Children's Home run by PIC Children’s Services in St Helens

Unique reference number SC022442 Inspection date 11/06/2013 Inspector Marian Denny / Paul Gillespie Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 19/02/2013 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

The home is run by a private organisation and provides care and accommodation for one young person with emotional or behavioural difficulties.

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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

Young people living in this home are currently achieving excellent outcomes, socially and emotionally. This is underpinned by the high quality of care linked to the effective and safe working practices adopted by the home.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people greatly benefit from stable, long-term placements, allowing areas of need to be identified and addressed. Strong relationships between staff and young people, together with clear, consistent boundaries provide young people with a solid foundation that allows them to develop. Young people comment that, ‘Staff have been a great help to me and I have gradually changed and my behaviour has improved.' Young people have made some real progress in re-establishing positive connections with family. This has been facilitated by the sensitive and proactive approaches of the manager and staff. Young people have been extremely well supported to understand their personal histories, which has resulted in them growing in confidence and developing socially and emotionally.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people understand the boundaries in place and are generally accepting of them. They recognise them as fair and see that they are there to promote their best interests. Personalised plans and strategies to meet individual needs and promote young people’s independence are regularly reviewed so that they are up-to-date and reflect their current progress. The home works collaboratively with other relevant stakeholders to ensure young people's needs are met.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people’s behaviour is well managed by a committed staff team that has the knowledge and ability to initiate safe working practices. They work proactively to keep young people safe, whilst continuing to promote and encourage young people towards more appropriate decision making as they grow and mature. As a result, young people's welfare is promoted positively in an environment, where staff work alongside external agencies to keep them safe.

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Overall effectiveness

The home is very well managed with clear and effective leadership. The manager is well supported by a core staff group who deliver a consistency of care that is appreciated by young people. The strengths and weaknesses of the home are recognised and there are suitable plans in place to move the home forward in the quest for continued development.

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Overall effectiveness

This inspection has not raised any major areas of concern, although four areas for further development have been identified with regard to improving the degree of evaluation in the Regulation 33 reports: submitting the Regulation 34 reports twice a year; improving some aspects of building maintenance and ensuring staff rotas have time scheduled in to ensure handovers are held. These do not have a direct impact on the welfare of 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

 ensure the home provides a comfortable and homely environment and is well maintained and decorated, including the immediate outdoor space (NMS 10.3)  ensure staff rotas have time scheduled to ensure handovers are held (NMS 17.6)  Ensure the analysis and evaluation in the Regulation 33 reports includes the views of others such as parents and relatives (NMS 21)  ensure that Regulation 34 reports are completed at six monthly intervals and a copy of every report should be sent to HMCI within twenty eight days of completion. (Volume 5, paragraph 3.14)

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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 benefit from a child focused environment provided by a very caring and committed staff team. This results in young people making excellent progress in the home. Emotional resilience through regular discussions in one-to-one sessions with staff and young people's meetings develop. This results in young people's self- esteem, confidence and relationships with staff greatly improving. Young people enjoy very good relationships with staff and get on well with them. They feel that they are listened to and are safe and secure.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people gain a good understanding of the reasons why they are in care. This enables them to gradually make progress in all aspects of their development. Young people feel more positive, are able to engage with staff and other professionals constructively and are more willing to accept the help that is available. For example, their educational attendance improves; they progress in their learning and gain qualifications. Staff praise and celebrate young people’s individual achievements which also builds young people’s feelings of self-worth and confidence. One placing social worker said, 'The young person is the most settled that they have ever been since being in care.’

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people's wishes and feelings are actively sought. This takes place through general discussions, young people meetings and through individual one-to-one sessions. Staff members routinely consult young people on all aspects of their care including care planning, changes in the home for example; menus, education, family contact and activities. Consequently, a young person stated that they felt fully involved in the running of the home.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Staff actively promote a healthy lifestyle, encouraging and supporting young people to take responsibility for their personal care and to enjoy healthy diets and physical exercise. They have very good access to a full range of health services, and receive helpful support and information about specific health problems. This enables them to understand the importance of healthy lifestyles and key health risks. For example, one young person has begun to recognise the dangers of smoking and with support of staff and other health professionals is working hard to stop smoking. Staff also encourage young people to become involved in activities within the local community. For example, dance exercise classes, walking, shopping, accessing a local beauty salon and going out for meals. This helps young people to participate in physical activities, develop interests, skills and enhances their confidence.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people benefit from appropriate and very well-managed contact with their family and other important people in their lives. This has, in some cases, resulted in young people successfully returning home.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people are effectively prepared for adult life and moving into their own accommodation or returning home. Young people are routinely given the opportunity to develop their skills in managing money, shopping, planning, cooking meals and doing their laundry. They also play a central role in deciding about their future, with staff helping them to explore their options and to consider what they would like to do in the future.

