Children's Home run by Care Today Parallel Parents in Leeds

Unique reference number SC403890 Inspection date 03/08/2011 Inspector Monica Hargreaves Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 10/11/2010 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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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 children's home is one of a number that is owned and managed by a private organisation. It provides care and accommodation for up to four young people who have emotional or behavioural difficulties.

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Overall effectiveness

The overall effectiveness is judged to be outstanding .

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Overall effectiveness

Young people live in a very safe and nurturing environment that enables them to feel settled and therefore to make excellent progress. They are cared for by a committed team of staff who are well trained and highly motivated. Care staff are supported very well by a competent and effective management team. Young people enjoy good health and make consistent progress in education, with some young people achieving excellent outcomes. Young people are also supported very well to gain the skills they need to live independently.

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Overall effectiveness

Relationships between staff and young people are excellent. Young people trust staff and are very positive about the care and support they receive in the home. They feel that staff look after them very well and always do their best to make sure they are safe. Young people are fully consulted about every aspect of their care and feel that their views count.

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Overall effectiveness

Managers are experienced and leadership in the home is excellent. Managers routinely make good use of rigorous monitoring activities to ensure that excellent standards of care are maintained. There is a strong commitment to ensuring continuous improvement and development in the home for the benefit of young people.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Outcomes for children and young people are outstanding .

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Outcomes for children and young people

Staff are committed to making sure that young people achieve excellent outcomes and they work hard to help them to succeed.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people are fully supported to achieve in education and generally they say that they like school. Staff are extremely positive about the value of education. They have high aspirations for all the young people in their care and they celebrate all of their achievements. With the support of staff, young people generally make excellent progress at school and all young people are making clear plans for their future education, training and work. One young person said, 'I love school and I think I am doing really well'. If young people struggle to engage with education, staff work hard in collaboration with other professionals to identify a suitable education or training provision that will be of benefit to them and where they will feel able to re-engage. If young people need additional support, staff do individual work with them to help them to improve their skills in numeracy and literacy. This is excellent practice as it

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Outcomes for children and young people

develops young people's self esteem at the same time as promoting their education.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people benefit greatly because their physical and emotional health and well- being is actively promoted in the home. Their health needs are assessed and they are registered with a doctor, dentist and optician when they move into the home, which means that they receive the full range of routine health services available to them in the community. Staff have strong links with other health professionals, so that young people have access to more specialised services if a need is identified. For example, the looked after children's nurse visits the home regularly, undertakes health assessments and offers advice and training to staff and young people about health issues. Young people who need it have access to psychological services, which promotes their emotional well-being. Young people also benefit from the excellent advice and support that staff give them about a wide range of health and social issues, including sexual health, healthy eating and exercise and the risks attached to

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Outcomes for children and young people

alcohol and substance misuse. There is a robust medication procedure which staff follow if young people are prescribed medicines. This keeps young people safe.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Staff actively promote young people's participation in a wide range of activities, which benefit them physically, socially and emotionally. For example, young people are involved in a number of sporting activities, such as judo, kickboxing, football and rugby. They say that they enjoy these sports: one young person commented, 'these things keep me healthy'. Membership of local sports clubs helps young people to make friends in their community and also helps them to develop their individual skills and talents. For example, one young person excels at judo and has been supported to travel widely with a judo team to participate in tournaments.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people are fully supported to gain the practical and emotional skills they need to live independently. In their responses to surveys, young people said that they learn how to shop for and cook meals, so that they understand how to plan a healthy diet for themselves. They also said that staff help them to learn how to manage their money, to keep their own rooms clean and tidy and to do their own laundry. Staff contribute fully to local authority pathway plans. They also have discussions with young people about the ongoing support they think they will need when they move into independent living in order to help young people to prepare emotionally for that time.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Staff demonstrate a strong commitment to ensuring that young people benefit from positive contact with friends and family outside the home. They have an excellent understanding of all the issues that are relevant to individual young people's contact and they work closely with social workers and families to help to resolve any difficulties there may be. For example, they liaise between families and young people to resolve problems over contact and they undertake checks in the community to make sure that young people are safe when they visit friends in another city. The support that staff give to young people is effective in helping them to keep in touch in a safe way, with friends and family who are important to them. It also helps young people to develop positive relationships with individuals from the same cultural background, which promotes their sense of identity.

