Children's Home run by Barnardo’s in Oxfordshire

Outstanding

The children's home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the home contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 Care plans are of an excellent quality, they are comprehensive and highly individualised.  Care plans are developed in full consultation with other agencies, parents and children, where possible. They are reviewed promptly in line with changing needs.  Children and staff develop excellent relationships with each other and children enjoy their short breaks in the home.  There is excellent communication with children that is highly effective in ensuring that their wishes and feelings are known, understood and met.  Behaviour management is very effective and helps children to deal with their frustrations more effectively.  Children’s health needs, some of which are extremely complex, are exceptionally well catered for.  Planning for stays is exceptionally thorough and ensures that children get the best out of their stay.  Children are safe and staff fully understand their vulnerabilities and make sure they are protected from harm.

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 Working with parents is excellent and staff’s supportive and reassuring approach reduces parent’s anxieties.  Interagency working is exceptionally successful in ensuring that children are cared for exceedingly well. The manager actively challenges other agencies and professionals and accepts challenge from them as a useful tool to improve practice.  Staff are of a high calibre and go over and above to ensure that children benefit greatly from their short break stay  Staff are extremely caring and child focused.  Leadership and management are inspirational and ambitious for children and the development of the service.

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What does the children’s home need to improve?

 Make some additions to the Statement of Purpose and supply the amended copy to HMCI  Ensure that all staff understand the role the local authority has in the management and oversight of allegations against people who work with children.  Ensure those children, for whom it is assessed as appropriate, experience a practice evacuation of the building.

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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 (England) Regulations 2015 and the Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards. The registered person(s) must comply with the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

ensure the statement of purpose covers details of how a person, body or organisation involved in the care or protection of a child can access the home’s child protection policies or the behaviour management policy and notify HMCI of these within 28 days (Regulation 16 (1) and (3) (a)) 26/06/2015

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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 all staff understand the arrangements in place for the management and oversight of allegations against people who work with children (Quality Standard 9.18)

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Recommendations

ensure that care meets each child’s needs and promotes their welfare; with specific reference to enabling those children, for whom it is assessed as appropriate, to experience a practice evacuation of the building (Quality Standard 3.2)

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Information about this children's home

The service caters for a maximum of seven children and young people at any one time, including one emergency bed. It provides a residential short break service and a domiciliary care service that is inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The service is provided by a national charity in partnership with a local authority and a primary care trust. Children and young people can therefore be provided with care and health packages. Most of the children and young people using the service have complex health needs, or are on the autistic spectrum and have associated challenging behaviour.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

10/02/2015 CH - Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Outstanding

Children referred to the service have extremely complex needs. Referral systems and planning for children who are to commence using the service are extremely thorough. Excellent inter-agency working ensures the short break arrangement is an integrated part of the care planning for each child. Highly individualised care plans are developed and reviewed and this ensures that children settle well into home. The care provided is flexible and kept in line with children’s ever changing needs.

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Outstanding

Children are welcomed sensitively when commencing a series of breaks. Young people who are anxious about going to stay at the home are exceptionally well supported to settle. Introductions to the home for each child are carefully assessed, planned for and reviewed to ensure that they settle and can make the best out of their stays. Through the support and patience of staff children go on to form trusting and secure relationships with them. Likewise parents who are anxious about leaving their child in the home are exceptionally well supported and are provided with high levels of reassurance. One professional said, staff ‘go over and above to support families commencing stays.’

p.7

Outstanding

Inter-agency working ensures that care across the day is consistent for children because the home jointly plans care with health services, education providers and parents. Staff get to know children, their needs and their likes and dislikes extremely well. They are attentive to the children in their care and their practice is totally child focused. Children’s complex needs are not seen as a barrier to children’s progress and staff ensure that children can make the best out of their short break. A parent stated, ‘The care is superb, it is so much so that to xxx it is a treat for him to go there.’

