Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Birmingham

Unique reference number SC412175 Inspection date 27/10/2011 Inspector Jacqui Gosling Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 30/11/2010 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

The home is part of the organisation's support plus service and forms part of the current residential contract agreement with a large local authority. The service is intended to provide remand and assessment support services to four young people of either gender, from the local area.

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Brief description of the service

The placement will deliver short to medium-term care for young people who experience serious emotional and behavioural difficulties. The service is for young people who require high levels of support in a small, structured environment to ensure that their needs are properly met.

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Overall effectiveness

The overall effectiveness is judged to be outstanding .

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Overall effectiveness

This is an excellent service that positively impacts on young people’s lives. The key strengths of this service are the staff. They are enthusiastic, trained to a high standard and understand the complex needs of young people well. The provision is particularly resourceful in managing a clear framework for behaviour while celebrating and encouraging the individuality of all young people. Young people are treated with a high level of respect and every effort is made to ensure their wishes, feelings and views are heard and included in the running of the service.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people’s behaviour, health, education, social and safeguarding needs are effectively supported. They live in a vibrant, proactive and structured environment and develop new skills, improve behaviour and grow in confidence so they can diminish anxieties and embrace opportunities and new experiences. Young people are consistently praised for their own individual achievements and development.

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Overall effectiveness

Safeguarding is placed at the highest priority both in terms of the environment’s health and safety and promoting the welfare of young people. Rigorous monitoring processes provide continuous quality assurance to maintain excellent standards and further develop improvements in the running of the service.

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Overall effectiveness

There are no requirements or recommendations as a result of this inspection.

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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 are enabled to thrive, develop and progress in this service. They make considerable progress due to a clear and sensitive behaviour management framework coupled with a clear assessment and celebration of each young person’s needs and individuality.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people grow in self confidence and can express themselves positively because they are treated with respect, are proactively enabled to try different opportunities and develop new skills. Young people are given many opportunities to express their views, feelings and wishes. Young people respond well to the structured daily living routines in the home.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Staff have in-depth knowledge and understanding of the complex individual needs of young people in their care. They support young people to make excellent progress based on their assessed abilities and needs. Each young person is supported by a key worker who supports them well by encouraging them to talk about any concerns, opportunities or activities they may wish to discuss. The home promotes a positive ethos that fully embraces diversity and difference. As a result, young people begin to appreciate the significance of differing values and are actively learning to have respect for each other. For example, during a black history month discussion, young people were allowed space and time to discuss their views and opinions. Nothing was minimised and staff dealt with reluctance and veiled aggression extremely well. By the end of the session all young people were involved. Staff used music, pictures and

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Outcomes for children and young people

the interest of some young people to arouse interest from the others.

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Outcomes for children and young people

The positive ethos of the service, clear focus for behaviour management and high levels of respect for young people ensures they enjoy excellent and meaningful relationships with staff. When physical interventions take place, they are for the shortest period of time and at the lowest levels of physical intervention thresholds. Young people are encouraged to openly talk about the event in order to debrief with the staff and this is fully documented. Young people commented, that they 'know and understand the reasons why staff need to hold them'.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people enjoy good health because staff liaise with parents, the looked after child nurses and other health agencies to ensure comprehensive health assessments are in place and implemented. Young people's medical needs are met to an excellent standard as their good health is promoted with clear procedures for medication. Extremely effective staff training supports this. Young people are encouraged to develop their knowledge and understanding of their own health needs.

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Quality of care

The quality of the care is outstanding .

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Quality of care

Young people have excellent relationships with staff and benefit from a dual key- worker system which allows two staff to develop particularly strong relationships with each young person. All staff are aware of care and placement plans for the young people. Young people commented that although staff were consistently with them on a one-to-one basis they did not find this oppressive. Observation of the young people with staff indicates a caring, supportive excellent relationship, which challenges, in a constructive way, any inappropriate behaviour. The manager and staff were enthusiastic and had realistic but high aspirations for the young people. This ensures that young people are prepared well to move on from the home.

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Quality of care

Excellent use is made of key-worker sessions to discuss behaviour, health, respect and boundaries. Young people and staff work together to ensure that individual support is delivered in a way which is extremely relevant to the young person and this promotes individual needs and reinforces the positive relationships. Staff clearly show respect to the young people and expect and receive it back. Observation shows staff use an effective level of control and deflection to enable a young person to choose to participate in a session about equality and diversity. Staff are exceptionally creative and use every opportunity to give support to the young people.