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Quality of care

The quality of the care is outstanding .

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Quality of care

There is highly effective focussed work and intervention with young people. This leads to extremely positive results for them in terms of self esteem, development and progress. Staff are particularly good at meeting the diverse needs of young people living at the home.

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Quality of care

Young people are empowered to be fully involved in all the decisions that affect their lives. They contribute to their care and placement plans and they attend all their reviews. They have regular one-to-one meetings with key workers and they take part in house meetings where they can talk about the routines of the home and any problems or difficulties they have within the group. These arrangements are extremely effective in ensuring that the views of young people are incorporated into the plans that are made for their future. The systems also enable young people to contribute fully to the running of the home and to be confident that their views count. Young people say that they know how to make a formal complaint but that they have not had to do so. Staff have translated information on how to complain into other languages for the benefit of those young people who do not have English as a first language. They have also ensured that there is a translation service readily

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Quality of care

available to young people in the home. This is excellent practice as it enables young people to have prompt access to information that they can readily understand.

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Quality of care

Care staff have an excellent understanding of the needs of the young people they look after and they work very effectively to ensure that their needs are met. They develop comprehensive placement plans in consultation with young people. These set out in detail how young people's assessed needs are to be met on a day-to-day basis. Staff make sure that they deliver these plans in practice. They monitor the progress of young people regularly and update plans so they remain relevant to young people's changing needs.

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Quality of care

Young people are very positive about the way that staff support them to ensure that their cultural and religious needs are met. For example, staff have undertaken research on the internet to gain information about young people's religion and how they can support them to practise it. They identified a local mosque and support young people's attendance. They make sure that there is always halal food available for young people. Staff have supported young people during periods of fasting and have cooked meals for them at specific times in order to enable them to meet the requirements of their religion and remain properly nourished. Young people say that they really like their home and they appear relaxed in their environment. The home is suitably located in a residential area within easy reach of the city centre. This benefits young people because there is very good access to public transport links.

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Quality of care

The home is kept safe and is very well maintained, both internally and externally. There are very good quality domestic facilities, with spacious communal areas where young people can relax and enjoy watching television, using the computer or playing electronic games. The home also has a dining area where members of staff and young people enjoy a meal together. Young people are encouraged to take a pride in the quality of their living accommodation by helping to keep the home clean and tidy and by personalising their own rooms. There are a number of photographs on the walls that reflect the events and activities that young people have enjoyed with staff, for example trips to the coast and theme parks. Young people have also translated simple phrases for staff from their first language into English and these are also displayed on the walls of the lounge. This is am imaginative use of materials to promote cultural diversity.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The service is outstanding at keeping children and young people safe and feeling safe.

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Safeguarding children and young people

There are excellent arrangements in place in the home which confirm that the safety of young people is central to the running of the service.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff are trained in safe care and they have an excellent knowledge of the home's robust safeguarding procedures. This ensures that safeguarding matters, when they arise, are managed very effectively to protect young people.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff work hard with individual young people to lessen the risk of them going missing and there are excellent systems in place for responding if they do. Staff have strong links with local police to ensure that there is a co-ordinated response in these circumstances and to promote the safe return of the young person to the home. Young people's care plans and robust risk assessments consider their potential to go missing and their vulnerability and identify the strategies that staff put in place to keep them safe.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people themselves say that they always feel very safe in the home. One young person said, 'staff are really doing this well'. Comments from parents and professionals involved with the home confirm that they also believe that young people are cared for safely. One parent said, 'staff always put young people's safety first'.

