Children's Home, Residential special school run by Mayne Enterprises Limited in East Sussex

Good

The children's home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Children make very good progress across all areas of their lives including social skills, behaviour management and education. The school located on- site add to the residential provision as it provides a smooth transition between the home and school on a daily basis, causing less anxiety for the children.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 The staff know children well and treat them as individuals. They embrace and celebrate individual characters, personalities and preferences. The atmosphere in the home is supportive and friendly.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Children receive the specialist support they need because of the excellent working relationships staff have developed with a wide range of professionals. Leaders and managers are not shy in challenging external professionals in the best interests of the child.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Children benefit from a stable and cohesive staff team who have a great depth of understanding and knowledge of safeguarding including actual or potential risks. They have the experience and knowledge to identify risks, implement strategies to minimise the risks, and continually review the effectiveness of practice.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 There is excellent communication between the residential home and the school. Twice daily handover meetings mean both education and residential staff apply consistent strategies and practices. Staff members celebrate children and young peoples’ achievement across both sites.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 The Registered Manager and the Responsible Individual are highly visible at the service on a daily basis. They have the capacity to monitor, evaluate and implement change.

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Information about this children's home

This is a children’s home with an on-site registered school. The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to 11 children with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties, learning disabilities and mental disorders excluding learning disabilities. The residential accommodation is located in one large house, situated in a rural location. There are links to towns via local transport.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

17/02/2015 CH - Interim sustained effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

26/11/2013 CH - Interim Satisfactory Progress

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good

The home provides a good experience to children and young people who make good progress from their starting points. They make progress in areas such as education attendance and achievement, health including mental health, social and emotional well- being. Feedback from a professional said `this service has worked very hard and achieved very good outcomes in a short period of time’.

p.5

good

All children and young people attend school or college. Their attendance is very good and for some significantly improved from their starting point. If a young person struggles in school, strategies are implemented to address this. The education and residential staff support young people in gaining work experience and support them over the first few days. This results in them successfully gaining valuable employment experience and skills. The residential team works closely with, and support the school staff team.

p.5

good

Joint daily meetings; enable the staff to gain a full understanding of children and young people’s individual behaviour over a 24-hour period. Children and young people attend the end of school day meeting so they can listen to staff feedback about their achievements. As a result, children and young people know the staff are working cohesively and providing consistency of care. In addition, they learn that the staff do care about them and want them to achieve.

p.5

good

The staff team work hard to gain the children and young peoples’ trust. Children and young people respond well and form warm, friendly and professional relationships. This enables them to know staff will support them during difficult times. One young person said ‘I like the staff, I know they care about me and I trust them’.

p.5

good

Children and young people say they are able to raise any concern or worry. They freely express themselves to staff including key worker sessions. Residents’ meetings provide a community feel where decisions are made about changes and choices such as new play equipment and furnishings. Children and young people are enthusiastic about the range of activities available. They have the opportunity to be members of a local rugby club, attend local youth clubs, karate club, swimming and attending conventions relating to their interests.

p.5

good

The children and young people receive therapeutic services to support their behaviour, emotional and mental health. The in-house therapeutic programme developed and delivered by a qualified therapeutic lead covers areas such as anger management and a therapeutic work with carers, parents and children. The programme also includes an esteem and anxiety course and life story work.

p.5

good

The children and young people are in regular contact with their family and the staff team maintain good communication with families. Relationships between the children and young people and their families improve because of this support.

p.6

good

The staff team provide good quality health care support and encourage healthy lifestyles. They are suitably qualified and experienced to deliver first aid and administer medication. The staff team have developed good liaison with health professionals which results in children and young people receiving prompt response from the appropriate professional. For example, recent links made with the child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) has resulted in a re-referral for one child due to increased concerns about their emotional well-being and increased challenging behaviours. The staff team do challenge services to ensure children and young do not experience excessive waiting times.

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good

The cook ensures children and young people receive a balanced diet. She uses fresh ingredients and is aware of children’s individual preferences. However, she does not make a record of the meals consumed so it is difficult to comment on the overall range of meals. Nevertheless, children, young people and the staff comment positively about the meals. The Registered Manager requested the cook implement the recording of meals during the inspection.

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outstanding

Effective leadership and management ensure good and prompt action is taken to keep children and young people safe. Well-trained and knowledgeable staff understand safeguarding issues and procedures ensuring children and young people are safe. Good recording arrangements enables regular reviewing of concerns and risks posed to children and young. Children and young people say they feel very safe living at the home. Previous unsafe behaviours, such as going missing or anti-social behaviour diminish during their time at the service.

