Children's Home run by Highfield North East Limited in Redcar and Cleveland

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:

 Young people are cared for by a consistent stable staff team who know the young people very well. The plans they have are individualised with keyworkers regularly ensuring actions are completed.  Consultation with young people and their families is regular and meaningful. The outcomes of these consultations can be seen in revision of practice and policies.  Young people say that they feel safe and want to stay at the home. The relationship they have with the manager and staff not only helps keep them safer but allows them to learn to manage their own behaviours and provides them with positive role models.  The staff team are all trained in keeping young people safe. They are very confident in identifying the signs of abuse and trauma. They are also very confident in the homes safeguarding process and know what to do if they are concerned about a young person.  Young people increase their life choice by engaging in fun activities and

p.3

The children's home provision is good because:

achieving more in their education. There is a very positive ethos in the home that education is very important. Those in alternative educational provision are assisted to maintain attendance and engage with activities. The home encourage social learning with young people enjoying many different activities including looking after animals, growing flowers and vegetables and enjoying the environment.  Contact with families and important adults is encouraged. Young people are helped to understand their sometimes complex family backgrounds by staff who work with great sensitivity and compassion.  Young people are at the centre of running this home. They are involved in day to day activities, are consulted regularly about what happens. Staff ensure they advocate on their behalf in meetings. The young people are also playing an active role in staff appraisals.  The manager is a very effective leader. He provides good support and

p.3

The children's home provision is good because:

training for the staff team. He ensures that the home has sufficient resources to care for the young people and acts as their champion with other social care professionals

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  Children should be 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, the recording in daily logs and communication books needs to be reviewed. Details of all young people, in one book does not allow for the young person to have access to these records and would breach other young people's confidentiality. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 58 paragraph 11.19)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and make best use of information from independent and internal monitoring (including under regulations 44 and 45) to ensure continuous improvement. They should be skilled in anticipating difficulties and reviewing incidents, such as learning from disruptions and placement breakdowns. They are responsible for proactively implementing lessons learned and sustaining good practice. Specifically the reports should evaluate how well the home is safeguarding the young people and ensuring their well-being (The Guide to the quality Standards, page 55 paragraph 10.24)

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Recommendations

 Under regulation 46, the registered person should review the appropriateness and suitability of the location and premises of the home at least once a year. The review should include the identification of any risks and opportunities presented by the home's location and strategies for managing these. (The Guide to the quality Standards, page 64 paragraph 15.1)

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Information about this children's home

The home is provided by a private company and is registered to care for up to five young people with emotional or behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

p.5

Recent inspection history

04/03/2015 Interim improved effectiveness

p.5

good

The relationships between the manager staff and young people is an outstanding feature of this home. Staff are skilled at building rapport with the young people and use this to complete risk assessments. Placement plans are developed from thorough risk assessments. It is clear from the reviews of the placement plans that key worker sessions and time spent with the manager and staff all help to achieve the purpose of the plans.

p.6

good

All young people are involved in their care plans. Sometimes staff advocate on their behalf and in most cases encourage young people to take part in meetings about them. Staff ensure that their wishes and feelings are listened too and that any actions are completed. The manager does however need to have a more robust process of challenging placing authorities when they do not provide copies of reviews and other important information. This information is essential to ensure that work with the young person is meeting the needs identified in care plans.

p.6

good

The manager and staff team ensure all young people have their health assessed regularly. Some young people had not always managed to attend health appointments, some were fearful of attending appointments. Young people are more confident about attending health appointments and are assisted to become more responsible for their health. When young people require specialist services, specifically, adolescent mental health services the manager and staff team ensure these are available and work with other professionals assisting the young person to engage in treatments and therapies.

p.6

good

Some of the young people enjoy positive contacts with family friends and other important adults. This is important is building resilience and maintaining emotional bonds with their families. Other young people struggle with difficult family contacts. The manager and staff team work with these young people to help them re build relationships and maintain contact whilst staying safe.

p.6

good

The staff team are very creative with the young people benefitting from a variety of activities. Activities include looking after the goats, building dens and being involved in theme nights. Recent examples include American theme night and a Turkish theme night. Young people learn about cultures, sample food and talk about the differences to their culture. Young people spoke of ‘fun and laughing with staff, ‘this is very evident in this home. Judgement grade

p.6

good

Young people speak of how compassionate and caring staff are. They use words such as ‘fab, approachable caring and the best’. It is evident that young people feel safe and secure in this home.