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Safeguarding children and young people

There is a zero tolerance to bullying in the home. Young people understand this and they say that bullying is not a concern to them. They say that they generally get on well with each other and that staff help them to talk about relationships in the home. They also comment that staff intervene quickly if any disagreements or difficulties arise in the group. This contributes to their sense of safety and well-being.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff successfully promote positive behaviour in the home. They have an excellent understanding of behaviour management strategies and how these are implemented in practice. Restraint is only ever used as a last resort in order to keep young people and staff safe. Young people generally behave well and records show that there have been very few incidents of physical intervention since the home opened. Highly effective monitoring systems ensure that practice in this area is safe. Young people and staff have excellent relationships and young people all say that they are treated fairly.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Comprehensive risk assessments are in place and cover all aspects of young people's care. This ensures that the safety and well-being of young people is supported and promoted at all times. Staff have an excellent understanding of the specific vulnerabilities of individual young people. They ensure that plans and risk assessments are followed and are kept up to date so that they continue to protect young people.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The organisation has robust recruitment and vetting arrangements which protect young people. Staff are subject to thorough checks before they are allowed to start work in the home. The identity of all visitors to the home is also checked before they are allowed in and their whereabouts monitored. These systems are effective in protecting young people from unauthorised individuals gaining access to the home.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people live in a home that is kept physically safe. All equipment is checked and serviced to ensure that it is in good order and the house itself is regularly checked so that any hazards are identified and eliminated or minimised. Young people confirm that they take part in fire drills and understand what to do if there is a fire or other emergency.

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Leadership and management

The leadership and management of the children's home are outstanding .

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Leadership and management

The Statement of Purpose is a detailed document. It meets all the requirements of regulations and standards and gives very clear information about how the home works and how young people are cared for. The evidence from this inspection confirms that the provider fully meets the objectives outlined in this document.

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Leadership and management

Young people know how they will be cared for because they have access to an excellent children’s guide which gives them detailed information about the routines of the home as well as their rights in care. Staff have translated information from the guide for the benefit of young people whose first language is not English. This is excellent practice as it enables all young people early in their placement to have a clear understanding of how the home works.

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Leadership and management

Staff are well trained and are either qualified or working towards gaining a relevant qualification. This means that young people are cared for by a team of staff who are competent and who have an excellent understanding of their needs. Young people say that they get on very well with staff and feel they are well cared for.

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Leadership and management

Care staff work very well together. Communication within the team is extremely effective. There are regular team meetings and detailed handovers at the start and end of every shift, promoting consistency of care for young people and ensuring that information about their care needs and progress is kept up to date.

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Leadership and management

Staff are supported very well by a management team who provide highly effective leadership in the home. Staff receive formal supervision at regular intervals and say that they always feel able to approach senior staff and managers for advice. This helps to develop their skills and confidence in their work with young people, which in turn promotes excellent care practice that helps young people to achieve positive outcomes.

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Leadership and management

Managers in the team provide excellent role models for staff and are keen to ensure that there is sustained improvement of the service. There is regular monitoring of care by the management team in the home and also by the independent visitor. Managers take action on any issue that is identified as a result of these checks. These arrangements ensure that standards of care remain high.

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Leadership and management

The manager and care staff are keen to understand how young people, their family and other professionals involved with the home feel that the home is run. To this end, they routinely send out surveys to all these individuals. They have also included surveys to neighbours. This is excellent practice as it demonstrates transparency and a commitment to providing a quality service. The overwhelming response to these surveys is very positive.

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Leadership and management

There are very good relationships with neighbours and the local community. This contributes to young people's sense of safety and well-being in the home.

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Leadership and management

The following actions and recommendations that were made at the last inspection have all been acted on. All placements of young people are made in line with the home's Statement of Purpose and conditions of registration. Individual risk assessments have been reviewed and updated to ensure that they continue to protect young people. The manager has recruited staff to the team so that there are sufficient permanent staff working in the home to ensure continuity for young people. Established staff are qualified and newer staff are working to gain a suitable qualification. This demonstrates the organisation's commitment to ensuring that staff have the knowledge and skills they need for their work with young people. All care staff are supervised at regular intervals so that their work is monitored and their training and development needs identified. Staff have all taken part in fire drills so that they know the home's evacuation procedure. The work that has been done to

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Leadership and management

address issues raised through the inspection process demonstrates the manager's commitment to providing an excellent service to young people.

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Leadership and management

The manager and care team have produced a training and development plan that identifies clear targets for the future of the home. A great deal of work has been done by the team on the new children's homes' national minimum standards and revised legislation and this is continuing. This work enables managers and staff to keep up to date with the current requirements for children's homes and is a further example of the commitment of staff in the home to providing an excellent service to young people.

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Leadership and management

Equality and diversity practice is outstanding .

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