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outstanding

The Registered Manager has developed good professional relationships with representatives from the local police missing person’s team, the school’s police liaison team and the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB). Consequently, he is able to access expert input to discuss and inform risk management practices.

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outstanding

The Registered Manager regularly attends LSCB meetings where he networks with other childcare providers. These contacts ensure that staff are fully informed of risks in the local and wider community, and how they can respond to the known risks. This includes risks of going missing, child sexual exploitation, e-safety and drug misuse As a result, the staff successfully help children and young people to reduce risk taking behaviours.

p.6

outstanding

The systems in place to manage and monitor bullying are effective. The children and young people feel confident in the process for alerting and reporting incidents, and in the staff ability to manage it. The staff are aware of individual triggers and vulnerabilities so are able to prevent any potential incidents. As a result, the numbers of incidents are very low.

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outstanding

Care plans identify the known and potential risks with strategies for staff to use. Trained and experienced staff are competent in recognising and reacting to changes in individual behaviours. They competently review behaviour management strategies to meet the changing behaviour and needs changes. Individual work with the children and young people, undertaken by staff and the therapeutic lead, is highly effective in reducing the incidents of risky behaviours. Feedback from a social worker said ‘the home was able to very quickly reduce the risky behaviour of the child, I was very impressed’.

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outstanding

Restraints continue to decrease significantly with a change in the method of physical intervention currently implemented. This new method focuses more extensively on de- escalation practices and avoidance of physical intervention. This change has come about as the result of the Registered Manager and the staff evaluating their practice and researching different behaviour management practices that fit better with the needs of the children and young people.

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outstanding

Fire safety practice within the home is effective. Routine checks of fire equipment and regular fire evacuation drills means children, young people and the staff know what action to take in the event of a fire. All health and safety checks are well organised and maintained.

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outstanding

Staff recruitment follows safer recruitment guidance. This means that all staff, including the therapeutic lead and independent visitor has undergone robust vetting to ensure as far as possible they are safe to work with and support children and young people.

p.7

good

The Registered Manager has been in post for two years. He has a wealth of experience and knowledge of management practices and procedures. He is an effective manager and has suitable qualifications to fulfil this role. The Responsible Individual supports the Registered Manager and together they form a strong leadership team. They have established and implemented a development plan that drives improvement. They have clear and detailed improvement agenda that includes reference to the Children’s Homes Quality Standards. The staff team are very well informed and have working knowledge of the home’s development plan and improvement agenda.

p.8

good

The strong leadership team use their links with other agencies, including local authorities to inform their future development. For example, they have reviewed their care-planning format so it meets the new Education, Health and Care plans local authorities are implementing. This allows the Registered Manager to monitor and evaluate how the service meets the needs of the children and young people. There is detailed monitoring of the quality of care undertaken by the external independent visitor. This is in addition to the regular monitoring of the quality of care auditing undertaken by the Registered Manager. This has enabled him to identify areas of weaknesses and set goals for the on-going improvement of the service.

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good

The Statement of Purpose sets out the ethos of the home. The on-site school allows for a smooth transition from residential to education each day. The cohesive working between the residential staff and school staff brings about positive change to education and behaviour achievements. Both staff groups work closely together to ensure individual needs of the children and young people are consistently met with shared goals being achieved. Structured handovers facilitate good information sharing between the team members. This results in well-organised direct work with the children and young people.

p.8

good

Staff are well trained. Over 90% of staff has a level 3 diploma in care. Training is relevant to the staff roles and specific to the needs of the children and young people. Staff members receive regular effective supervision of good quality. The Registered Manager creates a supportive environment where staff can seek his support at any time. This has created a stable and cohesive staff team. . Staff commented ‘I love working here’, and ‘the manager is always supportive as is the Responsible Individual’.

p.8

good

The home supports children and young people who are living a long way from their home. Regular placement review meetings give children and young people the opportunity to voice their views about their plans and be part of decision-making. Staff will challenge local authorities to ensure they regularly visit the children and young people so they feel cared for by their home authority. In order to ensure young people have the life skills needed to live independently, they are supported through a life skills programme where they can work towards independence as well as gain a qualification. Although in its infancy, young people are positively about this development.

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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

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

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Information about this inspection

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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