Children's Home run by Bryn Melyn Care Limited in Telford and Wrekin

Unique reference number SC372621 Inspection date 08/03/2011 Inspector Rachel Ruth Britten Type of inspection Random

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Date of last inspection 12/10/2010 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 setting is a small children's home. It is registered to provide care for up to two young people of either gender, aged between 10 and 17 years. The home is rurally located but remains within convenient vehicular access of major towns, various leisure and recreational facilities and the company school. The home offers accommodation in a four bed-roomed detached country property. Two of the rooms are used for staff sleeping in facilities and the larger two are bedrooms for young people. The home has a lounge, kitchen, dining room, games room, bathrooms on each floor and a staff office.

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Summary

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

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Summary

The purpose of this unannounced interim inspection was to reassess the outcomes for young people under the national minimum standards relating only to the 'Every Child Matters' outcome of staying safe and to assess the progress made with the two recommendations made at the last full inspection in October 2010. The home continues to safeguard young people well overall through sustained good practice and generally robust systems of organisation. Four recommendations are made to address shortfalls identified at this inspection. These shortfalls do not have a serious impact upon the safety of young people but they do have the potential to do so.

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Improvements since the last inspection

There were two recommendations raised at the last inspection and evidence shows that these are now both being met. The first recommendation concerned young people's statutory review documents. The result of reviews are now recorded on the young person's file by obtaining a copy of the most recent review minutes from the placing authority and chasing this up promptly if necessary. Staff action supports effective work with young people to address matters raised in reviews in a timely way.

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Improvements since the last inspection

The second recommendation concerned the need for developing comprehensive pathway planning to help prepare young people fully for leaving care. The staff of the home are proactive in chasing up the placing authority and in instigating their own pathway planning if necessary. They are working well with the placing authority social worker and pathway advisor for the young people currently in placement. This underpins their aims and day-to-day work with young people.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Young people's privacy is well respected by staff and balanced sensitively with the need to protect them from harm. Staff allow young people private time in their rooms and bathrooms and always knock on their door before entering. The arrangements agreed with the placing authority for telephone and face-to-face contact with family and friends are supported well by staff. The young people currently in residence are able to keep their mobile phones with them, enabling them to make emergency calls without recourse to staff. The young person's guide informs young people how to complain, how to contact Ofsted and the contact numbers for independent advocates and counselling services. This supports their rights. However, no information is kept accessible in the home for young people to refer to and staff do not know if the young people in residence still have their guide to refer to if they are seeking support or help outside the organisation.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Young people are able to access the internet on their own laptops. Unsuitable sites cannot be accessed due to restrictions put in place on the laptops to safeguard young people. In addition, individual risk assessments address whether use of computers should be monitored by staff to assure young people are protected. The young people's guide includes information about when it might be necessary to search their possessions., However, there has been delay in ensuring the removal of inappropriate adult DVD material from young people. The systems for checking young people's possessions on arrival at the home and for necessary subsequent searches have not been properly used to safeguard young people. As a result, young people have had unsuitable material in their rooms for some weeks before arrangements were agreed for its removal.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Managers and staff are trained in child protection and act appropriately to protect young people from abuse. They record allegations and liaise well with placing social workers and the Local Safeguarding Children Board. They maintain suitable policies and procedures to safely manage times when there is only one member of staff on duty with one young person. However, staff do not always use the incident, safeguarding and notification logs consistently or effectively cross-reference them where necessary. In addition, manager monitoring does not check that incidents about safeguarding issues are always entered into the safeguarding log or that significant incidents are notified to all the required agencies, including Ofsted where appropriate. Processes for notifications and the allocation of incident log numbers are undertaken by the organisation's central office. This appears to introduce a time delay and potential for notifications to be missed. The shortfall has the potential to

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

adversely affect young people if it results in safeguarding issues not being addressed timely and with a multi-agency response.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Young people are well protected from bullying because an atmosphere is created where bullying is known to be unacceptable. The young people's guide states: 'we will never deliberately make you feel small, make you feel stupid, make you feel bad or take away your rights'. The home's risk assessments are reviewed regularly and address most areas concerning the environment and young people's activities. However, risk assessments are not undertaken of the times, places and circumstances in which the risk of bullying is at its greatest. In addition, the risks of bullying are not specifically reviewed to consider the change in dynamics brought by new admissions to the home, particularly if a young person has been the sole resident for some time. Bullying has not taken place, but this shortfall in the use of risk assessments potentially compromises the quality of preparation and action to minimise bullying behaviour.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Young people are making good progress in developing socially acceptable behaviour. Each young person has a specific 'absence without authority protocol', but these have only needed to be used once since the last inspection. Managers and staff believe that consistent and positive behaviour boundaries and unfamiliarity with the area are factors which contribute to this stability. Positive behaviour management techniques, such as a 'praises book' and achievable reward schemes for all aspects of good social behaviour are proving successful too. Young people are feeling empowered when they can buy larger items from savings and reward monies, which they use to develop healthy hobbies and constructive skills, such as painting and decorating. Success has been achieved recently in helping young people to gain improved behaviours for self-respect, self-esteem and consideration of other adults. There have been no recent restraints, sanctions or reparations because young

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

people's behaviour is good and staff possess effective behaviour management skills to work one-to-one with young people.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Young people live in a homely, safe setting where regular daily, weekly and annual checks are appropriately made concerning the utilities and security. This includes ensuring that young people are safe when transported in the organisation's vehicles. Fire drills are held regularly and young people know how to respond in an emergency. All staff are properly vetted and visitors to the home are signed in and their identification checked. The hot water outlet in one bathroom is extremely hot and a door lock is not working, but these difficulties are promptly reported and rectified. Overall, the environment is maintained to a high quality and young people are very well engaged in personalising their home. They are taking well managed risks as they participate in decorating and simple building and DIY tasks in the home and grounds.

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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

 ensure that the details for contacting Ofsted are provided for young people to exercise their rights to complain (NMS 16.5)  ensure that the system for notifications is effective to make all required notifications within 24 hours of the occurrence of significant events to the persons and appropriate authorities, in accordance with Regulation 30, Schedule 5 (NMS 20.1)  carry out recorded risk assessments regularly, of the times, places and circumstances in which the risk of bullying is greatest, and take action where feasible to reduce or counteract the risk of bullying (NMS 18.5)  ensure that staff know and consistently use the systems in place to promote the safety and welfare of children and to ensure that children are protected from abuse (NMS 17.3).

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