Children's Home run by Aspris Children’s Services Limited in Herefordshire

Unique reference number SC402426 Inspection date 08/06/2011 Inspector Martha Nethaway Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 04/01/2011 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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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 to assess the effectiveness of the service and to consider how well it complies with the relevant regulations and meets the national minimum standards.

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About this inspection

The report details the main strengths, any areas for improvement, including any breaches of regulation, and any failure to meet national minimum standards. The judgements included in the report are made against the Inspections of children’s homes – framework for inspection (March 2011) and the evaluation schedule for children's homes.

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The inspection judgements and what they mean

Outstanding : a service that significantly exceeds minimum requirements Good : a service that exceeds minimum requirements Satisfactory : a service that only meets minimum requirements Inadequate : a service that does not meet minimum requirements

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Brief description of the service

This service accommodates up to five young people of either gender from 11 years to 18 years of age. The majority of young people admitted to the home have significant care needs and behaviour problems in both the care and education setting. Most young people have a Statement of Special Educational Needs as a result of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties and are deemed as ‘vulnerable’ by their children's services. The home is owned by a private company.

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Overall effectiveness

The overall effectiveness is judged to be good .

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Overall effectiveness

The home is effective with providing personalised, well planned care, taking full account of the individual needs of young people and promotes positive outcomes. Young people are safe and feel safe.

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Overall effectiveness

The views of young people about the quality of care in the home are being regularly sought and their feedback is being taken into account with respect to the quality of care provided.

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Overall effectiveness

The quality of the relationships between staff and young people in the home are good. Staff show strong commitment to young people and are there to help. Young are encouraged to take part in enjoyable things and form positive relationships with the staff and other young people. Young people are being helped to do well at school.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Outcomes for children and young people are good . Young people are developing a positive self view, emotional resilience and knowledge and understanding of their background and confidence in their skills. Young people are learning through a structured environment in relation to their care and education. Young people are beginning to have more confidence and trust in adults. Young people's relationship building abilities are improving as are their self- image and self-esteem.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people's health including their physical, emotional, and psychological health is being promoted and supported. All young people have attended regular appointments with their doctor dentist and optician and have an annual medical health check. As a result, no significant health matters are going unmonitored. Additionally, young people have access to the psychologist team who provide cognitive-behavioural therapy to help young people move forward with their lives. An intervention plan is in place for most young people so that the psychologist team can help them to focus on specific problems. This helps young people to begin to form more accurate thinking patterns and assists with addressing particular areas such as anger management and self-esteem enhancement. Finally, young people receive additional support from an external service connected to treatment services related to drug taking. Staff are proactive in teaching young people about the risks and

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Outcomes for children and young people

helping young people not to get involved in drug taking.

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Outcomes for children and young people

All young people are attending school and achieving. This is because the company school provides small class room sizes. Young people are encouraged to do their best in all aspects of their work. Staff work hard to increase young people's satisfaction towards learning and help to build a more positive attitude towards education. All young people have a personalised learning programme, which includes opportunities to study and take formal exams. Young people particularly enjoy the range of learning in the community activities which has included skills such as cooking, game keeping and work experience in agriculture. This assists young people to cope and learn to manage with other environments and to develop confidence.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people are making a positive contribution to their home and the wider community. Young people are encouraged to participate in a variety of activities according to their interests and to help with areas of their development. For example, ice skating, mountain biking and meeting up with their friends. Young people are also being encouraged to take advantage of work experience placements which includes game keeping, working on a farm and volunteering to work at a charity shop. All of these areas give a chance for young people to meet people, make new friends and in some cases learn and acquire new skills.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people are benefiting from appropriate contact with family, friends and other people who are important to them. These are achieved by regular contact usually by visits or by telephone and young people are encouraged to keep in to touch with their family. Young people know about the level and type of contact agreed because it is specifically set out and agreed in the young person’s care plan. Staff recognise their valuable role to promote and maintain these relationships, particularly when they are under strain. Young people receive very good help with any practical arrangements such as, any transport arrangements or organising venues that are accessible and convenient for all parties. Staff ensure that they record all contact outcomes specifically to address a young person’s safety, welfare and development.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people are being well prepared for a successful transition to independence and adult life. The staff are providing a good amount of support. Young people are receiving good emotional and financial preparation. Young people are learning about the skills to manage money that they are given. Equally, young people are learning the very practical core skills such as, preparing and cooking meals, cleaning and taking care of their own laundry. Staff are very proactive with working with the placing authority leaving care team so that there is a clear plan for a transition to adult services.

