Children's Home run by Cheshire West and Chester Council in Cheshire West and Chester

Unique reference number SC034849 Inspection date 19/02/2013 Inspector Karen Forster Type of inspection Interim Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 26/06/2012 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

The children's home is purpose-built and managed by a local authority. It provides short-break care for up to six children and young people with physical disabilities, learning disabilities and sensory impairment. It is appropriately adapted to address the needs of children and young people with these additional needs.

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The inspection judgements and what they mean

Good progress The children’s home has demonstrated continued improvement in quality of care and outcomes for children and young people and where appropriate has addressed all requirements and the large majority of recommendations that were raised at the previous inspection. Satisfactory progress The children’s home has maintained quality of care and outcomes for children and young people and where appropriate has addressed all requirements and the majority of recommendations that were raised at the previous inspection. Inadequate progress The children’s home has failed to address one or more requirements and/or has not met the majority of recommendations and/or the quality of care and outcomes for children and young people have declined since the last full inspection.

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Progress

Since their previous inspection the service is judged to be making good progress .

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Progress

At the last full inspection this setting was judged to be good.

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Progress

The home continues to make good progress. The setting has demonstrated continued improvement in the quality of their short term care and improved outcomes for young people. All three of the requirements made at the last inspection have been suitably met. The large majority of the six recommendations made at the last inspection, have been addressed by the home.

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Progress

Fire safety risk assessment control measures are now implemented to keep the premises safe from the risk of fire. There is a good system in place for notifying Ofsted of significant events; however no notifications have been required since the last inspection. The home's regulation 33 monitoring visits are now routinely completed, providing a consistent external quality monitoring programme.

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Progress

Five of the six recommendations raised at the last inspection, have been suitably met. The home now ensures that all short break care plans are signed by all relevant parties, which means that stakeholders are more involved in the care package. However, the home has not fully addressed the recommendation to maintain a regular review programme for short break care plans. This means that short break care plans are not consistently checked for progress and for setting new objectives with young people. In addition, some of the objectives included within short break care plans, are not easily measurable or meaningful for individuals. Both of these shortfalls make individual progress more difficult to track on paper. However, the home can demonstrate that young people have made progress, and their small steps are readily captured and celebrated by sensitive care staff.

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Progress

The remaining historical recommendations have all been suitably met by the home. They now provide risk assessment statements for the provision of bed sides and provide regular refresher training in intrusive medical activities for staff. These developments help to promote the safety and health of the young people using the service. The labelling of gender specific play materials has ceased, well planned storage arrangements for play materials now promotes easy access by both genders of young people. The senior staff in the home now ensure that the feedback from stakeholders is collated within the internal quality monitoring programme. This helpful process has informed individual programmes of care and holistic plans for the service.

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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 all statutory reviews and reviews of short-break care plans are completed and recorded on each young person's file (NMS 25.8)  ensure that each child's short break care plan is monitored to ensure that the objectives within the plan are implemented in the day-to-day care of the child. ( NMS 25.2)

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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 progress made by the provider since the last full inspection, identifies any further strengths, any areas for improvement and makes judgements as outlined in the Inspection of children’s homes – framework for inspection.

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