Children's Home run by Reflexion Care Group Limited in Shropshire

Unique reference number SC389830 Inspection date 22/05/2012 Inspector Denise Perry Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 16/02/2012 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

This children’s home is operated by a private company and can accommodate and provide care for one young person who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties and/or learning disabilities. The company has its own school for children not attending mainstream education.

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The inspection judgements and what they mean

Outstanding : a service of exceptional quality that significantly exceeds minimum requirements Good : a service of high quality that exceeds minimum requirements Adequate : a service that only meets minimum requirements Inadequate : a service that does not meet minimum requirements

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Overall effectiveness

The overall effectiveness is judged to be good .

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Overall effectiveness

The home is providing a good standard of individualised and well-planned care to young people. Young people's backgrounds and complex needs are well documented. Staff are knowledgeable about young people’s individual needs and are competent in their daily practice. As a result, young people are making good progress in relation to their starting points across all aspects of their welfare and development.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people say that they feel safe living in the home and are safe. Staff provide a safe and extremely supportive environment which helps young people develop self- confidence, emotional resilience and social skills. Young people and staff share constructive and positive relationships with each other. This contributes to young people’s progress both within the home and in the community.

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Overall effectiveness

Leadership and management arrangements are adequate. The recently appointed manager has identified areas of progress and development within the home. He has made steady progress in improving the home’s recording systems, such as staff rotas. These rotas take into account training days and annual leave. This visual record enables the manager to plan well in advance to ensure appropriate staff cover. Existing staff are qualified and skilful to meet the diverse needs of young people. Newly appointed staff have undertaken comprehensive induction training to support them within their roles. This contributes to the delivery of good quality of care provided to young people. However, staff supervision and annual appraisals are not taking place in line with the organisation’s standards. Furthermore, some environmental safety checks are overdue. If not addressed, this could impact on young people’s safety, quality of care and outcomes.

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):

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Recommendations

 ensure the home provides a comfortable and homely environment and is well maintained. This specifically relates to the maintenance of the garden, gas and electricity checks (NMS 10.3)  ensure the Children’s Guide includes how a child can contact the Children’s Rights Director (NMS 13.5)  ensure all staff have their performance individually and formally appraised at least annually and this appraisal takes into account any view of children the service is providing for and that staff receive regular supervision. This specifically refers to meeting supervision timescales as defined by the home's Statement of Purpose (NMS 19.4, 19.6)

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Outcomes for children and young people

Outcomes for children and young people are good .

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people are making good progress in various aspects of their lives. They participate and contribute with their educational programmes and have sat exams with successful outcomes. This means that young people are making good progress from their starting points and are on target to achieve set goals. They enjoy and enthusiastically take part in outdoor physical activities and attend community clubs which include bike riding, football, and cadets. Young people have grown in confidence and join in activities away from the home, such as camping with the cadets. A young person said, ‘I know how to make a complaint and staff make sure I’m okay. I get to do things that I really enjoy, like mountain bike riding, going to cadets, and making new friends.’ This has had a positive impact on young people’s emotional and physical health and enabled them to make links to the wider community.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people enjoy and benefit from appropriate contact with family and people who are important to them. A social worker said that staff were outstanding at facilitating contact arrangements and a parent endorsed this view. This means young people have been able to maintain and develop relationships with significant people in their lives.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people benefit from good quality care they receive from a stable, experienced and qualified staff team. This has enabled young people to form and sustain positive attachments with staff. Young people are confident and at ease within the home. They feel safe to talk openly with staff about matters that are important to them, such as how they see themselves and their personal difficulties they experience as emerging adults. This means young people are supported and enabled to share their views and feelings in a safe and open environment.

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Quality of care

Young people enjoy positive and constructive relationships with staff. This is because staff are genuinely interested and committed with young people’s welfare. They continually seek young people’s views and feelings and involve them in their individualised placement plans. Staff are non-judgemental in their daily working practice and positively address equality and diversity issues. Young people benefit from the company of positive male and female staff role models. They teach young people semi-independent skills, such as, laundry, cooking and personal hygiene. This has enabled young people to make progress in their lives and develop in confidence and abilities.

