Children's Home run by Plus One South West Ltd in Somerset

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:

 The Registered Manager ensures that there are safe working practices that safeguard and protect young people. If young people go missing, staff take robust action to promote their safety and well-being.  There is good communication between the home, placing authorities and other professionals such as the police. The Registered Manager works collaboratively with these agencies to promote young people’s safety and reduce the risk of harm.  Staff promote and encourage young people to attend school. Where there are challenges to this, in particular if young people are opposing attending education, staff are creative in exploring opportunities and suggestions to promote their attendance and engagement. One social worker said that a young person is in a much better place than before and is fully encouraged to attend education.  Placing authorities consider that young people receive good care and support. One social worker said ‘I have no concerns about the quality of

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The children's home provision is good because:

care and support provided by the home’ and further added ‘he has built good relationships with the staff team’.  Staff promote young people’s personal identity and cultural needs.  The home is well maintained, decorated, and furnished to a good standard. It is very homely in appearance and young people are encouraged to personalise their bedrooms. They are involved in the choice of furnishings and re-decoration of their bedrooms, and other parts of the home.  Areas for improvement include arranging strategy meetings if young people continue to go missing, reviewing how young people are supported and encouraged to maintain contact with family, improving the quality of record keeping, encouraging young people to sign their placement plans and reviewing the need for the decorative bars at a young person’s bedroom window.

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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 staff are familiar with the home's policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 62 paragraph 14.4)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that where a child persistently runs away or engages in risky behaviours, such as frequently being absent from the home to meet with inappropriate adults, the registered person, in consultation with the child's placing authority, should convene a risk management meeting to develop a strategy for managing the risks to the young person. The strategy should be agreed with the child's placing authority, the local authority where the home is located and the local police. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 46 paragraph 9.32)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that children are encouraged by staff to see the home's records as 'living documents' supporting them to view and contribute to the record in a way that reflects their voice on a regular basis. In particular, encouraging children to view and sign their placement plans and risk assessments. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 58 paragraph 11.19)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the children's home complies with relevant health and safety legislations; however in doing so, homes seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than 'institutional' impression. In particular, reviewing the need for the decorative iron bars fitted to the exterior of one young person's bedroom. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 15 paragraph 3.9)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that appropriate forms of contact are promoted and facilitated for each child, including where appropriate the use of social media and other forms of contact via the internet. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 58 paragraph 11.18)

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Information about this children's home:

This privately run children’s home is registered to provide accommodation for up to three young people of either gender, who may have emotional or behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

11/03/2015 CH - Interim Sustained Effectiveness

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Good

The young person receives good quality care and support. A comprehensive placement plan guides staff in meeting his care and support needs. The young person has not signed this plan to confirm that he is in agreement with the plan.

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Good

The young person has developed good relationships with staff and said ‘staff help me with the things I needs help with’. Regular one-to-one meetings take place, the young person has signed the documents, and this demonstrates his agreement to the discussions and proposed actions. In addition, the young person has been involved in the development of a plan to promote his independence.

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Good

A social worker commented that there have been a number of improved outcomes for the young person since he has been living at the home. These improved outcomes include his attendance in education, a settled placement and engaging with staff. He said ‘I have no concerns whatsoever in the quality of care provided’.

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Good

Education outcomes have improved since his starting point. Prior to living at the home, the young person was rarely attending education. The young person said ‘since I have been living here I am going to school and I do maths and English’. His attendance at school significantly increased when he moved to the home but unfortunately, this has dropped in very recent weeks. The Registered Manager and the staff are very proactive in addressing this. They have developed an action plan in collaboration with the school and this is in discussion with the young person.

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Good

The young person confirms that staff respect his privacy and dignity. His cultural and religious needs are promoted and his individual needs are clearly identified in his placement plan. The young person enjoys cooking his favourite meals and he has taught staff new dishes.

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Good

The young person accesses activities and leisure interests based on his individual likes and preferences. He is encouraged to develop friendships. Contact with family members can be problematic as contact is usually undertaken by the use of social media. The young person said that he does maintain contact with his close family but it is not clear how well the home promotes and monitors this.

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Good

Staff encourage the young person to lead a healthy lifestyle and he attends medical appointments as needed. This includes a stop smoking clinic. This has had minimal impact so far but the staff team continue to discourage smoking. Judgement grade

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Good

Comprehensive placement plans to provide staff with guidance on how to meet the young person’s individual needs are in place. Associated risk assessments are regularly updated and reflect the current known risks.

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Good

Since living at the home, a social worker commented that the incidence of the young person going missing has significantly reduced. The Registered Manager and staff have good working relationships with other professionals, and agencies including the placing authorities and the police. They work collaboratively when there are concerns in respect of missing incidents. There have been increased levels of missing at the home in recent weeks. The Registered Manager has devised a draft action plan to address the matter and it has been shared with the placing authority and the local police for their comments. However, a formal risk management meeting to develop a strategy for managing the risks has not yet been convened.

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Good

If the young person goes missing, staff respond in line with the agreed protocols and actively searches for them In addition, they encourage the young person to stay in regular contact by text messaging and/or telephone. The Registered Manger ensures that the young person is welcomed back to the home when he returns from being missing. The home have made contact with the local police missing person’s co-ordinator to further explore if there are any concerns in known addresses that the young person may visit.

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Good

Staff promote positive behaviour, and restraint and sanctions are rarely imposed. All staff receive training in safeguarding. They have an excellent understanding of safeguarding procedures and protocols. The young person confirms that he feels safe at the home. A social worker also considers that he is safe.

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Good

Young people are provided with a young person’s guide that gives advice on how to keep them safe when accessing social media. The young person confirms that he has the document and this has been helpful.

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Good

Young people live in a safe environment. Fire safety is promoted and young people and staff take part in regular fire drills. Regular service checks are undertaken of the home’s utilities and there are regular health and safety audits undertaken.

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Good

The home is decorated and furnished to a good standard. In the main, the home appearance is domestic and homely. However, one young person’s bedroom window has iron bars fixed to the outside. Although this is decorative in its design, it does not promote the homely ethos of the home. This bedroom was not occupied at the time of this inspection. The Registered Manager said that he would review the need for these.

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Good

The Registered Manager, who is appropriately experienced and qualified, manages the home effectively. He is undertaking the Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare and anticipates completing this training summer 2015. He has been in post since October 2014. He has recently attended the ‘Working together in child protection’ training facilitated by the Local Safeguarding Board.

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Good

He ensures that there is regular external and internal evaluation of the quality of care provided. Any recommendations made by the independent visitor are acknowledged, and addressed. The requirements and recommendations from the last inspection have been met.

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Good

The Registered Manager and staff team are committed in providing high quality care. They place young people at the centre of their care.

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Good

A placing authority speaks well of the Registered Manager and staff team. A social worker said that there is ‘brilliant engagement with the staff team, they keep me in touch’. In addition, the staff maintain good contact with other partner agencies in working together to promote good outcomes for the young person.

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Good

Some records completed by staff do not always demonstrate the importance of clear and specific recording. In particular, some records relating to missing incidents. The Registered Manager acknowledges this and agrees refresher training is required.

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Good

Staff receive effective supervision and an annual appraisal. Staff speak very highly of the Registered Manager. One staff member said ‘he has got us a lot more motivated and we are now evidencing our practice more clearly’. Staff speak highly of the quality of supervisions. On staff member said, ‘it focuses on my performance and makes me reflect on my practice, I value the supervisions’.

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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

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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