Children's Home run by Leicester City Council in Leicester

SC039056 Unique reference number 1 February 2010 Inspection date Warren Clarke Inspector Random Type of Inspection

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25 September 2009 Date of last 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 8 Inspection Report: SC039056

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Brief description of the service

This children's home is operated by a local authority and is situated in a residential area in the north-east of the city. It is registered to provide short break or respite care for up to nine children and young people from the age of eight years to under 18 years. The children are mainly accommodated in one of two units. One unit accommodates children with learning difficulties who also have wide ranging physical disabilities and, in some cases, complex health needs. The other unit provides accommodation to children who often exhibit challenging behaviours allied to their learning difficulties. Each episode of respite care is generally planned in advance; however, the service also aims to respond to emergency family situations where this is in the child's best interests. Two young people, exceptionally, are being accommodated in the home on a full-time basis.

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Brief description of the service

The building is specially designed for its purpose and is mostly at ground level. It is divided into separate areas, one being exclusively for administrative use and accommodating facilities and services accessible to the children in residence, but not exclusively. Both of the residential units are self contained and offer single bedroom accommodation, dining, bathroom and toilet facilities. A two-storey section of the building has been equipped as a training flat for young people who are being prepared towards living more independently.

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Brief description of the service

Currently the home provides a service for a total of 36 children and young people. There were six children present during the inspection, all of whom were seen and all of whom contributed to the process.

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Summary

This interim announced inspection assessed performance against the key national minimum standards relevant to the Every Child Matters outcome areas: staying safe and organisation. It also assessed what has been done to address the sole recommendation made at the last inspection.

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Summary

The home provides children with an all round excellent standard of care. It is exemplary in the care that it gives those with multi-disabilities and complex health problems. The overall quality rating is outstanding. This is an overview of what the inspector found during the inspection.

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Improvements since the last inspection

At the last inspection a window frame in one area of the home appeared unsound. Since then it has been examined and found to be intact, but needs repainting. The repainting was being carried out during the inspection. The recommendation has therefore been fulfilled.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The provision is outstanding. 4 of 8 Inspection Report: SC039056 Staff take full account of the children's disabilities and, in some instances, their high level of dependence. This is reflected in careful organisation of resources and shaping care practices. For example, the home is highly equipped to promote each child's or young person's privacy and preserve their dignity in all aspects of their care. Each child has his or her own bedroom, which is in all cases suitably fitted with aids and equipment appropriate to meet their needs. Any assistance with intimate care is given in private. The children are also guided and supported to be as independent as possible in aspects of their own care such as dressing, bathing and toileting. These arrangements are complemented by policies, procedures and practices which are strictly applied to ensure the children's and young people's personal details are handled

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The home adopts the local authority's comments, compliments and complaints quality assurance system. This enables children, or others on their behalf, to make comments or suggestions for improvements, compliment outstanding service and complain when service quality is unacceptable. This system includes a discrete complaints procedure, which is actively promoted to the children and young people in a format appropriate to their age and understanding. Staff recognise that communication difficulties may limit some children's ability to convey their concerns conventionally. Staff are mindful of communication difficulties. They are alert to their particular means of making their wishes and feelings known and committed to advocating on their behalf. Where complaints are made, there being none since the last inspection, they are taken seriously, considered fairly and resolved satisfactorily.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Safeguarding the children from abuse is given a high priority. Staff are all provided with relevant training and guidance that equips them to understand the nature of abuse, act to prevent it and to respond to any allegations or suspicion of it appropriately. This includes acting to protect disabled children and those with additional communication needs who are particularly vulnerable. This, together with effective safeguarding policy and procedures, which are consistent with those of the Local Safeguarding Children Board, form a robust and successful safeguarding strategy.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Staff have adopted the local authority anti-bullying policy and use this to build on work done in schools with the children to understand the nature of bullying. This takes account of their age and level of understanding. While there is no calculated and malicious bullying among the children, staff are nevertheless aware that the behaviour of some may impact on others in ways similar to bullying. Risk assessment is used to identify those whose challenging behaviour may have an adverse impact, and excellent measures are adopted where this might pose any threat to the comfort and well-being of others. Amongst others, this is achieved by there being always a high level of supervision and careful selection to ensure compatibility of children resident at any one time. There is also careful and sensitive separation of the most fragile and vulnerable children from those who are more robust and unpredictable. These successful measures are

