Children's Home run by Keys Nhcc Ltd in Shropshire

Unique reference number SC020607 Inspection date 12/09/2013 Inspector Julian Mason Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 09/05/2013 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

The home is privately owned and provides care for up to three young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. There is also a satellite property that provides care for one further young person.

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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

Currently, only the main house is accommodating young people. The one bedroomed satellite home, which is part of the same registration and located some miles away is still operational but is currently not providing a service. The provider is in the process of registering this home separately from the main house.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people feel respected, safe and secure in the home and with the people who look after them. The staff team consistently provide a homely and comfortable environment where young people can settle and experience stability in their lives. Staff are good at ensuring they provide care and support that closely matches each young person’s assessed needs. The home is soundly managed with knowledgeable and supportive leadership for staff and young people. This results in the team having a clear focus on achieving chosen outcomes identified in young people’s plans of care. Young people's future aspirations are also well known, which helps staff provide the right support and encouragement to help each individual achieve their goals.

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Overall effectiveness

Staff are always approachable and available as they are organised to provide lots of one-to-one time for each young person. Staff are helpful and practical when young people need to learn about the life and social skills needed for independence. Young people’s views, wishes and feelings are central to how the home operates. Young people have good relationships with staff who help them improve their behaviour, safety and emotional well-being. Staff keep young people safe and advocate strongly for the services and support they need. Seven requirements were made at the last full inspection and most of these related to the operation of the satellite home a few miles away. All seven requirements have been met. Arrangements to promote and make proper provision for young people’s welfare are in place; young people can access a telephone and make and receive calls in private; physical restraint is only used in circumstances where risks to young

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Overall effectiveness

people or others are significant; routines of the home are organised to promote educational attendance and attainment; arrangements for the vetting and training of agency staff when used are in place. Finally, the physical design and layout of the home is suitable for the purpose of achieving the aims and objectives set out in the service’s Statement of Purpose.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Outcomes for young people are adequate .

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people are fully supported to improve their confidence and maintain safe relationships, which helps them boost their self-esteem and emotional well-being. Staff have created a positive home environment because young people experience individualised support that matches their personal circumstances and day-to-day arrangements. Young people are able to make positive progress as soon as they arrive at the home. This is because of the strong commitment to maintain placements through times of difficulty and challenge as well as times of success and achievement. Young people state, ‘this is my home, it feels like home, I’ve been helped so much.’

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people are supported to keep fit and healthy. Staff closely monitor each young person’s health; they ensure that each individual accesses necessary services as and when needed including routine appointments. Staff are knowledgeable and aware of long standing health conditions, as well as difficulties some young people have with seeing health professionals. Young people benefit from practical, tailored support in these circumstances, staff work patiently and sensitively to help improve everyone’s health. Young people’s emotional and psychological well-being is well- supported because they have access to in-house therapists and external professionals such as those within the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Young people are able to easily utilise these services so they can potentially benefit longer term from this form of support.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Staff provide a positive and practical approach in support of young people’s education. Some young people have completed their GCSE’s and gained a college place as part of their future plans to go to university and follow a chosen career path. Some young people have high aspirations for themselves and this is fully supported and encouraged by the staff team. Young people are enabled and motivated by the interest, focus and support they experience from living in the home. Other young people continue to struggle with the full time demands of secondary education and are currently following a much-reduced timetable. Staff promote the value and benefits of education and work with other professionals to try to improve attendance and attainment. Individual programmes are developed which aim to improve engagement and rehabilitation back to more formal educational settings.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people are supported to develop skills, knowledge and experience in preparation for leaving care and achieving independence. Staff provide hands-on coaching and support to help young people focus on their aspirations and goals as they move towards adulthood. Young people are provided with a range of opportunities, practical activities and domestic routines to help them develop their independent living skills. Staff encourage and support young people to develop friendships outside of the home as well as welcoming their friends and family into the house. Young people are fully supported to maintain contact with people in their lives who are important to them. Staff pay particular attention to what young people have to say about these arrangements in order for them to experience safe and successful contact.

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Quality of care

Staff are skilled at developing warm, caring relationships with young people based on openness, honesty and respect. Staff are very effective at helping young people deal with disappointments and setbacks, and the effect this sometimes has on their behaviour. As a result, young people are provided with a familiar and comfortable environment with clear boundaries to promote good or improving behaviour. Experienced staff provide good quality care; ensuring young people are supported in line with their plans and wishes. Young people are regularly visited by their social workers to check on their welfare, development and progress. Social workers are very positive about the outcomes being achieved and the quality of care provided stating, ‘my young person has made great progress since being in the home and it’s all down to the hard work and dedication of the staff team.’

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Quality of care

Young people's care and support is given a high priority by the staff team. There are good arrangements in place to ensure young people receive personal support and guidance when they need it. There is a very strong and effective key worker system in place. Staff in key worker roles are singled out for high praise by some young people. These circumstances ensure that issues which are important to young people can be raised and addressed by people they trust.

