited by their vulnerabilities and disabilities. The heart of supporting behaviour management is to be supportive and consistent in approach, inclusive of using skills such as diversion and distraction techniques to help children stay safe and minimise self harming. When physical restraint is found necessary, it is only used to prevent the likelihood of injury. The staff members carrying out the restraint are appropriately trained. Any incident that involves physical restraint or imposing a sanction to is recorded. These records provide reasonable details to validate why the action was necessary. However, the depth of recording does not fully met regulations. For example, clarification on the length of the physical restraint used is not always clearly recorded. The bound book being used is not page numbered throughout and some dates are missing.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

This limits having a concise account of the action taken by staff to protect children.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

There continues to be a highly effective system operated to secure the health and safety of children inclusive of fire, water and environmental safety. Also, children have their privacy respected through staff practices in handling personal data relating to individual children. Complaints raised by children and families are taken seriously and procedures are in place to ensure all concerns are investigated. However, a central record is not held that records the date of each raised complaint, the nature of the complaint, action taken and the outcome. This absence hinders the home having a validated log of all complaints and how these are investigated within set timelines.

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Organisation

The organisation is good. There remains a highly effective management team that takes an effective approach to ensure the home is run in the best interests of children. This includes holding the right qualifications for roles and responsibilities. The manager evaluates the quality of care and performance of the service to ensure it is meeting the diverse needs of children wishing to access short breaks.

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Organisation

The staff team have a wide range of experience and skills to meet the board range of needs of children using the service. To ensure the staffs skills remain enhanced, commitment to training 5 of 6 Inspection Report: SC035969 is secured. This includes specialised training relating to health and communication. The home is supporting an increased number of children who are diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder. However, the number of staff members that have received autism awareness training is limited, therefore restricting all staff to be adequately knowledgeable about supporting children with associated additional needs.

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Organisation

The home continues to provide a range of useful information to families that help them have a good awareness of the service and what their child can expect. The deployment of staff is matched to the needs of children and continues to maintain a level of flexibility to support the diverse needs of children.

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Organisation

Regular visits are made to the home by councillors that produce a report of their findings. This helps the management to drive forward improvement and in turn enhance the provision of care for children.

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions, which must be taken so that the registered person meets the Care Standards Act 2000, The Childrens Homes Regulations 2001 and the National Minimum Standards. The Registered Provider must comply with the given timescales.

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Due date Action Standard

31 January 2010 ensure any measure of control, restraint or discipline applied in the home is recorded in accordance with regulations (Regulation 17.4) 31 January 2010 ensure a written record is maintained for all complaints received by the home (Regulation 24.5) 28 February 2010 ensure copy of any statement of special educational need is obtained. (Regulation 28.2, Schedule 3.12)

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the registered person should take account of the following recommendation(s): • provide all staff with training in autism awareness. (NMS 31.1) 6 of 6 Inspection Report: SC035969

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