Children's Home run by The Together Trust in Stockport

Unique reference number SC025739 Inspection date 16/10/2012 Inspector Mandy Williams Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 27/03/2012 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

The home is owned and operated by a private organisation. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four children and young people. The young people may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties or learning disabilities.

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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

This is a good home where young people receive predictable and nurturing care. Some staff have worked in the home for many years, bringing experience and stability. Many young people have complex needs and require this predictability of care in order to feel secure and confident in the responses they will receive from those around them. This will assist young people develop their emotional resilience. Young people express confidence in staff being able to keep them safe.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people living in the home make good progress in terms of their overall development. Staff work hard to engage young people who can sometimes display challenging behaviour and prove difficult to reach because of their past experiences.

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Overall effectiveness

The home works well with other professionals and young people's families. They are good at communicating with others. Staff appreciate the significance of working together and providing young people with consistent messages. This is important if young people are to achieve the goals set in their individualised placement plans and positive outcomes are to be achieved.

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Overall effectiveness

The management of the home is strong and the progress that young people make is clearly monitored. Both staff and young people feel that their views are important to the functioning of the home. The Registered Manager, who has worked in the home for a number of years, has a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the home and remains keen to secure further improvement. As a result of this inspection, one recommendation was made that relates to reviewing incentive plans and the appropriateness of sanctions imposed for negative behaviours.

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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 that sanctions and rewards for behaviour are clear, reasonable and fair and are understood by all staff and children; this relates to introducing a more restorative approach to sanctions and reviewing incentive plans for young people. (NMS 3.8)

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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 living in the home achieve positive outcomes in terms of their health, education and emotional resilience. The young people living in the home often have complex needs, resulting from their earlier experiences. They often struggle with the formation of relationships, demonstrating a variety of attachment difficulties. Staff in the home successfully provide a consistent approach to the care of young people so that they can become confident in the response that they will receive from the adults around them. This helps young people learn to trust those caring for them and to develop their levels of emotional resilience.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Staff also engage in life-story work with young people. This ensures that young people receive accurate information about their background, gives them an opportunity to explore their feelings about this and develop an understanding about their past. They can then begin to formulate an appreciation of the reasons for some of their behaviours and have a chance of building a more secure future.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people have access to a range of health care practitioners so that any health care needs can be addressed appropriately. Young people and staff also have access to the organisation's clinical psychologist, who may undertake individual work or offer advice and guidance to staff on how to address a particular issue. Staff also support young people to access specialist support services such as child and adolescent mental health services if required. This ensures that young people's health needs are met.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Staff are proactive in supporting the educational achievement of young people, as they promote their attendance and maintain regular contact with their schools. Young people have made good progress with their education since moving to the home and have gone on to attend college courses and gain employment. Young people are able to maintain contact with those important to them, such as family and friends. Social workers report that staff are good at supporting contact arrangements. A relative also provided positive feedback to the home when staff had been supporting sibling contact, expressing their gratitude by saying, 'thank you for keeping us together.' This ensures that young people are able to sustain these relationships, despite living apart, and their family identity is retained.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people have successfully moved on from the home into independent living. They have been well prepared for the challenges ahead. Staff have continued to support these young people by telephoning them regularly, and ensuring that they know they can turn to them for advice and support if required.

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Quality of care

Relationships between staff and young people are good. The staff team is largely stable and many staff have worked in the home for a number of years. This enables young people to develop long-term relationships with them. Young people have well- developed keyworker relationships and enjoy spending time with these staff. Staff act as positive role models for young people, encouraging them to take responsibility for their own behaviour, dependant on their age and ability. These consistent messages encourage young people to develop confidence in the responses they will receive from adults and in turn socially acceptable behaviours are developed.

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Quality of care

Staff are good at keeping all those involved with young people updated in relation to their progress and social workers receive a report on a monthly basis. The home is warm and comfortable and is homely and welcoming. One parent commented, 'I am always made to feel welcome at the home. The staff keep in touch with me all the time. I feel they are doing a good job looking after my child.'

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Quality of care

Staff seek the views of young people by informal consultation on a daily basis, as well as by holding young people's meetings. Young people have been involved in choosing the colour schemes in the home and choose their menus for the week ahead. Young people are involved in the organisation's young people's forum and have been involved in the staff recruitment process. Consequently, young people feel that their views are important to the development of the home.

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Quality of care

Young people understand how to make a complaint and have done so on occasion. Clear information is contained in the user-friendly children's guide to the home that young people receive on admission. The home has a clear procedure for dealing with any complaints that are made and young people receive support throughout the process. The home also ensures that young people have access to an independent advocate should they request one.

