Children's Home run by Step-A-Side Company Limited in Gloucestershire

Unique reference number SC030650 Inspection date 04/12/2012 Inspector Thomas Webber Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 15/02/2012 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

This children's home is one of two run by a limited company. The home currently provides long-term care and accommodation for a maximum of five children and young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties or learning disabilities. Respite care is also currently being provided.

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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

Overall the home provides a good service for young people, with the quality of care being outstanding. Young people are making excellent progress within a nurturing environment. Young people feel safe living at the home. Young people and staff maintain successful relationships. The stable staff team are highly motivated to ensure that young people make good progress in all aspects of their lives.

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Overall effectiveness

The care provided to young people is personalised to ensure that they receive all the necessary additional support to meet their physical, emotional and psychological needs. This is especially evident in the support provided to the educational placements of young people to enable them to be maintained. Young people are encouraged and supported to take part in a variety of recreational activities appropriate to their age.

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Overall effectiveness

The home makes good use of a range of internal and external monitoring activities relating to the quality of care provided to ensure that outcomes are continually improved for the benefit of young people.

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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 make very good progress. The personalised care and high level of staff input ensure that young people receive a high level of care. The clinical input and oversight provided to young people also contributes to the progress they achieve. Young people are given every opportunity to understand and influence their own behaviour in a positive manner by taking responsibility for their actions.

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Outcomes for children and young people

All young people attend an educational placement where most achieve a very high level of attendance. The psychological input attached to the home also assists in managing the behaviour difficulties of specific young people in the educational placements to ensure that the placements are successfully maintained. This enables young people to make successful progress and assists them to strive towards achieving their educational potential.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Staff actively encourage contact with family and friends for the benefit of young people. Staff will provide assistance with transport in order to ensure that contact is maintained. Staff will also take the lead role in supervised contact where this is required in accordance with the placement plans of young people. Families and the respective placing authorities are kept fully up to date on all aspects of the care and progress of young people. Parents and social workers spoke extremely positive about the care provided and the progress achieved by young people. They stated that excellent communication is maintained between themselves and the home.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Assistance towards independent living is very much dependent on the age and emotional development of the young people accommodated. Young people are encouraged to be involved in the undertaking of some household chores.

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Quality of care

The quality of the care is outstanding .

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Quality of care

Young people thrive in a caring, nurturing and supportive environment. They spoke very positively about the care, services and support provided. This was also fully endorsed by parents and social workers. Staff are highly committed to providing consistent and positive care to young people. Young people are provided with personalised placement plans, which ensure that they receive continuity and consistency of care. These and other associated documents provide staff with clear and comprehensive guidance on how to effectively work with and meet the day-to- day needs of young people.

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Quality of care

Young people are provided with a range of opportunities to express their views about the care and services provided. These help to influence the way the home is run. Young people are aware of how to complain. There have been nine complaints since the last inspection, seven of which have been from young people. All complaints are promptly addressed and are appropriately referred to other agencies when required. The format for recording complaints was updated by the manager during the inspection to ensure a more robust recording system.

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Quality of care

Young people enjoy a healthy, varied and balanced diet which mainly consists of home-cooked meals. The dietary requirements of young people are well catered for and fresh fruit is readily available on a daily basis. They are also provided with opportunities to gain appreciation of meals from different cultures. Young people spoke positively about the quality and quantity of meals provided.

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Quality of care

Young people are registered and supported to attend the various local healthcare services. Excellent specialist support is provided to young people to meet their emotional and psychological needs through frequent individual therapeutic sessions. Staff also receive clinical support which enables them to raise and discuss any particular concerns they may have relating to young people and also provides them with practical guidance. The safe storage and administration of medication is consistently maintained to promote the safety and well-being of young people.

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Quality of care

Young people are supported to engage in a range of age-appropriate activities both within the home and in the wider community. Within the home, young people are actively encouraged to interact with toys and games appropriate to their age. In the wider community, they enjoy swimming, bowling, go-karting, nature club/walks, quad biking and horse riding at weekends. Young people are also encouraged, supported and motivated to attend various afterschool clubs as well as other clubs which they show a specific interest in, such as the scouts.

