Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in East Riding of Yorkshire

Unique reference number SC457308 Inspection date 26/03/2013 Inspector Nicola McEvinney Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 20/02/2013 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

This privately run children's home is operated by a large national organisation. It is registered for up to five young women who may have emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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Brief description of the service

There is a flat which is attached to the main house for one young person who is working towards independence.

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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

This is the first full inspection since the home has been taken over by a large private company and re-registered in January 2013.

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Overall effectiveness

The young people have had some very difficult histories with severe trauma that they are striving to overcome. This has been made possible by the excellent, nurturing care they receive from the well-qualified and experienced staff team. The young people say, ‘the staff know what they are doing, we know that they care for us.' Social workers confirm that their young people have made exceptional progress. One social worker said, ‘this is one of our success stories’.

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Overall effectiveness

The young people feel safe and are safe. The staff team have effective links with organisations in the area that work with vulnerable young people. The trusting relationships the young people have with the staff team enable frank and open discussions between them, which further promotes their safety.

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Overall effectiveness

The young people are central to all aspects of the running of the home and feel listened to. Some are involved in the Regulation 33 visits, which help to ensure that young people’s views are heard.

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Overall effectiveness

There are robust monitoring systems in place to ensure that the home complies with regulation. The staff are energetic and continually strive to improve the outcomes for the young people. Where appropriate they support young people successfully to challenge decisions that are not in their best interests. There were no requirements or recommendations made at this inspection.

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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 have made exceptional progress since coming to live at this home. The majority have had traumatic and disturbing histories. Through the enthusiastic support and nurturing approach provided by the very experienced and competent staff team, young people flourish and evolve into confident young women, enabling them to participate in all aspects of their lives.

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Outcomes for children and young people

The young people benefit immensely from excellent attendance at their education placements. This is a major improvement, as prior to admission, some individuals had a long history of non-school attendance. These individuals are now accomplishing well and they have aspirations to enter higher education. This aim that was never apparent before the young people came to live here.

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Outcomes for children and young people

All the young people enjoy good health; staff support them by ensuring they eat healthy and nutritious meals. They are supported to access dentists to ensure that any necessary orthodontic work is carried out. Staff challenge the long-term medication some individuals have been prescribed, by requesting medication reviews. This is good practice, as it reduces dependency on some medications.

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Outcomes for children and young people

The young people respond positively to the ethos of the home where they are confident that they are valued and encouraged. None of them now engages in risk taking or offending behaviours. This ensures that the young people have greatly improved life opportunities.

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Outcomes for children and young people

The young people have a clear commitment to their home, they all help with routine housework, taking pride in the home’s appearance. They make good use of local facilities; for example, the local sports centre. Some individuals are involved in the Regulation 33 monitoring visits and visit other children’s homes within the company to gain their views on how they feel that they are being cared for. This is an example of how young people’s contribution is valued, building their self-esteem and confidence.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people benefit from having their contact arrangements set out clearly in their care plans. Staff are proactive in supporting them in ensuring appropriate contact takes place by facilitating it in whichever way is necessary. For example, staff liaise directly with significant people in order to arrange the contact, which reduces delay and ensures that contact is arranged.

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Outcomes for children and young people

The young people benefit from learning skills to enable them to make a successful transition to adulthood. Not only do they learn a range of age appropriate self-help skills, for example, shopping and preparing meals, laundry and household chores, but they are also supported emotionally to make that transfer to independent living. This is helped by having a flat attached to the home, into which older young women can move, but still have support from the main house whenever they need it. These individuals spoke positively about this arrangement, ‘I could never have imagined that I could move into anywhere on my own, but living here I know I will be able to do it.' As part of their preparation for adulthood and citizenship, the home aims to ensure that each of the young people has a passport and a full driving licence.

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Quality of care

The quality of the care is outstanding .

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Quality of care

The young people enjoy warm relationships with one another, saying 'it’s like a family here, we are all very close; if anyone has a problem, we share it.' They speak highly of the staff team, who they consider are genuinely always there for them. In turn staff speak proudly of the young people’s achievements. Independent reviewing officers commend the patience and understanding the staff team have for young people and consider that they have created a safe place where they thrive.

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Quality of care

The staff have exceeding high aspirations for each of the young people and ensure that they challenge any barriers that may prevent them from reaching their potential. All are well supported with their education; staff have a clear understanding of their level of attainment and attend parents’ evenings. Staff are excellent advocates and ensure that plans made are in the young people’s best interests. Social workers consider that the progress that their children have made has been remarkable. They have been impressed by the young people’s ability to turn their life around and consider that this has been the result of the dedicated support they have received from the staff team.

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Quality of care

The young people are central to all aspects of practice within the home. The home revolves around their needs and routines ensuring that at all times staff are accessible. For example, a young person waited for a visitor to arrive all day and still needed to do her shopping, only to find that the visitor cancelled late in the day. Staff offered the young person the chance to be taken shopping. This demonstrates the thoughtfulness of the staff and made the young person concerned feel that her time was valuable. There are regular house meetings, which are chaired and minuted by young people. They feel their views are taken into account in all areas of how the home operates. Where young people’s wishes and feelings are in conflict with the local authorities plans they are supported to access children’s rights organisations, including the Children’s Rights Director to ensure that they are listened to. For those

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Quality of care

young people who are reluctant to attend their statutory childcare reviews, an advocate is made available who seeks out their views and feeds back promptly following the meeting. Some individuals have been invited to speak to members of parliament to discuss the impact of being placed outside their local authority area. Their contributions have been highly valued and have been asked to write an article on this topic.

