Children's Home run by Cove Care – Residential Limited in Telford and Wrekin

Unique reference number SC397933 Inspector Janine Shortman-Thomas Type of inspection Interim Provision subtype Children's home

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Registered person Cove Residential Care Services Limited Registered person address Cove Care Residential 16 Waterloo Road WOLVERHAMPTON WV1 4BL Responsible individual Lee Thomas Smith Registered manager Lee Thomas Smith Date of last inspection 12/11/2014 2 of 5 Inspection date 11/02/2015

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Previous inspection good Enforcement action since last inspection There has been no enforcement action taken since the last inspection.

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This inspection

This home was judged good at the last full inspection. At this interim inspection Ofsted judge that it has sustained effectiveness .

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This inspection

At the full inspection on 12 November 2014 the home was judged to be good in outcomes for young people, safeguarding and quality of care and adequate in leadership and management. The overall effectiveness of the home was judged to be good.

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This inspection

Appropriate action has been taken to address three recommendations raised at the last inspection. These relate to identifying the appropriate Local Authority Designated Officer for the area the home is located in; the monitoring of medication records and ensuring policies and procedures are available within the home on managing allegations and complaints about staff.

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This inspection

Young people continue to make good progress and receive good quality care from a caring staff team who feel supported by the management team to carry out their role. Young People are encouraged and supported to attend a number of training and educational activities to further improve their knowledge, skills, confidence and self-esteem. Whilst this has not always proven to be effective staff continue to look for alternatives to ensure young people’s opportunities can be maximised.

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This inspection

Young people’s holistic health needs continue to be met through primary health services, child and adolescent mental health teams and in-house therapeutic provision. Positive working relationships with partner agencies ensure any presenting or emerging health issues can be identified and strategies implemented to reduce further incidents. This, alongside enjoying a range of regular long standing activities such as attending the gym, result in young people developing socially and promotes positive emotional and physical health. As a consequence young people’s emotional health has improved and incidents of self-harming behaviours have recently decreased. 3 of 5 Staff have high aspirations for young people and they are dedicated and proactive in keeping them safe. Young people maintain positive, trusting relationships with the long standing, stable staff team. Through these relationships staff encourage and

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This inspection

support young people to consider their behaviours which may put them at risk, for example self-harm. Comprehensive risk assessments which are devised and reviewed with young people, social workers, therapists and psychiatrist are in place These detail the responses and actions to be taken at times of crisis. Staff are fully aware of these plans and implement them consistently. Young people feel safe and are kept safe by a competent and experienced staff team.

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This inspection

Young people live in a large comfortable home which is safe and clean throughout. They personalise their own bedrooms and the celebration corner in the dining area, with pictures, posters and certificates they have achieved. The home and their rooms reflect young people’s individual tastes. All the rooms within the home are maintained to a good standard. Regular health and safety checks are undertaken and any learning from the findings from these are acted on promptly to ensure the safety of all is maintained.

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This inspection

The responsible individual who is the Registered Manager continues to manage the home two days per week. To support the manager in his absence, there is a deputy manager who understands and is familiar with the everyday management of the home. Progression plans for the deputy manager to become the Registered Manager are underway and her training programme continues. Effective internal and independent external monitoring systems, which routinely include views of the young people and their families, analyse the quality of care and care plans. The reports produced are evaluative and provide recommendations which are taken forward by the responsible individual / Registered Manager and incorporated into the development plan which is due for review in March 2015. This ensures the service continues to develop and improve. There have been two formal complaints since the last inspection. These have been managed effectively in line with procedures and

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This inspection

practice reviewed to ensure the continued development of the service. Procedures for notifying partner agencies in the event of serious incidents, accidents, complaints and allegations are always followed. Reporting and recording is good. However, a shortfall has been identified within the recording and evaluation of the effectiveness of the current positive behaviour plans. The dual system which is currently in place is convoluted and difficult to follow for both staff and young people.

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This inspection

One recommendation has been raised to improve care practice. This relates to the monitoring and recording of rewards and sanctions. This shortfall does not impact on the welfare of young people or the continued effectiveness of service delivery. 4 of 5

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home is privately owned and offers placements for two young people who may have a combination of mental health, psychological, emotional or complex care needs that present challenging behaviour. The service is designed to offer medium- to long-term care placements.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

12/11/2014 Full good 21/03/2014 Interim good progress 27/11/2013 Full good 21/01/2013 Interim good progress

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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 sanctions and rewards for behaviour are clear, reasonable and fair and are understood by all the staff and young people. In particular ensure that just one system is in place to record targets, progress made in meeting them and rewards available; whilst ensuring this is regularly reviewed to evaluate the effectiveness. (NMS 3.8) Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Recommendations

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What inspection judgements mean

At the interim inspections we make a judgement on whether the home has improved in effectiveness, sustained effectiveness, or declined in effectiveness since the previous full inspection. This is in line with the Inspection of children’s homes: framework for inspection.

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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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