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Quality of care

Staff fully support and promote the educational needs of young people. Different educational placements are used to ensure that the individual needs of young people are appropriately met. Staff support, together with the well-established routines and expectations within the home, motivate young people to attend school on a regular basis. Staff work very closely with the educational placements of young people to ensure that effective communication is maintained between them and that any difficulties that arise are promptly dealt with.

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Quality of care

The home is maintained to a good standard, being clean, tidy, comfortable and well furnished. The premises provide young people with good facilities to meet their needs. An additional communal facility, in the form of an outhouse, is available in the grounds, although young people are not currently able to fully utilise this as the under-floor heating is not working. Young people are provided with their own bedrooms, which are personalised to their individual tastes. The home provides young people with sufficient bathing and toilet facilities to meet their individual and collective needs. Suitable locks are provided to these facilities to promote the privacy and dignity of young people.

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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 enjoy and benefit from the positive and nurturing relationships established with staff. This contributes to young people feeling safe living at the home. All potential safeguarding matters are fully discussed and referred, where appropriate, to the Local Safeguarding Children Board. Staff receive regular safeguarding training. As a result, this enhances their understanding in their role and responsibilities in promoting the well-being of young people to ensure that they are kept safe from harm.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Incidents of young people going missing are kept to a minimum. Staff take appropriate action where young people go missing, and comprehensive records are maintained in respect to such incidents. This practice contributes to the safe return of young people at the earliest opportunity. The manager has updated the recording format to ensure that it records what action should be taken to minimise future incidents. However, there have been a couple of incidents where the home's car has been taken by a young person which could have led to serious consequences. As a result the home has taken action to address this.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people are supported to develop and maintain appropriate levels of behaviour. This is achieved through the nurturing relationships established between staff and young people together with firm and consistent boundaries. The high staffing levels, clinical input and the use of praise and positive behaviour incentives also contribute to young people making significant progress. The specific training undertaken by staff and the comprehensive therapeutic behaviour support plans provide staff with effective tools and assist them to effectively manage the challenging behaviour displayed by young people. This practice also leads to the minimal use of restraint. A number of sanctions have been applied since the last inspection with all records, in relation to this method of control, being appropriately maintained. Incidents of bullying are also promptly and robustly dealt with.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The staff recruitment practices for the careful vetting of new staff are robust and fully protect young people. Only one member of staff has been recruited since the last inspection. The home ensures that staff do not commence employment at the home until all the required checks are carried out and deemed satisfactory.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people live in a safe environment. Young people and staff regularly take part in fire evacuation drills to ensure that they are fully aware of the correct procedures and take appropriate action. The various health and fire safety tests and servicing arrangements are accurately maintained to safeguard young people and staff.

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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 Registered Manager has the required skills, experience and qualifications to exercise effective leadership. This ensures that the home is well managed and provides young people with a good quality of care. There were no requirements or recommendations made as a result of the last inspection carried out in February 2012. However, the manager ensures that prompt action is taken to address any shortfalls that arise.

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Leadership and management

The aims and objectives of the home are appropriately met and the care and services young people can expect to receive are clearly described in the home's Statement of Purpose. Young people, as part of the admission process, are provided with clear and useful information they need to know about the level of care provided by the home.

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Leadership and management

Young people are cared for by a stable and qualified staff team. Staff are also provided with additional training to further enhance their knowledge, competence and expertise in working with young people. Staff spoke positively about the training opportunities available to them. Excellent staffing levels are maintained throughout the day and night, with additional staffing being provided to accommodate the young person who receives regular respite care. The staffing arrangements enable young people to receive stability, continuity and consistency of care which ensures that their individual needs are met.

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Leadership and management

The manager ensures that staff are appropriately managed which means that they are proficient in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of young people. Staff are now provided with regular good quality supervision to ensure that their performance is regularly monitored. Good communication is maintained between staff, including participation in monthly team meetings. These forums provide staff with the opportunities to raise and discuss particular concerns relating to individual young people. They also allow staff to review and revise their day-to-day working practices in order to improve the overall delivery of care provided to young people.

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Leadership and management

The quality of care is regularly monitored, both externally and internally, to ensure continual improvements are made for the benefit of young people. Monitoring arrangements ensure that young people’s views about the quality of care are obtained and acted upon.

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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 and the evaluation schedule for children's homes.

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