Children's Home run by Prestige Adolescent Care and Education Limited in Staffordshire

Unique reference number SC420876 Inspection date 31/12/2013 Inspector Christy Wannop Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

p.1

Date of last inspection 24/10/2012 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

p.1

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.

p.2

Brief description of the service

This is a home that provides accommodation for up to four young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties. The home is part of a small group of privately owned children's homes in the area.

p.3

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

p.3

Overall effectiveness

The overall effectiveness is judged to be good .

p.3

Overall effectiveness

This children’s home has established very good outcomes for children and an exceptional quality of care since it opened three years ago. Excellent staffing levels give children and young people plenty of one-to-one time with keen, skilled and experienced adults. They thrive because of the excellent quality of relationships with such positive male and female adult role models. The experienced and skilful Registered Manager plans the delivery of care so that it focuses on the needs of children and young people. Young people value this creative, non-institutional care and recognise the difference that it has made to their lives.

p.3

Overall effectiveness

Effective care planning, risk management and excellent key worker sessions provide the structure and direction to deliver the aims of the current placements. Children and young people say they feel safer in this placement than they have been previously in their lives. There is strong leadership from a reflective, effective manager and good systems of planning for service development and review. Placing authorities and associated professionals speak highly of the quality of care. This inspection finds one area for improvement in ensuring the format of the twice yearly quality of care review meets with government good practice guidance.

p.3

Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  ensure good practice in completion of Regulation 34 reports at six monthly intervals; monitoring Schedule 6 matters and consultation, in order to improve the quality of care provided and identify any trends and issues of concern. These reports should be sent to HMCI within 28 days of completion. (Volume 5, statutory guidance, paragraph 3.14)

p.3

Outcomes for children and young people

Children and young people speak well of the adults who care for them and their experience of living here is good. They have rich opportunities to spend quality time with staff. This individual attention from adults they trust and like ensures they have the chance to talk about the things that are important to them, their troubles and fears, so they can begin to make sense of their history and background. Those who need therapeutic support receive this. They have a clear and respected voice in the home. They say that their culture and religious beliefs are really well respected.

p.4

Outcomes for children and young people

Young people say they feel safer than ever before in their lives and that the care they get here has brought them structure and the chance to live a ‘normal’ life. One young person said, ‘I love it here and I feel like a normal teenage girl.’ School attendance improves dramatically to 100% and young people feel they are far more settled and able to learn. They lead healthier lives, learn about healthy living, eat well and do active outdoor activities. Those who smoke are actively discouraged from doing so. They develop hobbies and learn new skills, like playing the guitar and baking. They go out and about in the local villages and towns, alone and with staff support, so they get to feel they have a place in their community. Those with previously risky behaviour take advice from staff and chose safer life paths: they go missing less frequently; take better care of themselves, their offending and challenging behaviour reduces.

p.4

Outcomes for children and young people

Children and young people get the help they need to maintain or build positive relationships with their families. They have opportunities to develop friendships at school, invite friends home for tea and meet up outside the home, when safe to do so. Some look forward to staying until they leave care and are confident that the adults will help them learn the skills they need for the next stage of their lives, whether it is returning home to parents, moving on to foster care or going on to independence. One young person was clear about wanting to stay here until 18 because of the progress she feels she has made. She said, ‘my self-esteem, everything, has just gone up.’

p.4

Quality of care

The quality of the care is outstanding .

p.4

Quality of care

This home makes excellent arrangements to deliver a clear and constructive quality of care. The service provides short, medium and long term care in an emergency or with more advanced planning. The current residents are at different stages of their life at the home and have different long and shorter term plans, but all are definitely moving forward. The Registered Manager drives a quality service that plans for, and delivers, what placing authorities have asked for and what children need, in a caring, clear and effective way. Key working sessions are at the heart of the formal delivery of care and these are of a really good quality. This is what makes the difference for children, because they know that they have insightful adult care and trust. One young person said, ‘I have achieved so much with help from staff support. If I have any problems I just have to talk to them.’

