Children's Home run by Benjamin UK Ltd in Milton Keynes

Unique reference number SC391379 Inspection date 18/10/2013 Inspector Maureen Hamer Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 11/01/2013 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

This children's home is registered to take up to four young people with emotional or behaviour 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

There are significant strengths evident in this service. The home is caring, reflective and has a culture of continual improvement. This is providing long-term placement stability for young people with attachment issues.

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Overall effectiveness

Overall, young people have made good progress since living in this home, particularly in relation to reduced risk-taking behaviours and reducing aggressive behaviour.

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Overall effectiveness

Care planning is comprehensive and young people’s progress is regularly reported in writing to the placing authority. Young people’s needs are well assessed but targets are not always sufficiently specific to track young people’s progress. Young people are engaged in their care but keyworker sessions are not formally undertaken on a regular basis. Some young people raised concerns about some aspects of their care plan, in particular, contact and having a choice in who provides their therapeutic input. These issues are discussed with social workers and in statutory reviews but access to independent advocacy is not always effectively promoted.

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Overall effectiveness

Staff work as an effective team to provide consistent boundaries. An innovative scheme is being implemented to incentivise positive behaviours and this is evaluated on a weekly basis but not on each occasion that a measure is applied.

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Overall effectiveness

A particular strength of the home is effective partnership working. This promotes young people's safety. The manager has effective quality assurance in place.

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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 children know their rights to advocacy and how to access advocacy, and how to contact the Children's Rights Director (NMS 1.5)  ensure that children receive personalised care that promotes all aspects of their individual identity and are each treated as an individual rather than a member of a group (NMS 2.1)  ensure that each child's placement plan is monitored by a keyworker within the home to ensure that requirements of the plan are implemented, in particular, that targets are measurable. (NMS 25.2)

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people with complex psychological issues and associated challenging behaviour are making good progress.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people are developing an understanding of their past and how that experience impacts on their behaviour. Young people respond positively to successful psychological intervention that has resulted in improved self-management. As a result, there is a reduction in self-harming behaviours and in aggressive behaviours. This has helped to rebuild attachments with important family members.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Attendance at school and college has improved. In some cases, where the placing authority has not as yet established an educational placement, the manager has accessed individualised input to ensure that young people are engaged in meaningful educational opportunities. Application and progress in other vocational subjects are good. Young people have gained interview opportunities at college and have successfully gained further education placements. This demonstrates young people’s positive attitude to education and improves their employment opportunities in the future.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people have access to universal health services such as the local General Practitioner to ensure aspects of their physical and emotional well-being are addressed. Young people are fully aware of the negative impact of cigarette smoking but this unhealthy behaviour continues outside of the home. Young people are provided with nutritious home-prepared meals. Young people who are being effectively supported to develop independent living skills manage their own food budget and prepare their own foods.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people make some contribution to the home by preparing meals and undertaking laundry tasks as well as keeping their bedrooms tidy. Young people have developed other independence skills, such as food budgeting and preparation, safe use of public transport, and shopping for personal purchases. In addition, young people are successfully completing their curriculum vitae and applications for part- time employment. These activities help to prepare young people for college and job interviews. This preparation for adulthood contributes to raising young people’s self- confidence and their success in attaining employment.

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Quality of care

Staff provide a nurturing and homely environment. This is enabling young people with attachment issues to attain stable placements.

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Quality of care

Staff’s positive role modelling has helped young people to improve their communication and social skills and has contributed to raising their self-esteem. As a result, young people have developed positive relationships with each other in the home.

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Quality of care

Staff act as good advocates, for example, to ensure that young people have access to appropriate education. This enables young people to improve their engagement and behaviour and to attain their potential. Staff give practical support to young people to encourage their educational progress.

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Quality of care

Young people’s agreed contact arrangements with family and friends are included in care plans. Staff in the home are active in supporting regular and safe contact. However, time delay in gaining multi-agency agreement to changing contact arrangements is creating some tension. Young people are aware of and do contact their social workers to voice their concerns. They also know how to contribute to their statutory reviews and how to complain. Staff also show good support to young people to access independent advocacy; however, on this occasion, young people did not know how to access this service. This impedes opportunity for young people to feel that their rights are met.

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Quality of care

Young people have individualised care plans and daily routines. Progress reports are completed on a weekly basis and they are sent to young people’s social workers. Staff engage young people in their care plans and each young person has an outcomes file that contains a range of information about young people’s achievements. However, some targets, for example educational, are not sufficiently specific to enable progress to be accurately evaluated. This hinders staff’s ability to know young people’s progress at an individual basis and in contrast with their peer group.

