Children's Home run by Bryn Melyn Care Limited in Telford and Wrekin

Unique reference number SC372630 Inspector Michelle Moss Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Registered person Bryn Melyn Care Limited Registered person address 2 High Street Dawley Telford Shropshire TF4 2ET

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Responsible individual Melissa Johnson Registered manager POST VACANT Date of last inspection 15/10/2013 2 of 10 Inspection date 22/09/2014

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

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Overall effectiveness

Young people feel safe, protected and valued through having a strong and sustained relationship with care staff they respect and trust.

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Overall effectiveness

The manager leads on taking an approach in which care practice is based on getting everything right for every young person. This approach is having a noticeable benefit on young people’s outcomes, especially in areas of emotional well-being, educational achievement and life opportunities in which young people access an impressive array of leisure activities.

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Overall effectiveness

Care planning is personalised with all relevant professionals in a young person’s life playing an integral role in ensuring care is about providing all the necessary assurances so that young people’s needs are met.

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Overall effectiveness

The manager is ensuring a systematic approach is taken to check on the home’s quality of care. This starts with having a clear development plan in place. The focus of care is not only about teamwork, but about multi-disciplinary working, in which young people’s well-being sits at the heart of practice. Nevertheless, there are a few areas of practice that require improvement. These extend, to staff not being sufficiently knowledgeable about the timelines when social workers are required to visit. Sanction records do not always hold all essential information and lastly, care 3 of 10 staff are not always exploring every possible avenue to help young people manage their health conditions. 4 of 10

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Information about this children’s home

The home is run by a private organisation. The home is registered to provide care for up to two young people of either gender, aged between 10 and 17 years.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/10/2013 Interim satisfactory progress 19/04/2013 Full good 05/02/2013 Interim good progress 26/07/2012 Full good

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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

17B (2001) ensure that within 24 hours of the use of any measure of control or discipline a written record is made in a volume which includes:- the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; that the person authorised by the registered provider to make the record has spoken to the child concerned and the person using the measure (Regulation 17B (3)(f)(h)) 31/10/2014

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure each child is provided with guidance, support and advice on health issues appropriate to their needs. (Regulation 20 (2)(d)) 31/10/2014 5 of 10

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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 the home contacts placing authorities to request visits if overdue for any child. (NMS 25.5) 6 of 10

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Outcomes for children and young people outstanding

Young people engage remarkably well with staff and use this support, guidance and advice to develop their confidence, modify and self-control their behaviour and start to overcome the difficulties that have previously hindered their learning. Owing to this successful professional relationship, young people are making exceptional progress since starting their placements.

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Outcomes for children and young people outstanding

Young people benefit highly from having a structured week. This enables them to focus on areas of learning and then to utilise their free time in a positive and rewarding way. Young people are self-motivated to participate in a wide range of activities. This in turn helps to challenge them physically to enable them to stay healthy. This can include, attending army cadets, being members of youth clubs to attending a range of martial arts classes.

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Outcomes for children and young people outstanding

Young people maximise their school attendance so that they can reach their full potential. Young people significant improvement in attendance means they are being afforded the opportunities to enter into subjects that enable them to achieve GCSEs and accredited programmes.

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Outcomes for children and young people outstanding

Young people optimise the opportunities to build up their life skills so that they are increasingly prepared for the challenges of everyday life that comes from making the transition from being a young person to a young adult. This includes participating in cooking meals, shopping for their own food to learning everyday life skills.

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Outcomes for children and young people outstanding

Young people engage in therapeutic sessions to help them safely explore emotions. As a consequence of this willingness to engage, they are beginning to develop a sense of self-worth and self-direction to enable them to be emotional strong.

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Quality of care good

Young people have positive views about the quality of their care; describing staff as ‘great, caring and supportive’. They talk very fondly about staying physically active through accessing a great range of activities which staff support them to pursue.

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Quality of care good

Young people have an environment that promotes their emotional well-being. This is achieved through the positive and caring relationships they have built with staff. Comprehensive assessments of needs are drawn together to help care staff to identify young people’s needs and to set out clear support, which is tailored to the individual young person. 7 of 10 Young people feel listened to, consulted and involved in all decisions that are made about their health and well-being. However, there are occasional times when care staff do not fully utilise their strong and supportive relationships with young people to help them fully understand the impact of health conditions. This lack of additional guidance means young people can be reluctant to access effective healthcare and take prescribed medication.

