Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Rochdale

Unique reference number SC456543 Inspector Stella Lovie Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Registered person Advanced Childcare Limited Registered person address Pinnacle House 2 Oakwood Square, Cheadle Royal Business Park CHEADLE Cheshire SK8 3SB Responsible individual Kamran Abassi Registered manager Rachel Grima Date of last inspection 19/11/2013 2 of 11 Inspection date 12/06/2014

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Previous inspection satisfactory progress Enforcement action since last inspection none

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Overall effectiveness good

Outcomes for children and young people good Quality of care good Keeping children and young people safe good Leadership and management good

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Overall effectiveness

Staff work in a non-judgemental way ensuring young people are respected as individuals. They are resilient and show a great deal of perseverance when managing young people's occasionally challenging and confrontational behaviour. It is a testament to the relationships of trust established, and effective behaviour management strategies employed, that the previous high level of such behaviours has considerably diminished.

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Overall effectiveness

As a result, there is clear evidence that young people make good progress in relation to their starting points across all aspects of their welfare and development. Education participation and attainment is now a particular strength and represents a significant improvement since the last inspection.

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Overall effectiveness

This capacity for continual improvement is underpinned by effective communication and partnership working with key agencies. This results in good outcomes for young people, including their active and sustained involvement and participation in the daily running of the home.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people are safeguarded by competent child protection practice. They say they feel safe at the home and respected by staff. As a result, risk-taking behaviours have also reduced. 3 of 11 Leadership is visible and effective. There is a suitably qualified and experienced Registered Manager in post who can demonstrate the positive impact they have had on young people’s lives. Five recommendations are made to improve practice further. None impact negatively on the welfare or safety of young people. 4 of 11

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Information about this children’s home

The home is privately run and is registered for up to one young person with emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/11/2013 Interim satisfactory progress 07/08/2013 Full adequate

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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 that when the choices a child makes are poor or the risks unacceptable is the responsibility of children’s home staff to assist them to understand and manage their own behaviour differently; with specific regard to obtaining thei participation in the compilation of their risk assessments and risk managemen plans (volume 5 guidance, para 2.62)  ensure that children's emotional and social development needs are promoted, with specific regard to obtaining written reports about the focus and impact o therapeutic interventions, and using these to inform placement planning (NMS 6.1)  ensure children are supported to establish positive and appropriate social and sexual relationships in the context of preparation for the world of work and/or further or higher education (NMS 12.1)  ensure a written or electronic record is kept by the home of each supervision held for each member of staff (NMS 19.5)  work with the responsible authority to ensure effective and timely sharing of

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Recommendations

records and documents held by the responsible authority, with specific regard obtaining pathway plans and minutes of looked after reviews. (NMS 22.7) 5 of 11 6 of 11

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Outcomes for children and young people good

Young people enjoy stable placements which enable them to have positive bonds with experienced, motivated and well-supported staff. This helps young people to aspire and improve their life chances. It provides a strong platform from which young people develop better emotional resilience and a positive sense of self. They are confident that their views are important and that they make a significant contribution, both to the day to day running of the home, and to their care planning. This further builds confidence and self-esteem. As one social worker commented: ‘I’m nothing but pleased with the placement. He’s done so well there. He’s built strong relationships with a consistent staff team. His challenging behaviours have really reduced. I wouldn’t have dreamt that he would do so well when I placed him there. He knows what the rules and constraints are. He tells me he’s really happy there.’

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Outcomes for children and young people good

Young people engage regularly in sports and other active pursuits such as skiing and rock climbing. They receive good quality advice and support to do so. This promotes their physical health and well-being. Young people enjoy good health because their health needs are effectively identified and services provided to meet them. They are encouraged and supported to attend routine and specialist appointments to ensure they remain fit and well. Where appropriate, they take responsibility for their health needs by making their own health appointments. They understand the importance of healthy diet and exercise, and engage constructively with specialist support in relation to issues such as sexual health. This enables them to take responsibility for and be active participants in decisions that affect them. Consequently, previous risk-taking behaviours are decreasing.

