Children's Home run by Wakefield Council in Wakefield

Unique reference number SC062573 Inspection date 28/06/2012 Inspector Nicola McEvinney Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 07/03/2012 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to seven young people, of both genders with emotional and behavioural difficulties. The main aims are to support young people to move back home with their families or successfully move to more independent living.

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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

Young people generally make good progress in nearly all aspects of their welfare as a result of their placement. They respond positively to the nurturing and caring approach offered by the well trained and committed staff team.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people benefit from having their individual needs identified in care planning documentation. They feel well cared for and listened to.

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Overall effectiveness

All staff fully understand their responsibilities to safeguard young people and work closely with multi-agency partnerships so that young people’s welfare, health and emotional well-being are met.

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Overall effectiveness

Effective behaviour management strategies are deployed to encourage young people to behave in a socially acceptable manner.

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Overall effectiveness

The leadership and management are strong. The Registered Manager is very child- centred and is enthusiastic and competent in overseeing all aspects of care practice. This includes having a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the home. He endeavours to address the weaknesses while ensuring the strengths are maintained. There were no requirements or recommendations made at this inspection.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Outcomes for children and young people are adequate .

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Outcomes for children and young people

Outcomes for young people are variable. Most of the young people arrive at the home following placement breakdowns; a history of non-school attendance, and some have had long term involvement in substance misuse and involvement in criminal activity. Half the young people have lived at the home for a period of time and have built up good relationships with the staff; these individuals are working towards independence. The other half have only lived at the home a few weeks, but are benefitting from and responding to the nurturing care they receive from the staff team and are developing in confidence.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people feel that they are listened to; this has resulted in young people’s behaviours improving. For example, young people who presented as being very confrontational have become more amenable because staff ensure that they ascertain their wishes and feelings.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people benefit from having their individual health needs identified. All young people are registered with doctors, dentists and opticians and are encouraged to attend their appointments. Young people are provided with healthy and nutritious meals and have free access to the kitchen in order to make snacks.

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Outcomes for children and young people

The majority of the young people have a history of non-school attendance. However, the home has worked extremely hard in accessing education appropriate to their aptitude and needs. The home works closely with looked after children education co- ordinator and for the new admissions all have an allocated school. Staff work tirelessly to get them to engage. There has been some improvement in this area for which young people are praised and supported. The older young people have all had opportunities to access a number of courses but their commitment is variable. Nonetheless, some individuals have secured training courses to commence in September which gives them improved life chances. Personal education plans are in place and keyworkers are clear about their child’s level of attainment. This enables them to give appropriate support.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people benefit from accessing local community facilities. For example, they use the local gym and birthdays and at Christmas they use local restaurants to have family meals.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people benefit from having contact arrangements clearly set out in their care plan. They are encouraged to celebrate significant family members birthdays, for example, by buying flowers for Grandma on her birthday. This gives them a good sense of belonging.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people are encouraged to develop skills to prepare them for adulthood, for example, keeping their bedrooms clean and tidy, doing their own laundry and helping with meal preparation. The older young people work with the leaving care team and are able to take advantage of the independence training flat. Here they are given a budget and move into the training flat for a few days at a time and practice their skills to enable them to make a successful transition to independence. Nonetheless, once young people move into their own tenancies the home offers ongoing support to ensure young people are managing. Social workers speak highly of this support to young people once they move on.

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Quality of care

Young people experience a genuine caring and nurturing relationship with staff. They have a non-confrontational approach and negotiate with young people who respond appropriately.

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Quality of care

Young people benefit from having an individual crisis management plan identifying triggers to behaviours the risks presented and appropriate effective strategies. This gives clear guidance to staff on how young people are best managed and ensures a consistent approach is maintained.

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Quality of care

Young people confirm that they feel listened to. ‘He (the manager) comes and talks to me every day; I feel he listens to me’. This ethos is shared by the staff team resulting in young people feeling respected and cared for.