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Quality of care

The quality of the care is good . Young people broadly enjoy positive and constructive relationships with staff and with each other and behave appropriately. The home provides a structured and predicable environment in which young people can begin to trust adults. All young people are valued and encouraged to behave well. Staff are good at anticipating poor behaviour and preventing it. Staff use natural consequences which is an established model of practice in the home. For young people who require additional support, staff make sure that the rules and consequences are clearly explained.

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Quality of care

Young people feel that their views, wishes and feelings are actively sought and that they influence the running of the home. One of the key principles of the home is that young people have a say in their lives. Young people actively participate in one-to- one meetings with a key person from the staff team. This allows young people clear opportunities to discuss openly, areas that are of concern and also provides good support with their care. Young people are also encouraged to attend house meetings where they are provided with additional opportunities to share their views and keep up to date with what is happening at the home. Staff help young people to understand why it may not be possible to act upon their wishes in all cases.

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Quality of care

Young people understand how to make a complaint because the home's complaints procedures are clearly published and staff spend time with young people to explain this. Young people are given regular opportunities to share any grumbles or complaints about any aspect of their care. The complaints records show that all complaints are responded to in a timely manner, properly investigated and are fully resolved to complainant's satisfaction.

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Quality of care

Young people are cared for in line with their individual placement care plan, and the contribution of the home to those plans is of a good quality and involves young people and people who are significant to them. The staff take seriously their responsibility to implement and monitor young people's plans on a day-to-day basis. Each month, a summary is shared with the young people's social worker. This allows for a formal review of progress being achieved with health, education, behaviour, contact, social and emotional development.

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Quality of care

The home broadly provides a healthy environment where young people are able to access the services and support they need to meet their physical, emotional and psychological needs. Young people are encouraged to take responsibility for their own health and well being, supported and guided by staff. Effective arrangements are made for each young person to receive ongoing, routine medical appointments throughout their stay at the home.

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Quality of care

Staff are proactive and consistent in supporting the educational achievement of young people and successfully promoting their attendance at school. All young people attend education through the company's school which is close by. Young people's attendance at school is high because staff are successful with motivating young people to attend. The school and the staff at the home continually evaluate progress and learning so that young people are able to maximise their educational opportunities. A range of purposeful and enjoyable activities are available to young people. The home offers a recreational games room with a games console, pool table, lots of books and a variety of board games. Some young people like repairing mountain bikes and sometimes young people are able to go on camping and fishing trips. This helps to widen young people's horizons. Young people also regularly go for walks in the surrounding countryside which helps to promote their physical health. One staff

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Quality of care

member commented: ‘We try and give the chance to try new and interesting activities.’

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Quality of care

Young people's needs relating to their cultural background and personal identity are identified and positively addressed in both daily living and care planning. Staff take active steps to ensure that the diverse individual needs of young people are being met. This is reflected in the quality of care, support and guidance that staff provide. Young people’s right to privacy and dignity is being promoted. Young people are encouraged to maintain their freedom of choice and their rights as individuals.

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Quality of care

The home is appropriately located, designed and maintained. Although the home is a large older building it is being maintained to a good standard. Since the last inspection, a new kitchen has been completed and painting and decorating has taken place which now makes the environment more comfortable. All young people have their own bedrooms and the majority are fully en-suite. On the top floor there is an annex area which provides a separate living area for a young person working towards independence. All young people are actively encouraged to personalise the areas that reflect their culture, interest and taste. Young people understand that there is an expectation to fully cooperate with cleaning. One young person commented: ‘Each day every young person is expected to make their bed and once a week give their room a good tidy.’

