Children's Home run by Pebbles Care Limited in Leeds

Unique reference number SC417795 Inspection date 16/09/2013 Inspector Nicola McEvinney Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 16/01/2013 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 owned and managed by a private company. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for no more than four young people who have emotional and/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 adequate .

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Overall effectiveness

Outcomes for young people are variable. Most young people have responded positively to the care and support provided and have made good progress in learning to manage their behaviour. However some young people have been more difficult to engage and continue to involve themselves in risky activity which has the potential to compromise their life opportunities. Even so all young people feel well cared for and enjoy positive relationships with staff.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people benefit from having individualised care plans clearly setting out their needs.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people feel safe and are safe. There are now no incidences of young people going missing.

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Overall effectiveness

The Registered Manager is aware of the strengths of the home and builds on the skills of the staff team to enhance the young people’s care experience. Leaders and managers have acknowledged the shortfalls identified during this inspection and are committed to addressing them.

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Overall effectiveness

These shortfalls relate to: young people’s diet; ensuring that they have the necessary skills to live independently; ensuring complaints are recorded and managed effectively; ensuring Ofsted is notified of all significant events; ensuring that there are effective protocols with the police in the event of a young person going missing; and ensuring leaders are aware of all the relevant legislation and the home’s policies and procedures.

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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 young people are provided with food which is wholesome and nutritious. In particular staff need to re-double their efforts to try to ensure that all young people eat healthily. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(ii)) 01/12/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure that a written record is made of any complaint, the action taken in response, and the outcome of the investigation; AND ensure that no person who is the subject of a complaint takes any part in its consideration (Regulation 24 (5) and Regulation 24 (2)(b)) 01/12/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure Ofsted is notified of any serious complaint about the home or persons working there. (Regulation 30 (1) Schedule 5 column 2 of the table) 01/11/2013

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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 young people prepare for the world of work and/or further or higher education, develop practical skills and develop financial capability, and knowledge and skills to enable them to make a successful transition to adulthood (NMS 12.1 c. e. and f)  ensure the home’s missing from care procedures are compatible with and have regard to Runaway and Missing from Home and Care (RMFHC) protocols and procedures maintained and managed by the police for the area where the home is located (NMS 5.6)  ensure the registered provider and registered manager of the home have good knowledge and experience of law and practice relating to looked after children. (NMS 14.1 a.)

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Outcomes for children and young people

Outcomes for young people are adequate . The majority of young people benefit from the stability provided which has enabled them to form attachments with staff and help them to develop their self-esteem. However, for some older young people negative influences, external to the home, continue to have a significant impact on them in a way that has the potential to limit their life opportunities and result in poor outcomes.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people benefit from having their general health needs addressed. For example, by accessing orthodontic treatment which previously had been neglected. All young people have detailed health care plans, outlining their health needs. However some health care plans had not been updated to reflect the young person’s current health care needs and this, allied to the fact that health care plans are recorded separately from placements plans, could lead to confusion.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Most young people benefit from the balanced and nutritious meals provided by the home but some young people resist staff’s efforts to encourage them to eat healthily preferring to eat ‘junk food’. In their case the lack of a healthy diet has the potential to have a negative impact on their health and well-being.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people’s views are respected, they feel listened to and they have a say in how they wish their care to be progressed. This promotes their well-being.

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Outcomes for children and young people

The majority of young people benefit from having an educational placement. While some are excellent attendees others, whose attendance is good arrive late. This is still a significant improvement given that prior to their admission to the home they were not attending education. However, regardless of their improved attendance, these individuals are still not achieving at school. The home is vigilant in working closely with school to encourage attainment; for example, by accessing private tuition to promote their learning and identifying alternative educational experiences.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Some young people who are above school leaving age are not in education or training despite staff’s best efforts to identify a suitable provision with which they will engage. This impacts negatively on their life prospects.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people enjoy having contact with significant family members. Staff are proactive in facilitating this contact. Social workers speak highly of the efforts of staff who work closely with some parents to build upon their relationship with their child. This promotes young people’s well-being.

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Outcomes for children and young people

All young people are given the opportunity to develop their independence skills and are encouraged and supported by staff to do so. However, some individuals do not spend enough time in the home to take advantage of this opportunity. This compromises their ability to make a successful transition to independence. Other individuals will require support when they reach adulthood. These young people have independence plans tailored to meet their capabilities and designed to enhance their life experiences and promote their independence.

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Quality of care

Young people benefit from being cared for by a stable staff team who are committed to them and offer a good level of care. Young people say, ‘staff are awesome, you can talk to them always; there is always someone to talk to’.

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Quality of care

Young people benefit from having individual behaviour management plans in place. These identify triggers to behaviours with guidance in place to help manage difficult episodes. This ensures a consistent approach is maintained.

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Quality of care

Young people benefit from having their views heard. For example, issues young people wish to raise are added to the staff meeting agenda and this is fed back to the young people’s meeting. The organisation has a young people’s council where they can raise issues on a bigger scale and have input in the way the organisation operates. This promotes young people’s self-esteem and well-being.

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Quality of care

Occasionally young people are unable to have their wishes realised. However, they learn to negotiate and become aware of what is expected of them in order to achieve these wishes. This promotes social responsibility. Young people are secure in the knowledge that their complaints are taken seriously.