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Quality of care

Staff provide a very nurturing environment for the young people living in the home. They develop and maintain extremely positive and constructive relationships with them. Staff know the young people very well and constantly assess their progress through a variety of means, such as daily handovers, supervision and one-to-one sessions. Staffs detailed knowledge of the young people ensures they receive very good individual support and guidance.

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Quality of care

Young people respond well to the consistently good standard of care provided. Staff have high aspirations for all young people and are proud of how well young people are doing. Staff are fully committed to enabling young people to lead happy and fulfilling lives. They create an environment, where young people feel cared for and able to accept advice and guidance. There are a range of agreed sanctions available to staff. However, for some time their use has not been necessary.

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Quality of care

The well-being of young people is always at the centre of staff’s practice. This includes listening to young people’s wishes and feelings regarding every aspect of their lives. They take young people’s views seriously and ensure that they are fully taken into account. Social care professionals are also asked what they think about the service and how it might improve and any ideas always implemented.

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Quality of care

Staff use excellent communication and interpersonal skills to develop positive relationships with young people. Young people feel staff are interested in their welfare and stated, ‘Every one is friendly, they care about you.' They also said that they have, ‘Been much happier since coming to live at the home.’ They are able to talk to staff about their ‘worries and difficulties’ and have a trusting relationship with staff.

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Quality of care

Young people also receive very good support to maintain contact with family and friends, as agreed in their care plans. Staff work hard to develop good communication and relationships with young people’s families. They also do their utmost to ensure the young person’s contact with their families is a safe, positive and enjoyable experience. This means young people have an opportunity to maintain or re-establish relationships with people who are important to them. Family members state, ‘Staff are excellent, they keep me informed.' ‘We work together and they will do anything to support our contact.' ‘Things are going so well now’ and they are ‘coming home’. Social care professionals also confirm this and state, 'They go the extra mile’ and, ‘Work consistently and supportively to build the young person’s relationship with their family’.

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Quality of care

Individual risk assessments are completed by the staff team, in partnership with placing social workers and the young people themselves. These arrangements help to ensure that young people are admitted safely. Similarly, individual placement plans are developed in the home to show how young people's needs are to be met and to ensure consistency of care. These plans are up-to-date, comprehensive and are used by staff on a daily basis. Young people contribute to their placement plan and state they are fully involved in all aspects of their care. Staff also work in close partnership with placing social workers, so that the young person’s needs are fully known and effectively met. Social care professionals state that there is, ‘Very good communication between us’ and, ‘We work well together.' They also state that staff have been instrumental in helping the young person to ‘develop and mature’.

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Quality of care

Staff clearly view young people’s education and learning as very important and fully encourage young people to engage in education. They have built up several links within the community so young people are able to access a range of educational opportunities. Staff contact these agencies quickly when young people are not receiving education which ensures young people are not out of education for long periods. Staff fully support young people to develop their knowledge and skills, to pursue their talents and gain qualifications. For example, they attend all meetings; take young people to and from school and support out of school activities. They also celebrate young people’s achievements and retain all documents, reports and certificates for them. Young people’s accomplishment to-date, clearly demonstrates the commitment and effort of a focussed and child-centred staff team.

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Quality of care

Regular meetings are held to review the effectiveness of young people’s care plans. Staff provide detailed written reports regarding a young person’s progress. This qualitative information ensures good, effective care planning takes place and appropriate plans made to meet the young person’s needs. Young people are encouraged and supported to attend all reviews and to make their views known. This ensures that they are involved in and influence any decisions that are made about their future.

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Quality of care

Young people are informed about how they can make a complaint on their admission to the home. Details about how to complain are also in the young people’s guide and on a notice board in the home. Procedures for managing complaints ensure they are handled in an objective manner and investigated by the manager or an external nominated person. No complaints have been recorded since the home's last inspection. Staff enjoy positive relationships with the young people in the home, their views are valued and young people feel confident to raise matters.

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Quality of care

Young people enjoy living at the home. The home is comfortable and has a homely atmosphere. Overall, the quality of the furnishing and decoration at the home is good. However, there are some areas in need of attention, such as the paint on the garden wall. There is also a potentiality of young people’s health and safety being compromised by avoidable hazards outside the home. For example, there were some tiles missing on the doorstep to the back door. The location of the home provides young people with access to a broad range of local community facilities and recreational opportunities.

