Children's Home run by South Tyneside Council in South Tyneside

Unique reference number SC032697 Inspection date 26/06/2013 Inspector Stephen Graham Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 12/02/2013 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

This children's home is registered to offer care and accommodation for six children who experience 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 good .

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Overall effectiveness

The overall effectiveness of the service in meeting the needs of young people living at the home is good. Young people enjoy good outcomes in their care and receive outstanding support from the staff team to help them to achieve this. They discuss their individual care needs with staff very regularly. They enjoy well planned support and advice regarding their personal health care needs. They participate regularly in a broad range of healthy leisure activities in their local community. They receive good 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 good standard and is well presented. It provides a safe and comfortable environment to the young people who live there. The staff team gives young people good advice and support to help keep them safe. The home is well led and managed. The management arrangements work effectively to support both the outstanding quality of care provided by staff and the good outcomes achieved by young people living at the home. There are some shortfalls within some of the records in use at the home. However, these shortfalls have had no impact on the overall good quality of care that young people receive from the staff team and manager.

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Statutory Requirements

This section sets out the actions which must be taken so that the registered person/s meets the Care Standards Act 2000, Children's Homes Regulations 2001 and the National Minimum Standards. The registered person(s) must comply with the given timescales.

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure that the records specified in Schedule 4 are maintained and kept up to date. (Regulation 29 (1) Schedule 4 (1)) 16/08/2013

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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 the training records maintained at the home reflect accurately the learning and development opportunities provided to staff (NMS 18.2)  ensure that visits to the home carried out under Regulation 33 report clearly on the attempts made to consult with the parents of young people living at the home. (NMS 21.7)

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people regularly discuss the success of their individual care plans with the staff team at the home. They and the staff team also talk regularly with their placing social workers to ensure that the outcomes agreed in their care plans are achieved. Young people interact very well with the staff team and with each other. They enjoy the care they receive living at the home. One young person describes very positively the ‘family feeling’ they feel exists at the home. When asked, ‘what is good about the home’, one young person replied, ‘the support is canny’; they added, ‘if you need to talk they are always there for you’.

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Outcomes for children and young people

The staff team ensures 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 agree strongly that the needs of all the young people who live there are considered appropriately, irrespective of their age or gender. They also agree that improving outcomes for children is a clear priority for staff at the home. In response to ‘what could the home do better’, the young people spoken with replied ‘nothing’. One young person gave the view that ‘nothing’ needs to change as ‘everything runs perfect’.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people enjoy a healthy and active lifestyle. They participate regularly in a very good range of healthy activities both within the local community and beyond. They enjoy a healthy diet and are achieving some good health outcomes. Young people confirm that staff look after them ‘all the time’ if they are ever unwell. The staff team ensures that young people enjoy very good access to, and benefit from, the support available to them from appropriate specialist health care services.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people enjoy good outcomes in their education. The staff team maintains very good links with specialist education services and with local schools. They work very effectively to maintain and improve educational outcomes for young people living at the home. The staff team provides young people with very good support and practical advice to help them practise and develop their individual self-care skills. This helps young people who move on from the home to live successful, independent lives within the local community. One social care professional describes how in their experience of working with the home, ‘there is a real focus on supporting education and on developing social skills’.

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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 regularly and thoroughly by staff. They work in close partnership with young people themselves and their placing social workers 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 believe that improving outcomes for young people is the ‘clear priority’ of the manager and staff team at the home. One gives the view that, ‘the staff team is stable and has a clear vision and mission. They focus on the individual needs of each young person living at the home.’ One young person gives the view that, ‘It’s a mint home; everything is spot on.’

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Quality of care

Social care professionals describe the service provided at the home as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’. One describes how the staff team provide a ‘strong nurturing environment’. Another states that, ‘the staff team has supported the young person well.' 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 and can give their views directly to the social care professionals involved in meeting their care needs. They are also encouraged and supported to lead or ‘chair’ their meetings should they choose to. The manager and staff team members also attend the meetings and provide good information and detailed written reports regarding the progress being made by young people.

