Children's Home run by Kingston upon Hull City Council in Kingston upon Hull

Unique reference number SC034495 Inspection date 30/08/2012 Inspector Nicola McEvinney Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 08/03/2012 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

This local authority home is registered to care for and accommodate up to eight children and young people at any one time, of either gender, with learning disabilities. Some children also have physical disabilities and complex health needs. The vast majority of children and young people have short breaks at the home providing their parents or carers with respite care. Occasionally a child or young person is accommodated on a long-term basis.

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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 outstanding .

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Overall effectiveness

This is a valuable service for children, young people and their families. The impact on all concerned is exceptional. This enables parents who are struggling to manage their children have a break and without this some children may have become looked after.

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Overall effectiveness

Children and young people are looked after by highly-skilled, motivated staff who offer consistent care and enable children and young people to develop skills which improve their life experience. Parents and social workers are confident that children and young people are cared for in a safe and stimulating environment where their individual needs are fully addressed.

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Overall effectiveness

Although the majority of children and young people have limited verbal communication, staff work tirelessly in ensuring they understand their wishes and feelings. Some children and young people use a picture exchange system (PECS) to aid communication. The home accesses an advocate who also gains the views of the children and young people to ensure that they are happy. There are excellent links with parents who are made welcome in the home and are consulted about the care of their children.

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Overall effectiveness

There are robust monitoring systems in place and the team learns from any errors made by putting effective systems in place to ensure that there is no reoccurrence. The children and young people are seen as children and young people and staff do not allow their disability to prevent them from participating fully in life ensuring that they reach their potential.

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Overall effectiveness

There were no requirements or recommendations identified at 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

The impact of accessing this service for children, young people and their families is tremendous. Children and young people come to have fun in a stimulating, safe environment whilst their families are able to have respite.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Children and young people make excellent progress by accessing the service. For example, they are able to build up increased level of independence through the excellent opportunities to learn self-help skills. Children and young people are building essential social and life skills as a consequence of having a highly-skilled staff team supporting them. This includes undertaking some of their own personal care and feeding themselves.

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Outcomes for children and young people

All the children and young people school attendance is excellent. There are extremely effective links with schools to ensure continuity of care and support is across services. This is of particular significance as the majority of children and young people have no verbal communication. The home works with schools to develop communication systems to optimise children and young people’s ability to have their wishes and feelings heard.

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Quality of care

The quality of the care is outstanding .

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Quality of care

Staff have high aspirations for the children and young people who benefit from the wide range of stimulating and exciting experiences that, despite their disability, are encouraged to participate in. For example, they go to the theatre, swimming, and activities at the ice-rink. Staff have a ‘can do’ attitude which enables children and young people to lead fulfilling lives. Parents are delighted with the progress their children have made and speak highly of the care their children receive.

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Quality of care

Staff have excellent knowledge and understanding of each child or young person’s condition and how they present. They are highly skilled in ascertaining their wishes and feelings by using a range of communication methods to ensure that their time spent at the home is a pleasurable experience. Care plans are highly individualised, setting out the individual needs of each child or young person with clear guidance on how these needs are to be met.

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Quality of care

The home has access to a number of services to help meet the complex needs of the children and young people. For example, the home accesses an advocate who facilitates house meetings. For those children and young people who have limited verbal communication, the advocate spends more individual time with them to ensure that their views can be heard. There are effective links with another residential provision for children and young people requiring medical intervention. The staff will seek guidance and support for some children and young people who also use this service to ensure their health needs are consistently addressed. The community nursing team attends the home to support some individual’s medical needs. The dietician supports staff to ensure the dietary needs of children and young people are provided for. In particular, she delivers training to staff to ensure they have an understanding of the needs of individuals with diabetes. The physiotherapist

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Quality of care

and occupational therapists supports children and young people and train staff to enable them to provide individual physiotherapy and the appropriate use of sleep systems. This ensures that children and young people are receiving optimum wrap around care so that their health continuous to be fully promoted.

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Quality of care

Great care is taken to ensure children and young people attend the home with their friends; many form good friendships with one another. The home is very spacious and children and young people enjoy a range of activities both inside and outdoors to ensure they spend their time gainfully. This includes large outdoor play equipment, a sensory garden and room, adapted bikes, a cinema room and a beauty therapy room. The home is adjacent to a service providing activities for children and young people with disabilities which some individuals access. For example, an end of holiday party was organised that some young people attended and clearly enjoyed. For those young people who live at the home, a holiday has been arranged to Blackpool. Despite the profound disabilities of these young people and the necessary equipment that they require, an appropriate hotel has been identified which caters for people with disabilities. This is a further example of the motivation of the staff

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Quality of care

team, ensuring that these young people have excellent life experiences.

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Quality of care

Medication arrangements are robust, ensuring children and young people receive their medication properly. Some children and young people have very complex needs. Staff are highly skilled to ensure that they have the necessary experience to ensure that they are able to provide optimum care. For example, epilepsy protocols are in place advising staff what action to take in the event of a child or young person has a seizure. Staff are also trained in percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) feeding.

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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

Parents and social workers consider that children and young people are safe. Staff have an excellent understanding of the vulnerabilities of children and young people with disabilities. They build trusting relationships to ensure children and young people feel safe and are safe when they attend this home.

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Safeguarding children and young people

There are individual risk assessments in place identifying potential dangers with appropriate strategies in place to minimise the risk. Fire records are in good order. Records demonstrate that all the staff, children and young people have been part of a fire evacuation procedure, ensuring everybody knows what action to take in the event of a fire occurring. This promotes their safety.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The careful matching process ensures vulnerable children and young people are not at risk from the more boisterous individuals. Preserving the dignity of young people is a top priority; staff are vigilant in ensuring personal care is delivered by same sex carers.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Children and young people are further safeguarded by the high staffing levels ensuring that they are constantly supervised. Some children and young people present some extremely challenging behaviours. Staff recognise that these are part of the individual’s disability and support them to divert them away from these behaviours. Sanctions and physical restraint are not used as they are considered inappropriate.

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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 Registered Manager is highly effective and committed to ensure children and young people receive exceedingly good care. This is a well-established staff team that shares the ethos of the manager. Staff are highly skilled and motivated in ensuring children and young people have a good time when they come to the home while ensuring that there are also very well cared for. Parents and social workers speak highly of the care that the children and young people receive. For example, a social worker said, ‘the children’s needs are well met, staff give 110%, they go that extra mile.’

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Leadership and management

There are rigorous monitoring systems in place to ensure that children and young people receive high quality care. Regulation 33 visitors receive training in their role to enable them to effectively monitor how the home operates. The Registered Manager provides an overview of the home for the visitor to ensure that that they are kept informed of current events.

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Leadership and management

The Registered Manager recognises that the staff team is a real strength. The home is a vital service to families in the city. Parents, brothers and sisters all say it is a great place, and they are confident that their child or sibling is well looked after. The Registered Manager considers that he and his staff could do paperwork better and become more proficient on the computer and is addressing this.

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Leadership and management

Over the summer the home has altered the timings of the sessions to enable children and young people to have a more productive first day, and ensure that the same staff are on duty throughout their stay. This has been well received by parents who were consulted over the change. This is being reviewed to ensure that this is meeting the needs of everybody. The home has a development plan in place with the aim to further enhance the life experiences for the children and young people who use this service. This is to be done in consultation with families, ensuring that staff continue to visit families so that they are aware of anything that impacts on the child’s life and to seek parents’ views.

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Leadership and management

There was one recommendation made at the last inspection which has been fully met.

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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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