Children's Home run by Stockton Borough Council in Stockton-on-Tees

Unique reference number SC442886 Inspection date 16/07/2013 Inspector Steve Pearson Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 13/12/2012 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 care for up to four young people with emotional or behavioural difficulties. The registered provider is a 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

This is a well-run children's home and young people make good progress as a result of excellent care.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people say they feel safe and that there is no bullying; they all give very positive feedback about the support provided by staff and about the quality of care. Young people are friendly and cooperative. The home operates an incentive scheme that successfully supports young people to behave positively.

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Overall effectiveness

The staff are knowledgeable and benefit from a well-structured and comprehensive training programme. The Registered Manager operates an effective supervision and annual appraisal system; this incorporates the views of young people.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people make good progress in important aspects such as education, health and relationships with their family and friends.

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Overall effectiveness

As a result of the current inspection two requirements and one recommendation are made. There are some minor maintenance concerns, Ofsted is not always informed of significant events requiring notification, and external monitoring is not sufficiently robust because it does not fully evaluate young people's progress in education.

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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) notify Ofsted if any of the relevant events listed in column 1 of the table in Schedule 5 takes place. In particular this relates to when the police are called because there are significant concerns that a young person has been missing for a significant period of time (Regulation 30) 16/07/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure all parts of the children's home are reasonably maintained. In particular with regard to the excess heat in one of the young people's bedrooms and the broken toilet roll holder in the young people's bathroom. (Regulation 31 (2)(e)) 30/07/2013

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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 the external monthly visitor scrutinises how the home is supporting children to achieve, in particular evaluate and report on young people's attendance and achievement at school. (Volume 5, statutory guidance, para 3.12)

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people gain confidence and self-esteem because the staff provide a level of care similar to that which effective parents would provide. For example, younger children have been enabled to walk to school with their friends, to ride a bicycle independently and to stay overnight at their friends' houses. Their friends can stay overnight at the children's home also. One young person summed this up saying, 'I'm glad I can stay at my friend's house and they can stay here as well.'

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people make good progress in important areas such as health, behaviour, education and family contact. Young people say, 'I'm doing better in school now than I was before I came to live here.' Another said, 'I used to kick off if someone said 'no' but I don't do that now.'

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Outcomes for children and young people

All young people have 100% school attendance and some are awaiting the results of end of school exams. Good progress has been made in achieving post-school placements at colleges. Young people benefit from a range of activities. One young person summed this up by saying, 'I like the different activities we do here and we go on holidays to a caravan and we have just got back from a weekend in London.'

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people also gain important skills in self-care including cooking, budgeting money, laundry and self-care skills.

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Quality of care

The quality of the care is outstanding .

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Quality of care

The Registered Manager and staff provide a quality of care that is excellent. They actively seek young people's views about the running of the home and about their own personal care plans. For example, the staff hold a young people's meeting every two to four weeks. They seek young people's views about important matters and ensure that actions from previous meetings have been completed. This helps young people feel they have a real ‘voice’ and helps them feel respected and valued.

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Quality of care

Young people behave extremely well and the staff team are effective in promoting good behaviour. They focus on rewarding positive behaviour and this has resulted in real changes. Young people respect the staff and appreciate what they do for them. This was summed up by one young person who said, 'I like the staff and they treat us like we were their own kids.' Another said, 'The staff listen to us and are always there to support us.'

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Quality of care

Young people receive a lot of support to be healthy. They say, 'The staff make sure we get to see the doctor and dentist and optician.' One of the staff has special responsibility for promotion of health and there are effective working relationships with agencies providing expertise in the promotion of sexual and emotional health. The staff also ensure young people eat a healthy diet and take regular exercise.

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Quality of care

Young people gain social and physical benefits from being able to take part in a wide range of activities in the community. For example, one said, 'The staff know what my interests are and have helped me to be involved in them.' Another young person said, 'I like the activities and we get to go to all sorts of places like trips and holidays in caravans and we’ve just come back from two nights in London.'

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Quality of care

The home is very effective in promoting education. The staff are proactive in working with schools on a structured daily basis in order to facilitate positive outcomes. They are very successful in enabling younger children to make the transition from junior to senior school. They support young people with their homework and support them to improve skills in numeracy, reading and writing. In their surveys, all young people said that the staff support them to attend and achieve in education all the time.

