Children's Home run by Bryn Melyn Care Limited in Shropshire

Unique reference number SC372619 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 Justine Ann Staples Date of last inspection 06/03/2014 2 of 9 Inspection date 14/10/2014

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Previous inspection good progress Enforcement action since last inspection none

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Overall effectiveness adequate

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

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Overall effectiveness

The Registered Manager provides good leadership and is passionate about getting things right for young people. Self–evaluation is used effectively to drive forward improvement and this starts by having a detailed development plan.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people have experienced genuine care from staff they have grown to trust and respect over time. However, a recent incident has compromised this trust and left the relationship fragile. As a result, young people feel less secure in their relationships with others although they still feel safe within the home.

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Overall effectiveness

Care practice is personalised so that young people receive the attention and support they need to thrive. However, care planning and consultation has dropped in recent times. As a result young people’s participation in their care has become compromised.

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Overall effectiveness

The home has areas of practice that require improvement. These extend to medication, care planning, consultation, staff training on safeguarding practice and better recording of sanctions and physical restraints. Although a recent incident at the home has impacted on young people’s relationships with staff, the organisation has acted swiftly to ensure young people’s welfare is not compromised and that additional support is available. 3 of 9

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Information about this children’s home

This is a small private children's home catering for one young person who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/03/2014 Interim good progress 17/06/2013 Full good 19/02/2013 Interim good progress 02/08/2012 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

(2001) ensure in preparing or reviewing the placement plan the registered person shall seek and take account of the young person’s views and that it is kept under review and revised as necessary (Regulation 12(2) (3)) 28/11/2014

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Reg. Requirement Due date

17B (2001) ensure that within 24 hours of the use of any measure of control, restraint or discipline in a children’s home, a written record is made in a volume which includes the details listed under regulation 17B (Regulation 17B (3)(f)(h) and 4(b)) 28/11/2014

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure there are suitable arrangements for the recording, handling, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of any medicines 28/11/2014 4 of 9 received into the children’s home. (Regulation 21(1)(c ))

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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 all young people can communicate their views on all aspects of their care and support (NMS 1.3)  ensure where there has been a physical restraint, young people are able to call on medical assistance and are always given the opportunity to be examined by a registered nurse or medical practitioner (NMS 3.16)  ensure staff are trained, to the basic level of the local safeguarding children board’s training programme and should know what constitutes appropriate safe care practice. (Children Act 1989, Volume 5 Statutory Guidance, Paragraph 2.74) 5 of 9

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Outcomes for children and young people good

Young people take an interest in looking after their health, including staying healthy. For example, young people understand the importance of having a good balanced diet. They are using the support available to them to work closely with health workers such as psychologists and therapeutic services to improve their emotional and mental well-being. Young people also accept the support they receive from staff to help sustain meaningful contact with family. They use this support to rebuild relationships and gain greater understand about their past.

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Outcomes for children and young people good

Young people have mainly experienced meaningful consultation during their time at the home. They have used this highly effectively to talk about their care and to make decisions on matters that affect them. However, in recent times this level of consultation has dropped. In turn, this has left young people with less opportunity to maintain a level of influence over their care.

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Outcomes for children and young people good

Young people have aspirations for their future and participate in meaningful activities. For example, young people are able to attend horse riding. They get involved in supporting local stables and caring for animals. Young people’s dedication towards animals has meant they have been entrusted to have a pet rabbit. The level of care is exceptional.

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Outcomes for children and young people good

Young people have struggled in the past with their education; however, they have managed to turn this around. This extends to having excellent school attendance and, through staff support, making exceptional progress so that they can work towards accredited qualifications.

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Outcomes for children and young people good

Young people take part in various tasks such as cooking and shopping. As a consequence, they are building life skills that are helping them to become better prepared for their transition from being a young person to a young adult.

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Quality of care adequate

The relationship between young people and staff has been excellent for a long period of time: young people have felt safe, respected and highly valued. However, as a result of a recent incident, the relationship with staff is now fragile. This has resulted in young people losing their sense of connection with staff and they are less trusting of the sincerity of staff in providing genuine care and support.

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Quality of care adequate

Professionals who have known young people for long periods of time, report that the home has made a very positive impact on young people’s lives. The level of 6 of 9 improvement is described as ‘huge’. The home has managed to significantly reduce risks and has enabled young people to build a sense of identity and belonging in their lives. Professionals recognise recent events have impacted on relationships, but equally acknowledge the level of work done has meant young people have the emotional resilience they need to help them through this difficult period.

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Quality of care adequate

Consultation with young people, including listening to them, discussing their care plans and talking about how the home is run has dropped in recent times. As a consequence, young people are left feeling less valued and that their views no longer matter. More positively, young people’s care plans are developing over time and demonstrate progress and achievement. These plans are carefully integrated with the placing authority’s care plans. Collectively, these plans provide details about how young people’s needs are to be met and the roles and responsibilities of the different professionals. Nevertheless, the young person’s participation in the reviewing of the home’s main plan is absent. This disregard of the young person’s views and opinions weakens what is otherwise a comprehensive plan.

