Children's Home run by Keys Stepping Stones Limited in Tameside

Unique reference number SC005567 Inspection date 15/08/2011 Inspector Caroline Jones Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 01/02/2011 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

The home is privately owned and is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four young people with emotional and/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 make excellent progress in relation to their starting points and thrive in a supportive, consistent and nurturing environment. They achieve exceptional outcomes in their emotional and social development and experience a wide range of opportunities to enjoy their childhood. Young people like living at the home and exercise choice and responsibility through purposeful consultation. The views of partner agencies are extremely complimentary about the quality of care received by young people.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people are central to care planning and detailed placement plans ensure that they are cared for consistently according to their personal needs. Staff have high aspirations for young people and are passionate and committed to ensuring they succeed. Staff are skilled in building relationships with young people, consequently they are settled, feel confident, inspired and safe. Staff champion young people's needs and rights to ensure they gain the help, advice and support required to reach their full potential. External resources such as therapeutic services ensure a comprehensive approach in meeting young people's needs and forging their progress.

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Overall effectiveness

The home is effectively and efficiently run by a dedicated and hands on Registered Manager who emphasises high standards of care. Robust monitoring scrutinises the quality of care and plans are in place for improvement. However, the analysis of trends needs developing further to continually improve the service to young people. Recording is generally very good, although written entries in relation to accidents should be clear and show a full account of the event. Young people require regular and easy access to a computer to further support their education. Anti-discriminatory practice runs through all aspects of the day to day care and young people continue to make sense of their background and identity.

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  ensure that monitoring utilises the information on emerging patterns or trends to continually improve practice (NMS 21.2)  ensure that entries in records are legible and clear. This relates specifically to recordings of accidents (NMS 22.4)  ensure that young people achieve their educational goals. This includes providing support, facilities and opportunities as needed. This relates specifically to replacing the computer. (NMS 8.4)

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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

Young people make excellent progress across all aspects of their development, notably their emotional and psychological health. Staff work closely with professional therapists to ensure young people gain a better understanding and appreciation of their personal circumstances to move forward in life. Young people are growing in confidence and continue to learn to trust adults. Staff comment, 'Young people need to know that we are here to catch them, that they can rely on us.' It is evident that staff have worked above and beyond their normal call of duty in supporting young people and perceive their work as much more than a job.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people lead a healthy lifestyle. They take part in regular physical activities including bicycle riding, hiking, swimming, and horse riding. Young people are registered with a general medical practitioner, dentist and optician and have individual plans to target their health needs.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people benefit from full-time education that is targeted to meet their individual needs. They have an excellent record of school attendance and make progress comparable with their peers. Staff value young people's educational advancement and assist them with homework and learning opportunities outside of school. Young people are involved in local events including volunteering and as representatives on looked after children forums. These are fine example of young people making a positive contribution to their community and demonstrates their growing confidence and self-belief

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people maintain regular contact with family and friends ensuring that they remain in touch with those significant to them. Staff value the importance of contact for young people in understanding their identity and heritage. Individual contact plans are in place with local authorities to ensure young people's contact is safe, enjoyable and positive. Staff are knowledgeable of the emotional impact of contact upon young people and ensure that they are sensitively supported.

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Quality of care

The quality of the care is outstanding . Young people flourish in a stable, nurturing and supportive environment. Young people comment, 'I feel safe, staff are very kind, I would give this home excellent, top marks.' Staff have a thorough understanding of young people's individual needs and placement plans are clear, detailed and subject to frequent review. Equality and diversity is well established within the home's culture and practice is underpinned by fairness irrespective of difference. This contributes to the excellent standards of care received by young people.

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Quality of care

Young people enjoy positive, warm and professional relationships with staff and identify a person to whom they feel a particular connection. These relationships provide the foundation for encouraging openness and trust for young people to express their thoughts and ideas. Mutual respect between young people and staff was observed throughout the inspection and young people are relaxed in their home. Staff advocate for young people and their rights and views are promoted regularly in day to day life through young people's meetings, consultation exercises and key worker sessions. Young people know how to make a complaint and have used this to settle their dissatisfaction. These practices empower young people to have control in their lives.

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Quality of care

Young people live in a healthy environment where their physical, emotional and social well-being is promoted. They engage in physical and social activities with friends, have sleep over's, and have easy access to health care services to meet their individual needs. Young people are encouraged to pursue their individual interests and a range of events are available to promote young people's understanding of diversity. The home provides a varied and balanced diet and young people assist to prepare the home’s menu to encourage their understanding of nutrition and cultural traditions. Medication is stored safely and records are maintained on the administration of medication. All staff receive suitable training to support health and well-being and this contributes to the development of young people.