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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 confirm that they feel safe and that the home is a safe place to live. The arrangements in place to safeguard and protect young people are very good. There are positive links in place with external agencies, who report very good levels of communication along with collaborative and cohesive working practices between themselves and the home.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff work proactively to reduce risk and they understand their responsibilities and duties in promoting young people's welfare. Individual knowledge of young people's needs, underpinned by effective links with placing social workers, provides a sound mechanism for responding to young people's changing needs for safety and protection. Staff have undertaken a lot of work in this area to develop young people's understanding about how to protect and keep themselves safe. Thorough risk assessments are in place that identify risk and the action taken to minimise them. This ensures staff are clear about how best to support young people and enables young people to learn how to safely manage risk at home and in the community. For example, young people were able to identify a recent concern they had outside of the home. They felt confident to share their concerns with staff so that appropriate action could be taken. This demonstrated young people’s increasing

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Safeguarding children and young people

maturity which is based on the positive relationships with staff and an increasing understanding of risk.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people say that bullying is not an area for concern and confirm that they would bring any concerns to staff’s attention. This gives young people a feeling of security and general safety.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff are focused and work hard to stop young people from going missing. Close links and good working practices have been developed with families and the police missing from home co-ordinator. This ensures staff know how to respond appropriately to any instances when there maybe unauthorised absence. As a result, the number of incidents of young people missing is negligible and has significantly reduced since initial placement.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The ethos and culture of the home is to work through challenges and difficulties, positively rather than punitively. Consequently, there have been no sanctions issued to young people. Young people feel staff are fair and recognise they are rewarded for good behaviour. Staff are clear that physical intervention is not used at this setting. Young people’s individual strategies are kept under review and adapted as required. Consequently, behaviour management incidents are rare and are safely managed.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Appropriate recruitment policies and practice are in place to ensure that staff are suitably cleared prior to taking up their posts. This ensures that only suitably checked people have contact with young people.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people are protected through a range of risk assessments identifying hazards in and away from the home. They participate in regular fire drills and can safely exit the home if needed. Safety checks to maintain a safe environment are regularly undertaken. Carefully constructed and thought out individual risk assessments, coupled with coping strategies, promote a safe environment for young people. Individual strategies are updated in light of reviews of young people’s risks and progress.

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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 Registered Manager of the home provides clear, authoritative leadership and has extensive experience in this area of work. The manager currently manages three single placement homes. At present this arrangement does not adversely impact on either home as they are in close proximity.

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Leadership and management

The home’s organisation and general management are of a good standard. The manager is very well supported by a staff team that is fully committed to the ethos, aims and working practices developed in the home. They understand their role and responsibilities and work with the support of the manager to address young people’s needs positively.

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Leadership and management

Staff confirm that they receive excellent support from the home’s manager, receiving regular supervision and appraisal. This helps to improve their knowledge and working practices. There is a positive commitment to professional development, with staff regularly updating their core training to refresh their knowledge and understanding. This ensures they possess the competences and skills to meet young people’s diverse needs effectively. Staff meetings take place regularly and rotas demonstrate a consistent core group of staff look after young people. However at present staff either have to remain behind or come in early to ensure handovers are held as there is no specific time scheduled in the rota.

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Leadership and management

Both the internal and external monitoring of the home is taking place regularly. Reports appropriately review performance and identify areas for improvement. Young people contribute to monitoring and can discuss their views, although the reporting would be enhanced by regularly securing the views of parents or relatives about the standard of care provided at the home. The manager demonstrates a thorough understanding of the strengths of the home and areas in need of improvement. They undertake monthly monitoring of records although they need to submit a copy of their monitoring to Ofsted. Overall there are good arrangements for the management of the home with a sound plan in place identifying areas for future development.

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Leadership and management

The home has a good record of compliance and there were no requirements or recommendations carried over from the previous inspection.

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Leadership and management

Young people live in an environment where their needs are clearly identified, with suitable plans and strategies in place to meet them. They are looked after by an enthusiastic staff team that demonstrates a genuine desire and commitment to improve young people's outcomes so that they can understand and prepare them for transition into adult life. As a result, young people are re-introduced to a more age- appropriate lifestyle from the one they experienced previously. As they settle in the home and progress, they form more socially acceptable views of life, which are reflected in their plans and aspirations for 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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