Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Rochdale

Unique reference number SC456542 Inspection date 12/09/2013 Inspector Stella Lovie Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 15/02/2013 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

The home is privately run and is registered for up to one young person with emotional and 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 outstanding .

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Overall effectiveness

Young people make exceptional progress from their starting points. They are confident, motivated and forward-looking. They have ambitions and plans for the future which are personally challenging but achievable. The impact the home has had in supporting this progress is clearly evidenced. Staff are ambitious and creative in helping the young people do the best they can. This is highly valued by young people.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people’s needs and views are central to all aspects of how the home operates and develops practice. As a result, young people have consistently positive views about how they are cared for and have excellent relationships with staff. The home provides completely personalised and well-planned care which takes full account of young people’s individual needs.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people say that they feel very safe in the home and out in the community. They understand how to protect themselves and are extremely confident in the support they receive from staff. Staff are well-trained in safeguarding practice and have excellent skills and knowledge in caring for young people who have been abused. They are very effectively supported in this by the in-house therapeutic service.

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Overall effectiveness

The Registered Manager provides effective managerial oversight so that standards of care and outcomes for young people continue to improve. She demonstrates a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the home and learns from monitoring and inspection activities and improves practice accordingly. Three minor shortfalls are identified but they do not impact negatively in any way on the home's functioning

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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 that the home is well maintained, with particular regard to sealant in the young person's bathroom and removal of broken fence panels in the garden (NMS 10.3)  ensure that written and electronic records demonstrate consistently good recruitment practice; with particular regard to recording management decisions about the suitability of references (NMS 16.2)  ensure that staff are kept up-to-date with in-service training; with particular regard to self-harm and first aid training. (NMS 18.1)

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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 are extensively supported to develop their self-confidence, emotional resilience and self-esteem. They are helped to make sense of their past experiences by engaging effectively with therapeutic support. Consequently, they learn to manage their feelings and emotions, and obtain a better understanding about their background. This promotes their psychological well-being, and enables them to make outstanding progress in all areas of their lives, for example, they work successfully with specialist agencies to understand and avoid risk-taking behaviours that place them at risk of harm or offending.

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Outcomes for children and young people

From their starting points, young people have excellent attendance at school and achieve very good academic results. These help them to realise their ambitions about specific careers. As a result, they feel motivated and focused on what they want to achieve in their future lives. As one external professional commented: ‘(name’s) education progress has been extremely positive’. This is underpinned by highly positive preparation for independence. Young people learn many essential life skills and welcome taking on additional responsibilities in line with their age and ability. This helps them to prepare meaningfully for future successful transitions into adult life.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people have a clear understanding of the importance of healthy lifestyles. They enjoy a balanced diet, do a lot of physical exercise, and refrain from harmful habits such as smoking and drug use. As a result, they enjoy excellent health. They benefit from warm, positive and purposeful relationships with staff. They receive every encouragement to try new activities in the community such as kayaking and sailing and song writing and recording. This develops their ability to work to instructions and to express their feelings constructively. As one young person said: ‘staff will sort out anything I want to do. It’s brilliant!’ Consequently, young people’s confidence and self-esteem is significantly promoted.

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Quality of care

The quality of the care is outstanding .

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Quality of care

Young people receive impressive care from a highly skilled and committed team of experienced staff. One social worker rated staff service and care as ‘excellent’ and commented that the home provides a ‘very good placement for the young person I work with.’

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Quality of care

The ethos in the home is highly nurturing and young people are well- supported in the continuity of care provided. This helps them build up trust, form meaningful relationships and take responsibility for their actions. Young people are encouraged to have dreams and aspirations for their futures. Staff provide excellent support to help young people explore positive and empowering opportunities and ways to achieve their ambitions. They are prepared to work extremely hard to help young people develop their true potential. They are not daunted by setbacks or failures and are relentless in their efforts to provide opportunities for young people to succeed.

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Quality of care

Staff effectively challenge barriers to young people’s full participation in education. For example, they go the extra mile to ensure that young people are supported to attend the right college course for them, even though it involves complicated logistics for staff to manage. Staff are proactive in promoting social inclusion and non-discriminatory behaviour and attitudes among the young people. This helps to counter the isolation of individuals by others and nurtures friendships between young people.