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Quality of care

Young people are fully involved in the development and evaluation of their placement plan and are helped to understand this further through regular key worker sessions. Creative consultation ensures that young people’s views are listened to and acted upon in all aspects of their daily lives, enhancing the planning process. Young people are active in planning the weekly menus and activities while offering their views and ideas about the development of the home. These practices allow young people to feel valued and central to their lives.

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Quality of care

Staff work constructively with school, communicating on a daily basis to promote young people's educational achievement. Despite challenges, young people's attendance and progress is excellent. Staff emphasise the importance of education and provide learning experiences to compliment young people's education, including home work and reading support. These practices help young people achieve their potential and experience success and pride. The home is awaiting the replacement of the children's computer to enable young people to have regular easy access to resources to support their education.

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Quality of care

Young people live in comfortable and homely accommodation that blends into the neighbourhood. The home is clean, decorated and furnished to a good standard. Young people have their own bedrooms that are personalised and reflect their particular tastes. They have space and privacy to see family and friends and to do their homework. This affords respect and dignity to young people.

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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

Young people are effectively safeguarded and have a strong sense of feeling safe. Staff receive safeguarding training and have an excellent understanding of their duties in promoting young people's welfare. Staff policies and procedures are in place to ensure a robust response to any allegation or disclosure of abuse. Constructive and warm relationships exist between staff and young people and consistent boundaries provide the basis for managing behaviour successfully. Methods such as rewards and consequences encourage young people's participation. They comment, 'I think they are fair.' Young people's engagement in the process ensures that sanctions are appropriately used and assists them to accept responsibility for their actions. Young people are encouraged to behave appropriately and there are currently no incidents of bullying and young people have not been missing from home for nearly two years.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff receive appropriate training in order to safely manage physical intervention home including guidance from a trained therapist in understanding complex behaviours. Staff are clear that physical intervention is only used to prevent a young person harming themselves or others. Additionally, policies and procedures for police involvement are clear to minimise the need for police involvement in dealing with challenging behaviour and avoiding criminalisation. Where physical intervention has been used, clear records detail the action taken, the duration and the debrief offered to young people. This is further explored by a key worker session to ensure young people have the opportunity to talk through their experience. Interventions are also monitored for their appropriateness and proportionality. However, further analysis of emerging patterns and trends is required to inform and develop practice further.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people live in a physically safe environment in which health and safety issues are well managed. Written records clearly show that staff carry out routine health and safety checks around the home. Safety and insurance certificates are up to date and regular fire drills take place to ensure young people and staff are aware of an emergency evacuation route in the event of a fire. Young people are involved in car safety checks to encourage their understanding of keeping themselves safe from danger.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff are vigilant and take appropriate steps to verify visitors identity to ensure young people are protected appropriately. Young people benefit from a stable, experienced and suitably qualified staff team. A thorough recruitment process, Criminal Records Bureau and reference checks are all undertaken before any staff appointment is made. Staff are subject to an induction, probation period of work and appraisals to further ensure their competence in caring for young people.

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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 home is efficiently managed and effective in meeting it's Statement of Purpose. A clear vision of child focused practice is prevalent within the home's ethos. The Registered Manager works directly with young people and staff to rigorously monitor young people's welfare, which ensures the high standards of care and the safety of young people. The Registered Manager provides leadership and accountability; therefore, staff fully understand the roles and responsibilities delegated to them.

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Leadership and management

There are internal and external systems in place to monitor the quality of care which include monthly visits by a designated person in accordance with the regulation. Although, monitoring is very good not all the data is fully analysed to identify trends to continually improve the service. The Registered Manager is clear and transparent about the strengths and weaknesses of the home and all recommendations from the previous inspection have been addressed. Effective supervision of staff, monitoring, action planning and excellent relationships with young people provides the platform for continued improvement.

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Leadership and management

Staff are fully supported and the organisation demonstrates a commitment to professional development. All staff are suitably qualified and new staff are to commence a recognised qualification on confirmation of their probation period. Trained therapists deliver training and workshops on young people's specific needs, which equips staff with the knowledge and skills to do their role. This along with quality supervision, team meetings and personal commitment all contributes to the competence of staff in providing outstanding care to young people.

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Leadership and management

Staff fully understand young people's diverse needs and have high aspirations for young people in achieving their individual potential. Recordings are generally very good and provide a picture of young people's daily lives. However, recordings of accidents are not always clear and lack full detail of the circumstances. Young people's information is securely stored and shared confidentiality to protect their safety and privacy.

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Leadership and management

Equality and diversity practice is outstanding .

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