p.4

Quality of care

Children and young people’s emotional and physical health is excellent. In-house therapeutic support is available and widely used by children and young people now. There is a circle of therapeutic and residential support for them that respects confidentiality but ensures good communication and action about reducing distress or anxiety. Children who have previously had poor health are now getting essential primary health care and remedial medical treatment for the first time. Young people, who have previously rejected metal health support, participate and engage with the process. Education is valued and staff act as good parents in supporting children and young people’s educational achievement. Young people, who have not previously been in education, now have 100% attendance at mainstream school, pupil referral unit or college. One young person described how they are able to learn properly for the first time because of the support they get from the staff and the structure of life

p.5

Quality of care

at the home, and because they feel good about their future.

p.5

Quality of care

Relationships between adults and children are very positive. Young people have great role models in the manager and staff who have provided them with rich guidance. Relationships between children and young people in the home can sometimes be strained, particularly older and younger children. Staff sensitively and pro-actively manage any potential bullying or conflict by ensuring there is always an adult in any room with any two children. High staffing levels and good team work means that this ‘tagging’ system is reliable in ensuring a constructive adult presence at all times. Staff are explicit in discussing with children and young people their vulnerabilities and pressure points and helping them to work on calmer ways of responding.

p.5

Quality of care

The service values children and young people’s views and uses a creative range of consultation methods: children’s meetings; one-to-one key working sessions and monthly child-friendly consultation papers. The staff ensure their views are reflected in the care planning and review process. Young people certainly say they feel listened to. They understand the home cannot always act on their wishes, for example, they want more activities, but say that, ‘some are too expensive’. Any complaint made by a child or young person gets a proper investigation and formal outcome letter. This means they have great confidence that the Registered Manager will deal with their concerns or complaints in a respectful and meaningful way that values conciliation.

p.5

Quality of care

Systems for care planning and review are highly developed and staff work hard to update, review and reflect on changes prompted by any alteration to the placing authority care plan or the meticulous in-house placement plans. The staff make extremely high quality contributions to statutory reviews and take notes of review meetings to compensate for any delay in the formal minutes. This means they are ready to take any action required to improve young people’s lives. Plans build on children and young people’s strengths and make clear their individual heritage needs. Cultural family practice is upheld with respect and staff strive to include, rather than exclude, difference and diversity. For example, if special food is required, this is incorporated into the menu plan for all, so that young people do not feel singled out or different. Staff challenge racism and homophobia; young people have the space to

p.5

Quality of care

develop confidence in safe relationships, regardless of sexual preference. One young person said they were, ‘Very happy here, treated fair, it is like my home.’

p.6

Quality of care

The home is a large, modern detached house, close to a town but surrounded by fields. It feels remote but staff are very good at making sure that young people get out and about. It is very well laid out and well-kept with really creative use of space for private and also communal life, all within safe supervision of adults without feeling claustrophobic. It has a spacious central kitchen and dining area that is the hub for people to gather, rather than the staff office. There are two good living rooms, one set up for activities and the other for comfortable sitting for TV. Staff and young people’s bedrooms are on the first and second floors and some bedrooms have en-suite facilities. They are all of a good size and are well decorated and personalised. Communal walls have inspirational art and decorative work. The manager was making plans to repair some minor damage to plaster board walls behind doors during the inspection and has plans to improve the immediate ‘kerb

p.6

Quality of care

appeal’ with a non-institutional house sign. Young people clearly feel pride in their surroundings.

p.6

Safeguarding children and young people

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

p.6

Safeguarding children and young people

Arrangements to keep children and young people safe are strong. The service has good policy, procedure and practice around safeguarding. Staff are trained and confident in the action they take when any child makes a disclosure or allegation. The service has worked really well with local safeguarding services, the police and children’s social care to create supportive networks around young people at risk of child sexual exploitation and who are at risk through other vulnerabilities. Incidents of children going missing have dramatically reduced and when young people do run off, it is usually into the woods around the house to cool off rather than to get lost. The police speak highly of her impact in reducing the number of incidents where they are called to the home. The Registered Manager is clear and confident about identifying safeguarding issues. She works constructively to refer and take advice from the local area designated officer (LADO) to resolve any allegations. There are

p.6

Safeguarding children and young people

no concerns from placing authorities or the LADO about how the service safeguards children, who report good inter-agency working.