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Outcomes for children and young people good

Young people make good progress with their education relative to their age, level of understanding and personal circumstances. They are well supported by staff and tutors in the education provided in the home. As a result, their attendance, participation and attainment have improved significantly since the last inspection. For example, some young people are taking a range of exams, are self-motivated to go to the library to revise, and have aspirations to go to college. As one education professional wrote: ‘His participation has certainly improved this year – he is realising the importance of getting decent exam results at the end of this academic year.’

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Outcomes for children and young people good

Young people are able to see their families, have overnight stays and access a broad range of social, educational, recreational and, where appropriate, spiritual opportunities. This helps them to develop into mature well-rounded individuals. Young people acquire practical skills through structured independent living programmes to prepare them for adult life. This includes practice in cooking, shopping and budgeting. However, there is insufficient proactive focus in this work on the promotion of their social and emotional resilience. This leaves young people vulnerable in respect of future transitions into community settings such as college or 7 of 11 shared living arrangements where they need to be able to manage constructive relationships with peers.

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Quality of care good

Staff work hard to establish and maintain positive relationships with young people based on the values of good parenting and trust. As a result young people enjoy warm relationships with staff in the home and there is a good rapport between them. Through these relationships, young people are encouraged and supported to aspire for the best for their future and to make good life choices. They are able to influence decisions about how they behave and what they do in their lives. With this end in mind, staff try to get the young people centred in the realities of everyday life, but within as safe a context as possible. They regularly undertake risk assessments and minimise any risks associated with this. This is balanced against the fact that young people need to learn to do these things and be able to make mistakes safely.

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Quality of care good

Staff are encouraged to show creativity in widening young people’s awareness of differing religions and cultural beliefs. This includes direct work with young people to challenge racist and homophobic attitudes. This approach is also embedded in daily living, education and structured activities with young people. It helps them to understand their impact on others, and to learn the value of tolerance and social cohesion.

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Quality of care good

Staff are clearly aware of young people's assessed needs and create consistently well-written placement plans which outline how these needs will be met. Staff put those plans into practice by effective collaboration with relevant agencies and resources. As one external agency confirmed: ‘The partnership working with the home is excellent. The communication is brilliant.’ This means young people receive a highly individualised service that is designed to meet their specific requirements. This service includes regular in-house therapeutic work with young people. However, the home is unable to demonstrate the focus and impact of those particular interventions as written feedback from the therapists has not been available for young people’s reviews. This inhibits care planning.

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Quality of care good

Staff champion young people's educational needs through proactive partnerships with tutors, social workers and other relevant agencies. They help young people to see that engagement with education is integral to emotional stability and development of self-esteem. Staff recognise young people's achievements in the home and celebrate them. These practices help young people to experience success and develop their confidence.

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Quality of care good

Much decoration and maintenance work has been done on the home so that it is a bright and cheerful living environment. Young people contribute by helping to 8 of 11 maintain outside areas and growing vegetables. This helps to develop a sense of belonging, security and purpose.

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Keeping children and young people safe good

The home makes good provision for safeguarding young people’s welfare. Young people report that they feel safe in the home. This is confirmed by feedback from relatives: ‘Staff definitely keep him safe. The contact with me is going great. I’ve no complaints at all. I think he’s a lot better in that home than he’s been in any other children’s home.’

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Keeping children and young people safe good

Everyone involved in supporting the young people plays a role in ensuring they stay protected from harm. This includes staff being confident in all areas of child protection and having the necessary knowledge and skills to keep young people safe. Strong links with other agencies give staff access to up-to-date advice and guidance so that everyday practice puts young people’s welfare first. The local police support officers play an active role in educating young people about how to keep safe. Robust and thorough vetting of new staff ensures that young people are appropriately safeguarded.