p.7

Outstanding

Staff are exceptionally skilled and creative at communicating with children, whatever their means of communication. Staff pick up on small cues and generally understand what they are trying to communicate. This means that children’s wishes views are established and they can actively participate in day-to-day and, where they are able, more complex decisions about their lives. An external professional from a specialist behavioural and communication team commended the care that staff took in learning from them about positive ways to interact with a young person. They said that the care taken to learn about the child’s needs, ‘enabled staff at (the home) to recognise potential triggers to the young person anxieties increasing and respond in a supportive and proactive manner.’ Staff working with the children understand that children’s emotions can be communicated through their behaviour; they take great pains to ensure that

p.7

Outstanding

trigger points are avoided through the effective and patient use of diversion techniques.

p.8

Outstanding

Children using the service have very complex health needs; meeting these is seen as the highest priority. Suitably trained, experienced, qualified staff, including nurses, deliver a high quality of health care to young people. Relationships with external medical professionals are highly effective and health care is responsive to children’s ever changing needs.

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Outstanding

There are excellent links to the schools that children attend and children are well supported to get into school following a short break. Staff have gone over and above their roles on occasions when transport organised by the local authority has not arrived or when a child has needed support to travel in the transport provided.

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Outstanding

Children benefit from the high levels of respect staff have for them. Staff are extremely responsive to their diverse needs and ensure their dignity is promoted. A parent stated, ‘the staff are very caring and take a great deal of trouble to support my child. The staff show respect for individuals differences and have listened carefully and appropriately to our knowledge as parents.’

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Outstanding

During their short break children experience a stable, consistent environment. The environment provided to them is of a high quality. It is child-focused and stimulating. Children have staff allocated to them who work with them through their stay on an individual basis. Their day-to-day needs are catered for in line with their needs and preferred routines. Activities are interesting and varied and are aimed at helping children have fun while learning new skills and developing friendships with others. Children’s achievements, however seemingly small, are celebrated.

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Outstanding

Children enjoy the nutritious home cooked meals; the food was commended by professionals and parents. Mealtimes are relaxed events during which staff and children spend time all together.

p.8

Outstanding

When children move on to other services staff work exceptionally well with the new provider to ensure that children’s needs and preferences are known. Unfortunately the home is not always informed that a child is about to cease stays in the home despite their persistence in trying to establish what the future plans are. Judgement grade

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Good

Children are clearly comfortable with the staff who care for them. Some children show excitement when they know they are going for their stay. Children for whom the initial period of arrival is distressful are well supported by staff to settle in and after the initial period of distress they enjoy and make use of the facilities.

p.9

Good

Staff know and understand the complex needs children have and how these impact on their safety. Risks are managed well and ensure that children are safe while staying in the home. As needs change risk assessments are adjusted to ensure that strategies for managing risks remain effective.

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Good

The planning for stays for new young people, as well as the planning for more established young people, incorporates good consideration of risks including looking at the compatibility of children who stay at the same time. A social worker said that while balancing the needs of children having a stay together is a difficult task to manage that the home, ‘does this very well.’

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Good

Children do not go missing because of the high staffing levels but the arrangements, in the unlikely event of a child being lost, are robust.

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Good

Staff have a good understanding of triggers that may distress a young person and use de-escalation techniques effectively to defuse situations. Positive behaviour is promoted and the support to help to children to manage their distress is effective.

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Good

Physical interventions are used only in appropriate situations. Staff are trained in appropriate physical restraint methods and understand the underlying reasons for distressed behaviour; their success at helping children to avoid triggers and defusing situations is reflected in the low use of restraints.

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Good

Children are effectively safeguarded by staff who know and understand their vulnerabilities relating to disability. Staff understand how to implement the safeguarding procedures if they have a concern about the safety or well-being of a child to ensure that children are protected. Not all staff had a clear understanding about the role the Local Authority Safeguarding Officer has in managing concerns about professionals with children.

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Good

Due to the complex needs of children staying in the home targeted bullying is not an issue in the conventional sense. However, staff are alert at all times to any risks one child may present to another, for example, due to being distressed, and effectively use diversion techniques to avoid such situations.

p.9

Good

The home provides a pleasant, safe environment for children to have their short break in because all health and safety checks are carried out routinely and issues of maintenance are addressed. Routine checks are carried out on fire equipment and alarm systems and evacuations of the building are practiced. It would be of benefit, to those children who can cope with a practice evacuation, to have this experience so that in the event of a real emergency they are more familiar with what to expect.