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Quality of care

Young people benefit from individualised placement plans. Staff work well together to support the young person in ensuring that targets are met and weekly plans adhered to. Any reviews take into account the views of the young person and other professionals working with them. This ensures that everyone involved is working together to meet the needs of the young person.

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Quality of care

Young people are encouraged to take part in leisure activities in which they have expressed an interest, although currently most young people choose to spend their time within the home. Staff encourage young people to become involved in local and national events and young people attend events at the organisation's headquarters. They recently were involved in baking cakes for such an event and were part of the Olympic themed celebrations. This ensures that young people are familiar with the wider community in which they live.

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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 live in a safe environment and express confidence in staff keeping them safe in the home. Staff undertake safeguarding training as part of their induction and regular refresher courses are completed. Consequently, staff are able to respond appropriately should any concerns arise. The organisation has a bullying policy, although good staffing levels ensure that opportunities for bullying are few and incidents rare.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The home complies with locally agreed protocols for young people that go missing from home and they have established good communication systems with the local police. Good risk assessments are completed. Detailed records are kept of actions taken and individuals contacted, when incidents do occur. Young people are given the opportunity to meet with their social worker on their return and work is undertaken with them to help them develop an understanding of the risks they may be taking.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff receive regular training in behaviour management, including restraint. Unfortunately, they have needed to implement restraints on a regular basis in order to protect the young people in their care. The bound volume in the home contains detailed records of any incidents that do occur and they receive a full evaluation by the Registered Manager. This ensures that lessons are learnt and suggestions may be made to staff about adopting an alternative approach if the same situation were to arise in the future. The numbers of incidents are decreasing for young people; this is clearly shown in the graphs kept by the home to monitor their frequency. The Registered Manager is able to clearly explain any deviations in the downward trend; these tend to be due to other factors affecting the young person's stability at that time.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people have behaviour management plans in place which outline what action staff should take to manage any difficult behaviour. Sanctions are used in the home to help young people understand that there are consequences to their actions and the choices they make. However, many of them relate to monetary consequences involving the young person paying for the item they have broken, rather than being restorative in nature. Similarly, the home is not making full use of incentive plans for young people to encourage positive behaviours.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The organisation ensures that staff are carefully selected and checked prior to commencing work in the home. Visitors to the home are required to produce identification and sign in the visitors’ book. These processes ensure that vulnerable young people are protected from those who may wish to harm them.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The home is physically safe and appropriately secure. Regular fire drills are undertaken and environmental safety checks performed. The home is good at accessing alternative devices if the needs of the young people dictate. For example, specialist light fittings that protect the bulbs from smashing. These measures ensure that young people are protected from environmental hazards.

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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

The home is well managed by an enthusiastic and committed Registered Manager. The staff team, young people and professionals involved with the home, respect her. She has managed the home for many years and provides consistency and good leadership to the staff and young people in the home.

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Leadership and management

The Statement of Purpose and children's guide set out clearly the aims and objectives of the home and are subject to regular review. The children's guide outlines the care that young people should expect to receive in the home and details how to access other services; such as their social worker, the independent reviewing officer, or an advocate, should they require one. Complaints about the service are few but any that have arisen have been addressed and resolved in a timely fashion.

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Leadership and management

No requirements or recommendations were made at the last inspection. The Registered Manager has a development plan in place and staff members take responsibility for following through allocated tasks. This ownership ensures that tasks are followed through in a timely way. Both the internal and external monitoring of the home are undertaken thoroughly and reports from both are forwarded to Ofsted regularly. Action plans are developed as a result of the monitoring and receive appropriate follow up; this demonstrates the home’s capacity for continuing improvement.

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Leadership and management

The home is well resourced in relation to staff numbers. Since the last inspection the turnover of new staff has stabilised significantly and agency staff have not been required. However, there are also some staff that have worked in the home for many years, bringing consistency and experience. Hence, the staff team know each other well and are able to support each other at challenging times. They receive regular supervision and appraisal from named senior staff in the home. This ensures that the highest quality of care is afforded to young people. The Registered Manager regularly monitors the progress that young people are making. She employs the use of graphs to clearly illustrate the frequency of issues such as missing from home or physical interventions. These demonstrate that young people are making pleasing progress and that living in the home has had a positive impact on their lives. Young people's records are appropriately maintained and

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Leadership and management

detailed records kept of work undertaken with them. These contribute to an understanding of their life and ensure appropriate plans for their future are made.

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Leadership and management

All significant events relating to the protection of young people living in the home have been notified to the appropriate authorities. The Registered Manager is particularly good at ensuring that any updated information is also forwarded after the event, so that agencies have a clear understanding of the outcome of any incidents.

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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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