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Quality of care adequate

Young people effectively use the home’s complaints procedure to express their views about the quality of care they receive. As a result, young people’s concerns have been taken very seriously and the organisation has taken all the necessary steps to ensure young people are able to rebuild confidence and trust in people employed to care for them.

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Quality of care adequate

The Registered Manager and staff appreciate the value education has on a young person’s life. They play an important role in supporting young people’s school attendance and in ensuring they have one to one support they need in the classroom to enhance their learning. Owing to this commitment, young people are making significant improvements in their learning, attainment and achievements as a consequence of their placement.

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Quality of care adequate

Young people benefit from living in well decorated and furnished property which they view as their home. The location is rural which young people particularly like, especially because of the surrounding countryside. Young people talk fondly about how they enjoy the different seasons and about the fun they have with the changes in weather, such as the arrival of snow. Despite the remoteness of the home’s location, young people still have access to schooling, leisure facilities and other community facilities that are important to enhancing their full development.

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Quality of care adequate

Young people’s health needs are identified and assessed at the earliest stage of their placement and are regularly reviewed through a health plan . Particular health needs that can impact on future outcomes are well addressed. This includes young people being able to access specialist health workers such as the organisation’s psychologist and therapy service. Through regular appointments, young people’s emotional well- being is strengthened and this means they are more able to self-moderate their feelings and stabilise their mental health. Despite these positive approaches, when short course treatments are prescribed by a doctor there is a failure to ensure 7 of 9 medication is administered and recorded correctly. As a result, young people’s physical health is compromised.

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Keeping children and young people safe adequate

Young people comment on the lack of respect towards confidentiality and this in turn had broken down trust and respect with primary carers.

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Keeping children and young people safe adequate

The Registered Manager and other managers in the organisation respond swiftly to any serious concerns raised by young people. They use stringent procedures to respond to these concerns so that young people are assured concerns are handled effectively. Nevertheless, during periods of uncertainty, young people do feel less safe especially when losing key people in their lives.

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Keeping children and young people safe adequate

The staff follow set procedures on the rare occasions when young people go missing from care. Staff are highly alert to the vulnerability of young people and will quickly implement risk assessments and protocols to ensure young people are safeguarded.

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Keeping children and young people safe adequate

The use of restraint and sanctions is low. Young people over time have developed coping skills that enable them to better self-regulate their emotions and control their anger. Nevertheless, when sanctions or restraint are found necessary, the required recording logs lack sufficient detail. For example, sanction records fail to capture details of the effectiveness of the measure or to demonstrate that young people and staff have been offered debriefing sessions. In areas of physical restraint, records fail to record the methods used to avoid the need for restraint. Records also fail to show that young people are offered the opportunity to seek medical advice following a restraint, especially where they received an injury. This is also not adequately followed up with the young person and investigated.

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Keeping children and young people safe adequate

The vetting of staff and visitors is sufficiently rigorous to ensure young people are safeguarded. The retention of staff is good and as a result the recruitment of new staff remains low.

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Keeping children and young people safe adequate

The home has risk assessments in place for the different aspects of premises safety. This includes fire and electrical safety checks being routinely completed.

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Keeping children and young people safe adequate

Any significant event is appropriately reported to the right agency. This enables all involved professionals to make the necessary decisions over the level of action required.

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Keeping children and young people safe adequate

Young people mostly recognise that staff want to keep them safe. Staff are trained in child protection, child sexual exploitation and aspects of health and safety. Nevertheless, staff are less aware of the different elements of safeguarding, in 8 of 9 particular staff have limited awareness to the basic level of the local safeguarding children board’s (LSCB’s) training programme, which covers appropriate safe care practice.

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Leadership and management good

The Registered Manager is appropriately qualified and has been in post since 2010. Their practice takes a therapeutic approach and this helps young people to build up the confidence, self-esteem and emotional resilience they need to overcome their difficulties of the past. The manager takes a collaborative approach to working with schools and other agencies, so that effective partnership working remains focused on young people’s outcomes.

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Leadership and management good

The engagement of young people and other stakeholders means that the development plan is effective and is helping to inform continuing improvement in the service. Other areas of self-evaluation are sufficiently detailed to generate reliable evidence for reporting on the standards and quality of care.

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Leadership and management good

The home has a clear, accessible and comprehensive statement of purpose that sets out its aims and objectives.

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Leadership and management good

The home has an established workforce, with staff well supported, supervised and accountable in their work with young people. The number of staff on duty is sufficient to meet the needs of young people and to support them in their activities, visits and appointments. Nevertheless, recent events have disrupted the continuity of staff and resulted in young people being supported by less familiar staff.

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Leadership and management good

Staff hold a good range of experience and suitable qualifications for caring for children and young people. They have ongoing training opportunities which enable them to develop their skills and build up competences in areas of child care practice.

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Leadership and management good

Young people’s individual records are stored safely and arranged in a manner that makes them accessible to staff to update as necessary.

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Leadership and management good

The home had no requirements or recommendations at their last inspection, which required following up. 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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