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Quality of care

Access to in-house therapeutic services is promoting good emotional well-being. However, some young people state that they would like more choice. Young people state that while they feel that counselling staff are genuine, on occasion they do not feel that the in-house service meets their individual needs. Consequently this hinders their ability to use this service. The manager has taken action during the inspection to ensure access to appropriate specialist psychological services is in place.

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Quality of care

Staff are consistent in their approach to the use of sanctions; young people’s views are sought about the use of sanctions and their effectiveness is monitored. The home’s individualised incentive programme is also evaluated on a weekly basis to identify its effectiveness. Young people have access to individualised activities to promote skills and to develop self-esteem. Young people have been engaged in changes in the home and feedback demonstrates that young people do think that incentives and sanctions are fair.

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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

Young people state that they feel safe in this home and in the community. Staff promote young people’s welfare.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff act decisively when they have concerns about young people’s behaviours. Staff report concerns and any serious incidents appropriately to promote young people’s well-being and safety. There is good partnership working to enable young people to have positive relationships and life experiences. This normalises their lives and helps them to develop skills for independent living.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff work with young people to provide support to help to develop self-reflection and self-management of behaviour. As a result, there is a reduction in young people’s risk-taking behaviour, such as aggressive behaviour. There are no reports of physical restraint since the last inspection.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Episodes of going missing have greatly reduced. Drinking in the community and involvement in anti-social behaviour have stopped. Staff work successfully with relevant partners, including the police, to put in place effective boundaries. As a result, young people are no longer going missing and their alcohol consumption has stopped. This has greatly improved young people’s safety.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The home has a ‘missing person’ protocol in place. Effective action is in place to find young people when they go missing and to provide them with support when they are safely returned home. Young people’s risk assessments identify individualised antecedents and protective factors that are well understood and addressed by staff. Risk assessments are up to date, and staff report that they are updated when a significant event takes place. However, review is not undertaken on a regular basis and forms are not individually signed by the practitioner or young person. This reduces the ability to have transparency about accountability of record keeping and does not reflect the review of care that does take place in this home.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people state that there is no bullying in the home. Young people talk about how well they get on with each other. Staff provide young people with appropriate supervision to ensure their safety. Episodes of bullying outside of the home are taken seriously by the home to provide support for the young person and to stop such incidents occurring. Staff address any disrespectfulness in a positive manner to promote the reduction of such behaviours.

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Safeguarding children and young people

All staff are selected and vetted robustly to ensure that young people are cared for by suitably qualified adults.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Health and safety in the home are monitored and appropriate and prompt action is taken when there are any shortfalls. This ensures that young people are safe in the home.

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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

Management of this home is effective and efficient. An application for registration with Ofsted to be the Registered Manager is in place. The new manager is assertive and promotes a culture of reflection and learning, to improve outcomes for young people. Staff are encouraged to appreciate and respect young people as individuals.

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Leadership and management

A comprehensive Statement of Purpose is in place, with clear aims and objectives for the home. This enables stakeholders to have a good overview of the purpose of the home. The children’s guide is comprehensive and is explained to young people.

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Leadership and management

Staff receive regular supervision that is focused on the quality of care that is provided to young people. The manager plans to change to a competency-based review in the near future. The manager considers this will enable a more accurate evaluation of the impact of staff practice. In addition, the organisation’s psychologist visits the home on a weekly basis so is available to staff for additional support and guidance. Staff report that they feel well supported.

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Leadership and management

Staff report that they are able to access the organisation’s training options and they feel skilled and competent to care for the needs of young people. Staff have recently completed training in dialectic behaviour therapy as part of the organisation’s commitment to continual improvement.

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Leadership and management

There is good monitoring of the quality of care and this includes input from young people and placing authorities. The manager uses this management information to inform the home’s priorities. The manager is aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the service. There is a good development plan in place. Recommendations at the last inspection ensure that when lone working takes place, staff and young people are safe. In addition, the period of time dedicated to staff supervision is recorded to gain transparency about the time the staff and manager has to formally assess the effectiveness of staff’s practice.

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Leadership and management

All personal records are clear and stored securely, and contribute to an understanding of the young people’s lives. Statutory reviews are undertaken on a regular basis. All significant events relating to young people are well recorded and reported to relevant partners.

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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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