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Quality of care

Young people are able to take advantage of an advocacy service to make representation. Some young people have a history of making complaints if they are unable to get what they want. The incidence of this is greatly reduced as staff respond patiently with these individuals and negotiate with them enabling them to feel listened to.

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Quality of care

Young people benefit from having comprehensive placement plans setting out their individual needs including needs relating to their personal identity. They provide clear guidance to staff on how these needs are to be met. Young people further benefit from having their morning routines clearly set out to ensure they start their day in a positive frame of mind. This promotes their well-being.

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Quality of care

Young people access a number of services to help meet their complex needs. For example, the youth offending team supports some to address their offending behaviour; substance misuse services try to engage some young people to address their drug use; the looked after children's nurse supports young people on sexual health issues. The children and adolescent mental health service has regular sessions with the staff team to give support and guidance to enable them to have more in- depth understanding of the behaviour of some individuals.

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Quality of care

All the young people have a history of non-school attendance. The looked after children co-ordinator speaks highly of the efforts of the staff team to promote young people’s engagement with their education provision. For example, those young people who are feeling anxious about returning to school will be transported by staff; efforts are made with the young people to ensure they are well prepared to return to school by going to the hairdresser or ensuring they have the right attire. Keyworkers attend parent’s evenings and there are good records of discussions held and progress made at school. Staff have high aspirations for the young people. There is good communication with schools to ensure any barriers that young people perceive to prevent them attending are addressed. Some young people have secured appropriate courses to commence in September which will improve their life chances.

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Quality of care

Young people are encouraged to attend their statutory childcare reviews to ensure that they are involved in the decisions that affect them.

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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

Young people are safe; they are protected by staff that have a good awareness of safeguarding issues. They are further protected by having individual risk assessments that identify the potential risk with strategies in place to reduce the hazard.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Prior to admission a number of young people had the propensity of going missing. However, the incidence of this has greatly reduced and generally is unauthorised absence where staff know where young people are. Staff will call young people and visit them while absent from the home to ensure that they are safe and well. On their return they are visited by an advocate to ensure that while absent from the home they were safe. No young people are involved in sexual exploitation.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people are protected by the involvement of the local police who have good contact with some schools and have built up relationships with young people. Staff have a good awareness of issues that can impact on the welfare of young people. They endeavour to help young people to recognise potential threats to their safety; for example, involvement in criminal activity.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people are protected by rigorous investigation into alleged inappropriate behaviour and staff have an open and transparent approach in dealing with these incidents.

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Leadership and management

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

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Leadership and management

This home is managed by an experienced and committed Registered Manager who has excellent leadership skills. He has made improvements in developing the service that impact on the outcomes for young people once they have left the home. For example, an outreach service is available to young people once they have moved into their own accommodation; they will be visited regularly and supported to further develop their independence skills. He recognises the strengths of the home as being the stability and shared ethos of the staff; with the advantage of a regular pool team who supplement the rota to cover annual leave and sickness. These individuals access training with the team and attend staff meetings. This ensures young people are cared for consistently. A weakness of the home is the possible admission of young people in an emergency which has the potential to destabilise the group. However, at this time, despite three new admissions the home is settled.

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Leadership and management

Young people benefit by being cared for by well qualified, experienced and caring staff who have an excellent understanding of their needs. They have good training opportunities, although much of this is e-learning; they receive regular good quality supervision and share a common commitment to ensure young people receive a good quality of care.

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Leadership and management

Young people generally benefit from living at this home. For example, some young people with obvious anger towards authority, with a propensity to make complaints have built up relationships with the staff to such an extent they are now in a better position to enable them to return to live at home.

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Leadership and management

Young people benefit from having robust monitoring systems in place that ensure that they are being well cared for. Records are well maintained that enables young people to have a clear understanding of their time spent at this home.

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Leadership and management

There were no recommendations made at the last inspection and none identified at this inspection.

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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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