Children's Home run by Inspire Children’s Services Limited in St Helens

Unique reference number SC441410 Inspection date 28/11/2013 Inspector Lynn O'Driscoll 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 registered to provide care and accommodation for up to two young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties. The home is owned by a private organisation.

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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's wishes and feelings are taken into account in all aspects of daily living and future care planning. They benefit from highly personalised care and enjoy excellent relationships with the staff. Staff have an exceptionally good understanding of safe working practices. This enables young people to take reasonable risks necessary for continued development into adulthood. Consequently, young people feel, and are, safe, very happy and settled in this home.

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Overall effectiveness

An experienced and enthusiastic staff team, the provision of a wide range of specialist services and excellent partnership working enables all the young people to realise their full potential. They are, therefore, making very good progress behaviourally, socially and educationally, despite some extremely difficult past experiences.

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Overall effectiveness

This home is genuinely committed to providing a high standard of care and to significantly improving all the young people's life chances. The managers and staff are clear about the many strengths of their service and the key areas for further development. Rigorous and effective monitoring processes are firmly established. Consequently, there are no regulatory shortfalls arising from this inspection.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people are very happy and settled at this home, especially as it is located relatively close to family and friends, so they can maintain regular contact. Young people like their personalised bedrooms, the homemade, nutritious meals on offer and the current contact arrangements in place, which maintains their strong sense of identity.

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Outcomes for children and young people

They also confirm that they trust the staff and feel comfortable discussing any concerns with them. Consequently, they have never needed to make a formal complaint. Through on-going and honest discussions they are also gaining a good knowledge of their background and are building up their emotional resilience. Comments from young people include, 'I like it here. The meals and activities are very good and the staff really listen to me and give me good support' and, 'Everything is great here. I am enjoying my new school, family contact and my new phone bought for me because I have not gone missing.’

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Outcomes for children and young people

The daily life of this home enables all the young people to gain appropriate practical and social skills needed for future successful independent living. Consequently, young people are already competent in using public transport and daily household tasks. They are now taking increased responsibility for their own continued good health. This includes: planning, shopping for and cooking healthy meal', taking part in regular physical exercise; and, attending and engaging in routine health appointments and annual health assessments. One young person is currently receiving specialist support, at his request, to help improve his sleep patterns.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people enjoy good physical health and do not require any prescribed medicines. Personal hygiene has also improved in this placement. Some young people still smoke cigarettes but with continued support they have had some success in reducing their intake. Some risk taking behaviours have ceased in this placement, most notably, offending and alcohol and drug misuse.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people are actively encouraged and supported to pursue individual interests and talents. Examples include the gym, rugby and boxing. This further increases their competence and boosts self-esteem. In general, the young people prefer to spend their free time with their families and friends, so they do not currently actively engage in, and make a positive contribution to, their local community and wider society. School attendance has demonstrably improved in this placement and they are making good progress especially given their stating points. One young person is really enjoying a mechanics course.

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Quality of care

The quality of the care is outstanding .

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Quality of care

Young people benefit from highly individualised care to address their unique needs and personal preferences. Particularly sensitive and gradual admission and discharge processes and extremely careful matching ensure young people benefit from smooth transitions and settle quickly into their new placements.

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Quality of care

Unless contrary to their best interests, young people's wishes and feelings are always taken into account in all aspects of their care and positively acted upon. This includes complex decisions such as contact arrangements and future schools. One young person is particularly pleased that staff now trust him enough to have increased contact and the window locks removed from his bedroom window; these were his expressed wishes on admission. Young people learn to understand why they cannot watch age inappropriate DVD's or have electronic play equipment in bedrooms at night. It was clearly explained that they need a good night’s sleep to be up and ready for school and to be able to concentrate throughout .

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Quality of care

Young people are actively involved in developing and revising their own placement plans so they fully understand why they are currently living at the home and are in full agreement with their plans. They are also supported to set their own realistic, yet challenging targets. Consequently, they positively engage.

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Quality of care

There is excellent participation by the young people in: young people's meetings ; frequent individual key worker sessions where relevant and highly sensitive issues are fully explored, and in their own statutory reviews. Young people always have a choice of meals, activities they want to participate in and can negotiate the few sanctions imposed. They also have excellent opportunities to be fully involved in the continuous development of the wider company. These include a young people's council and the recruitment and selection of staff. One young person from this home has produced six highly pertinent questions used in the interviewing of new staff. Examples include, 'What meal can you cook from scratch?' and, 'What will you bring to the home that is different from other staff?' All these established practices reinforce to young people that their opinions genuinely matter and are highly valued. This in turn increases their self-esteem and confidence.