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Safeguarding children and young people

The service is good at keeping children and young people safe and feeling safe. Young people are safe and feel safe and staff help teach young people about how to protect themselves. Staff are committed to practices which protect young people from harm. Staff are clear about how to recognise the signs of abuse or neglect because they have a full understanding about the thresholds that apply to child protection and safeguarding. All staff receive training and the supervision process promotes good practice. As a result, young people feel protected and are protected from significant harm and their welfare is being promoted. Staff do all that they can to make sure that young people are safe and feel comfortable in the home.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people rarely go missing, and if they do, they return quickly. Staff are diligent with updating risk assessments so that all areas related to young people's vulnerability are being carefully considered. One staff member commented: ‘We explain to young people don’t run away from your problems, talk to someone, get advice and help.’ Some young people do test the boundaries and do absent themselves for a short period of time but staff know their whereabouts and keep in contact by phone. Staff keep clear records and inform social workers of these events.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people enjoy sound relationships and generally interact positively with others and generally behave appropriately. Young people's positive behaviour is promoted and no restraint is used. Staff are highly adept at deflecting young people's poor behaviour. One staff member summed this up: ‘This is a home that places a strong emphasis on consequences. So there are incentives that help young people to 'buy' into the ethos of the home. Over time this has produced a culture where it is acceptable for people to have problems, but to use others to help sort them out.’

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff working with young people in the home are carefully selected and vetted and there is monitoring of such people to help prevent unsuitable people from having the opportunity to harm young people. The company consistently follows the home's stated policies to ensure a robust and safe recruitment practice and procedures.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The environment is physically safe and appropriately secure, taking account of the needs and characteristics of the young people living at the home. Effective arrangements are in place to ensure that health and safety matters are being given good attention by staff. All young people have a personalised risk assessment that is kept under review as circumstances change. Staff are very diligent with ensuring that risk assessments are completed and updated such as the running of activities which promotes young people's development. Young people are additionally protected because they are encouraged to participate in fire evacuation drills so that they know the correct steps to take in the event of an emergency.

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Leadership and management

The leadership and management of the children's home are good . The home is effectively and efficiently managed. Staff are supported and guided to fulfil their roles and provide a good quality service to young people. The registered person provides a clear sense of direction and purpose to the task of providing good quality residential care. The staff team are supported at every level to make effective decisions which support better outcomes for young people. This helps to meet the needs of the individual who is being supported while safeguarding and promoting the well-being and development of young people.

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Leadership and management

The provider meets the aims and objectives in the Statement of Purpose in providing good quality residential care, education and therapy, serving young people who have social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. Young people, staff and the placing authority are clear about the aims and objectives of the home and what services and facilities it provides. The registered person summed this up: ‘Care, education and therapy objective are of equal importance and are combined in the construction of individual programmes, which will be used to help alleviate problems, develop potential and enable young people to be successful in the future.’ The home is adequately resourced and the company provides a sufficient level of oversight and management. The registered person understands the strengths and weaknesses of the home and has a development plan in place. For example, further improvements to the home's environment including the car parking area are being planned.

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Leadership and management

The home demonstrates capacity for continuing improvement, based on its track record and performance since its previous inspection. The registered person makes an accurate judgment about the performance of the home because there is regular analysis of collated management information, for example, staff training, record keeping and the implementation of care planning. The one recommendation from the previous inspection has been addressed because all staff have received training related to physical restraint. The registered person monitors the welfare of the young people including consultation with young people about their welfare.

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Leadership and management

Young people receive care, support and guidance from a team of staff with a range of experience, age and qualifications who provide positive role models. Staff receive good quality training to enhance their individual skills and to keep them up-to-date with professional and legal developments. For example, all staff are required to complete the company's foundation for growth training programme. A number of staff are now undertaking the additional Children and Young Peoples Workforce Diploma having already obtained the National Vocational Qualification level 3 in health and social care. The home employs a sufficient number of staff, who are appropriately trained and effectively supervised and supported. There are some staff changes taking place with a small turnover of staff. However, the company has already begun the process of advertising and recruiting staff for these vacant posts. The registered person ensures that monthly supervision for the whole staff team and

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Leadership and management

an annual appraisal takes place. Staff are participating in staff meetings so that they have opportunity to discuss young people's accomplishments and any further areas that need addressing and further monitoring.

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Leadership and management

Records are clear, up to date and stored securely, and contribute to an understanding of the young person's life. All significant events relating to the protection of young people accommodated in the home are notified by the registered person of the home to the appropriate authorities and appropriate action is taken following the incident.

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Leadership and management

Equality and diversity practice is good .

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