Children's Home run by Leicester City Council in Leicester

Requires improvement

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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because:

 Experiences and progress for young people are mixed. Drift in care planning has meant poor experiences and extremely limited progress for one young person despite the home’s considerable efforts.

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because:

 The Registered Provider has not sufficiently challenged the placing authority to review the suitability of the young person’s care plan.

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because:

 Young people do not always have the opportunity to have a return interview facilitated by their placing authority after being missing from care. This means opportunities for young people to be seen by someone independent of the home are missed.

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The children's home strengths

  The importance of contact to help young people understand their identity is well understood by staff, who go to great effort to ensure contact is promoted.

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The children's home strengths

 Admissions processes are thorough meaning staff and young people have a strong base to start from when the placement starts.

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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

5: Engaging with the wider system to ensure children's needs are met

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Requirement Due date

(c) if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority's or a relevant person's performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child's needs are met in accordance with the child's relevant plan. 20/07/2015

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  Ensure that when a child returns to the home after being missing from care or away from the home without permission, the responsible local authority must provide an opportunity for the child to have an independent return home interview. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 35, paragraph 9.30)

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Information about this children's home

This home is managed by a local authority. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to ten young people although the home’s statement of purpose currently states it will accommodate up to seven young people who have complex emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

20/10/2014 CH - Interim Sustained Effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

27/01/2014 CH - Interim Inadequate Progress

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Requires improvement

Although the home is registered to provide care and accommodation for ten young people, it has only accommodated up to two young people for the last year. This is due to an ongoing review of the home’s purpose. Young people’s progress and experiences are mixed. One is achieving well and for the other there has been very little tangible progress. Lack of cohesive and effective care planning for one young person has meant he spent the vast majority of time away from the home; attendance and engagement in education was sporadic; there were large numbers of missing from care episodes; offending behaviour increased; and behaviour was volatile and rude. Staff and the management team implemented an individualised outreach programme to help ensure the welfare and safety of this difficult to reach young person. This included considerable effort to provide daily home visits, attempts to accompany and engage the young person in important appointments and in

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Requires improvement

facilitating family contact. Despite these best efforts, outcomes for this young person remained poor prior to him leaving the home. The management team recognised the young person’s vulnerabilities and ensured constant and consistent communication with the placing authority about their concerns for the young person’s welfare; however, the Registered provider did not sufficiently challenge the placing authority to ensure review of the suitability of the young person’s care plan. One young person is making steady progress. An education professional stated: ‘This year the young person’s behaviour and attitude has picked up massively. The children’s home has played a positive part in that.’ Education is prioritised and staff help ensure the young person’s attendance by providing lifts and ensuring high communication levels with education providers. Health needs are met through attendance at general appointments. In addition,

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Requires improvement

the home has a strong relationship with the child and adolescent mental health service. They provide direct support for young people and consultation for staff on young people’s individual emotional and psychological needs. Good relationships exist between the majority of young people and staff. Staff say they have found having fewer young people resident in the home means they have more time to spend with young people and more time to build quality relationships. A professional stated, ‘key workers have been excellent in their working relationship with my young person and are clearly focused on the young person making achievements.’ Contact is strongly promoted. Staff recognise the immense importance of young people maintaining relationships with peers and family members, where appropriate, in building networks for when they leave care. They make great efforts to ensure young people have quality time with important people such as for

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Requires improvement

a summer holiday, weekend away or inviting family to the home for dinner. One young person had the opportunity to invite his family and other important people in his life to a meal he prepared, cooked, and served for them. This opportunity not only helped the young person gain independence skills, but also gave family members an insight in to the home he lives in. Contact helps young people feel secure about who they are and what their identity is. Young people share their views and opinions about their care and the running of the home. This is done both formally and informally through discussions with staff.

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Good

Young people live in a safe environment and say it feels safe living at the home. They benefit from high supervision levels and careful consideration is given at the placement matching stage to ensure any new admission complements young people who already live in the home. The admission process to the home has improved significantly since the last full inspection. On a young person’s admission, there is very detailed information sharing and clear risk assessments are followed to help ensure a smooth transition and to maintain continuity of care. Staff understand how to keep young people safe and how to follow safeguarding policies and procedures, such as whistleblowing, if required. Staff know and understand risks to each young person through use of good quality and up-to-date risk assessments. They seek to minimise any impact of increased risks for example, staff are confident in using direct strategies to safeguard young people. For

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Good

instance, a member of staff and a police community support officer worked together to help ensure an adult friend of a young person understood the risks they were posing through misuse of substances. This intervention led to a reduction in the young person’s substance misuse. Staff have a clear understanding of risks to young people of going missing from care. There is strong challenge of the police in circumstances where there is reluctance to follow the joint missing from home protocol. However, the Registered Manager has not been proactive enough in challenging the placing authority to complete missing from home interviews, and as a result, opportunities to use independent means to gather a young person’s views on why they were missing have been lost. Young people benefit from clear and consistent behaviour management strategies. Staff are familiar with individual behaviour management plans for each young

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Good

person and quickly identify triggers or changes in mood. There are occasionally instances of negative behaviour resulting in property damage but these are rare.

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Requires improvement

The Registered Manager has a number of years’ experience as a Registered Manager. He is qualified to the appropriate level and is undertaking another qualification to further enhance his skills in leading and managing a children’s home. Despite the uncertainty over the home’s future purpose, the staff and management team has remained relatively stable over the last year. This promotes consistency for young people. Staff benefit from effective supervision and appraisal systems. As well as monthly formal supervision, key workers for each young person receive high quality case supervision where young people’s progress is evaluated, this process enables the staff, leaders and managers to prioritise young people’s needs. There are mandatory training opportunities for staff who have also recently been encouraged to take advantage of e-learning, such as an introduction to learning disability. This additional learning helps enhance staff skills.

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Requires improvement

The Registered Manager, complemented by a management team, has a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the home through effective use of monitoring systems. There is initial challenge of agencies and involved professionals if there are any concerns about the support or care provided to young people such as drift in a young person’s care plan. This is not always escalated effectively where the response is not appropriate. This has resulted in poor experiences and outcomes for one young person. Effective joint working with the professionals who work directly with young people helps promote young people’s care. Professionals contacted during the inspection were positive in their opinion of the home and about the care young people receive. They gave comments such as: ‘In the last few months of the young person’s placement staff were really proactive, they have effectively been the information conduit between the placing authority and the family’; ‘Communication

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Requires improvement

is really good. I receive at least twice weekly contact’; ‘Staff bend over backwards to make this area of life a success for the young person and often go beyond what they are asked to do. They help where they can and guide where they need to.’

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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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