Children's Home run by Woodside House Care Ltd in Blackburn with Darwen

Unique reference number SC357455 Inspector Graham Robinson Type of inspection Interim Provision subtype Children's home

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Registered manager Michael Gregg Date of last inspection 24/11/2014 2 of 5 Inspection date 18/03/2015

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Previous inspection outstanding Enforcement action since last inspection None

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This inspection

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

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This inspection

Following the previous inspection, the home has continued to move forward and make progress. For example, young people have just been introduced to and are active with, a national promotion linked to healthy eating, which looks to find alternatives for sugar. Another significant development is with the completion and introduction of impact risk assessments, to be used when the home receives new referrals. Both developments have the potential to impact positively on young people through improved health, and with the continued stability of the home, when new admissions take place.

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This inspection

All young people living in the home are benefitting from being in long-term placements. Although at different points of their journey through the home, they all continue to thrive and make progress. For example, school attendance since the previous inspection remains at 100%. The structure and boundaries in place for young people are accepted by them, which contributes significantly to keeping them safe.

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This inspection

Many young people have deep-rooted and complex issues, but these are addressed and managed effectively. This ensures that serious behaviour management incidents within the home are extremely rare. For example, young people have never gone missing from this home and there have been no incidents of physical intervention for more than a year. Staff work supportively, not punitively when challenging young people about behaviour. This helps young people to begin to accept more responsibility for their own actions and where they can learn from mistakes in a non- threatening environment.

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This inspection

The home has forged excellent working relationships with partner agencies, which ensures that appropriate multi-agency responses are available, should a young person decide to test the structure and boundaries put into place for them. These 3 of 5 arrangements contribute positively towards ensuring the safety of young people.

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This inspection

The home is stable and settled. A small group of staff that has had no recent changes, provide a consistency of care that is high in quality. A family group environment creates a safe, warm and nurturing environment where individuality is accepted and celebrated. As a result, young people's outcomes improve significantly in all areas of their lives. Young people recognise and appreciate this. They speak positively about their experience of living in the home and about the staff who care for them.

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This inspection

The home continues to be well organised and managed. A strength of the home is the range of shared activities which provide young people with new experiences and opportunities to take up new hobbies, as they develop new interests. For example, some young people are very active with children's rights groups, others are involved with drama and sporting groups.

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This inspection

At the previous inspection, no requirements or recommendations were made. Since then the standard of care has continued to improve and young people continue to make progress in all areas of their lives. No new recommendations have been made. 4 of 5

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Information about this children’s home

This home is a private children's home owned and managed by a family partnership. It is registered to provide accommodation for up to four young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

24/11/2014 Full outstanding 20/03/2014 Interim good progress 26/11/2013 Full outstanding 18/12/2012 Interim good progress Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the source and date of publication are stated.

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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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