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Quality of care

The young people are confident in the complaints procedure. Although no one has made any representation about issues within the home, they are sure that they would be listened to.

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Quality of care

Individual care plans are in excellent detail, setting out the holistic needs of each of the young people, with guidance in place to ensure that these needs are met. Statutory child care reviews are held as appropriate and the young people are encouraged to be full participants at these meetings. Detailed reports are produced for the review outlining the young person’s progress with contemporaneous notes taken to ensure that decisions taken may be promptly implemented.

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Quality of care

The young people benefit from accessing a range of services to help meet their very complex needs. For example, the company psychologist regularly attends the home to meet with some of the young people to support them in addressing past traumas experienced; the child and adolescent mental health service also supports some individuals on these issues. Alcohol and substance misuse services helps some of the young people; sexual health workers offers advice and support; organisations involved in supporting young people to keep themselves safe are accessed. Psychologists also meet with the staff team to enable them to offer guidance and support to ensure that they are equipped to manage the young people’s behaviours and emotions.

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Quality of care

The young people enjoy participating in a range of activities; many of these are with staff that are equally exuberant about taking part. They go to the cinema, theatre, local museums and other visitor attractions, open farms and parks. They celebrated Chinese New Year at a local Chinese restaurant and enjoy eating at other restaurants. They also love to have cosy nights in watching DVDs and they enjoy pamper nights.

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Quality of care

Needs relating to ethnicity, sexuality and religion are fully explored to ensure that the young people are confident with their personal identity.

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Quality of care

The young people benefit from living in a comfortable, well-presented home situated on the outskirts of a large village within easy access to the city. All areas of the home are pleasantly decorated and furnished, providing a homely environment.

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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 young people feel safe and are safe living at this home. The extremely trusting relationships that they have built up with the staff team have enabled some of the young people to disclose situations and individuals behaviours that they know are not appropriate. There are excellent links with organisations and agencies working to protect vulnerable young people, ensuring that all concerns are raised and effective action is taken to protect them.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Despite some of the young people having a history of going missing, this behaviour is not currently in evidence. There are individual detailed protocols in place. These give clear guidance to staff on what action they should take in the event of a young person failing to return to the home when expected.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The young people are clear about what is expected of them when they go out. They recognise that these measures are taken because they know staff care about them and want them to be safe at all times. For example, they maintain telephone contact with the home while away and they let staff know their whereabouts.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The young people benefit from having detailed behaviour management plans and individual crisis management plans. These identify potential triggers to crisis situations and there is good guidance in place to manage these occurrences. There is mutual respect, which creates an environment where the need for sanctions is minimised. However, staff are vigilant in challenging anti-social behaviour, for example swearing; the young people respond positively to this.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people are protected by having robust individual risk assessments in place. These identify potential threats to their safety with clear guidance on how the risk can be minimised. However, it is recognised that some of the young people are of an age where they may take some risks; they discuss these openly with the staff who support them to make good decisions.

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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

This is an exceptionally well managed home. The Registered Manager leads a team of highly motivated, well trained staff who are enthusiastic in providing high quality care for the young people.

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Leadership and management

There are robust monitoring systems in place to ensure that the home operates in line with the national minimum standards and the Children’s Homes Regulations. An innovative approach is to include young people in the Regulations 33 visits. Not only does this help build young people’s confidence, it also ensures that young people’s views are sought.

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Leadership and management

This is the first full inspection since the home has re-registered. There were no requirements or recommendations made at the last inspection under the old registration. However, the home continues to strive to improve the service to ensure that young people maximise their potential in all areas of their lives. In particular, the home builds up their emotional resilience, enabling them to move towards adulthood as confident young women. The annual development plan, which is monitored monthly sets out targets in how improvements can be made to enhance the quality of the service.

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Leadership and management

The Registered Manager has identified a gender imbalance in the staff team. She is seeking ways in which this can be addressed. For example, she uses male members of staff from other homes to cover an occasional shift. However, all the young women have good male role models in other aspects of their lives, for example at school, college or their social workers.

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Leadership and management

There is a detailed Statement of Purpose in place, clearly reflecting what the home has to offer. The home also produces a Statement of Purpose for the young people. This enables them to understand what they can expect from living at the home. This document also contains a brief profile with a photograph and introduction for each member of staff.

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Leadership and management

Social workers consider that the progress made by their young people is remarkable, saying ‘she has really turned her life around, this has happened because of the excellent support given by the staff team.' Without exception, all the young people have made exceptional progress, ensuring improved life chances.

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Leadership and management

There are sufficient numbers of staff employed in the home. All are appropriately qualified, with some having social work qualifications. One member of staff is enrolled on a degree course. There are good training opportunities to ensure that the team keeps abreast of current practice.

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Leadership and management

The young people’s case records are in meticulous detail, reflecting their history and recording day-to-day events. This will ensure that they will have a clear understanding of their life’s events if they should ever need to seek this information in the future.

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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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