p.6

Safeguarding children and young people

Risk management for children promotes ordinary life opportunities but reduces unnecessary hazards. Risks through social media are particularly well managed. The staff work with children and young people so that they develop the skills to keep themselves safe. There are restrictions on telephone use for some children and young people. All have access to an individual phone for their sole use, but this is done for some with restrictions on free contact, through staff. Others without restrictions are given their own mobile phone. There is gradual introduction to independence and choice; staff clearly assess, plan and monitor use of mobile phones and the internet and communicate this concern to children, so that they feel they are cared for rather than restricted.

p.6

Safeguarding children and young people

There is an excellent approach to manage children and young people’s challenging needs. Staff implement a positive behaviour management approach based on reward systems and reparations, rather than a focus on sanctions. Young people are clear that this is fair. They understand the advantage of good social behaviour. The Registered Manager leads staff with insight about the impact of children’s experience of trauma and neglect on their present situation. She demonstrates the ethos of helping children to learn techniques for calm and mature responses and trains staff in the method of physical intervention used in the home. There is a thorough review and record of any incident that requires restraint and a debrief for the staff and child concerned, learning lessons to avoid this measure of control. One young person said that, instead of restraining him, ‘staff always speak to me and explain.’

p.7

Safeguarding children and young people

Recruitment procedures are robust and ensure that only safe and suitable adults have contact with children and young people. The environment is safe and secure for children and young people who lead active and sometimes challenging lives. Regular checks of services and equipment and plans for emergency evacuation and fire safety keep everyone safe.

p.7

Leadership and management

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

p.7

Leadership and management

This service is effectively managed by a qualified, competent and resourceful Registered Manager. She has developed the home from registration three years ago to provide a service of consistent good quality with many exceptional features. Information about the home, for placing authorities and parents and children is clear, so everyone knows what to expect. Excellent pre-admission assessments match children’s needs to ensure compatibility and harmony among the group. The home is operating in accordance with its conditions of registration and the registered persons remain fit for registration.

p.7

Leadership and management

Systems for monitoring the quality of home are good. A range of systems, external monthly monitoring and internal managerial reviews, have a good focus on the user experience. The service respects young people’s heritage and provides for their religious and cultural needs in a way that does not mark difference, but values their diversity. Consultation about the quality of the service is well embedded. Two independent reviewing officers expressed confidence in the way the home works with children, in the consultation with them and young people about the service and about the quality of staff training. There is one minor shortfall. The formal Regulation 34 review of the quality of care and audit of Schedule 6 matters is done monthly and one is sent to Ofsted as a sample every six months. Statutory guidance states this should be a report twice a year that compiles the outcomes of the system of monthly monitoring and identifies

p.7

Leadership and management

any trends and issues of concern. However, the Registered Manager’s other monitoring does draw on comparative data about a range of incidents, accidents, activities and behaviour and she makes use of this in her managerial planning and feedback to placing authorities. In this way the registered person has an excellent grasp of the strengths and weaknesses in the service and the developments and improvements in children’s lives. This analysis leads to a realistic but ambitious development plan, due for imminent review. One previous national minimum shortfall to improve the décor is met. Young people live in a lovely house.

p.8

Leadership and management

Staff deployment recognises children’s fundamental need for good adult relationships to influence and overcome their experience of poor parenting or trauma. The service is well resourced and there is no skimping on staffing levels. There are always four staff on duty with four children and two staff sleep in at night. Staff value and children benefit from team working by long standing staff group. Some agency staff are occasionally used, but some staff have progressed to full time employment in this way. Children and young people get the benefit of residential professionals who know what they are doing; they bring enthusiasm, sensitivity and humour to their role. Staff are trained in a range of skills that relate to children’s care generally, including a majority who have the level 3 qualification in working with children and young people. They also have skills in working with the risk of sexual exploitation,

p.8

Leadership and management

self-harm and the impact of previous poor relationships and attachments. Staff report good support and regular professional supervision. They feel very satisfied with their working arrangements and see their future in advanced training with the company.

p.8

Leadership and management

Records and information about children are clear and accessible. It is up to date, written intelligently and demonstrates the respect that staff have for children. The home’s records are similarly well managed and communication with Ofsted and placing authorities about significant events is done promptly. Partnership working is a strength. Placing authorities and associated professionals report good communication about children. The Registered Manager has worked strategically with protective and helping services to improve the position and safety of children at the home. Professionals say the manager has made many improvements. Young people report their support is: ‘very good, get the right help for health, bullying, feeling safe, activities, school work’.

p.8

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.

p.9

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.

p.9