Children's Home run by Gateshead Council in Gateshead

Unique reference number SC036773 Inspection date 05/06/2013 Inspector Stephen Graham Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 27/11/2012 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

This children’s home provides care and accommodation to five young people with emotional and 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

The overall effectiveness of the service in meeting the needs of young people living at the home is outstanding. Young people enjoy outstanding outcomes in their care and receive high quality support from the staff team. They discuss their individual care needs with staff very regularly. The staff team are very effective in engaging and involving young people in planning how their needs can be met. Young people enjoy well planned support and advice regarding their personal health care needs. They participate very regularly in a broad range of healthy leisure activities in their local community. They receive outstanding encouragement and support to help them attend their education regularly and to be successful in it.

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Overall effectiveness

The home is decorated and furnished to a high standard and is very well presented. It provides a very safe and comfortable environment for the young people who live there. The staff team give young people very good advice and support to help keep them safe. The home is very well led and managed. The management arrangements work very effectively to support both the outstanding quality of care and the outstanding outcomes achieved by young people living at the home.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Outcomes for young people are outstanding .

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people living at the home regularly discuss the success of their personal care plans with the staff team. The staff team talk regularly with placing social workers to ensure that the outcomes agreed in the care plans of each young person are achieved. Young people interact well with staff and enjoy the care they receive. One young person describes very positively the ‘respect’ they felt staff had for them when working with them. When asked, ‘What is good about the home?’ one young person replied ‘everything’. Other young people gave examples such as ‘my link worker’ and ‘the other kids, my bedroom, the staff’. One parent described how the staff team have kept their child ‘safe’ and that while they have been living there ‘they have been happy’.

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Outcomes for children and young people

The staff team ensure that the individual achievements of all young people living at the home are documented clearly and are celebrated. Social care professionals with links to the home strongly agree that the needs of all the young people are considered appropriately, irrespective of their age or gender. They also strongly agree that improving outcomes for children is a clear priority for staff at the home.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people enjoy a healthy and active lifestyle. They participate in a very good range of activities both within the local community and further beyond. They enjoy a very healthy diet and achieve and maintain very good health outcomes. Young people confirm that staff look after them ‘all the time’ if they are ever unwell. Their parents strongly agree that their overall health needs are being met whilst living at the home. Social care professionals strongly agree that young people are benefitting from the very good access and support they receive from appropriate specialist health care services.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people also enjoy outstanding outcomes in their education. The staff team have very good links with local education services. They work effectively to maintain and further improve educational outcomes for young people living at the home. One placing social worker describes how, in their experience, staff ‘go the extra mile’ to ensure that young people enjoy good outcomes and success in their education.

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Outcomes for children and young people

The staff team provide young people with outstanding support and practical advice to help them practise and develop their self-care skills. Young people who move on from the home go on to live successful, independent lives within the local community.

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Quality of care

The quality of the care is outstanding .

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Quality of care

The care plans for each young person living at the home are monitored very regularly and thoroughly by staff. They work in close partnership with young people themselves, their placing social workers and also their parents where this is possible, to achieve this. This ensures that the individual needs of each young person are known and addressed very positively and successfully in their individual care arrangements. Social care professionals linked to the home confirm that the staff team work well with them. They also strongly believe that improving outcomes for young people is the ‘clear priority’ of the manager and staff team at the home.

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Quality of care

Social care professionals describe the service provided at the home as ‘excellent’. Young people are directly involved in their own care planning. Regular meetings are organised to review the effectiveness of their care plans. Young people regularly attend these meetings to give their views directly to the social care professionals involved in meeting their care needs. The manager and staff team members also attend the meetings and provide them with good information and detailed written reports regarding the progress being made by young people.

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Quality of care

The home has very detailed admission procedures in place. These are used effectively by staff to help young people coming to live at the home to settle in quickly. Detailed individual risk assessments are completed by the manager and staff team in partnership with placing social workers and young people themselves. These arrangements help to ensure that young people are admitted safely.

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Quality of care

The quality of the furnishing and decoration at the home is outstanding. It provides a very comfortable and safe environment which meets the needs of the young people who live there. Young people enjoy living at the home and participate closely with staff in planning further changes and improvements. The location of the home provides young people with very good access to a broad range of local community facilities and recreational opportunities. One parent described how ‘my child is well looked after, the home is clean and tidy, they have their own room’.