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

closely linked to and complement the equality and diversity policy, the essence of which is that all children should without fear or discomfort benefit from the home's facilities and services.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Sound procedures and an established local agencies protocol are in place to respond to any event of children being missing or absent from the home without permission. The procedures and protocol properly recognise the children's vulnerability and the urgency necessary to recover them should they be missing. No child or young person has been so absent. Staff are sufficiently aware that while the children and young people look forward to spending time at the home and are unlikely to run away, some may seek to wander off the premises or away from the 5 of 8 Inspection Report: SC039056 group on occasions such as outings. In order to combat this, there is a high level of supervision and effective perimeter security.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Staff are provided with clear guidance to assist the children and young people to manage their behaviour and to enable reasonable control and discipline to be maintained. This includes the clear parameters within which staff must operate, ensuring their disciplining is proportionate and takes account of the children's and young people's age and level of understanding. The approach of encouraging and reinforcing acceptable behaviour is most successful. Staff respond with firmness to poor potentially harmful conduct, but do so in ways that are helpful to the children's learning and without frequent use of sanctions. Physical intervention or restraint is used only where children or young people are causing harm to themselves or others. For instance, some children bang their heads and the nature of the physical intervention is to stop them from doing so. Staff have good relationships with the children and, in some cases, have shared

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

in their care over several years. This has caused them to become adept at anticipating and deflecting the children from behaving unacceptably.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The home provides a safe environment for the children and young people who are successfully protected from harm by a wide range of well-established health and safety measures. These include compliance with necessary assessments and risk management in all areas such as fire precaution, use of aids and equipment and other activities involved in the care of particularly vulnerable children. The range of security measures in place provides effective protection of the children from intruders.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

There is a well-established system which ensures that staff selected to work in the home, or on the premises, are suitable people to look after or have substantial contact with children. The registered person operates a robust staff selection and vetting process which includes assessment of competence and carrying out of checks such as criminal records disclosure of all those who are employed. This process is overseen by the Registered Manager, but is also scrutinised by one of the registered provider's senior managers to ensure it is as stringent as possible. Acceptable arrangements in place also ensure there is control and supervision of visitors.

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Achieving economic wellbeing

The provision is outstanding. The children enjoy a comfortable and safe living environment in the home. The building is maintained in sound structural condition, has been refurbished and extended to enhance its facilities and is furnished and equipped to an exceptionally high standard. The separate units in which the children are cared for are both homely and equipped, arranged and adorned to create a most pleasing environment appropriate to the children's and young people's needs.

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Organisation

The organisation is outstanding. 6 of 8 Inspection Report: SC039056 Children are thriving in the home, which is competently managed and provides the children and their families with the flexible range of services they need. This is underpinned by a clear and sound rationale set out in the current Statement of Purpose. This document, a blueprint for the high standard with which the registered person expects the home to be run, complies with the relevant regulations and accurately details the principles, methods and resources on which the home is run. Information from the Statement of Purpose is helpfully summarised and presented in an appropriate format in a guide for the children and parents. The guide provides information about the standard of care and services children and young people can reasonably expect.

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Organisation

Sufficient numbers of suitably qualified and experienced staff are employed and efficiently deployed to respond effectively to the children's and young people's needs. Management and leadership arrangements succeed in establishing accountability and in ensuring continuity and consistent care of the children and young people. The home performs exceptionally well in developing and retaining staff. This is of substantial benefit to the children, particularly those with a high level of dependency who therefore rely on staff to assist with their personal care. They do not have to regularly adjust to new people and enjoy the emotional stability from longstanding staff who contribute to their upbringing for much of their childhood. Staff consider that they are well supported and provided with the time and resources to perform their duties to a high standard. Staff are especially satisfied with the work they have been supported to do

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Organisation

to make the service accessible to some children with complex health problems so that they too can benefit from the exemplary standards of care provided.

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Organisation

The staff team is highly trained and collectively skilled in the care of children with learning and, in some cases, associated disabilities. This arises from the registered persons' demonstrable commitment to staff development. There is an established induction and foundation programme for new staff together with comprehensive ongoing in-service training and development for experienced staff. This enables staff to continually update their knowledge and hone their skills to achieve competence.

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Organisation

The welfare of children and young people continues to be safeguarded and promoted by a rigorous system of monitoring and review to sustain high standards of care and the efficient running of the home. Recent monitoring and review conducted on behalf of the registered provider report favourably, but also show that the task is approached critically. Where shortfalls are found, they are highlighted and addressed quickly. These scrutiny documents are made available to staff, as are Ofsted inspection reports. The current development plan sets objectives for improvement of the facilities and services that the home provides for children and families. This involved substantial upgrading and extension of the home's range of services and facilities, all of which have been achieved. This demonstrates that the managers are effective strategic planners and use this process to drive ongoing improvements in the quality of service.

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Organisation

High standards of record keeping are reflected in the efficient organisation of the children's and young people's records which are kept on a strictly individual basis and include all the information necessary to plan their care and monitor their progress. The procedure for children's and young people's access to their personal records is promoted in the Statement of Purpose, and should they seek to do this, the information is arranged in a way that would make this straightforward. 7 of 8 Inspection Report: SC039056

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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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Recommendations

There are no recommendations. 8 of 8 Inspection Report: SC039056

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