p.7

good

The staff have developed good safe working practices which allows everyone to feel safe but includes opportunities for appropriate physical contact. One young person hugged the manager and said ‘I still like a cuddle’ the manager and staff attitude towards this helps young people see what safe nurturing adults do and allows them to develop emotional resilience.

p.7

good

Some young people do go missing. When they do staff follow clear procedures to ensure they are returned to the home as soon as possible. Liaison with the local police helps to secure a quick return and information gathered in return interviews allows staff to learn more about why they have gone missing and build this into prevention strategies. These are working as numbers of young people going missing is decreasing.

p.7

good

The staff team are aware of the risks of young people been in exploitative relationships. They all have recent training and could discuss triggers they may see in a young person’s behaviour. Individual sessions with young people focus on keeping safe and are developed to be age appropriate.

p.7

good

Young people are clear they can make a complaint. They are aware of who to talk to and what should happen when they make a complaint. No recent complaints have been made. It was apparent from the complaints and compliments book that more compliments are received.

p.7

good

Behaviour management plans are clear and staff are very skilled in de-escalating challenging or difficult behaviours. Whilst staff are trained in behaviour management techniques including restraint they are very rarely used. Staff have debrief sessions to discuss any difficult behaviours and the way they work with young people is observed by the manager and senior management team on a regular basis.

p.7

good

Some young people rely on medication. There is a very robust system with senior management oversight. These audits allow the staff team to support young people to request reduction in medication when they feel they can manage without some of it. This is always done in liaison with the doctor responsible.

p.7

good

The home is extremely welcoming environment. It is well maintained and clean. Attention is paid to ensuring all health and safety measures are met without losing the homely feeling. Young people refer to it as ‘my home.’ Young people are encouraged to personalise their rooms and have a say in how the home is decorated. The kitchen is the centre of this home; young people not only enjoy interesting and well cooked food but also enjoy the experience of being part of a caring supportive family. One young person said ‘I have a mam but I think the staff and other kids are an ace part of my family now.’

p.7

good

The manager is an experienced and qualified leader. He has a very compassionate approach to managing the home in that he enjoys spending time with the staff team and young people, but he is also aware of the importance of managing the home. He is supported by a competent senior management team and an experienced registered individual.

p.8

good

The staff team have all been in post since the home opened just over a year ago. They are well trained and supported. Supervision is regular and used to look at performance issues together with issues relating to the young people. The manager is starting to introduce a more reflective approach to both working practices and supervision. A reflective approach allows staff to understand the young people in more details specifically the impact of any previous abuse or trauma.

p.8

good

The young people’s case records provide information about the young people and what is happening in their lives. Risk assessments and placement plans are thorough but are very complicated. A young person may find it hard to understand them. The records also do not allow the young person to have access to all the information written about them. The use of daily logs and communication books which detail all information about all young people and staff do not allow for young people to access these and to understand their journeys.

p.8

good

The manager and staff team work well with other professionals. They take part in multi-agency meetings to ensure young people remain safe. They have a good relationship with the local police. The manager ensures that the police are not seen as part of the behaviour management plan. Police are only called to assist when all other avenues have been explored. The use of restorative practice means that young people are not criminalised unnecessarily, but also assist young people in learning skills to manage their own behaviour.

p.8

good

Training for staff is good and reflects the mandatory elements required including safeguarding children, child sexual exploitation and safe use of the internet. They use the knowledge from this training to talk to young people about the dangers in the community. There has been a reduction in the numbers of young people going missing and some of the young people have disclosed to staff when they have been worried about situations in the community. Staff have been able to act on this information and keep young people safer.

p.8

good

There are also opportunities to do additional training. The registered individual ensures staff have all appropriate training. Staff are asked to reflect on what they can bring back into practice in their supervisions. Supervision for staff is regular and carried out by experienced staff who have supervision training. The staff team are just entering their appraisals for the first time. Young people have been asked to contribute to these appraisals.

p.9

good

The manager is developing his monitoring of the systems and a great improvement can be seen. These audits are starting to help him describe good practice and areas to be developed. He uses the outcomes of some audits to feed into the development plan which is still developing. He also needs to continue the work on the locality risk assessment which is somewhat under developed.

p.9

good

The manager also uses the independent visitors report to build information for monitoring. These reports should provide the manager with an evaluative response regarding the homes ability to safeguard children and to ensure their well-being. The reports do not currently do this and a review is going to take place to ensure these reports are fit for purpose.

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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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