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Quality of care

Young people feel valued and this shows through their interactions with staff. Staff use tailored positive behaviour strategies to support young people’s development in managing their own behaviours. This has successfully and significantly reduced conflict and enabled staff to meet young people’s specific complex needs well. Staff actively support young people to take part in their educational programmes. They liaise effectively with teachers and support young people to complete set homework. Their involvement impacts positively on young people’s progress.

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Quality of care

The home 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. However, some young people are unable or choose not to access direct support from specific health organisations such as therapeutic services. A social worker said that it is disappointing not to see progress made in this area. However, staff work closely and effectively with health specialists to ensure young people’s individual needs are met well. Clinical psychologists attend staff team meetings and share their expertise of young people’s diagnoses. This provides staff with a greater understanding of the young people they look after and allows them to apply this knowledge into their daily working practice.

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Quality of care

Young people say they know how to make a complaint and they have access to the complaint procedure. There have been no complaints made since the last inspection. The Young Person’s guide includes contact details for independent people who can advocate on young people’s behalf. However, it does not include details on the Children’s Right Director. This does not impact negatively on young people’s rights, as they are able to share their views through daily discussions with staff, key working sessions and young people’s meetings.

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Quality of care

The interior of the home is decorated and furnished in a way that is comfortable for young people, so that they feel valued and safe. However, the garden is overgrown and this does not maximise on young people’s outdoor living experience.

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Safeguarding children and young people

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

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Safeguarding children and young people

All staff are carefully selected and checked through the organisation's recruitment procedures and the home maintains a record of the checks. The recruitment process is robust and ensures young people's safety.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people talk positively about living in the home and state that they feel safe. Staff place considerable importance on supporting young people to take proportionate risks while prioritising their safety and well-being. They recognise the particular vulnerabilities of the young people they look after. Considered and creative staff practice allows young people to meet with other young people in the community within the constraints of their individualised risk assessments. This means that young people are allowed to take reasonable risks as part of their growth and development.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff apply consistent, systematic and safe practice when working one to one with young people. They regularly review young people’s risk assessments and identified risks are clearly recorded and monitored. Staff only use physical restraint as a last resort to prevent injury to people or serious damage to property. They recognise and focus on young people’s positive behaviours and use praise and encouragement to promote this. As a result, the number of physical restraints has significantly reduced as young people gain in self-esteem and awareness about the impact of their behaviour.

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Leadership and management

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

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Leadership and management

There were no requirements or recommendations made at the previous inspection. The company have appointed a manager following the resignation of the Registered Manager. An application for the post of Registered Manager is in progress. There was a delay in this application being sent to Ofsted. However, there were exceptional circumstances surrounding this and the delay did not have a negative impact on young people’s welfare.

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Leadership and management

The manager has relevant experience and knowledge of exercising leadership from his previous management roles within the organisation. This supports staff with their duties of care and has contributed to the services provided to young people. Staffing levels are good and staff receive a wide range of training to enable them to provide good quality and safe care to young people. A member of staff said, ‘I’m happy to be working here, the manager is fantastic and I can go to him for anything. I feel well supported and he is very clear on what he expects from us. He empowers staff through delegation of tasks and shows confidence in our abilities.’ The home’s Statement of Purpose states that existing staff will receive monthly supervisions and newly appointed staff twice monthly. In some cases, this has not happened and if not addressed could impact on staff development and quality of care. Furthermore,

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Leadership and management

staff appraisals have not been completed and the development of staff's expertise is held back.

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Leadership and management

Young people’s records are clear, well organised and contribute to an understanding of their lives. Staff are competent and understand the home’s systems, policies and procedures. They ensure that any incidents are fully recorded and reported without delay; action taken is robust and always considers young people’s views.

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Leadership and management

The manager understands the strengths and weaknesses of the home. He has updated the home’s development plan which visually identifies future plans and goals of the service. Independent monitoring visits are routinely carried out in the home and written feedback identifies areas for improvement and development. However, the manager has not adequately addressed some of the shortfalls identified. For example, gas and electrical checks have not been completed within the required timescales. While the home is generally well maintained and regular health and safety checks are carried out to contribute to young people’s safety, the lack of stringent monitoring systems means that some safety checks are overdue. If not addressed this could potentially impact on young people’s safety.

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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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