Children's Home run by PIC Children’s Services in St Helens

Unique reference number SC022464 Inspection date 24/02/2014 Inspector Marian Denny Type of inspection Interim Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 23/08/2013 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

The home, which is privately run, provides care and accommodation for one young person with emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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The inspection judgements and what they mean

Good progress The children’s home has demonstrated continued improvement in quality of care and outcomes for children and young people and where appropriate has addressed all requirements and the large majority of recommendations that were raised at the previous inspection. Satisfactory progress The children’s home has maintained quality of care and outcomes for children and young people and where appropriate has addressed all requirements and the majority of recommendations that were raised at the previous inspection. Inadequate progress The children’s home has failed to address one or more requirements and/or has not met the majority of recommendations and/or the quality of care and outcomes for children and young people have declined since the last full inspection.

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Progress

The home has not provided accommodation to children and young people since Monday 27 January 2014. This inspection focuses on whether the children's home meets its statutory requirements in order to maintain its registration and is ready to accept placements.

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Progress

The home was last inspected on 23 August 2013. The overall effectiveness of the home was judged as good. In the last inspection, two requirements were made. One of these related to Regulation 33 visits and reports and the other was in ensuring staff received appropriate training in relation to the safe administration of medicine. Three recommendations were also made, one was in relation to ensuring staff rotas included time specifically scheduled for staff handovers; a second was to make sure a robust system was in place to monitor the quality and adequacy of records and to take action to remedy this where necessary. The final recommendation was about ensuring information regarding individual children was kept confidential. Since the last inspection, these requirements and recommendations have been met.

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Progress

There is a stable staff team who usually work in this home and they continue to meet regularly to discuss practice issues relating to this home. While the home is empty though, staff are currently working in another of the organisation’s children’s homes. However, should a young person be admitted to this home, the organisation’s staffing capacity is such, that they could be very quickly re-deployed to this home. During the twelve months, staff have had a great deal of training to increase their professional competency and equip them to meet the complex needs of the young people in their care.

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Progress

The home provides a detailed Statement of Purpose and an informative children's guide. These documents give a clear overview of what placing social workers, parents and young people can expect from the service.

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Progress

Records are in place to support the health and safety measures within the home, including environmental risk assessments. Checks, such as appliance testing, fire tests, electrical and gas certificates are in place. This shows that facilities and services within the home are assessed as safe.

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Progress

Systems are also in place to ensure that appropriate records will be implemented and maintained in respect of young people. These systems will provide young people with an overview of their experience and their time while living at the home.

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Progress

From the inspection findings it was concluded that the children's home meets its statutory requirements. However, a progress judgement has not been made on this occasion as there are no children or young people accommodated at this time. No requirements or recommendations have been made in this inspection.

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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 progress made by the provider since the last full inspection, identifies any further strengths, any areas for improvement and makes judgements as outlined in the Inspection of children’s homes – framework for inspection.

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