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

Inspector Mr Julian Mason

Previous inspection judgement Sustained effectiveness

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home are

The children's home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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The children's home provision requires improvement because:

 The home has been without a permanent manager for a number of months and this has had an impact on the quality and effectiveness of the service’s leadership and management arrangements.  Young people do not receive care and support from a staff team who are fully trained or formally supervised on a regular basis. Some staff appraisals are not up to date. Managers do not have accurate information about the training and development needs of the team. These circumstances bring into question the ability of staff to consistently meet the needs of young people who use the service.  Young people’s views, wishes and feelings are not always captured about key events and circumstances. Their personal aims and aspirations are not reflected or incorporated into their overall plans for the future. Young people’s feedback is not consistently used to help develop or improve the service. Because of these circumstances, opportunities young people have

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The children's home provision requires improvement because:

to positively influence their care or the home’s operation is limited.  Young people do not have up-to-date placement plans where their needs are reflected accurately. This hampers the formal processes needed to monitor young people’s progress and to properly address how identified needs are to be met.  Some of the records that the home is required to maintain are not in place. This undermines the quality and range of information available to managers and staff to enable them to effectively evaluate and track young people’s progress.  Staff and young people’s safety is not fully promoted because the driveway leading to the home is in a poor state of repair.

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The children's home strengths

Young people are positive about the care and support they receive and feel safe and comfortable in the home. They appreciate that they are able to maintain familiar relationships and attachments with staff who know them well. An experienced manager has now been recruited and has already started to identify where improvements are needed.

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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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Reg. Requirement Due date

6 In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard the registered person must ensure that staff:

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2)(b)(vi) help each child to develop resilience and skills that prepare the child to return home, to live in a new placement or to live independently. (Regulation 6(2)(b)(vi)) 30/06/2015

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Reg. Requirement Due date

7 In order to meet the children’s views, wishes and feelings standard the registered person must ensure that children receive care from staff who:

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(1)(c) take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting children’s care and welfare and their lives. (Regulation 7(1)(c)) 30/06/2015

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Reg. Requirement Due date

12 In order to meet the protection of children standard the registered person must ensure that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe:

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(1)(d) that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. This is in relation to the home’s driveway. (Regulation 12(1)(d)) 30/06/2015

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Reg. Requirement Due date

13 In order to meet the leadership and management standard the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that:

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2)(h) uses monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(2)(h)) 30/06/2015

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Reg. Requirement Due date

17 (2) The registered person must co-operate with the child’s placing authority in agreeing and signing the child’s placement plan. (Regulation 17(2)) 30/06/2015 25 After consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the registered person must:

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(1)(d) ensure, by means of fire drills and practices at suitable intervals, that persons working at the home and, so far as reasonably practicable, children are aware of the procedure to be followed in case of fire. (Regulation 25(1)(d))

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Reg. Requirement Due date

33 The registered person must ensure that all employees:

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(4)(a) undertake appropriate continuing professional development; (b) receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and (c) have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33(4)(a)(b)(c)) 30/06/2015

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Reg. Requirement Due date

36 The registered person must maintain records (‘case records’) for each child which:

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(1)(a) include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child; and (b) are kept up to date. (Regulation 36(1)(a)(b)) 30/06/2015

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Reg. Requirement Due date

37 The registered person must: (2)(a) maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4; and (b) ensure that the records are kept up to date. (Regulation 37(2)(a)(b)) 30/06/2015

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Reg. Requirement Due date

45 In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating:

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2)(b) the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and (c) any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children; and (5) considering the opinions of parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45(2)(b)(c)) 30/06/2015

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Information about this children's home

This home is registered for two children and young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. It is owned and managed by a private company.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

12/02/2015 CH - Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

21/02/2014 CH - Interim Satisfactory Progress

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Requires Improvement

There have been changes to the resident group, with young people moving on and new young people arriving. Staff ensure that all young people are well supported in their transitions. Newly arriving young people benefit from being able to maintain familiar relationships with some of their previous carers as a number of staff have moved with them to this home. Young people feel that this helped them to settle quickly and to make a positive start. They are forming attachments and relationships with the rest of the team, which is reflected in the home’s positive atmosphere.

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Requires Improvement

Young people are fully engaged in their education timetable, which is consistent with individual needs and circumstances. Their good attendance has been supported and sustained because staff closely monitor progress through regular dialogue with teachers and support staff. The home’s routines prioritise and promote learning as being an important aspect to young people’s future success. Young people acknowledge that this approach has benefited them as they engage well in education in comparison to previous times.

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Requires Improvement

Young people are encouraged to adopt healthy lifestyles and are supported to keep up to date with routine health checks. Staff acknowledge young people’s right to make choices about their health but seek to educate and influence individuals where health and well-being could be improved. For example, promoting a greater interest in diet, exercise and overall fitness. Young people benefit from this approach because of the continuous focus to help improve health and well-being.

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Requires Improvement

Young people are consulted about their day-to-day routines and arrangements. Staff are aware of young people’s needs but this knowledge is not underpinned by up-to-date placement plan documents. Although staff can access information about young people, it does not comprehensively represent current circumstances or key aims of the placement. For example, plans do not clearly reflect that young people are aiming to achieve greater independence and more personal responsibility. Plans do not reflect young people’s views, or fully express their own aims and aspirations regarding what they want to gain from the placement. In the absence of this information, staff are unlikely to fully address and meet the needs of each young person as they see it.