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Quality of care

Young people benefit from having their individual needs set out in their care plan with guidance in place demonstrating how these needs are to be met. They are fully consulted about their plans and are encouraged to participate in their statutory child care reviews. There is good communication with the social work teams who work closely with the home to develop transition plans for those young people who will require on-going support.

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Quality of care

Young people benefit from the proactive approach from staff to ensure young people are provided with appropriate education. Effective links with education colleagues support some young people to access education that they will engage with. This improves young people’s life chances.

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Quality of care

Young people benefit from accessing a number of services to help meet their diverse needs. For example, an organisation that works with young people who go missing undertakes safe and well checks on their return. This organisation also works with young people on keeping themselves safe by addressing: how to avoid inappropriate relationships; anger management; confidence building; and anxiety. The child and adolescent mental health service supports young people’s emotional needs. The youth offending team supports young people to address their criminal activity. Drug and alcohol services support young people with substance and alcohol abuse. The looked after children nurse is a regular visitor to the home and supports young people on a range of issues including sexual health and healthy eating. Some young people engaged with a weight loss club but were not confident in using scales in public. Staff therefore arranged for this to be done in the home in a way that

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Quality of care

promotes young people’s privacy and dignity.

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Quality of care

Young people enjoy a range of purposeful activities. For example, the cinema, the local gym where they can access swimming, a range of classes including dance exercise, spinning and gymnastics. Over the summer period young people were taken on holiday and visited theme parks and zoos. Some young people enjoy the art club where they are able to achieve an award in art and photography. There are samples of their work displayed around the home which young people were proud to show off. This promotes their self-esteem.

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Quality of care

Young people benefit from their individual needs relating to culture, religion and disability being identified which ensures that these are addressed.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The service is adequate at keeping children and young people safe and feeling safe.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people report that they feel safe and they are safe. There is no bullying and young people say that there is always someone they can talk to.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people benefit from the consistent boundaries that are in place which they respond well to within the home. However, influences external to the home are having a negative effect on some individuals and pose a threat to their welfare when out in the community.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Some young people are well supervised in line with their care plans albeit in a way that does not restrict their liberty. Social workers speak positively about how young people who were previously involved in serious risk taking behaviours no longer present these behaviours. Young people say, ‘I feel more responsible and am doing well’. There has not been any use of restraints since the last inspection.

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Safeguarding children and young people

While the majority of young people do not go missing from the home, some individuals have had periods of not returning to the home and these have been recorded as unauthorised absences. On one occasion there was no contact with the individuals concerned for several days. Difficulties with the police response to young people they judge to be absent rather than missing have not been resolved which means that young people are not always adequately safeguarded.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people are safeguarded by robust recruitment procedures which ensure only suitable people are employed. Young people are protected by the prompt response of staff to any disclosures; staff inform relevant agencies in order to formulate strategies to safeguard young people.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people are also safeguarded by individual risk assessments in respect of their behaviour, the environment and activities they are involved in. The risk assessments identify potential dangers and appropriate strategies to minimise those risks. All health and safety checks are carried out ensuring young people live in a safe environment.

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Leadership and management

The leadership and management of the children's home are adequate .

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Leadership and management

The leadership and management of the children's home are adequate.

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Leadership and management

There is a Registered Manager in post who is well supported by a deputy.

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Leadership and management

There is a comprehensive Statement of Purpose which ensures interested parties are aware of what the home has to offer. However, the Registered Manager is not familiar with all the home’s policies and procedures. That can lead to errors of judgement.

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Leadership and management

The Registered Manager rightly considers a key strength of the home to be the stability of the staff team who offer a good level of care to the young people enabling them to progress. Young people benefit from being cared for by a sufficient number staff who have good training opportunities and are committed to providing good care to the young people. Staff say that they are well supported by the management team who give them regular supervision and appraisal in order to identify areas for their personal and professional development. The fact that the composition of the staff team reflects the diversity of the city in which the home is located helps to promote tolerance and understanding. However the Registered Manager acknowledges that the home needs to adopt a more robust approach to monitoring the uptake of training in order to make sure all staff access the training available.

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Leadership and management

There were no requirements or recommendations made at the last inspection.

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Leadership and management

In the period since the last inspection the organisation received a complaint about an incident that allegedly involved a significant lapse of judgement on the part of the manager and the staff. The way in which the complaint was dealt with was, by the organisation’s own admission, unsatisfactory; the complaint was not recorded in the complaints log; Ofsted was not informed that there had been a complaint; and because the complaint was not investigated by an independent person, as it should have been, it is still unresolved. This lack of transparency inhibits the regulatory body’s ability to ensure that actions and outcomes for young people are monitored appropriately and that the organisation learns from its mistakes.

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Leadership and management

There are good monitoring systems in place. The Regulation 33 visitor visits the home once a month and produces a detailed report on how the home operates which is forwarded to Ofsted. The visitor interviews the young people and their parents to gain their views on the care provided.

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Leadership and management

Young people enjoy living in a well-maintained home where all health and safety requirements are met.

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Leadership and management

In the main young people’s records are clear although there are some inconsistencies between care plans and health care plans. However, care records do reflect how young people have spent their time at the home. Young people benefit from the effective communication the home has with their placing authority, the health services and a number of other agencies. However, relationships with the police need to be improved to ensure that there is an effective response if and when young people absent themselves.

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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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