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Good

There is a robust staff recruitment system that ensures that all staff are of good character, suitably qualified and experienced and committed to ensuring that children are safe and happy during their stays. This ensures children are protected from unsafe people coming into contact with them.

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Outstanding

The manager of the home is registered with Ofsted and has managed this service since 2011. She is very experienced, a qualified nurse and holds a level five qualification. She inspires confidence in external professionals and parents and leads her staff team by example. Comments about her and her team included that she is ‘exceptionally skilled and dedicated.’ And that there is, ‘a very good leadership team in addition to skilled frontline staff.’

p.10

Outstanding

The manager actively challenges other services that are not effective and equally accepts constructive criticism as a means to improve practice in the home. The manager responds effectively to any recommendations made by the independent visitor. She has clear plans for the development of the service and is ambitious for the children the home cares for.

p.10

Outstanding

She has ensured that the recommendations from the previous inspection have been met. This means that staff are better equipped to understand and deal with any concerns about safeguarding disabled children and issues relating child sexual exploitation; records are clearer about reasons for using specialist equipment and the manager provides reports on her monitoring of the home to Ofsted.

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Outstanding

The Statement of Purpose clearly sets out the aims and objectives of the service and how these will be met; the statement is clear, met and reviewed and underpins the work carried out. A minor shortfall of the statement is that it does not provide details of how interested parties can access the home’s child protection policies or the behaviour management policy. Additionally, the most recent version of the statement has not been provided to HMCI.

p.10

Outstanding

The impact on children from having their short break stays as part of their overall care package is closely monitored and care is adjusted where required. Resources are well managed and the environment provided to young people is very child focused, safe, and stimulating and provides children with a very pleasant and relaxed environment.

p.10

Outstanding

The exceptionally good working relationships with other agencies, professionals and parents are impressive and form the basis for driving children’s progress in all areas of their lives. When children’s health needs deteriorate and end of life care is required the manager ensures that the child and family are supported really well to have good quality time together. An external professional highlighted that the home’s, ‘managers and staff work closely, collaboratively and effectively with (the local authority) and health providers.’ And stated, ‘We could not manage systemically without their expert support.’

p.11

Outstanding

Staff working in the home are of a high calibre. They are child centred, well trained and dedicated to ensuring that children get the most out of their short break. They are supported well to carry out their caring tasks through training, supervision and peer support. A professional stated, ‘Staff are accessible, work extremely well with parents, and children and they really understand the needs of the family.’

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Outstanding

Children’s records are of a good quality, they identify children’s individual needs and show that these are comprehensively planned for. They reflect the work that is undertaken with and provide a really good view about children’s experiences and progress.

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What the inspection judgements mean

The experiences and progress of children and young people are at the centre of the inspection. Inspectors will use their professional judgement to determine the weight and significance of their findings in this respect. The judgements included in the report are made against Inspection of children's homes: framework for inspection.

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What the inspection judgements mean

An outstanding children's home provides highly effective services that contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help and protection and care. Their progress exceeds expectations and is sustained over time. A good children's home provides effective services that help, protect and care for children and young people and have their welfare safeguarded and promoted. In a children's home that requires improvement , there are no widespread or serious failures that create or leave children being harmed or at risk of harm. The welfare of looked after children is safeguarded and promoted. Minimum requirements are in place, however, the children's home is not yet delivering good protection, help and care for children and young people. A children's home that is inadequate is providing services where there are widespread or serious failures that create or leave children and young people being

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What the inspection judgements mean

harmed or at risk of harm or result in children looked after not having their welfare safeguarded and promoted.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people living in the children's home. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the difference adults make to the lives of children and young people. They read case files, watched how professional staff work with children, young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care given to children and young people. Wherever possible, they talked to children, young people and their families. In addition the inspectors have tried to understand what the children's home knows about how well it is performing, how well it is doing and what difference it is making for the children and young people who it is trying to help, protect and look after. This 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 Children's

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Information about this inspection

Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards. the guidance raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted, which is available from Ofsted's website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, workbased learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It inspects services for looked after children and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team,

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Information about this inspection

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

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Information about this inspection

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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