Children's Home run by Hull City Council in Kingston upon Hull

SC034313 Unique reference number 8 April 2010 Inspection date Simon Morley Inspector Key Type of Inspection

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3 December 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 9 Inspection Report: SC034313

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Brief description of the service

The local authority own and manage this children's home. The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to five young people of either gender from ages 15 to 17. The aim of the home is to support young people to become independent and help them with the transition to adulthood. The home also offers an outreach service to young people who have left care and may need additional support.

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Brief description of the service

The home is a detached house with front and rear gardens. Downstairs there is a lounge, dining room, kitchen, laundry, computer/contact room, shower room, private telephone for young people, and staff offices. Upstairs there are six single bedrooms, bathroom and staff sleep-in rooms.

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Brief description of the service

The home is close to local health services, shops, leisure facilities and bus routes.

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Summary

This was an unannounced key inspection of all the outcome areas and key national minimum standards.

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Summary

Staff are committed, motivated and eager to ensure good outcomes for young people in their care and they work hard to try and achieve this. As a result young people benefit from good levels of support, especially in relation to educational achievement and health promotion. Young people living at the home have a wide range of diverse needs which are generally being met and the promotion of equality and diversity is satisfactory. The management of the home ensures at least adequate outcomes for young people with some areas of good practice. As a result the overall quality rating is satisfactory.

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Summary

The registered provider is required to improve the way that diverse needs are met, make better arrangements for young people to make private telephone calls, and review the effectiveness of the measures of discipline. Good practice recommendations are made in respect of staff training, monitoring young people's diets and education plans. The overall quality rating is satisfactory. This is an overview of what the inspector found during the inspection.

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Improvements since the last inspection

There were no statutory actions or good practice recommendations to follow up from the last inspection.

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Helping children to be healthy

The provision is good. The good health of young people is promoted well by staff. Healthcare records regarding young people's health assessments, needs and ongoing care are well kept. This helps staff who work with other professionals to support young people's healthcare. There is effective support for young people to have access to the necessary health services they need to be fit and healthy. Staff also support young people to be fit and active and encourage a variety of activities that provide opportunities for young people to benefit from physical exercise. 4 of 9 Inspection Report: SC034313 Young people are encouraged to eat a healthy diet and are involved in planning menus with staff. However there is no consistent, continuous monitoring of young people's diets to ensure their actual diet is healthy, nutritious and meeting their needs. This may result in young people not having the best diet possible to meet their needs. There are good opportunities for young

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Helping children to be healthy

people to develop and learn cooking skills. Young people can use the kitchen where they can prepare drinks, snacks and cook meals. Care records include any special dietary, cultural and religious food preferences of young people and staff offer food that meets these needs.

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Helping children to be healthy

Medication is securely stored keeping it safe from young people. Records are well maintained and there are suitable procedures to ensure young people get necessary medication when they need it. Some staff have up to date first aid training to enable them to provide first aid if necessary. Further training has been requested for staff that need their skills and knowledge refreshing.

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Helping children to be healthy

Overall, young people's health needs are well met and their health and welfare is effectively safeguarded by the home’s policies, procedures and practice for good health promotion.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The provision is satisfactory. Overall there are satisfactory arrangements to keep young people free from harm and help keep them safe. Staff are trained in child protection and understand the correct procedures and what to do to help keep young people free from harm and ensure their safe return when they are missing. Young people do not experience any bullying and staff work hard to encourage young people to get along with each other.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The behaviour management policy and practice is based on the use of praise, encouragement and de-escalation techniques to improve young people's behaviour. Staff work hard to help young people develop and improve their behaviour. Staff are trained in policies and practice about behaviour management and keep suitable records about incidents requiring their intervention. When this involves the use of control or any discipline the effectiveness of the measures used is not recorded making it hard to assess their impact on improving behaviour. Staff practice and records are monitored by the manager and monthly independent visitors to help ensure young people are properly safeguarded. There are times, the frequency of which varies, when staff are not able to manage young people's challenging behaviour and have to call for police support to help with this. Individual behaviour management strategies for each