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Quality of care

Young people’s well-being is clearly at the centre of staff practice. Their views and wishes significantly influence the running of the home. For example, plans are in place to include young people’s views in staff appraisals. Their achievements are celebrated with photos on display around the home. Young people’s placement plans are tailored to their needs and they play a full part in their development. As a result, young people feel highly valued, well informed and fully involved in all aspects of their care. Young people's rights to inclusion and participation are central to how the home operates and this promotes effective communication within the home.

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Quality of care

Staff demonstrate highly effective working together with external agencies and the in-house therapeutic team so that support is tailored to young people’s individual needs. This demonstrably makes a positive difference as young people learn to regulate their behaviour and verbalise their feelings rather than act them out. This is supplemented by good use of reward charts to motivate and reward positive changes. It is further underpinned by detailed and thorough individual sessions with young people which help them to develop responsibility and reduce negative behaviour.

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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 report that they have a very strong sense of safety and well-being in the home and in the local community. Staff help them to develop skills that enable them to differentiate their behaviour according to the various settings and situations they find themselves in. Careful risk assessments enable them to take reasonable risks as part of their growth and development. All the young people choose to lead safe lives. They describe a culture of openness and trust in the home. As one young person said: ‘I feel 100% safe in the home. It’s a quiet and peaceful house. It’s just lovely here.’

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people enjoy positive, friendly but professional relationships with staff which are underpinned by highly effective behaviour management strategies based on praise, incentives and realistic individual targets. This results in no use of physical restraint and only minimal and appropriate use of sanctions. Young people are able to manage strong feelings and emotions without needing to run away. This is testament to the consistent and safe care given by staff.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff have an extremely good understanding about safe-care practice. The in-house therapeutic service provides detailed and valuable training for the staff team about young people’s individual complex care needs. This helps staff to be highly alert to young people’s vulnerabilities and risks of harm. Staff have very useful informal links with the local police and contact them for advice as needed. Together, these measures are effective in diminishing the impact of young people’s past abusive experiences.

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Safeguarding children and young people

There is careful selection and vetting of staff working with the young people in the home. However, recruitment files do not always clearly demonstrate management decision- making when it is not possible to obtain detailed references on individuals. This has not adversely impacted on the rigour of recruitment and selection procedures though, and a high barrier to deter unsuitable individuals is maintained. This is reinforced by careful monitoring of new staff throughout their probation period.

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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 home has a Registered Manager who is appropriately experienced and qualified. She is working towards a higher management qualification. She manages two other homes and is ably supported in this home by an effective first line manager. Together they provide competent and efficient management. There were no requirements or recommendations to improve made in the last inspection. The manager achieves a working consensus within the staff team so that goals are shared and staff are equally motivated. This serves to promote excellent outcomes for the young people. She leads a small, well-functioning establishment with a cohesive staff group. Nearly all the staff are suitably qualified and experienced. They are well-supported with regular supervision of a good quality. The manager demonstrates a commitment to strong performance management. She ensures that the staff receive bespoke training to meet the individual complex needs of the young

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Leadership and management

people. This enables staff to feel energised and confident in their practice. It also encourages awareness of practice issues beyond the boundary of the home. It is clearly effective as the young people flourish and thrive in the home. However, some staff require refresher training in self-harm and first aid. This is a minor shortfall as that training is scheduled in the near future.

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Leadership and management

There is a strong management focus on tackling weakness and making continual improvements. This is supported by good quality assurance processes with robust ‘critical friend’ feedback from the independent visitor. As a result, quality of care and outcomes for young people are continually improving, and the home can demonstrate the positive difference it has made to young people’s development, personal growth and improved future life chances. The home has good relations in the local community and with neighbours. Issues are dealt with swiftly and effectively.

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Leadership and management

The home is a comfortable and welcoming place. It is very clear that young people are at the heart of it. It is decorated to a high standard and staff have put a lot of effort into this. It is well-maintained but there are some minor maintenance issues that require attention.

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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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