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Quality of care good

Young people have a sense of pride in where they live and will assist care staff to ensure their home environment remains clean, stimulating and comfortable.

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Quality of care good

Young people are given maximum praise to help reinforce and celebrate their achievements. These positive messages are helping young people to build up their confidence and self-esteem and to start the road of recovery to overcome their difficulties of the past.

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Quality of care good

Care staff ensure the young people's voice is integral to everyday practice. As a consequence, young people do not feel it necessary to use the complaints procedure.

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Keeping children and young people safe good

Mutual respect and trusting relationships between young people and staff result in a calm and friendly atmosphere. This is achieved in the main, by the success around behaviour management in which young people learn about acceptable boundaries, alongside experiencing genuine care, which makes them feel safe and secure.

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Keeping children and young people safe good

Young people benefit from having a consistent approach to behaviour management. This successful approach means care staff do not use any form of physical intervention to manage young people’s presenting behaviours. For instance, the care staff utilise their positive relationships with young people to de-escalate situations and help them to develop the coping skills they need to self-control their emotions safely. Nevertheless, there are the occasional times when care staff will imposes a consequence to help young people learn the difference between right and wrong. When care staff impose these measures, they record them as a sanction. Although, the use of the sanction is fair and proportionate, the details recorded miss out on how effective the measure has been. The record also fails to demonstrate staff and young people benefit from having a debriefing session. These missed details limit the opportunity to assess the difference a sanction can make in helping a young person

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Keeping children and young people safe good

Incidents of bullying are rare, but if they do occur the care staff are skilled in understanding the presenting traits and then using their knowledge to take swift action to address these incidents.

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Keeping children and young people safe good

The safeguarding procedures are rigorous and effective to ensure young people’s additional vulnerabilities remain protected. Areas such as missing from care are very 8 of 10 rare, although care staff remain alert to the potential risks of the wider community. This extends to care staff being mindful of the links between missing from care and child sexual exploitation. To ensure safeguards remain effective, care staff receive training and stay abreast with local area joint working protocols. Care staff then use these partnerships to ensure a collaborative approach is maintained so that young people remain protected from harm.

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Keeping children and young people safe good

The home has a well-established workforce. When recruitment is required procedures are deployed to ensure newly appointed staff are deemed suitable to work with young people.

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Keeping children and young people safe good

Young people along with care staff get involved in regular fire drills so they are able to understand how to stay safe in the event of a fire. Additional checks are made on fire safety and the overall environment so that the welfare of young people and care staff remains protected.

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Leadership and management good

The home has been without a Registered Manager since the start of September 2014. The swift appointment of a new manager as meant consistency of management oversight has not been compromised. The newly appointed manager is committed to achieving best practice so that young people experience care that is about making a positive difference. The manager is already in the process of submitting an application to Ofsted to apply to become the home’s new Registered Manager. The manager holds relevant qualifications. This extends to holding a Level 5 Diploma in Leadership for Health and Social Care and Children and Young People’s Services.

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Leadership and management good

Systems for self-evaluation are well established. These are utilised to inform the manager and the organisation where action is needed. The self-evaluation extends to seeking the views of stakeholders, including young people to help inform these assessments. Furthermore, the manger ensures there is a detailed development plan in place for the home, which remains subject to regular review.

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Leadership and management good

The deployment of care staff is centred around the needs of young people. Liaison amongst care staff is good, so that young people experience consistency of care from people their trust and respect.

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Leadership and management good

Care staff are supported to be competent and confident in their work through receiving ongoing training, gaining recognised qualifications and receiving regular supervision. These opportunities help them to build up the necessary knowledge, skills and qualifications to perform their work in the best interests of young people. Nevertheless, there is slight shortfall in not every care staff being fully aware of set timelines in which social workers are required to visit young people. As a consequence, care staff are not actively chasing up when visits become overdue. 9 of 10 Owing to this shortfall, young people’s rights to receive regular visits from their social worker becomes compromised.

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Leadership and management good

The care staff ensure records and care plans are carefully linked to the monitoring and re-assessing young people’s presenting needs and risks. In particular, the manager ensures that the development of any plan involves the input of all relevant people, so that the plan remains diligent in identifying individual’s young people’s needs.

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Leadership and management good

The manager ensures the home’s Statement of Purpose remains up to date and provides all intended readers with key information about the home and the staff that support young people.

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Leadership and management good

The home had no requirements or recommendations arising from their last inspection. 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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