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Quality of care

A key strength of this home is ensuring the timely provision of a wide range of highly relevant specialist services to meet young people's more complex needs. Moreover, this home has established extremely effective partnership working with parents and a wide range of stakeholders to ensure good outcomes for all the young people. They are all highly complimentary about the quality of care provided at this home. They particularly highlight excellent communication and flexibility and confirm that any issues are responded to immediately. For example, one social worker said, 'I asked staff if I could have a weekly progress report which they now send me, which is brilliant. We work really well together.' A parent said, 'I am really happy with the quality of care provided at this home. My son gets on with the all the staff and always has a good word to say about them. They communicate really well with me so I know what's going on and they definitely support contact. It's a nice home too.

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Quality of care

This experienced and competent staff team are highly successful advocates for the young people. Recent examples include: re-establishing and maintaining family contacts; and moving young people to schools closer to the children's home and their family home. Consequently, young people are much happier; more settled and challenging behaviours have significantly improved. The staff actively encourage good school attendance and support educational achievement and vocational qualifications to enable all the young people to reach their full potential. This company operates a registered school which some of the young people attend. This provides tailored educational and practical work programmes suited to individual learning needs. The head teacher wrote, 'This staff team are very responsive, helpful and supportive to the teaching staff. They show great care and support to young people and work well with the school'. A social worker said, 'We work through care

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Quality of care

plans and risk assessments together. I have a good relationship with all the staff. They have a good flexible approach. The company's school are also adaptable to meet the young person's needs and he has made real progress. He is now engaging in education and his absconding has decreased.’

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Quality of care

Good health and well-being is actively promoted by the staff at this home and all annual health assessments and routine health check-ups are up to date. A mental health worker confirmed that staff always ensure young people attend their appointments on time and stay to support them during some very emotionally difficult sessions. This demonstrates how safe and secure they feel in the staff's presence. The robust arrangements in place for the storage, administration and recording of medicines are safe and effective.

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Quality of care

Young people benefit from an excellent standard of accommodation. This home offers a very good choice of communal areas and is tastefully decorated and furnished. Young people really like their bedrooms which are personalised and they like having photos of themselves around the home. Young people genuinely take pride in the home as demonstrated by their involvement in routine household tasks and on-going improvements. Visitors to the home particularly highlight the extremely welcoming atmosphere. Comments include, 'It feels like a home rather than an institution, yet it is always clean and tidy' and, 'The home is really lovely and in a nice area. It's just like a family home with pictures of the young people on the wall.'

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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 feel extremely safe and secure at this home. There are no incidents of bullying. They particularly benefit from the clear routines and consistent boundaries. They also enjoy excellent relationships with the staff and feel really comfortable talking to any of the them about highly sensitive issues. Consequently, there has been exceptional progress in their ability to express their emotions. One parent said, ‘My son seems very settled here more than anywhere else he has lived before. I have seen a big change in his behaviour.’

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Safeguarding children and young people

The staff establish excellent and extremely effective working relationships with parents, placing authorities, the local police and the youth offending team to safeguard and protect the welfare of the young people. Consequently, there are very significant reductions of both the frequency and duration of young people going missing. Moreover, there has been no offending behaviour, verbal abuse or physical assaults on staff by the young people currently living at this home. This is within a context of some extremely challenging histories. One young person said, 'In other placements I was restrained every day. I have had no restraints here because it's a homely environment and staff talk to me or tell me to go out for 5 minutes. They give me the opportunity to express my thoughts and feelings. They are firm but fair. I used to be involved in lots of criminal damage. I have done nothing here.’

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Safeguarding children and young people

A missing from home co-ordinator said, 'We have a great good working relationship with this home and are kept well informed. The staff work very hard to meet young people's individual needs and their outcomes have improved significantly’. A social worker confirmed, 'This home provides young people with safety and stability.' A youth offending team worker said, 'We work closely with the staff who have supported his attendance. They are really flexible and on the ball. We agreed together an intervention plan and have all signed it. This is good evidence of effective multi agency working. He appears to be quite settled at this home and there has been no further offending or concerns about alcohol misuse. We enjoy a good professional relationship.’

