Children's Home run by Step-A-Side Company Limited in Gloucestershire

Unique reference number SC030650 Inspection date 21/02/2011 Inspector Michael Williams Type of inspection Random

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Date of last inspection 21/05/2010 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

This children's home is one of two run by the same limited company. It is a five bedroom detached house set in almost an acre of gardens in a rural location. It provides care and accommodation for a maximum of four children and young people of either sex with emotional or behavioural difficulties, or learning disabilities. At the time of this inspection, the home was accommodating two children and young people. The inspector met and spoke with one of them.

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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 unannounced random inspection. Its main focus was to re-inspect the staying safe outcome for children and young people. Its main finding is that this outcome continues to be outstanding, as it was judged at the previous key inspection of the home in May 2010. The home's overall quality rating of good is also carried over from that key inspection, because this random inspection was not sufficiently wide-ranging to change it.

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Summary

Outstanding aspects of the home's staying safe practice include: the individualised care and support that it demonstrates, reflecting each child or young person's needs exceptionally well, the continual focus on the home's complaints procedures and anti-bullying policy, safeguarding and behaviour management practice, the latter being based on establishing positive relationships with young people and rewarding their positive behaviour, and the individual and compatibility risk assessments completed for children and young people.

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Summary

No actions or recommendations are made to secure future improvement.

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Improvements since the last inspection

The last inspection did not make any actions or recommendations to secure future improvement. However, it did report that the Registered Manager would reflect on the concerns behind a staff disciplinary process being followed and a complaint being considered at the time, and take any action necessary. This inspection found that they had done this. Following the conclusion of both matters, the Registered Manager commented that the staff team has returned to being strong and united and working well together. The home's deputy manager separately confirmed this to be the case, and added that the outcome of the staff disciplinary process was also the best one for the children and young people resident.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Children and young people's privacy continues to be very well respected and their information continues to be confidentially handled. Each child or young person has their own bedroom and the home has sufficient communal space to offer them space away from each other. Staff allow each child or young person as much privacy as possible within the restriction of one of the risk reduction measures in their individual risk assessments: one-to-one staffing.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Children and young people continue to be encouraged to complain if they are unhappy with any aspect of living in the home. At house meetings with staff, they continue to be reminded about the home's complaints procedure. Nobody has made a complaint since the last inspection.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Children and young people's welfare continues to be very well promoted by staff's understanding of the systems in place at the home to ensure they are protected from abuse. The home has made one notification to Ofsted since the last inspection, regarding a serious accident sustained by one of the young people in the home. Following this, the home took prompt action to safeguard children and young people from such an accident in the future.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Children and young people continue to be very well protected from bullying and, should they be absent without authority, they can be protected in line with the home's guidance on this. The children and young people presently at the home don't get along with each other at times, but bullying is never a part of these occasions. The home effectively counters bullying through the compatibility risk assessments they complete before admitting a child or young person, and, at the time of this inspection, the one-to-one staff to child or young people ratio. House meetings also make it clear that bullying is unacceptable. No children or young person presently accommodated has gone missing from the home.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Children and young people continue to be very well assisted to develop socially acceptable behaviour, through encouragement of acceptable behaviour and constructive staff response to inappropriate behaviour. Behaviour management continues to be based on staff establishing positive relationships with the children and young people and rewarding their positive behaviour. One young person commented on their reward system, which the home has made as meaningful as possible for them. The home maintains the required record of their use of sanctions and restraint with children and young people. Since the last inspection, the home has not used restraint and has used four sanctions, all in December 2010 with the same young person. Just before this inspection, a psychology meeting reported that staff are now seeing improvements in this young person's behaviour. Their therapeutic behaviour support plan has recently been updated to make it clear that when staff

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

physically guide them to an activity this does not constitute physical restraint which has to be recorded as such. A behaviour management consultant, from the psychology service the company uses, works with the children, young people and staff at the home.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The home continues to ensure that children and young people are physically safe and secure. Fire drills are held regularly and always recorded. The last one involved both the children and young people accommodated and was held in the dark. The home completes individual risk assessments in relation to the children and young people accommodated, implementing reasonable risk reduction measures that they identify, such as one-to-one staff supervision.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The selection and vetting of all staff working with the children and young people in the home was not inspected on this occasion. Staff recruitment records are not held at the home, but at its company's office, and a full-time member of staff has not been recruited to work at the home since the last inspection. The company running the home were in the process of recruiting to their team of relief staff.

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