Children's Home run by The Partnership of Care Today in Stoke-on-Trent

Unique reference number SC008269 Inspection date 10/01/2014 Inspector Martha Nethaway Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 27/11/2012 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

The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for three young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The service is owned by a private company.

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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

The effectiveness with which the home provides care is good. Outcomes for children are good. Children progress well in all aspects of their lives. Their health is good because they lead active and healthy lives. Their emotional health is well supported because they get help from professional counsellors. Children enjoy their school day and their attendance is very high. Children enjoy a good and varied range of recreational activities. This helps to boost their self-esteem.

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Overall effectiveness

Children’s consultation and participation is well embedded. They attend weekly meetings to discuss a range of issues about their home. Children directly influence the choice of food, activities and rules set at the home; this help shape their care in the home. This demonstrates that the needs and interests of children are taken seriously.

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Overall effectiveness

Children’s quality of care is good. Children say they feel safe and are safe. Children enjoy positive working relationships with staff. Staff are caring and fully committed to the children’s welfare.

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Overall effectiveness

Leadership and management are good. This is a well-run home with a strong commitment to positive outcomes for children. The home is making good progress with its development plan. A key strength of the home is the excellent level of investment in staff training. This ensures that staff are well trained so that they are skilled, trained and effectively supported to meet the children’s needs.

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Overall effectiveness

As a result of this visit, there are two requirements and two recommendations. The first requirement is that the home has been asked to review the Statement of Purpose in order to provide additional information about therapy. The second is for the home to provide more detail in their quality assurance report. This is about how trends and patterns are addressed and to show how improvements have impacted on the care at the home. The home has been recommended to review the use of sanctions with younger children. The home has been recommended to better reflect how progress, experience and outcomes for children are being achieved, through the independent visitors report. The areas mentioned do not detract from the continued good outcomes that children are making.

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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

(2001) ensure the Statement of Purpose includes the following particulars: details of any specific therapeutic techniques used in the home, and arrangements for their supervision (Regulation 4(1) schedule 1(26)) 28/02/2014

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) establish and maintain a system for monitoring the matters set out in schedule 6 and improving the quality of care, with particular reference to identifying patterns and trends to lead to improvement. (Regulation 34 (1(b)) 28/02/2014

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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

 review how children are encouraged to take responsibility for their behaviour, in a way that is appropriate to their age and abilities. (NMS 3.6)  ensure Regulation 33 visits scrutinise how the home is supporting children to enjoy and achieve. The person making the visits will wish to be satisfied that the home has an effective approach to behaviour management. Visits should routinely examine records of restraint and logs of missing person’s reports, to check that the home provides stable, safe and secure care. (Statutory guidance, Volume 5, paragraph 3.12 page 42)

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Outcomes for children and young people

Outcomes for young people are good . Children’s outcomes are good. They develop good positive relationships with each other and staff. Children develop a good sense of belonging. One child commented, ‘My brother is living with me now and this is good.’ Children are learning to be happier. Another child commented, ‘It’s great fun here, we get to play lots of games, have pets and do interesting things.’

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Outcomes for children and young people

Children enjoy good health. They visit their doctor, dentist and optician. This ensures that no health matters are going unchecked. Children also access counselling. This encourages children to talk and offers practical and emotional support. As a result, children are helped to get back on track with their lives.

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Outcomes for children and young people

All children attend school. Their experiences of school life are positive. One child commented, ‘We go to our school and do different things. We do art therapy, photography and I play in the school band.’ Over time, children make good progress with their literacy and numeracy. Activities to practise these skills include game boards and computer games which are regularly used in the home.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Children make a positive contribution to their home. They participate in daily activities such as, preparing and cooking meals. One child commented, ‘My favourite meal is lasagne and I am assisting with this tonight.’ Children willingly share their views and opinions about how the home is run. One child explained, ‘We meet each Friday and talk. We chat about our behaviour, school, activities and our goals.’ As a result, children’s participation and involvement in the home helps to promote their voice.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Children enjoy appropriate contact with family and friends. Children's views are regularly sought, specifically about any dilemmas they may have and their welfare is always promoted. Children say they discuss how they feel after visits to their family. Children say they see and talk to their family regularly. Consequently, children are staying in touch with their family and friends. This helps to reassure the children and helps them to feel valued.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Children’s independent living skills are encouraged. Children help with meal preparation including measuring and mixing ingredients. They help to cook uncomplicated meals. They learn to manage their pocket money and learn wise spending choices. Children learn to keep their play areas clean and tidy away their toys. As a result, this is helping them learn respect and responsibility and to take care of their environment.

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Quality of care

Children enjoy sound relationships with their peers and staff. Children interact positively and behave well. One child commented, ‘I have lots of energy to burn up and staff keep me very busy.’ Staff are supportive and provide a nurturing environment. One social worker commented, ‘The child is now acting like a little boy and I am very pleased to see this, as there is a clear element of normality in it.’