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Quality of care

Young people feel that staff listen to their views and actively participate in regular young people’s meetings. This is in addition to their daily placement planning discussion. Minutes of a recent meeting show that new pool cues were needed and a request was made by the young people for new ones. Staff quickly made arrangements to provide them. Young people’s meetings are also used to plan menus and weekly choices are made about cultural meals and other daily food. Consequences are discussed at these meetings and if necessary, issues such as bullying are raised. This helps the young people to feel that they are actively participating in the running of their home.

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Quality of care

Placement planning is extremely robust and plans clearly show how to achieve mutually agreed and achievable goals. All staff demonstrate an enthusiastic commitment to the young people and are inventive in their methods of engaging with them. One session showed the creative use of the computer and power-point, together with music to engage the young people.

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Quality of care

The complaints system is made available to young people when they come to the home. This is not just a paper exercise and there is evidence that the information about how to complain is frequently reintroduced in key worker sessions or young peoples’ meetings. Complaints forms were clearly accessible to the young people in their activities room. When a young person recently made a complaint regarding a member of staff, it was dealt with in a robust manner and handled by a manager external to the home. The response was made in a timely way and an action plan given to the young person detailing the process of the complaint. This inspires confidence in the young people that they are listened to and their views valued.

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Quality of care

The home is appropriately located giving easy access to leisure and community resources. Young people enjoy extremely well-presented accommodation with large bedrooms and ample communal and personal space for the young people. The home is clean and well maintained and furnished to a very high standard.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The service is outstanding at keeping children and young people safe and feeling safe. The competence of staff, robust and regularly reviewed policies and procedures and consistent, robust monitoring of practice provides young people with a safe and secure environment to live.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Safeguarding is placed as a high priority. There is an effective and well-developed recruitment process that includes a comprehensive check on all staff applying to work at this setting. Personnel records are maintained to a high standard. Visitors are checked, vetted and monitored.

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Safeguarding children and young people

All staff receive annual training on safeguarding children and they are aware of their own roles and responsibilities and other agencies involved in keeping young people safe. The service maintains excellent links with the local safeguarding team and the protection and welfare of young people is well managed in all aspects of their care.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Procedures to promote the welfare, safety and positive behaviour of young people are comprehensive. Young people are safe because staff receive good training and are able to consistently implement the procedures on a daily basis. Staffing levels are high, there are clear routines to ensure all young people are supervised and observed. Additionally risk assessment and behaviour management plans are excellent. Concerns and challenging behaviours are clearly identified. Strategies to manage these concerns focus on safety but also ensure all young people have opportunities to reach their potential and achieve. Consequently risk and behaviour management plans are implemented to ensure young people are enabled to do as much as they can rather than limit their opportunities. There are significant improvements in behaviour because strategies are pragmatic and target led. Staff look at what needs to be put in place so that young people can achieve as opposed

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Safeguarding children and young people

to looking at what is taken away to keep young people safe.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff are patient, committed and proactive in finding ways to encourage positive behaviour and decrease anxious moments for young people. Young people have a strong sense of safety, achievement, stability and well-being. Physical intervention is only used as a last resort and records demonstrate excellent accountability of the reasons for such action. The records are regularly monitored and provide meaningful information about trends in behaviour, including effectiveness of strategies and the progress made by young people.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people live in a safe environment. Health and safety is well managed. Safety and servicing checks are carried out as required. Fire safety training of staff, regular checks to the fire systems and fire drills ensure young people and staff know what to do in the event of a fire.

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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

A real strength of this home is a strong, well experienced and child-centred management team. The manager and deputies have a commitment to driving up standards of care and recording practice. Staff have excellent support and guidance through a clear management structure. The organisation is successful at meeting its aims to foster social awareness and mutual respect within the home and wider community. It achieves this as staff are adept at encouraging a happy and caring atmosphere through a professional and motivating environment.

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Leadership and management

The home has taken action to address previous recommendations rising from the previous inspection. The management now ensure placing authorities are contacted to request emergency and statutory reviews when due for any young person, if the placing authority has not arranged the review. New staff receive one-to-one supervision at least fortnightly for the first six months of their employment.

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Leadership and management

There is a clear staffing structure with clear lines of accountability in the home and in providing a stable and structured environment for young people. Staff are well supported and have regular staff meetings. These are well recorded and cover a good range of information, including the development of the young people and general staff notices. Staff duty rotas and the manner in which staff are deployed confirm that the home keeps sufficient staff on the duty rota at all times.

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Leadership and management

The home offers care and accommodation for young people in line with its Statement of Purpose and stated objectives which are understood by all interested parties. There is an appropriate young person's guide. There is very thorough monitoring of the home by the manager and the regulation 33 visitor regularly considers the running of the home and young people's individual needs to maintain care levels. Young people’s needs, development and progress are well recorded to reflect their individuality. There is genuine interest and affection for young people.

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Leadership and management

Equality and diversity practice is outstanding .

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