Children's Home run by Castle Homes Care Limited in Cheshire East

Unique reference number SC060590 Inspection date 14/10/2010 Inspector Michelle Moss / Rachel Ruth Britten Type of inspection Key

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Date of last inspection 07/01/2010 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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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 Crispins, 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.

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About this inspection

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 outcomes for children set out in the Children Act 2004 and the relevant National Minimum Standards for the service.

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The inspection judgements and what they mean

Outstanding: this aspect of the provision is of exceptionally high quality Good: this aspect of the provision is strong Satisfactory: this aspect of the provision is sound Inadequate: this aspect of the provision is not good enough

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Brief description of the service

The home is registered to accommodate three young people, of either sex between the ages of eight and 17 years. The category of registration is for young people with emotional or behavioural difficulties. The house is a four bedroom, two storey detached house with a garden to the front and parking space for two cars at the rear. A garage and two sheds are also located at the back of the parking area. The house is approximately a 10 minute walk from the nearest town centre which offers a range of shops and other public amenities.

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Summary

This is an overview of what the inspector found during the inspection.

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Summary

This was an announced inspection which was aligned with education. At the time of the visit there were three young people living at the home. The visit has looked at all key standards under the Every Child Matters outcome areas. Previous shortfalls have also been followed up. The evidence gathered demonstrates all previous shortfalls have been addressed in the interest of young people.

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Summary

The vest majority of standards are being met resulting in young people receiving an enhanced level of care. Young people feel well supported and have a strong rapport with staff that is built on mutual respect. The staff create a supportive and nurturing environment in which young people are able to access guidance, advice and support to maximise their potential. However, there are some shortfalls that have been identified. These relate to slight weaknesses in recording of restraints, countering bullying and in sustaining a 24 hour curriculum approach. Nevertheless, these shortfalls do not outweigh the strengths, in particular the warmth of care young people receive from staff.

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Improvements since the last inspection

The home has taken effective steps to address previous shortfalls. Young people are now benefiting from achievable and measureable objectives to help them improve their health. These objectives are addressed on a daily basis and reviewed regularly through key worker sessions. The staff are ensuring all visitors sign in and record the reason for their visit. This additional information is enhancing the safety of young people. Furthermore, risk assessments are being conducted in relation to young people’s activities and are reviewed regularly to ensure they are appropriate to young people’s present needs.

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Helping children to be healthy

Young people enjoy healthy meals at regular times that meet their dietary requirements and individual preferences. The new ‘breakfast club’ arrangement is fostering a positive start to the day’s routine. Young people and staff prepare a healthy breakfast together in the convenient kitchen. Young people mostly eat together with staff at the kitchen table. They have cooking times built into their weekly planners and enjoy good opportunities to become competent to prepare snacks, drinks and shop locally for necessities.

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Helping children to be healthy

Staff and young people are able to access food hygiene courses. Young people are encouraged to prepare and share authentic foods from their country of origin, based on their own choice and preference. The menu demonstrates meals served are suitable and offer young people a varied diet. Young people also have the opportunities to eat out or have ‘take-away’ by way of reward or as part of their individual programme.

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Helping children to be healthy

Young people’s physical and emotional health is promoted well. Clear written health plans and robust systems ensure that necessary appointments, checks and professional advice and support are made available to them. Accident and illness records are properly kept to protect young people. Staff guide young people positively and appropriately, in accordance with the health policy, on matters such as personal hygiene, sexual identity and health, self-esteem, and active lifestyles. Strategies, including reward prizes and monies, successfully reinforce healthier lifestyles.

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Helping children to be healthy

Key worker sessions and monthly records include clear objectives for each young person’s improving health, so that young people know the next steps they need to take. As a result, young people can access good support to deal with problems and issues affecting them. Young people have excellent opportunities to enhance their physical health through attending community exercise classes and going on long cycle rides. Staff actively discourage young people from smoking; alcohol and illegal substance use; and under-age sexual activity.