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Safeguarding children and young people

Positive rewards for good behaviour and effort are having the desired effect on young people's behaviour. One young person was particularly thrilled to go to Wembley to watch the rugby cup final of his favourite team as a reward and is now working towards a trip to France. Sanctions are few and records are very well maintained and regularly monitored by the manager to ensure relevant, fair, proportionate and effective practice at all times.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff have an excellent knowledge about the unique and complex challenges and vulnerabilities of the young people living at this home and have highly effective strategies in place to minimise known risks. These have been fully discussed and agreed with all relevant agencies. The staff are also able to recognise potential triggers and successfully diffuse challenging behaviours. Young people are rightly very proud of the fact that they have never been restrained in this home. This is within a context of extremely frequent restraints in previous placements.

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Safeguarding children and young people

All staff are trained in safeguarding to ensure an appropriate response to any disclosures of abuse. They are also vigilant about keeping young people safe, yet have the proven expertise to still enable them to take reasonable risks necessary for developing their independence. In particular, young people now fully understand the importance of keeping in contact with the staff when out in the community and behaving appropriately. Comments from young people include, 'I love the fact that the staff trust me and I don’t want to let them down or jeopardise extra time with my mum' and, 'I couldn’t see what the problem was at first. I just wanted to stay out with my mates and didn’t think I was doing anything wrong. I know now that the staff genuinely care about me. I hadn't thought before about my family who couldn’t sleep until they knew I was safe. I was out of order and I am really sorry.’

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Safeguarding children and young people

All the required health and safety certificates are in place and fire safety checks ensure a very safe and well-maintained building. Frequent fire drills are undertaken with young people so they know exactly what to do in the event of a real fire. Very well-maintained staff files include all the required information. They demonstrate stringent recruitment and selection processes to ensure a safe and competent workforce.

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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

This home is well resourced. It is also efficiently and effectively managed by a qualified social worker; he actively stimulates enthusiasm for continuous development within his staff team, so there is shared ownership. Good deputising arrangements are in place.

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Leadership and management

Staff are very happy working at this home and confirm good support. Comments include, 'Senior managers are accessible and very open if we have any concerns. It's not them and us but everyone working together to improve the service to young people', 'It's very child centred here and I feel well supported. For example, if needed, staffing ratios are increased. There is always a raft of training going on and I have monthly supervision sessions' and, 'It's a small company trying to move forward. It's a slow progress, but we are getting there.’ Young people benefit from a consistent and experienced staff team with a good range of relevant backgrounds and skills. They all have the qualifications required of their respective roles. The registered manager also continuously looks for opportunities to develop his staff and actively encourages and supports promotion opportunities within the wider company. Staff said, 'I have just had training to enable me to supervise staff which was on my

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Leadership and management

An appropriate annual development plan is in place, but it is a standard document used across the company. It covers all the National Minimum Standards but does not make reference to the Children's Homes Regulations. In response, the manager has produced a more specific action plan covering November 2013 to end of March 2014. The targets set are clear and realistic, but not particularly challenging. Robust monitoring processes are in place to ensure a very good quality service is maintained at all times and any shortfalls identified are efficiently addressed. The format used for monthly monitoring by the manager has recently been improved upon to better demonstrate young people's outcomes. There is also weekly monitoring and evaluation of any specific patterns and trends and at least six weekly reviews of individual risk assessments and comprehensive person centred placement plans .

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Leadership and management

This home demonstrates a good capacity for continual improvement based on previous Ofsted judgements and outcomes for young people. The staff can clearly demonstrate the positive impact living at this home has already had on the young people accommodated and how their life chances are improving. The staff team have ensured very good relationships with the neighbours. One complaint received several months ago was efficiently and effectively resolved to the complete satisfaction of the complainant and there has been no further issues. This home was judged to be making good progress at the last interim inspection on 15 February 2013 and no requirements were made. The three recommendations raised have all been addressed. Consequently, there is now clear documentary evidence of young people: making informed decisions about their own health; negotiating the sanctions imposed; and, being supported to budget in preparation for living independently.

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Leadership and management

The home's Statement of Purpose is regularly updated to ensure it always accurately reflects the current aims, policies, practices, and facilities available to young people and their families. Young people are given their own copy of a meaningful children's guide on admission and offered frequent opportunities to discuss its contents. Young people's files are secured stored, include all the required documentation and are very well maintained. They provide an accurate and positive account of their background, continued progress, achievements and future goals.

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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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