Children's Home run by East Riding of Yorkshire Council in East Riding of Yorkshire

Previous inspection judgement

09/01/2014 SC Interim satisfactory progress

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Good

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

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Summary of findings

The children's home provision is good because:

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Summary of findings

 Staff are trusted adults; young people enjoy the nurturing environment and respond to the boundaries set.

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Summary of findings

 The Registered Manager and staff have set very clear expectations about attending school or alternative educational provision. Young people have made significant progress in improving attendance.

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Summary of findings

 There is an embedded safeguarding culture within the home. Young people feel safe and feel listened to.

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Summary of findings

 The staff team deal with missing episodes well; they look for the young people and try to find them. The number of missing episodes has declined

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Summary of findings

 The whole staff team understand the stories of the young people including their starting point.

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Summary of findings

 There are some shortfalls in practice relating to recording and monitoring.

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The children's home strengths

 The behaviour management approach is focused on de-escalation and allowing the young people to learn how to manage their own emotions.

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The children's home strengths

 The staff team are well trained and supported to ensure they are resilient.  The manager and staff team ensure young people have contact with their families and other important people in their lives.  The Registered Manager is proactive in the community. She works well with other professionals and individuals to ensure the young people are safe.

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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

In order to meet the care planning standard with particular reference to the lack of confidentiality and difficulties of access to information caused by using daily logs which detail all young people and activities in the home; the registered provider must ensure that staff:

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Requirement Due date

(2)(f) help each child to access and contribute to the records kept by the registered person in relation to the child. 01/09/2015

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Requirement Due date

Privacy and access 21. The registered person must ensure that— (a) the privacy of children is appropriately protected; specifically that young people's access to the office area is restricted to protect privacy and confidentiality. 01/09/2015

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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

Staff should continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. In particular the risk assessment documents must be consistent with all other relevant plans. (The Guide to the quality Standards, page 42 paragraph 9.5)

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Recommendations

Children should have access to a computer and the internet to support their education and learning, unless there are specific safeguarding reasons why this would be inappropriate. In such cases, the home should consider whether and how it can support the child to access a computer and the internet safely. In particular the staff and young people require information and training on how to stay safe when using the internet. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 29 paragraph 5.19) Staff must help each child to prepare for any moves from the home, whether they are returning home, moving to another placement or adult care, or to live independently. This includes supporting the child to develop emotional and mental resilience to cope without the home’s support and, where the child is moving to live independently, practical skills such as cooking, housework, budgeting and personal self-care. This support should be engaging and have relevance to the young

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Recommendations

people’s starting points and take into account the young person’s educational ability. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 17 paragraph 3.27)

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Information about this children's home

The home is provided by the Local Authority. It is registered to care for up to 6 young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

25/02/2015 Interim sustained effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

09/01/2014 Interim Satisfactory Progress

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good

The Registered Manager and staff team have very positive relationships with the young people. The approach in the home is child centred. This helps young people to feel safe and valued. There is a great deal of humour shared by the staff team and young people and it is evident that young people are encouraged to do their best. One young person said ‘ I like it here, (my keyworker) gets me, we do all sorts of things together and have a good laugh, he’s also OK at hugs when I need that’

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good

Consultation with the young people allows them to have a say in the way things run and what is available to them. A specialist worker from the Local Authority visits the home on a regular basis. She enables the young people to have a say in their reviews and supports them to ensure they are included in the decision making about them. A clear and robust complaints procedure ensures that young people are able to discuss their concerns. One young person recorded she was happy with the outcome of a complaint and felt that the Manager had been fair.

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good

There is an expectation that young people go to school or attend alternative educational provision. This contributes to the increase in attendance and attainment of the young people. Young people are currently taking examinations and considering further and higher education plans. One young person said ‘I wouldn’t have been taking exams and stuff if I hadn’t come here’

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good

Young people are encouraged to try new activities and are part of the planning of these. An incentive scheme allows young people to see the effect of positive behaviour. The young people not only learn new skills but become actively involved in their local community. Memorabilia and photographs ensure the activities become part of their life stories and they proudly show certificates and photographs of the activities.

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good

Contact with families and important people is central to the work at the home. The staff team ensure that were it is appropriate young people have regular and constructive time with ‘their’ important people. Where safeguarding concerns exist about contact with families and important people, the staff work closely with social workers to ensure this happens safely.

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good

The staff team encourage all young people to manage their own health. They are all registered with local doctors and dentists and attend regularly. Specialist health services also support young people with their sexual and emotional health. There is safe and robust process for making sure the young people receive medication and where possible young people are encouraged to take responsibility for taking their own medication.

