Children's Home run by Stoke-on-Trent City Council in Stoke-on-Trent

Unique reference number SC403895 Inspection date 11/09/2012 Inspector Michelle Spruce Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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

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Brief description of the service

This children's home is registered to provide care and accommodation for two young people of either gender with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home is operated by the local authority.

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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 service is exceptional and the key strength is the dedicated, committed and strong work force. Leaders and managers drive forward improvement and achieve positive outcomes for young people. The manager is efficient and effective in leading the team and has development plans that secure the homes future and identify strengths and weakness.

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Overall effectiveness

The effectiveness of high quality placement planning is testimony to the improved outcomes achieved by young people. Staff provide quality, placement plans that are personalised to meet young people’s individual needs.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people’s safety is paramount and remains the focus in the delivery of care. Staff provide excellent partnership working that safeguards and protects young people from harm. The home provides an environment where young people are safe and say they feel safe.

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Overall effectiveness

The relationships between staff and young people are excellent, strong and built on trust and respect. Young people express their choice and view about the quality of care they receive and influence the running of the home.

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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 improve their confidence and become more resilient to change because of the consistent staff arrangements that provide excellent quality of care. As a result, young people are more able to sustain attachments. Staff say, ‘some young people ask us about their day and record the comments. This helps to develop self-esteem and motivates young people to have a better outlook on life because they reflect on these comments during difficult times.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people benefit from exceptional support from the home and external professionals to ensure their physical, emotional and psychological well-being is met. Young people say they are proud of their personal milestones they achieve and make significant improvement in losing weight and keeping fit. Young people take responsibility for their own health and understand the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle because they do not take part in activities such as smoking, drugs or alcohol that are detrimental to their health. As a result, young people thrive in maintaining good health and well-being.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people make successful achievement from their starting point in relation to education attendance and achievement because they enjoy the experience and understand the importance of improving their life chances. Young people are enthusiastic about education and aspire to maximise their learning potential. Young people are proud about maintaining 100% attendance and feel the home promotes their achievements fairly and equally. As a result, the commitment young people make within education secures college and work placements.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people take a passionate and dedicated approach to supporting other peers within their community because they are involved with support groups that provide young people in care opportunities to have their say. Young people show a sense of pride and belonging as a result of their involvement and often take part to chair meetings. This means young people actively engage and encourage partnership working to improve social interaction and relationships.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people feel relationships are important to them and seek regular contact with family and friends. Some young people now benefit from unsupervised contact and, as a result, bonds are strengthened and attachments are developed. Young people say their friends and family visit the home and staff make them feel welcome.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people make excellent progress to develop skills for independence. Young people say, ‘I go out more on my own this is really good progress, I catch a bus on my own and do not need to be supervised. I cook my own meals and have a leaving care team.’ As a result, confidence improves because young people take more responsibility to so things for themselves.

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Quality of care

The quality of the care is outstanding .

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Quality of care

Staff are the key strength in delivering exceptional high quality care because they are consistent, dedicated and passionate about the service they provide. Young people benefit from excellent relationships with staff and peers because of the consistent and dedicated approach to care. Young people confirm this and say, 'all my carers should have a gold medal for everything; if I am upset they do their best to get me happy again, I love them.' As a result, young people thrive in a nurturing and loving environment.

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Quality of care

The home ensures young people actively provide and promote their views, wishes and feelings in many forums. Young people significantly influence the running of the home as a result of effective consultation. They are confident to voice their opinion and tackle issues of a sensitive nature. As a result, young people feel valued and achieve better outcomes due to their ability to formally structure communication.

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Quality of care

Young people receive full support where their requests cannot always be met. They understand the reasons because staff are clear in explaining their decision-making that is tailored to meet the individual’s level of understanding. This means young people recognise how to move forward despite the difficulties they may face. Staff are innovative and raise awareness in regards to complaints and comment that they introduce a quiz to gage young people’s awareness and knowledge about how and when to make a complaint. This empowers young people to use the system effectively and provides staff with information to address shortfalls where young people may not recognise or understand what to do. This means young people’s rights are promoted.

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Quality of care

Staff comment that relationships with schools and the designated person for children in care are excellent. Additionally, since the staff have been working with the college curriculum leaders, young people receive additional support towards independence because information is shared; this has dramatically improved confidence and reduced the supervision required.

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Quality of care

Young people are treated equally and provided with the same opportunities despite the difficulties they face. Young people's beliefs and preferences are explored and supported to ensure they benefit from positive life experiences without fear of discrimination. Staff are proactive and sensitive to young people's individual needs and do not impose their own view and personal opinions on young people. This ensures young people grow in confidence and feel valued.

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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 safe in the home and say, ‘I feel like I belong here and that makes me feel safe. The staff care for me the best they can.’ Staff make young people’s safety a priority because they continually monitor and evaluate risk. Staff work closely with young people to help them recognise the dangers. For example staff provide opportunities through using a quiz questionnaire to promote issues such as stranger danger. This ensures young people know how to keep safe and protects them from harm. Young people are happy and appear comfortable in their home environment. Excellent management of identified behaviour secures safety. As a result, young people do not feel the need to absent themselves from the home or go missing. Young people say, ‘I never go missing because I love the house and the carers, I didn’t always but I do now, I always tell them where I am and when I will be back, I come back on time and keep in touch with staff if I am going to be a little late.’ This

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Safeguarding children and young people

The home provides a consistent warm and welcoming environment where staff and young people are respectful and courteous to each other. There are robust behaviour management plans and excellent reward and positive praise systems that reinforce positive behaviour and remove the need for the use of physical intervention. Young people say, ‘staff never use physical restraint because they come up with other solutions to help with my behaviour.’

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people are protected from harm because the home implements an effective recruitment process that ensures any potential unsuitable candidates are vetted before employment. The home remains safe because regular health and safety monitoring is undertaken and any hazards removed. Young people say they take part in fire drills and understand the evacuation procedure. Staff receive fire safety training and occasionally drills take place during the night. This means the home provides a safe environment for young people, staff and visitors.

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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 led by a strong and motivated manager who is supported by a dedicated, stable and committed staff team. The service is efficient because of the robust monitoring and evaluation of the home undertaken by the Regulation 33 visitor and the Schedule 6 monitoring. The home benefits from detailed development plans that outline the strengths and weaknesses. Staff input their views into the home plan through team consultation during away days. This ensures the home plan is successful in meeting planned objectives for the future of the home.

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Leadership and management

Young people benefit from stable loving placements that improve outcomes and sustain excellent quality of care. Young people, staff and external professionals speak highly of the care young people receive coupled with the highly efficient and effective leadership and management. This demonstrates the commitment and capacity to improve life chances for young people.

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Leadership and management

Staff are highly valued and appreciated. Staff receive regular supervision and benefit from annual appraisals. All training is up to date and the manager updates the training plan to ensure personal development is met. This ensures staff continue to be skilled and knowledgeable in the service they provide. As a result, the quality of care is excellent.

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Leadership and management

Young people receive excellent quality of care and are happy in the home. As a result, there are no complaints recorded since the last inspection. The home has received many compliments from staff, young people, and external professionals that comment on the excellent quality of the service.

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Leadership and management

The home is beautifully decorated and tastefully furnished with adequate resources. Young people take pride in their environment and take part in decorating their rooms to personal taste. This reflects their individuality. The home is of a high quality and reflects a warm and welcoming home where young people thrive and feel nurtured.

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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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