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Quality of care

Children are well informed about how they can make a complaint. This is further safeguarded because the independent visitor checks if children have made a complaint each month. Since the last inspection no children have made a complaint.

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Quality of care

Care planning and implementation is good. All children are provided with a personalised care plan that tracks their progress and development. Children’s emotional health is well supported with extra support from counsellors. In addition, children are making good progress in their school lives because they are well engaged. They are becoming effective learners. As a result, their potential and ability is fully supported.

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Quality of care

Children enjoy a varied range of activities and interests outside the home. Children say they regularly use their local park, which they like. One child commented, ‘We got a mobile skate ramp at the home that we use outside in the front garden. We are very good on it.’ Children say their other interests include swimming, street dance, roller disco, cricket ad football. As a result, children are keeping physically fit. They are better able to handle physical and emotional challenges.

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Quality of care

Children’s needs in relation to their cultural background and personal identity are identified and positively addressed in both daily living and care planning. Children are being positively influenced by staff. Children are able to develop their own unique style. Staff welcome and promote the diversity of children’s individuality. Children understand that staff regularly talk about tolerance and culture diversity in the home.

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Quality of care

The home is a detached new build and does not stand out from its neighbours. The home is situated just outside the city with good transportation links. The home is suitably located and well maintained. One social worker commented, ‘I think that the home has a very homely feeling about it. It’s a real home for the children.’

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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

Children are safe and feel safe in the home and out in the community. This is underpinned by staff that are well trained in child protection, allegations and safeguarding. For example, staff have attended training on child sexual exploitation. Children are supported to access the internet, social media and mobile phones safely. Children are educated to understand online dangers and how to avoid them. Children do not identify bullying as being a concern at the home. Cyber bullying and stranger danger are discussed with children to promote their understanding and to keep them safe.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Children going missing from the home events are rare with none taking place since June 2013. The home has in place good procedures for dealing and responding to missing from home incidents. Children understand the parameters around their supervision and their whereabouts are always known to the staff. Children’s behaviour is well managed. The use of physical intervention is rare. Staff use incentives to reward good behaviour. This encourages children to behave well. Staff do use sanctions to encourage children to take responsibility for poor behaviour. Broadly, these are relevant and fair. Although, the age and abilities of children is not always consistently analysed.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff recruitment and selection of staff is sound. Suitable checks are completed to ensure that staff are suitable to work with vulnerable children.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff pay good attention to health and safety at the home. All children have written risk assessments that are reviewed frequently. Staff ensure the home is safe, well- kept and maintained. All domestic safety checks are completed. The home was awarded a five star rating by the Environmental Health Food Safety and Standards agency. Children are additionally protected because they take part in fire drills. This ensures they know the correct steps to take in the event of an emergency. All these actions demonstrate the home’s commitment to health and safety.

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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 is effectively managed. The Registered Manager provides effective leadership and managerial oversight of the home and is ably supported by a deputy manager. The staff team are fully committed and work hard to produce good outcomes with children. Ofsted has not received any complaints about the home since the last inspection.

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Leadership and management

The home’s Statement of Purpose has been updated and is shared openly. The home is well resourced and financially secure. The home delivers care that is consistent with its aim to provide a nurturing and supportive environment. The resources and facilities on offer are well explained in the Statement of Purpose. Although the therapeutic resources, mainly accessible at the company’s, school are not fully explained. This is a minor administration issue and has no negative impact on children's outcomes.

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Leadership and management

The home’s quality assurance programme is broadly good. A strong feature is the regular consultation with children, families, social workers and other professionals. The home has a development plan in place and this is being well progressed. A sharp focus has been given to staff training and continual updating of the home's decoration. Ofsted has received the home’s six-monthly quality assurance report. Although, it does not evaluate or advance practice to address any patterns or trends. Similarly, the independent visitor monthly reports, do not evaluate to check how the home provides stable, safe and secure care. These are missed opportunities. These minor shortfalls do not detract from the good outcomes that children are achieving.

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Leadership and management

The management and deployment of staff is good. Staff are well supervised and managed. There is a sufficient number of staff to meet the needs of children. Staff turnover is extremely low. All of the staff are qualified to work in residential care. The on-going comprehensive programme of training is the home’s strongest feature. As a result, children’s continuity of care benefits from a well trained staff group. Staff deliver good care for the benefit of children.

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Leadership and management

The management of records is good. All children are provided with clear records of their time in the home. An excellent example is the innovative life story work. As a result, children’s understanding is helped because they can choose to refer to this when they are older.

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Leadership and management

The home’s notification system is good. Leaders and managers fully cooperate with social workers, children's teams and the police. This ensures that the welfare of children is always promoted.

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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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