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Helping children to be healthy

Young people’s welfare is safeguarded by robust policies and procedures for administering medicines and providing treatment. For example, staff are trained in first aid and all medication is administered and overseen by a second competent member of staff. Records of all medicines and their storage, use and disposal are correctly kept and written permission is obtained from a person with parental responsibility.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Young people feel safe, nurtured and supported which is made possible by the professional relationship established between them and staff. The staff help young people to have self-respect, feel secure and confident enough to deal with challenges in life.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Confidential information is handled appropriately to protect young people's privacy. Young people are aware of how they can raise concerns and are equally confident that the staff's response will mean their concerns are taken seriously. A clear log is made of any complaint. This shows how complaints are investigated and what the outcome is.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Procedures are in place to promote the safety and welfare of young people. Staff have a good awareness of safeguarding including ensuring concerns are reported. Staff are equally aware of anti-bullying practices that are also revisited through education. This helps young people, to appreciate the effects of bullying and the impact it has on individuals. However, the home has not extended this good practice by ensuring individual risk assessments are completed that assess the potential for bullying within or outside of the home. Also, there is no overview risk assessment in place that looks at the triggers such as times, places and circumstances in which the risk of bullying is greatest. These shortfalls limit the protection of bullying being effectively applied to reduce or counteract any effects on the welfare of young people.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

There is good co-operation and collaboration between the home, the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) and the police in areas of child protection, including young people becoming missing from care and risks associated with sexually exploitation. Young people are supported to recognise personal trigger points that can cause their behaviour to escalate. Staff will use de-escalation strategies to help pre-empt or limit problematic behaviour escalating. However, physical intervention is still sometimes found to be necessary. In the vast majority of cases the records show there is an immediate risk of harm or serious damage to property. For example, when young people have broken windows and there are risks associated with broken glass. Nevertheless, there is at least one restraint log that is not evidencing a reasonable threshold was reached to justify the use of restraint. Recorded logs of restraints are maintained to compliment the bound book. However, the bound book

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

doesn't have a specific section that fully evaluates the effectiveness of a restraint and any consequence of it. Also, it doesn't offer young people the opportunities to add their comments, although their comments are encouraged on the logs. Nevertheless, the Registered Manager does sign off each log made and is providing a level of evaluation against the action taken by staff.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The home aims to provide a safe and caring environment for young people. In order to achieve this, the home completes regular checks on fire, electrical and gas safety. In addition, risk assessments are also completed that include safeguarding young people that place themselves at risk of going missing from care.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Recruitment of staff is seen as a key safeguarding issue. This extends to ensuring checks are completed prior to staff being appointed and criminal record checks being updated at regular intervals. There is meticulous attention given to obtaining references and ensuring a full employment history is provided. There is a structured induction, training and supervision arrangement in place for when new staff commence their employment. However, there is limited evidence to show attempts are made to gain verification of the reason why previous employment has ended when staff have previously worked with vulnerable adults or children. This reduces the level of safeguards necessary to ensure young people remain fully protected from potential harm.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Young people are seen as individuals and are respected at all times by staff. Young people are allocated a key worker and staff demonstrate a good knowledge about the needs of young people and how those needs are to be met. Staff team try hard to provide the time to young people to enable them to talk, including receiving emotional support. The staff team give a high priority to helping young people to socialise with friends and by attending various clubs.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

When young people are being educated within the home, their individual learning targets are not always shared with care staff. This means some opportunities are missed in promoting consistency and progress in areas such as literacy and social skills across the 24 hour curriculum. The care staff encourage the young people to attend school and to take an interest in their education. However, attendance is variable. The staff use their particular skills effectively to promote enjoyment and participation in activities, for example physical education. Also, some life skills such as making meals are taught effectively in the home setting through the support of care staff.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Young people who receive on site education are supported by the care staff to participate in off-site educational visits. There are clear procedures in place for these visits, although in practice are not carried out. For example, the planning does not make clear the educational purpose for such visits and the links to the curriculum. This hinders the care staff supporting the young people to have a clear expectation over the learning outcomes of the visit, which can then be passed over to the teacher. Behaviour targets from school are fairly specific but are not commonly shared with care staff. This hinders securing a consistent approach across education and care to enhance the 24 hour curriculum.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The staff involve young people in decisions about their lives. Young people feel treated with respect by the staff supporting them. The staff are clear about young people's needs and the importance of their role to help them thrive. The quality of the care planning plays a key role in ensuring the staff are knowledgeable about the different needs of young people. This extends to having clear information recorded on young people's individualised needs and behaviour. Aspects of spiritual and cultural identity are interwoven throughout the care planning process. This extends to staff recognising the importance of young people's heritage. Because of this, young people are able to retain their unique identity.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Effective engagement with young people is part of day-to-day living. Young people are able to play an active role in their statutory reviews to ensure they are able to express their opinions and make decisions that affect them. All young people have key workers that they know well and they have confidence in approaching them for support and advice.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The staff recognise that for young people moving in, or leaving the home, this is a sensitive time and where possible, will carefully plan the young person's transition. Individual plans contain clear information on contact arrangements. This information is used effectively by staff to facilitate contact, while not compromising a young person's safety.

