Children's Home run by Keys Group Progressive Care & Education Limited in Hampshire

Unique reference number SC412476 Inspection date 16/04/2013 Inspector Brian Mcquoid Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 23/01/2013 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the source and date of publication are stated.

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Brief description of the service

The home offers small group living to four young people with learning disabilities. It is privately owned.

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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

The overall effectiveness of the service is good with young people receiving high quality individualised care and making real progress in different areas of their lives. Staff have an excellent knowledge and understanding of safe working practice, they provide consistent boundaries for young people and manage difficult situations extremely well. Young people enjoy positive and constructive relationships with the staff who care for them, with really good care planning ensuring their needs are well met. Safeguarding arrangements are extremely good and young people are being safely cared for in an environment where they clearly feel safe and where they are happy to be living. The manager of the home provides clear and effective leadership and has been responsible for implementing a development plan which is continually improving the service and the care provided for young people.

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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

 liaise as necessary with young people's placing authorities to ensure the timely implementation of transition plans (NMS 12.3)  ensure there are suitable arrangements in place for the professional supervision of the registered manager of the home (NMS 19.3)  support young people in maintaining a record of significant life events during their time at the home. (NMS 22.6)

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Outcomes for children and young people

Outcomes for young people at the home are good and they have all made considerable progress given their starting point upon arrival at the home. They are happy living at the home, have developed positive relationships with staff and are able to communicate very effectively with them. Their school attendance is exceptionally good with annual review reports reflecting how well they are doing. Recent feedback from parents about the home is extremely positive. 'My son is happy and always keen to return,' 'he has become more mature and more independent,' and 'he is making progress with his self-help skills and signing,' were some of the positive comments made by parents. 'I am happy that he is being safely cared for,' was a comment from a social worker, who also felt that the young person had made good progress in developing their independence skills.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people benefit from leading healthy lifestyles and they have their routine and specific health needs addressed very well. They enjoy nutritious meals and participate in a wide range of activities both within the home and in the community. Rock climbing, going to the cinema, visiting a cathedral, having regular meals out, cooking, and helping to devise a newsletter are just some of the activities young people have recently taken part in. Young people are being involved as much as possible in decision making about matters affecting them, and are routinely provided with choices in their daily lives. One had recently been involved in choosing the colour their room was to be redecorated in. Maximising each young person's ability to be independent is central to how the home operates and they have all made significant progress in this area. Not all young people at the home have transition plans and there is a need for the home to be more pro-active in this area. Young

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Outcomes for children and young people

people enjoy regular contact with their families, which includes overnight stays as well as visits to the home.

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Quality of care

Young people receive a very good quality of care at the home. Excellent care planning supports the successful delivery of highly individualised care for all young people, which accords well with their overall plan. Young people are provided with extremely good support which is tailored to their individual and diverse needs. This has enabled them to make real progress since being at the home. Increased signing, improved behaviour, growing confidence and maturity, the continuing acquisition of life skills, and increasing levels of independence are all examples of young people’s progress. Parents report positively about the care being provided for their children and feel wholly involved in the process. Providing young people with choices in their everyday lives is integral to how the home operates and they are involved as much as possible in decisions affecting them. Staff know the young people they care for

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Quality of care

extremely well and are very good at telling if they are unhappy for any reason. Close monitoring and staff observations resulted in one young person being taken to see their doctor during the course of the inspection. All young people see members of their families regularly, and all receive statutory visits from their social workers. Young people enjoy very good relationships with the staff who care for them, and staff are able to communicate very effectively with each young person according to their needs. This includes speech, signing, the use of electronic communication aids, verbal and visual prompts, schedule boards, and PECS (picture exchange communication system).

