Children's Home run by Dove Adolescent Services Limited in Wakefield

Unique reference number SC060811 Inspection date 18/07/2013 Inspector Simon Morley Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 10/10/2012 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

This is a privately owned children’s home. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to two young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Young people are admitted on a planned or emergency basis.

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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

Young people receive exceptional support from an enthusiastic and committed staff team who are highly motivated to see young people develop their potential. As a result young people make excellent progress compared to their starting points on admission.

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Overall effectiveness

Thorough and resourceful management ensures young people's care is meticulously planned, creative and extremely individualised to meet all the needs of young people living in the home. Young people explore and experiment with new experiences and skills in a safe and secure environment that boosts their confidence. Staff are highly effective in facilitating this through the exceedingly warm relationships and substantial rapport they create with young people.

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Overall effectiveness

The views of young people, their families and social workers are taken very seriously. There is a very flexible approach to partnership working with an extensive focus on young people's needs and outcomes. Young people feel safe, settled and have a significant say in decisions about their care and what happens in the home.

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Overall effectiveness

The manager has developed a rigorous approach to monitoring young people's progress. There is a committed and purposeful approach to ensuring young people flourish, are happy and benefit from very high quality care.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Outcomes for young people are outstanding . Young people make exceptional progress in various aspects of their lives as a result of the support they get from staff. Stakeholders commented, 'Young people receive excellent support and have made more progress than we ever thought would happen.' Young people learn about their past, understand their background and know the reasons they are in care. As a result they develop well in their confidence, maturity, self-esteem and emotional resilience.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people's improved confidence, combined with the caring and settled environment, enables them to make significant achievements in improving their behaviour, social skills, diets, personal hygiene and in developing independence skills. In particular young people like to shop and cook a range of different meals for each other, their relatives and staff. Young people feel confident in trying new experiences that they would not previously have considered, such as different leisure activities, new foods and trying new fashions.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Since living at the home young people have vastly improved their attendance at school compared to when they first moved in. Young people move quickly back into mainstream school in line with their abilities securing much better opportunities to achieve well with their education. Where this is not possible young people make significant achievements in education programmes specifically designed to meet their individual needs.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people benefit from individualised support to maintain contact with family and friends so they can keep in touch with people important to them. This is particularly beneficial for young people who are a long way from home and have very strong attachments to their families. The committed efforts to involve young people’s parents in their care have a strong impact on the progress young people make.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people benefit from the range opportunities to: learn about healthy lifestyles; take part in physical exercise and social activities; develop friendships at school. These opportunities add to their increased confidence and their enjoyment from positively engaging with the wider community. Young people also learn and develop skills which will support and benefit their transition to adult life. Young people learn how to: open bank accounts; budget; shop; develop their self-care skills, look after their personal safety, improve their communication skills and cope with difficult situations.

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Quality of care

The quality of the care is outstanding .

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Quality of care

The manager and staff have formed exceptionally positive relationships with young people and they have high aspirations for young people's progress. Stakeholders commented, 'Young people have lots of positive stories and build up positive relationships with staff in such a short space of time.'

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Quality of care

Young people receive a high quality of care that is individualised to their needs, backgrounds and wishes. Diverse needs of young people, such as diets, health conditions, educational ability, age, gender, individual interests and independence, are flexibly promoted. Stakeholders commented, 'Staff show young people a lot of commitment and care.'

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Quality of care

Very individualised care is supported by detailed care plans that thoroughly describe young people's needs and how these are to be met. Staff understand these needs fully. They regularly review and update plans with young people to ensure their views are heard and goals reflect their progress. Young people's achievements are communicated well with parents and other professionals responsible for their welfare. Stakeholders commented, 'Staff work well to keep us informed, excellent at being kept up-to-date.'

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Quality of care

The staff team work proactively with external agencies and challenge any barriers that hinder young people from participating fully in life; this ensures their well-being is at the centre of practice. As a result young people access a range of services for their specific, individual needs, return to mainstream education or have education programmes tailored to their individual circumstances. Staff also engage parents positively, which significantly benefits young people as they have extra encouragement; for example, to improve their diets, attend health appointments and wear their glasses. Stakeholders commented, 'Staff are professional and very good at multi-agency working.'

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Quality of care

Young people have a very good say about the day-to-day running of the home and benefit from staff that are excellent at listening to their views and feelings. Staff support young people to get on well together and feel at home as much as possible. Young people live in a home which provides a very pleasant, homely, calm, atmosphere and is very well maintained and decorated. The location provides young people with easy access to local shops, community facilities and public transport.

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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

Young people feel safe at the home and staff are meticulous in promoting their welfare. Young people's individual care plans include comprehensive risk assessments, which staff are accomplished in following to keep young people safe. Staff have a full understanding of these assessments which are shared with young people to help them understand decisions made about their care. In addition staff undertake a range of one-to-one work with young people to promote their sense of safety and reduce their risk taking behaviour.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff receive a range of child protection training, particularly in issues around sexual exploitation. Staff also have effective relationships with external child protection agencies that ensures a cohesive multi-agency approach to safeguarding young people is taken. Staff are experienced and alert to the signs and risks of harm to young people and care practice in the home is exceptional. Stakeholders commented, 'Staff do a great job, excellent safeguarding strategies.' When young people have left the home, staff follow extensive, individual risk management strategies agreed with the young person, social worker and police. Staff relentlessly pursue their responsibilities to ensure young people return safely.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff work proactively with young people using clear, structured expectations about behaviour and targeted, individualised rewards based on young people's diverse needs. A new swing chair in the garden to relax on has helped stop young people wandering off. Special trips and hair and beauty products are used successfully as incentives to promote young people's safe, healthy behaviour and their well-being. Young people are included in setting goals and rewards as part of their behaviour management plans which adds to their ownership and effectiveness. Such a fruitful approach prevents the use of institutional sanctions. Physical intervention as a strategy for managing behaviour is extremely rare. Staff are fully trained if this is necessary but the positive relationships they have with young people significantly contribute to the safe, calm and settled environment.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people know how to complain but in the vast majority of cases are happy to discuss any concerns directly with staff. The one complaint made since the last inspection was used imaginatively to promote better relationships between young people in the home.

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Safeguarding children and young people

New staff are thoroughly vetted as part of a robust recruitment process to ensure young people are looked after properly by staff safe to care for them.

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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 manager is experienced and has developed a resourceful staff team that is dedicated and enthusiastic about their work. The support, supervision and training of staff are very effective. Young people benefit from staff who are motivated, competent and skilled in helping them to do well and in meeting their diverse needs. This is reflected by stakeholders' comments, 'Staff are caring and professional.' High staffing levels allow for close supervision of young people when needed to keep them safe. Young people also benefit from the opportunities these give to them to follow their individual interests, maintain family contact and attend appointments.

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Leadership and management

The extensive and rigorous monitoring of young people's progress and the quality of care is dedicated to constantly improving outcomes for young people. Central to this is a significant amount of consultation with young people, their parents and placing authorities about the care and needs of young people. This ensures young people are at the heart of what happens in the home and their views are taken very seriously.

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Leadership and management

The registered provider is improving the monitoring of the management of the home focussing more on how this contributes to young people's progress. Senior leaders play an active role in developing the service and setting high expectations for improving and providing young people with the best care possible.

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Leadership and management

There are plans in place setting out realistic and challenging targets for the future. These are based on the monitoring information about young people's individual development, which is used on a regular basis to plan for their future progress.

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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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