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Quality of care

The home is very clean, homely and generally well-maintained. All young people spoken with said, 'I like my bedroom'. Bedrooms are personalised to reflect the personal choices of each young person. Residential placement plans are clear, comprehensive and up-to-date. This helps all the staff to be clear about the needs of the individual children and about their role in meeting such needs. Each young person has two key workers and this enables a more personalised and one-to-one approach. Each young person's key worker fully evaluates and reports on their progress at the end of every month. This enables the young person, their family, social worker and others to be clear about how each young person is developing in important areas such as education, health and behaviour.

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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 feel safe and are safe. The staff are knowledgeable about child protection procedures and receive regular training in promoting safe care. The home uses effective risk assessment procedures which are proportionate and enable young people to take age-appropriate decisions and responsibility.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The home is effective in using a reward-based scheme to encourage positive behaviour. This has had significant benefits and young people respond to it well. Young people behave very sociably and the use of restraint is very rare. The staff do issue sanctions for occasional unacceptable behaviour and these are fair and recorded appropriately. Young people's comments about such sanctions are also recorded and the Registered Manager assesses each one to ensure it is fair and proportionate. There has been no use of restraint since the previous inspection. When asked if there was any bullying in the home young people said, 'No way, we don't have bullying and the staff wouldn't allow it.' Young people very rarely go missing and an up-to-date procedure is in place should this happen. The staff record any such incidents thoroughly and clearly.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The premises are safe. Professional technicians regularly service the electrical equipment, gas appliances and equipment for preventing, detecting and extinguishing fires. Appropriate recruitment arrangements are also in place which help to ensure that staff employed to work with children are suitable.

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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

At the previous inspection one recommendation was made and the home judged to be making good progress. The recommendation has now been addressed because the external visitor now evaluates any occasions when a young person goes missing.

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Leadership and management

The home is generally maintained to a high standard both internally and externally. However one bedroom is too warm in the summertime because the radiator continues to emit some heat. Technicians have assessed the fault but the problem remains. Another minor shortfall is that the toilet roll holder in a bathroom is missing. The home has a clearly defined written Statement of Purpose which is updated annually. Young people also receive a children's guide when they are first admitted to the home. This is very informative and is written in a format which is easy to understand.

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Leadership and management

The home is managed effectively and the staff feel supported by the Registered Manager and the deputy manager. They clearly demonstrate the impact that the home is having on improving outcomes for young people.

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Leadership and management

The Registered Manager has recently become fully qualified to level five in social care and management. The deputy is currently studying for the same qualification. The majority of the residential staff are also fully qualified to level three in caring for young people and the unqualified staff are close to completing their studies. A well- structured and comprehensive training scheme is in place for all the staff. This enables the staff to gain specialist knowledge and skills associated with the residential care of young people.

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Leadership and management

The home is adequately resourced and a clear annual development plan describes the purpose, resources and targets for each calendar year.

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Leadership and management

The Registered Manager is effective in their monitoring of the quality of care provided. They do this formally at the end of each month, identifying any issues of concern and recording actions to be taken to address them. Such actions are then re-assessed to ensure completion by the following month.

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Leadership and management

In accordance with legislation, an external person also visits the home once a month to assess the quality of care. This monitoring is generally acceptable although the evaluation of young people's attendance and achievement in education is not sufficiently comprehensive.

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Leadership and management

Significant events requiring notification to Ofsted are rare because young people's behaviour is very positive. However, the reporting procedure is not fully robust. On the rare occasions when a young person may go missing for a significant period of time, Ofsted are not always informed. This makes it difficult for the regulator to monitor such concerns effectively.

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Leadership and management

Records about the running of the home and about individual young people re clear, up to date and provide for full accountability. The Registered Manager tries to ensure all recording duties are carried out during school time so that the staff can spend as much time with young people as possible.

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Leadership and management

The home is fully staffed by a permanent team of staff and some temporary relief as necessary. Young people said, 'we know all the staff and there are always enough staff on duty.'

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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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