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

young person are regularly reviewed but do not clearly address how the level of police involvement maybe reduced to benefit young people.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Risk assessments about young people's behaviour, known and likely activities, the potential for bullying and abuse are recorded, to enable staff to know what action to take, to minimise the risk to young people. These are generic assessments, not developed to include an assessment of risks and subsequent safety measures specific to ensuring individual young people's safety. The absence of a better individual approach to risk management was not seen to impact on the welfare of young people, but has the potential to do so.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Young people know how to make a complaint, there is information in the young people’s guide and around the home about how to complain. This is not in a language that all young people understand but there is 5 of 9 Inspection Report: SC034313 some support external to the home to help young people understand their individual rights and the complaints process. This brings an element of inequality to the accessibility of the complaints process. Young people say that staff are approachable and will listen to their concerns and help them. There have been no complaints since the last inspection but previous complaints have been addressed fairly and to the satisfaction of young people.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Young people benefit from having their privacy respected. They can bathe in private and staff respect the privacy of their bedrooms. Young people have access to a telephone but have to ask to use this and calls can not always be made in a private place. Though young people were happy with these arrangements this does not comply with regulatory requirements. Personal records about young people's care are stored safely to maintain appropriate levels of confidentiality.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Staff and young people have been involved in regular fire drills. Staff working at the home have received fire safety training and records of fire safety checks and other safety records are up to date and accurate to ensure young people live in a safe environment.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

There are good procedures to ensure that only suitable staff are employed to work with young people.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is good. Staff are committed and effective at supporting young people so that their care needs are met. Staff appreciate that individual young people have different needs depending on their background, age, race and culture. Staff work hard to develop relationships with a range of different support services and promote social networks to help support young people with their care needs.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Staff encourage and support good school attendance and work with schools to maintain this. Staff are effective in motivating young people to improve and sustain their attendance to help them make educational

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

achievements. Not all young people have an up-to-date personal education plan detailing their needs, achievements and support. The absence of these was not seen to negatively impact on educational outcomes for young people. This is offset by regular meetings with local education co-ordinators to help ensure young people's educational needs are being met. There is space, resources and facilities at the home, to enable the completion of homework including a computer to use for educational and leisure purposes.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Young people are encouraged and supported to develop their personal interests and pursue a range of meaningful leisure and social activities.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The provision is good. Some admissions to the home are planned involving the child or young person and their family where appropriate. Young people may visit the home before they move in and their needs are assessed before admission helping to ensure it is appropriate for the young person to move there. In these cases young people are able to move into the home in a planned and sensitive 6 of 9 Inspection Report: SC034313 manner. There are planning meetings about admissions involving the registered manager and the placing authority to discuss whether it is best to admit a young person or not. The records of these planning meetings do not demonstrate that all the risks of the impact of a young person being admitted both on the young person and young people already living at the home are assessed. This shortfall in record keeping was not seen to impact on young people's welfare with respect to admissions of young people into the home since the last inspection. Some

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Helping children make a positive contribution

admissions are the result of an emergency with less time for such planning and preparation before a young person moves into the home.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

There are good placement plans recorded which detail young people's needs and the support they need form staff. This helps to ensure positive outcomes for the young people. Daily care records reflect how these plans are being implemented and show the actions taken by the staff are to meet a range of the identified needs of the young people. Staff monitor the plans and can review them if needed in line with young people's needs, progress and development. Young people are involved in this and have a say in decisions about their lives. Young people are also consulted about and participate in statutory reviews of their care along with their social workers. Statutory case reviews have taken place within the required timescales. This process ensures that the young people's needs, development and placement plans are reviewed regularly, in the light of their care and progress at the home.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Young people’s contact with friends and relatives is promoted and facilitated well. Young people can keep in touch with people that are important to them and they can have family come to visit them.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Young people are encouraged to make decisions about their lives and influence the way that the home is run. This includes one to one time with staff as well as visits from children's rights and advocacy services. Staff make a lot of effort to ensure that young people are enabled to make choices about their care through daily conversation ensuring young people's views are sought and acted upon. There is good practice of regularly obtaining the views of young people's parents. This is a new practice in the home and it is too soon to judge the impact this has on the care of young people.

