Children's Home run by Lancashire County Council in Lancashire

Unique reference number SC359836 Inspection date 14/11/2013 Inspector Louise Redfern Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 21/02/2013 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 is a children's home operated by a local authority. The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to six young people 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 good .

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Overall effectiveness

Young people feel safe in the home and value the well-planned and individualised care that they receive. This care enables them to develop in emotional maturity, be prepared for adulthood and promotes positive behaviours. One young person commented, ‘I would definitely say this home is 10 out of 10, the staff care about us.’ Parents and professionals endorse this view. Young people benefit from consistent support from a committed Registered Manager and staff team. Relationships between young people and the staff team are very good. Their needs and views are central to all aspects of how the home operates. Young people enjoy varied opportunities to engage in activities, both in the home and in the local community. As a result, they improve their social skills and increase in confidence.

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Overall effectiveness

Monitoring of young people's progress and development is good and the Registered Manager has a sound understanding of the strengths of the home and areas for development. However, some shortfalls were identified at this inspection. These relate to behaviour management records, supervision recordings, young people being enabled to make a contribution in staff appraisals, ensuring that consultation with others is captured and considered in the evaluation of the home's performance and having young peoples’ health assessments are on file.

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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

17B (2001) ensure that within 24 hours of the use of any measure of control, a written record is made including the effectiveness and any consequence of the use of the measure (Regulation 17B (3)(f)) 06/12/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure that the details of any immunisations and details of any health examinations or developmental test conducted with respect to the child is held on file (Regulation 28 Schedule 3 (22)(23)) 06/12/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure that the system referred to in Regulation 34 shall provide for consultation with children, their parents and placing authorities. (Regulation 34 (3)) 31/12/2013

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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 that staff do not restrict the liberty of any child (NMS 3.19)  ensure that a written record is kept by the home detailing the time and length of each supervision held for each member of staff, including the registered person (NMS 19.5)  ensure that all staff have their performance individually and formally appraised at least annually and this appraisal takes into account any views of children the service is providing for. (NMS19.6)

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people make considerable progress from their point of admission to the home. They develop emotional resilience and gain confidence in their skills as a result of the support and stability the home and staff team provides. Young people receive support from health professionals and staff to understand the importance of making healthy lifestyle choices. Young people generally enjoy a healthy lifestyle and take responsibility for some of their own medical health needs, such as self-administering medication and making their own medical appointments. All young people benefit from attending routine health appointments, which for some is a significant achievement. Support agencies such as the looked after children’s nurse, are readily available for the young people. Young people enjoy excellent opportunities to have contact with family, friends and other people who are important to them. Contact is promoted within the context of

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Outcomes for children and young people

an appropriate balance between individual safeguards and risk assessments. Young people are practically and emotionally supported with contact, in order to develop and sustain appropriate relationships. One young person commented, ‘they treat my relationship with my boyfriend with respect that means a lot to me.’ Young people are settled in the home and are supported to move towards adulthood at a pace with which they are comfortable, through the completion of an internal independence package. This enables them to develop necessary skills with committed support and direction, from the whole staff team, before moving on. One young person commented, ‘I have learnt lots of things, like what bills I need to pay when I get my own flat.’ Given their individual starting points, all young people make good progress in their educational attendance and attainment. They are all engaged in education or full time employment.

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Quality of care

Young people enjoy meaningful relationships with staff which result in strong and positive attachments. Staff place the well-being of individual young people at the centre of their practice and this is further aided by effective care planning, education support and behaviour management. One placing social worker commented that, 'the manager and staff team are flexible in meeting the individual needs of young people, which means they do very well in the placement.’ A young person noted that the home, 'is a like real home and has being in the home has made sure my life is now on track. I have been very happy here.’ The staff team are effective at celebrating the individual achievements of young people. As a result young peoples’ self-esteem and self-worth is consistently being encouraged and raised. This means that young people feel valued and confident to explore their own identities in a safe and supportive environment.