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Keeping children and young people safe good

Risk assessments are thorough, insightful and individualised, reflecting the diverse needs and personalities of young people. They are reviewed regularly and up-dated as necessary. However, they fail to reflect young people’s direct involvement with their compilation. While this potentially compromises young people’s ownership of their risk management plans, it is mitigated by the fact that there is much informal discussion with young people about their risk assessments. There is also clear evidence that these plans have had a positive impact on reducing the level of risk- taking behaviours by young people.

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Keeping children and young people safe good

Young people are respected as emerging young adults. Effective behaviour management strategies are used based on dialogue, negotiation and sensitive guidance from staff. This helps young people to work things out for themselves, make informed choices and take responsibility for their decision-making. As a result, physical restraint is not used and sanctions are only applied infrequently. Incidents of challenging behaviour have considerably lessened in frequency and severity. As one external professional said: ‘He has made a lot of significant progress. He used to be very difficult to engage, get distracted, abusive and throw things. Those incidents have got less and less. He does still get distracted but he’s more resilient, uses his sense of humour well, takes things on board and retains information. There have been the odd few incidents but he always apologises afterwards.’

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Keeping children and young people safe good

Likewise, episodes when young people go missing have significantly reduced to just occasional late returns. These continue to be well-managed within individual detailed 9 of 11 and proportionate risk management protocols. This demonstrates that staff are effective in helping young people to find more constructive ways of coping with their distress or anxiety than by running away. They work with them to ensure they feel safe and to support them to find other means of expressing their distress.

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Leadership and management good

The home has a Registered Manager who has been in post for 18 months. She is suitably experienced. She is currently working towards her appropriate management qualification. She manages this home alongside two other homes in the local area. This means there are times when she is not present in the home. The manager is clear about her responsibility to the young people and staff and ensures there are good systems of support in place to ensure the home is managed in her absence.

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Leadership and management good

Staff are appropriately qualified, experienced and supervised. Records demonstrate that this supervision is of a good quality and helps staff reflect appropriately on their practice. There is however one minor shortfall that some written supervision records are missing from staff files. Staff receive regular and relevant training that enables them to care effectively for the young people. Their appraisals are thorough and include where possible the views of young people. There is evidence of action being taken where feedback indicates this is needed.

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Leadership and management good

The staff work collaboratively to provide consistency and stability. There are clear responsibilities and accountabilities and the staff have a sense of shared ownership about their practice. They report that they are well led and managed and there is evidence to support that this is the case.

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Leadership and management good

The manager regularly monitors, reviews and tracks the progress of individual young people to assess the quality of the service and the experiences of the young people. Views of young people inform this process. The results of that monitoring drive continuous improvement in outcomes for young people and service provision. This is further supported by robust feedback from the independent visiting. It provides an effective check for compliance with regulations and standards, ensuring that young people's needs are central to proceedings and they are safely cared for at all times. Consequently all requirements and recommendations from recent inspections have been addressed. This means that the service can demonstrate the positive impact and value that living at the home has had on young people’s lives.

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Leadership and management good

A statement of purpose clearly sets out the aims and objectives of the home. Young people receive a pack which contains information relating to expectations of behaviour, their responsibilities, as well as their rights during their time in the home. As a result, everyone can be clear about what to expect at the home.

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Leadership and management good

Records are clear and stored securely. They contribute to an understanding of the young people’s lives, experiences and plans for the future. However, despite efforts 10 of 11 by the manager with placing authorities some key records such as pathway plans and review minutes are missing from their files. This limits fully comprehensive placement planning. Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Leadership and management good

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Judgement Description

Outstanding A service of exceptional quality that significantly exceeds minimum requirements.

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Judgement Description

Good A service of high quality that exceeds minimum requirements.

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Judgement Description

Adequate A service that only meets minimum requirements.

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Judgement Description

Inadequate A service that does not meet minimum requirements.

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Information 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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Information 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 framework of inspection for children's homes.

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