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Requires Improvement

Young people are aiming for greater independence and autonomy but how they are supported to achieve this is not clear. Staff are not working to any agreed plan to help young people develop their life skills or grow their independence. Little is done to assess young people’s needs around key skills or to provide clear written plans that staff can follow to evaluate an individual’s progress.

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Requires Improvement

Young people know how to make a complaint if needed including the use of external professionals and advocacy services. They are confident that any complaints they make will be addressed quickly. Young people do not live to far from their home area and are well supported to stay in touch with people who are important to them.

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Good

Young people feel safe in the house and with the staff who look after them. Clear day-to-day direction and support is provided to the team ensuring care practice and routines are matched to the circumstances of each young person. Established procedures and guidance are followed that outline staff roles and responsibilities in relation to managing risk and keeping everyone safe. Incidents and allegations are dealt with appropriately and in line with wider safeguarding and child protection guidance. This means that the home works in a partnership with lead child protection agencies as outlined in the home’s guidance to ensure risks are minimised.

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Good

Staff closely monitor young people's relationships and any poor behaviour is quickly challenged. Staff model their behaviour in a way that promotes clear and reasonable boundaries. This practically demonstrates to young people how to conduct positive and respectful relationships. Consequently, young people are encouraged and motivated to behave in ways that are socially acceptable. They feel the rules are fair and they can earn rewards for good behaviour.

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Good

For some young people the use of physical restraint has been a necessary part of managing immediate risks or dangerous situations. Formal sanctions are also sometimes used which are appropriately matched to individual circumstances. The overall strategy of the staff team is to talk to young people and negotiate adjustments and improvements in their behaviour. Young people are given many chances to adjust and improve inappropriate behaviours before any formal measures are used.

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Good

Currently, young people do not go missing from the home as staff provide an environment where they are able to manage their behaviour in safer ways. Agreed working practices ensure that staff respond immediately should a missing from care event occur. This includes following the local multi-agency protocol for missing young people as well as following any specific actions, which have been agreed for each young person.

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Requires Improvement

The home has been without a Registered Manager for a number of months. Temporary management arrangements have been in place, which have just ended because a new, experienced manager has been appointed. The new manager is in the process of registering with Ofsted as required. The effectiveness of leadership and management in these circumstances has had an impact on how young people are looked after and how the home is organised and administered.

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Requires Improvement

Currently, the needs of young people are not fully prioritised. This is because the staff team are not able to comprehensively shape their care and support around individual needs. There is no up-to-date placement plan identifying young people’s current needs. Although placements are still relatively new, managers are unable to formally track young people’s progress or determine how well they are doing from their starting points.

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Requires Improvement

The staff team do not receive the necessary range of occupational training, or experience formal supervision with the frequency expected within the organisation. Some staff appraisals are not up to date. This means that line managers have not formally evaluated the way in which some staff work with young people. Because of these circumstances, managers are not able to identify how individual staff and the team as a whole need to develop in terms of meeting current and future young people’s needs. Although managers can draw on individual staff training profiles it is not clear how accurate this information is. For example, it is unclear which staff need to attend important refresher training in key practice areas like behaviour management.

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Requires Improvement

Staff have access to a comprehensive range of information about young people’s needs which includes previous placement and social work information. The home’s records and case files do not contain the necessary range of up-to-date information required to fully reflect the experiences, events and progress of young people currently placed. This is because staff have continued to use young people’s records and case files from their previous placements within the provider organisation. The failure of managers to draw together the correct records has compromised the ability of the service to accurately reflect young people’s residency from day one.

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Requires Improvement

Staff say they feel supported in their day-to-day work with young people. Although there have been some recent changes in the composition of the team, a core group remain who continued to provide continuity within the home. Many staff are experienced and some are suitably qualified.

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Requires Improvement

Managers have organised a regular cycle of quality assurance processes that produces a range of information about how well the home is operating. This includes monthly independent visits as well as internal quality assurance and monitoring routines that evaluate key areas of the home's operation. Many of the shortfalls found at this visit have already been identified by the new manager but are not yet reflected in any improvement or development plan.

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Requires Improvement

Although monitoring and evaluation of the service is taking place, this does not routinely include formal feedback from professionals, staff or young people. Consequently, stakeholder feedback is not used to shape and inform the home’s development or improvement. Quality assurance processes are not used to evidence the actions taken as a result of any consultation, especially with young people.

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Requires Improvement

Overall, the home is physically safe and appropriately secure to take into account the needs of young people. The home’s driveway does present some risks to users as it is poorly maintained with potholes that make navigation to and from the property difficult. Detailed risk assessments and fire safety checks are undertaken to promote everyone’s safety and well-being. Fire evacuation drills are carried out but not with the frequency prescribed by the provider organisation.

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Requires Improvement

The service has well-established networks and relationships with a range of agencies and professionals who are involved in meeting the needs of young people. For example, staff work closely with teachers, children’s services professionals as well as maintaining necessary links with local agencies with lead child protection responsibilities. Individual care and support arrangements for each young person are also discussed through re-established meetings and visits from the home’s allocated therapist.

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Requires Improvement

The provider organisation employs a safe recruitment procedure that ensures young people are looked after by staff who have been appropriately checked and vetted. The home’s Statement of Purpose has been reviewed by the new manager to ensure it accurately reflects the aims and objectives of the service. Action has also been taken to ensure that the requirements and recommendations made at the last inspection have been completed.

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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

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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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