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Quality of care

The home has detailed admission procedures in place. These are used very effectively by staff to help young people coming to live at the home to settle in quickly. The manager and staff team also complete detailed individual risk assessments in partnership with placing social workers and young people themselves. These arrangements help to ensure that young people are admitted safely. A register recording the admission and discharge of each young person is also maintained at the home. However, on some occasions not all of the information required is recorded within it.

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Quality of care

The quality of the furnishings and decoration at the home is very good. Young people enjoy living at the home. It provides a very comfortable and safe environment which meets their needs. The location provides them with very good access to a broad range of local community facilities and recreational opportunities. Young people are also encouraged to eat well and to enjoy a healthy diet. They are involved directly in menu planning and food preparation. The home has a dedicated cook who works to ensure that young people can enjoy a range of healthy choices and can try different foods from a variety of cultures.

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Quality of care

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

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Quality of care

The staff team develops and sustains 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 highly encouraged and closely supported by the staff team to give their views and to be involved in the overall running of the home. One social care professional describes how the staff, ‘consider the views of young people’, in the regular meetings organised at the home. Young people also receive outstanding support to maintain contact with family and friends as agreed in their care plans. One social care professional describes how the staff team ‘promote and facilitate contact’. Another describes how ‘the staff team has worked well with the parent of the young person that I work with’.

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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 living at the home benefit from the care provided to them by a very stable team of staff, who are very experienced and committed to keeping young people safe. When asked, ‘what is good about the home’, one young person replied, ‘the staff and the support you get’. The staff team receives training to help them protect young people from abuse and has access to detailed safeguarding procedures and guidance. Staff ensure that young people receive regular advice and support to help them understand how they can protect themselves. They complete detailed care plans in partnership with placing social workers and young people themselves. These plans are completed to a good standard and identify risks and protective factors for each young person clearly. They are monitored and reviewed very regularly to ensure that they remain effective in helping to keep young people safe.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Social care professionals believe that the staff team understands how to protect children and to safeguard their welfare. One describes how the young person they work with, ‘has really benefited from the team approach employed at the home’.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The staff team uses the agreed procedures in place to help ensure that where 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 are working effectively to reduce the number of absences from the home. The staff team is trained to use physical restraint where this is ever necessary to keep young people safe. However, the use of any physical interventions at the home has rarely been necessary. There are a range of agreed incentives in place at the home. The staff team uses these very well to promote, support and celebrate the positive behaviour of young people. 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 home provides a safe and comfortable environment to the young people who live there. The manager and staff team ensure that regular health and safety checks are completed to help minimise any potential risks to young people. The staff team knows what to do in any emergency and staff practice this regularly with young people.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Arrangements are in place to complete checks on new staff team members to ensure they are suitable to work with children. Young people themselves are encouraged and supported to be 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 good .

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Leadership and management

The arrangements for the manager and senior staff to lead, manage and monitor the quality of the service provided at the home are generally well organised. The manager and senior staff regularly create 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 to the benefit of young people who live at the home.

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Leadership and management

Social care professionals with links to the home believe the service provided to the children living there is good or 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. The parents and carers of children placed at the home also receive their own summary guide to the service for their reference as needed.

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Leadership and management

The staff team overall is very experienced and well qualified. The staff use their experience and qualifications very well to provide young people with some good outcomes in their care. Additional training opportunities are planned by the manager and senior staff in consultation with the staff team. This helps the service overall to further develop and maintain the knowledge and skills needed to care for young people successfully. However, the summary records of training provided are not always kept up to date to reflect accurately the training provided. The manager ensures that the staff team receives appropriate supervision and annual appraisal. The manager also monitors and manages the daily staffing levels at the home very closely. This helps to 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. Reports are completed in very good detail. However, they do not always report fully on all of the matters recommended. The manager reviews the contents of these reports and consults regularly with young people, the staff team, social workers, other professionals and parents where possible, to gather views on the effectiveness of the service and to plan further improvements to it.

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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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