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Quality of care

Staff very successfully support young people's school attendance which is excellent, and work constructively with schools to support their education. There are close working relationships with external agencies which benefit young people and ensure their individual health needs are being addressed. Examples of this are links with a specialist behavioural nurse, with CAMHS (child and adolescent mental health services), and with a local pharmacist. Arrangements within the home for managing and administering medication to young people are extremely good. Young people are provided with access to a very wide range of activities both within the home and in the community. They have recently started going out as a group for meals once a week and this has proved highly successful, as has a trip to the cinema for one young person. A varied activity programme during the recent Easter holiday period included trips to the zoo and a nationally acclaimed motor museum. In addition

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Quality of care

young people were able to celebrate 'red nose day' with support from staff, with photos of the event included in the newly produced newsletter. It is recommended that staff assist young people to make a record of such significant events in their life. Young people also choose to spend time in their rooms as well as using the home's quiet room or the trampoline in the garden. The home provides good quality accommodation for young people which is extremely well maintained and very well suited for its purpose.

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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

The home makes good provision for ensuring the safety of young people they care for, with staff having a good knowledge and understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities and of safe working practice. Young people feel safe within the home and parents and placing social workers consider them to be safely cared for. There have been no child protection related incidents since the previous inspection and no young person has been reported as missing from the home. Staff know each young person extremely well and successfully implement individual behaviour management plans which utilise a positive approach and provide clear boundaries for young people. Excellent support for staff is provided by a specialist behavioural nurse and staff deal with difficult situations really well. A recent incident of targeting behaviour has seen an increased vigilance by staff in order to prevent a re-occurrence. Levels

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Safeguarding children and young people

of sanctions and physical interventions are low within the home and incidents that do occur are being well recorded. Physical restraint is seen clearly by staff as a very last resort and records show that they do all they can to avoid its use. There is close monitoring of the use of restraint, both within the home and by the provider who receives weekly reports of any concerning events compiled by the manager.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The home provides a safe and secure physical environment for young people within which there is extremely good provision for the management of risk. Health and safety arrangements are excellent with monthly checks being carried out and recorded, and audits taking place twice yearly. The home scored 98.5% at the most recent health and safety audit carried out during March 2013. Fire safety provision is good with an up-to-date fire risk assessment and all checks and tests being carried out at the required intervals. Fire evacuation practises are being held regularly throughout the year and all young people have fire risk assessments related to the evacuation procedures. Detailed risk assessments for all young people, the premises, and for all activities undertaken by young people are regularly reviewed, and provide for the effective management of risk. There is an acute awareness amongst staff of both the vulnerabilities and the risks associated with each young person and they

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Safeguarding children and young people

take the necessary action to minimise these. Staff recruited to the home are subject to recruitment procedures which provide appropriately for the protection of young people's welfare. These include required vetting checks being renewed every two years in accordance with the provider's policy.

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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

There is good leadership and management of the service. Its aims and objectives, as outlined in its statement of purpose, are clearly being met. The registered manager is suitably qualified and the home operates very smoothly and efficiently on a day-to- day basis. There has been one complaint received since the previous inspection. This is being thoroughly addressed to the satisfaction of the complainant, who commented that they had complete faith in the manager and their ability to deal with the matter. The home has an excellent track record of addressing requirements and recommendations from previous inspections and there is a clear commitment to continuing improvement. A detailed development plan is being reviewed monthly and there have been a number of improvements since the previous inspection. These include the redecoration of bedrooms in consultation with young people, surveying parents and professionals for their views about the home, and producing a

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Leadership and management

newsletter with young people to be distributed regularly to parents and social workers.

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Leadership and management

There is clear evidence of the positive impact that the home is having on young people. Discussions with the manager, parents, social workers and staff were all extremely positive about the outcomes for young people and the significant progress they have made since being at the home. Well maintained individual case records support this view, with statutory reviews, annual education reviews and core assessments all commenting positively about the home and the care being provided for young people. The home has adequate resources available to be able to operate effectively and the environment is being maintained to a high standard. The staff group are clearly committed to the young people they care for and receive good quality training which enables them to meet young people's needs. They receive supervision on a regular basis; however the provider's arrangements for the professional supervision of the manager are currently not satisfactory. There is very

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Leadership and management

effective monitoring of both the welfare of individual young people and the overall operation of the home. Reports on the conduct of the home reflect positively on the home and are being forwarded to Ofsted at the required intervals.

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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 the inspection of children's homes.

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