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Achieving economic wellbeing

The provision is satisfactory. Staff support young people to help prepare them to become independent. Young people are able to stay at the home until they are ready to move on. There are a range of opportunities for young people to learn and develop independent living skills. These opportunities are not effectively utilised to help ensure young people are getting the best levels of support to make a successful transition to adulthood. The home offers an outreach service providing support to young people living more independently in the community to help them succeed. The home also has a spare room for these young people who may need to use it on a temporary basis if they need additional support.

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Achieving economic wellbeing

Young people benefit from an environment that is furnished and decorated to a satisfactory standard. The home offers a reasonable range of facilities. Upstairs all young people have a good size single bedroom and share bathrooms and toilets. Downstairs there is a lounge, computer room, large well equipped kitchen and separate dining room and laundry room. There are gardens to front and back with room for young people to play in. 7 of 9 Inspection Report: SC034313

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Organisation

The organisation is satisfactory. There is a Statement of Purpose available, to inform young people, professionals and members of the public about how care is provided at the home. There is also a more user friendly young person's guide about the home for young people to keep and refer to. Before an admission, staff also provide as much information as they can about the home to young people, so that they know what to expect if they come to stay there. Written information about the home, its services, support, advice and guidance is not translated for young people whose first language is not English. Though an interpreting service is available there is some inequality in access for young people to the range of information about the home.

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Organisation

Overall the promotion of equality and diversity is satisfactory. Staff make considerable efforts to treat young people as individuals and support on them on an individual basis regardless of need but this is not always well fulfilled. This is highlighted by the language barrier between staff and young people whose first languages are different. An interpreter is used but this is not in place continually around the clock and there is some

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Organisation

inequality in daily communication between young people and with staff. The Statement of Purpose does not indicate how such diverse needs of the current young people in the home will be met. Overall this has resulted in some of the young people's diverse needs not always being fully met by the home.

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Organisation

The composition of the staff team does not reflect the diversity of young people accommodated, however, young people benefit from being looked after by a competent staff team, which has a broad range of skills and experience among its members. Most staff have the recommended care qualification and other staff are working towards achieving this so that the home can maintain the 80% target of staff who are qualified.

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Organisation

Staff have opportunities to be trained in a wide variety of safety and childcare subjects. The current management of staff training has led to some staff not being able to keep there skills and knowledge up to date in certain areas, for example, first aid. Training records also indicate that some staff have not been trained in areas, such as self-harm, drug awareness, loss and attachment. These records do not correlate with verbal reports from staff about levels of training making it hard to assess staff training needs in relation to effectively caring for young people in the home.

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Organisation

There are suitable staffing levels to ensure that young people are looked after and are able to attend appointments, meetings and pursue their hobbies and interests.

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Organisation

Care records are generally well kept and reflect the individuality of young people, their needs, development and achievements. The manager undertakes regular monitoring of records and practice in the home. This is also checked by the registered provider who undertakes monthly, unannounced monitoring visits to the home. This helps ensure that the care of children and young people can be reviewed in light of information about how the home is operating. 8 of 9 Inspection Report: SC034313

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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 July 2010 make suitable arrangements to ensure the home is conducted with due regard to the cultural and linguistic background of children accommodated there (Regulation 11 (2)) 31 July 2010 ensure that children are provided at all reasonable times with access to a telephone on which to make and receive calls in private and without reference to staff (Regulation 15 (4)) 31 July 2010 ensure that records of the use of control, restraint or discipline include the effectiveness of the use of the measure (Regulation 17.4).

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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): • ensure the record of menus (as served) demonstrates the provision of a suitable and varied diet (NMS 10.4) • ensure each young person has an up to date Personal Education Plan (PEP) (NMS 14) • ensure both the needs of the child concerned, and the likely effects of his/her admission upon the existing group of residents, are taken into account, and recorded, in decisions on admissions to the home (NMS 5.7) • ensure the Statement of Purpose accurately describes what the home sets out to do for children it accommodates, in particular to include how it intends to support asylum seeking children (NMS 1.1) • ensure there are up-to-date records of training for all staff and that children are looked after by staff who are trained to meet their needs (NMS 31 & 31.4). 9 of 9 Inspection Report: SC034313

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