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Quality of care

Young people are encouraged to eat well and to enjoy a healthy diet. They are involved directly in menu planning and food preparation. The dedicated cook at the home ensures that young people enjoy a range of healthy choices and that they regularly try different foods from a variety of cultures.

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Quality of care

To ensure that the health needs of young people are met in any emergency, the staff team are trained in first aid. The manager also closely monitors the arrangements in place to administer medication to young people. This further ensures that this is always done safely and is recorded clearly.

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Quality of care

The staff team develop and sustain very positive and constructive relationships with young people living at the home. There are a range of agreed sanctions available to staff. However, their use is rarely necessary. Young people are strongly encouraged and closely supported by the staff team to give their views and to be involved in the overall running of the home. Social care professionals, as well as parents and carers where this is possible, are also asked what they think about the service and how it might improve. Young people also receive outstanding support to maintain contact with family and friends as agreed in their care plans. One parent described how ‘staff keep me updated and my child is very happy, staff are also approachable’.

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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

The staff team working at the home is very experienced and stable. They receive training to help them protect young people from abuse and have access to agreed safeguarding procedures and guidance. The staff team use their experience and training to ensure that young people receive very good advice and support to help them understand how they can protect themselves. The parents of young people living at the home strongly agree that staff make sure that children are kept safe. When asked ‘what is good about the children’s home?’ one parent replied ‘that my child is kept safe, and while they have been living there they have been happy’. Social care professionals with links to the home also agree strongly that the staff team understand how to protect children and safeguard their welfare. They also highlight how, in their experience, the staff team work to help children understand how to protect themselves.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The manager and care staff team complete detailed care plans in partnership with placing social workers and young people themselves. These plans are completed to a high standard and very clearly identify risks and protective factors for each young person. They are monitored and reviewed very regularly. This ensures that they remain effective in helping to keep young people safe.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The staff team use the agreed procedures in place to help ensure that when young people have gone missing from the home, they have been found and kept safe as quickly as possible. There are agreed strategies in place which have worked effectively to reduce the number of absences from the home and to minimise any potential safety concerns. The staff team is trained to use physical restraint if this is ever necessary to keep young people safe. There are a range of agreed sanctions and incentives in place which the staff team use very well to promote and support the positive behaviour of young people living at the home. Overall, the relationships between the staff team and young people who live at the home are very positive.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The manager and staff team work to ensure that the home provides a safe and comfortable environment to the young people. Regular health and safety checks are completed to help minimise any risks to young people. The staff team know what to do in any emergency and they practise this with young people. Arrangements are in place to complete checks on prospective staff team members to ensure they are suitable to work with children. Young people themselves are directly involved in the processes to recruit new staff. Any visitors to the home are supervised by staff to help ensure that children are kept safe when they are present.

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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 arrangements in place to lead, manage and monitor the quality of the service provided at the home are very well organised. The manager produces reports regarding the quality of care provided to young people. They work effectively with the staff team and young people themselves to plan and implement further improvements to the service, for the benefit of the young people.

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Leadership and management

Social care professionals with links to the home believe the service provided is excellent. They also believe that improving outcomes for children is the clear priority of the manager and staff team. There is a Statement of Purpose in place which accurately describes the service provided at the home. Young people receive their own summary guide to the service which is well presented and contains some very good information.

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Leadership and management

The staff team are very experienced and well qualified. They use their experience and skills very well to help provide young people with some outstanding outcomes in their care. Additional training opportunities are planned by the manager in consultation with the staff team. This helps the service to further develop and staff members to maintain the knowledge and skills needed to care for young people successfully. The manager ensures that the staff team receive appropriate supervision and annual appraisal. They also monitor and manage the daily staffing levels at the home to further ensure that young people receive the care and support they need.

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Leadership and management

Independent monitoring visits to the home are completed regularly on behalf of the registered provider. These report in detail on all matters required. The manager reviews the contents of these reports and takes any action they identify. She consults very regularly with young people, the staff team, parents, social workers and other professionals to gather views on the effectiveness of the service and to plan further improvements to it.

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Leadership and management

There were no actions raised or recommendations made at the previous inspection visit.

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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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