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Quality of care

Young people have an active input into issues that affect them within the home and successfully voice their wants and needs. These include key worker meetings, which are effective in addressing a range of issues and concerns. Young people are involved in the running of the home, making decisions. This includes deciding about the décor of the home to planning activities and menus. Young people also have the opportunity to participate in team meeting and handovers; this means they are able to contribute throughout the whole of the home. Young people benefit from effective working relationships between staff and placing authorities, education, youth offending teams, health and local policing teams. The staff team have received briefings from mental health professionals. The manager noted that this had supported the team to work with young people effectively and confidently, because of the underlying consultation process and support offered by

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Quality of care

these professionals. The home has a comprehensive complaints procedure in place, which is child focused. Young people express a confidence that should complaints be raised they would be thoroughly investigated and outcomes are shared with them. Young people access children’s rights officers, who are able to offer independent advice and advocacy. Young people respect and feel ownership of the environment they live in, which is comfortable and homely. The manager and staff ensure that good relationships are maintained with neighbours and the home is well embedded in the local community.

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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

Staff are trained in behaviour management and physical restraint techniques and consistently apply these in practice. Young people benefit from positive and firm boundaries in the home. As a result, there are very few incidents of young people being physically restrained. However, on one occasion a physical intervention recording indicated that the action was taken to restrict the liberty of a young person, because of safeguarding concerns. As a result, a recommendation has been raised to prevent this from being a measure used by staff to safeguard young people. When inappropriate behaviours do occur young people reflect on their behaviour and share their views on the resulting consequence. However, the Registered Manager does not routinely comment on the effectiveness of the imposed consequences, in order to evaluate if they remains appropriate. Currently this is not impacting on young people and their outcomes.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Over the summer, due to the group of young people living in the home, there were some low level incidents of bullying in the home. The manager and staff team ensured these incidents were effectively addressed and young people understood the impact of bullying behaviour. Young people confirm that there is currently no bullying in the home. They have a good understanding of bullying behaviour and feel safe in raising any concerns, as they are confident these will be addressed. Effective monitoring clearly demonstrates a reduction in the frequency that young people go missing during their placement. Agreed internal working practices and agreements with external agencies are in place. This ensures that the staff respond immediately, should a young person go missing. The staff are proactive in attempting to retrieve young people quickly on the occasions they go missing, which helps to reduce the number of incidents and helps to keep young people safe. Young

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Safeguarding children and young people

people are cared for appropriately on their return, allowing staff and other relevant professionals to explore reasons why young people absent themselves from the home. Young people are safeguarded by the arrangements that are in place to meet health and safety requirements. Regular checking of equipment enables maintenance issues to be addressed. Young people are familiar with evacuation procedures and know the action to take to keep themselves safe in the event of a fire.

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Leadership and management

The leadership and management of the children's home are good . The home benefits from an effective management team comprising of an experienced Registered Manager and two assistant managers. Leadership focuses on ensuring the staff team provide nurturing and individualised care to young people in the home. The provision has a strong record of compliance, no requirements or recommendations were raised at the last inspection. Individual staff members value the support and direction provided by the Registered Manager and consider her to be open and approachable. One staff member commented ‘I really like my job. I am well supported by Leslie. We build good attachments with young people and make a difference to their lives, we always try to stay in touch with them, so they still have us for support, if they want it.’ Highly effective working relationships with parents and other professionals is a strength of the home. One parent commented favourably on the quality of

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Leadership and management

communication with the home, as did placing social workers. One parent noted, ‘I am always kept up to date, I am very pleased with the way they care for my son.’ Staff are effectively supported through a regular supervision, which is of a good quality. A minor shortfall identified, which does not impact on the outcomes for young people, is that the supervision records currently do not record details of the time and length of the supervision. Staff practice is annually appraised, although currently young people do not contribute to this process. A comprehensive training programme continues to develop working practice and ensure that all staff have the skills and knowledge to provide good quality care. Regular monitoring of the home is conducted by the manager and the independent visitor. This acts as a mechanism to identify action to improve the service in the interests of young people. However, not all shortfalls are identified. For example, one

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Leadership and management

case file did not include all information as required by the regulations, despite requests made for these documents they remain outstanding. There is frequent consultation and feedback from young people. However the views of placing authorities and parents are not an integral part of the evaluation of the service. This constitutes a missed opportunity to drive forward improvement of the service.

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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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