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Achieving economic wellbeing

Young people benefit from single bedrooms which they are encouraged to decorate and personalise to their own taste. Young people are able to lock their bedroom doors to enable them to secure their belongings. Communal rooms are kept clean, well-maintained and homely, although the room for education is small if three young people are being taught on a one-to-one basis. Young people are supported to invite friends to the home and to use the phone, computers and other media responsibly. Effective precautions and checks are exercised in respect of visitors and equipment to ensure that young people are safeguarded.

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Achieving economic wellbeing

Young people make good use of the home’s accessibility to the local schools, library, shops, train and bus station, gym, skate park and cycle paths. This enables young people to develop community links, trust and independence, sometimes within a context of conditions connected to youth offending schemes. Young people’s money is kept safe and they sign their money records. They enjoy good opportunities to learn to save and manage money and they use it wisely to purchase clothes and effects of their own choosing. This helps young people to prioritise, budget and express their own style and individuality. When young people remain in placement and are engaged positively with the home, they are successfully supported to make the transition into further education and adulthood.

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Organisation

Staffing levels are sufficient to meet the individual needs of young people. All shifts start with handovers to aid staff to receive up-to-date briefings on the care of young people. Young people are well supported by staff who are themselves supported through regular supervision, annual appraisals and either hold or are working towards the required qualification. This includes the National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) in childcare.

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Organisation

Young people and their families have access to clear information about the home in a form of a guide. This explains what they can expect from the home. Also, professionals have access to an informative Statement of Purpose that provides them with information about the home's aims and objectives. The home has ensured information is translated into different languages to meet the diverse needs of young people and their families.

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Organisation

Young people are supported by a manager who holds the right qualifications and has established procedures that monitor the quality of care. This includes completing a monthly quality assurance audit of reports and health and safety checks. The home receives regular regulation 33 visits that provide an additional quality assurance mechanism. The Registered Manager uses all the intelligence gathered from these various reports to drive forward improvements from within.

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Organisation

The promotion of equality and diversity is good. The care staff have a good knowledge of young people's individual needs. The staff team are diverse in terms of their age and gender. The staff manage diverse issues effectively and sensitively. For example, the staff support young people to practice their chosen faith, providing culturally appropriate food and help young people address issues of sexuality.

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Organisation

Young people's individual case files provide a good overview of their needs and development that reflects their individuality.

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Statutory Requirements

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

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Std. Action Due date

27 ensure where a person has previously worked in a position whose duties involved working with children or vulnerable adults, that information is obtained so far as reasonably practicable to verify the reason why their employment ended (Regulation 26 and Schedule 2(4)) 30/11/2010

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Std. Action Due date

14 promote educational attainment of young people. This includes the care staff roles in the school being organised so that they can further support young people’s participation in their education and reach their potential. (Regulation 18(1)) 30/11/2010

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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):

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Recommendations

 make sure risk assessments are in place of times, places and circumstances of which the risk of bullying is greatest. Also, carry out a risk assessment of the potential for bullying within or outside the home (NMS 18(5) and 26(2))  make sure the recordings of restraints in the bound and numbered book cover the effectiveness and any consequences. Also, make sure physical restraint is only used to prevent likely injury to the young person concerned or to others, or the possibility of serious damage to property. Offer young people the opportunity to record their views in the bound restraint book (NMS 22(7)(9)(14))

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