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Quality of care

Young people’s rights are comprehensively promoted by the team, information and help to access external advocacy services is clearly available. Young people know how to complain if they are not happy about something. Because staff are very attentive and listen to young people, resolutions to concerns or grumbles are quickly found through negotiation and compromise. Staff model the use of these skills with young people as a way of helping them develop their own social and interpersonal skills.

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Quality of care

A key factor of the home's effective support systems is the commitment to ensure everyone is well informed about each young person's changing needs. Young people are treated as individuals; each case record reflects information about their histories and backgrounds. Staff have a clear focus on enabling and supporting each young person's aims and aspirations. Staff clearly value the views and opinions of young people. They are involved in all aspects of their care and are given frequent opportunities to contribute to their own arrangements and support needs. Staff actively and formally seek the views of young people at an individual and group level and respond in a way that values their opinions. For instance, young people influence day-to-day routines and arrangements as well as being able to plan ahead for their futures. Seeking young people's opinions and helping them make decisions about matters that affect them is fully integrated into how the home operates.

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Quality of care

Young people are provided with accommodation that is furnished and equipped to achieve a pleasant and comfortable living environment. The home provides the right environment to ensure young people’s social and personal comfort is achieved. Staff ensure that the accommodation and in particular the bedrooms are decorated to a good standard and reflect young people's tastes and choices. Young people have a say in how communal areas are decorated and furnished, which helps them feel included and involved in the running of the home.

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Quality of care

There are very good arrangements in place for storing, administering, recording and monitoring young people's medication. Staff take their responsibilities seriously and received appropriate training and guidance to achieve safe and consistent practices. Staff also promote a healthy lifestyle through their encouragement and support to take part in activities and exercise. Staff provide positive messages about what constitutes good health and well-being. The arrangements for food and menu planning are good. Staff encourage young people to become fully involved in deciding what to eat for each mealtime and how to plan a balanced diet. Staff are realistic and patient with young people's attitudes towards food and they provide a consistent approach that creates opportunities for improving individual diets.

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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

The home has a good focus on safeguarding and protection matters with clear policies that are communicated effectively to promote the safety of all young people. They receive the necessary levels of support and supervision from competent well trained staff. Young people are actively encouraged to improve their awareness and understanding about how to keep themselves safe. All staff received child protection training which helps to strengthen the home's responses to any safeguarding or protection matters. Young people know that staff care about them and that their well-being is important with one social worker stating, ‘the young person is at far less risk now than previous times.’

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff create an atmosphere where bullying behaviour is not tolerated. Effective staffing and supervision levels help to ensure this happens and arrangements are clearly focused on preventing these circumstances from occurring in the first place. Staff work effectively and in partnership with other agencies and professionals to ensure safeguarding procedures are followed. This includes missing from care events although these circumstances do not occur often despite young people having significant histories of this kind of behaviour. Young people say they feel very safe in the home and with the staff who look after them.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff view young people positively and there is a relaxed and friendly atmosphere in the home. Young people are encouraged and supported to manage all their relationships positively. Staff are trained in the use of behaviour management strategies and physical interventions. Staff practice is guided by comprehensive risk assessments and behaviour management plans which effectively communicate essential information about how to help each young person with their behaviour. Physical restraint is hardly ever used. Great care and attention is taken by staff to develop supportive, individual programmes that help young people behave well. The home's records comprehensively confirm that a proportionate, balanced stance is taken to help young people manage their own behaviours successfully.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff promote young people’s protection by undertaking regular fire drills and tests of fire prevention equipment. Stringent monitoring of all matters relating to health and safety are carried out consistently including the appropriate assessment of leisure activities. Health and safety risk assessments are regularly reviewed and internal checks are consistently undertaken in order to maintain the overall safety of young people and staff. The home employs a safe recruitment procedure that ensures young people are looked after by staff that have been appropriately checked and vetted. The procedure also includes systems for checking the suitability of agency staff although none have been used for a while.

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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

A permanent Registered Manager effectively and efficiently leads and manages the home. The staff team are well established and have a wealth of experience. Consistent staffing means that young people are able to develop strong attachments and trusting relationships with the adults who look after them. A comprehensive range of information is readily available about the service, its values and operation. Young people, social workers and staff are clear about what the service is expected to achieve and the way in which care and support is to be provided.

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Leadership and management

Staff are capable, experienced and dedicated to making the home a positive and successful place to live. They receive a good range of core and supplementary training that helps them strengthen and develop their role as professional carers. Staff view young people positively and this is reflected in the relationships that young people have with them. Staff work in small shift teams but this does not prevent them from having a clear understanding of what each other does and how their work fits into the overall service being provided. This is because they meet as a team and with their supervisors on a regular basis, and receive good day-to-day support from managers and each other. These arrangements benefit young people greatly because their individual needs are effectively and consistently promoted and met. The Registered Manager has a regular cycle of quality assurance and monitoring activities that produces a detailed range of information about how well young

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Leadership and management

people’s needs are being met. This includes regular external monitoring visits as well as internal audits of key areas of the home's operation. Managers are well informed about successes as well as areas that the home needs to develop or strengthen. The Registered Manager has taken the necessary action to address the seven requirements that were made at the last full inspection, which mostly related to the operation of the one bedroomed satellite home.

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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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