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good

Training for independent living does feature in some of the young people’s plans. Young people are struggling to engage with the current programme. Young people said ‘it’s boring and I don’t like doing it.’ The programme needs to be reviewed.

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good

Young people have a positive relationship with staff but the Registered Manager and staff need to improve how information about the young people is kept confidential in the office space. Although there are guidelines, these are not adhered to and may allow young people to have access to information which they should not.

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good

Young people say that they feel safe ‘they listen to me; they seem to know if I’m going to do something daft, but they don’t make me feel really bad’. One young person said ‘they don’t do the’ told you so’ bit, they get you to think about what you could have done differently’.

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good

The staff team have a clear understanding of why young people need to be safeguarded and what they need to do to make sure the young people stay safe. There is training for staff covering many aspects of keeping young people safe. There is not sufficient training or knowledge on how to help young people safe on the internet, particularly social media. This may mean that young people are vulnerable to abusive people and situations on the internet.

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good

Behaviour management is a key feature of many of the placement plans. Some of the young people struggle to understand and manage their own emotions. The staff team’s knowledge of them and their specialist training helps to address this. One young person said ‘I’ve learnt a lot about why I kick off, the staff get me to think about it so it doesn’t happen as much.’

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good

Some young people still go missing from the home. The numbers have reduced recently. When young people do go missing staff look for them and try and use the professional and community networks to ensure the young people are returned as soon as possible. There are good recording systems in place to assess the risks faced when a young person goes missing. There are discrepancies in the way some things are recorded. The case files need to be accurate and consistently used by all the staff. Without this young people could be at risk of harm.

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good

Some young people find it difficult to see the dangers in some of the things they do. This can leave them at risk of exploitation. The staff team have a good working knowledge and practices to support these young people. They work within a multi- agency team to try and prevent these situations happening. Young people are given information to help them understand the dangers that exist, and helped to build resilience against the pressures to become involved in exploitative situations. The young people therefore become more likely to be able to identify exploitative situations and relationships and to stay safe.

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good

The maintenance and safety checks at the home ensure that young people live in a safe and healthy environment. The home has a nurturing atmosphere and feels like a home. Young people are involved in choosing decorations and they can make their own space personal to them. There are robust measures to ensure visitors are properly checked and supervised. The Registered Manager ensures that staff are appropriately vetted to ensure they are suitable to work with young people.

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requires improvement

The Registered Manager has a clear sense of the strengths of the home which include; raising aspirations for young people; a new motivated staff group; good relationships between the young people and the staff and an ethos that the young person’s voice must be heard and listened to.

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requires improvement

She is also aware of the weaknesses which include some of the shortfalls identified in this report. She has a development plan that details the way forward.

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requires improvement

There are a number of shortfalls identified with the recording systems. They are complex and did not provide an accurate or consistent picture of what is happening in the lives of the young people. Audits of the files have been undertaken and actions suggested had not been completed and significant information was inconsistently recorded on risk assessments. The way in which a daily log was constructed and completed did not allow for easy access of information if a young person asked to see what is recorded about them. In its current format this could not be shared with individual young people as it would breach confidentiality.

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requires improvement

The monitoring systems and the use of the information to develop practice is not robust enough. The internal audits and reports from the independent visitor only describe the home. They do not provide an opinion on how effectively the home is safeguarding children and how the home promotes the young person’s well-being. This evaluation and the results of file audits and complaints are not used to enhance and develop practice. Young people may therefore not see improvements or changes that are suggested by these audits. Young people may feel their opinions are not valued.

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requires improvement

The Registered Manager has considerable experience of working with young people. She has a clear and robust approach to the management of the home. In recent months there has been a number of staff members leave and she has appointed several new staff including a deputy manager. It is clear that the process of change has been managed well and the changes in the staff team have not had a negative impact on the young people.

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requires improvement

Staff describe improvements in the way they are supervised and supported. They have regular supervision which is recorded and a system of yearly appraisals is in place.

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requires improvement

There are examples of excellent working together. A social care professional said ‘the manager will always follow through with actions from meetings and will challenge those who don’t complete their tasks’ There are also very positive links with the local police and community groups.

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requires improvement

The Registered Manager was able to provide clear evidence that the requirements and recommendations from previous inspections has been met, demonstrating an openness to respond to regulatory work and an understanding of the processes.

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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. procedures set out in 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

regulates and inspects to 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

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Information about this inspection

Policy Team, 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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