Children's Home run by Staffordshire County Council in Staffordshire

Outstanding

The children's home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the home contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 Young people value highly the way in which dedicated staff welcome them and rapidly form warm and trusting relationships with them. This enables young people to feel secure and to begin to manage their emotions and behaviour at a time of high anxiety when their future is unknown.  An inclusive ethos is evident in all aspects of their work and approach to young people. Individuality is valued and respected and staff are innovative and flexible in order to effectively meet the needs of a wide range of young people.  Staff are highly motivated and successful in supporting young people to make substantial progress in their behaviour, education and relationships. Their work enables young people to thrive and benefit from the short length of the placement, despite the considerable challenges they face.  Highly trained and experienced staff work with young people to understand how to keep themselves safe. Staff balance giving them personal

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

responsibility for their behaviour, with close but unobtrusive monitoring of young people’s safety, thereby providing an effective safety net. Young people respond very positively to this approach and begin to take increased responsibility for their own safety, reducing their exposure to dangerous situations.  The registered manager empowers staff to advocate on behalf of young people with a wide range of professionals and to demand that young people receive the services they require for their needs to be met.  The registered manager encourages creativity in the staff team, enabling them to undertake innovative and highly effective work with young people to develop their self- esteem and achievements.

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation:  14.4 Ensure that staff are familiar with the home's policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child.(The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 62 paragraph 14.4)

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Information about this children's home

This is a local authority owned children’s home. It is registered to care for up to five children and young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties. The home provides care for up to five young people aged between 12 and 17 years on a short- term basis. Young people normally stay no longer than 12 weeks, during which time staff support assessments and enable them to return home or move on to appropriate long term placements 

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

17/03/2015 CH - Interim Sustained effectiveness

p.5

outstanding

Without exception, young people say that they are happy here and that staff welcome them and help in all aspects of their lives. A highly accessible and child focused children’s guide ensures that young people understand all they need to know when they arrive, including how to complain. They attend the weekly young people’s meeting and are listened and responded to by staff.

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outstanding

Young people say, ' I love it here', and, ' I like it here-it's fun'. The home is comfortable and very well maintained and one young person commented on the excellent standard of cleanliness. Young people are encouraged to personalise their rooms and can chose their own posters such as pop-stars and football clubs, for their bedroom walls. They enjoy and benefit from contact with the resident pets and a large garden where they grow vegetables. One young person particularly enjoys sitting quietly in the garden. Young people enjoy looking at the photographs in the annual scrap book which shows them having fun with staff and pets, including dressing up at Christmas, cooking, having days out to the zoo and holidays by sea. Staff enthusiastically support leisure activities, which reflect young people's individual interests such as attending cadets, bike rides and snow- boarding.

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outstanding

The social worker for a young person who recently left said: ‘He left here in March but he had a really good experience. It was his first time in care and he was reluctant to leave here. He settled quickly and was very positive about staff’. She went on to say that, staff supported him to settle in his new placement and attended his first looked after review.

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outstanding

Highly experienced staff quickly and skilfully form warm and trusting relationships with young people at what is a very unstable and challenging time for them. One young person feels that he is making real progress in managing his own behaviour. He says that this is due to the relationships that he has with the staff who have enabled him to feel more relaxed.

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outstanding

Individuality and identity are valued highly and respect for difference is in evidence throughout the house. The dining room, for example has a wall covered in pictures and articles about Islam and the Caribbean. This is an interesting and attractive display, which staff change and update to reflect different cultures. One young person is able to visit the local mosque and outstanding attention has been paid to his communication needs as a young person who arrived speaking and understanding very little English. His social worker says, ' the work has been absolutely fantastic with him- they have really developed his language. Their work has increased his vocabulary fantastically’.

p.6

outstanding

This creative work by staff has provided him with the capacity to effectively communicate his views , wishes and feelings. From the day he arrived, staff proactively used the internet for translations, Arabic dictionaries, picture books, drawings and mime to communicate with him. Staff worked with interpreters and a language telephone service when possible. The young person proudly showed me a whole wall in his bedroom covered in lists of English words that the staff had taught him. A staff member who took him to see his new placement found that the local authority had not provided an interpreter for the visit. She immediately insisted to the social worker that an interpreter was present for a second visit which was duly arranged.

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outstanding

The home has also bought dictionaries for young people who speak Kurdish and Pashto.

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outstanding

All of the young people attended education prior to the Summer holiday. The dedication of the staff have enabled one young person to feel ready to attend full time in the autumn term, having been on a part time timetable in the past. Despite the placements being short term, staff have enhanced young people’s education with activities like going to the library, helping with homework and, in one case, helping a young person to learn German. This high level of support has resulted in young people starting to catch up with lost education and looking forward to the school.

p.7

outstanding

Staff have designed an ‘Outcome arrow’ for each young person to record their achievements and progress. This is a valuable tool for use in the key work sessions with young people, which also addressed life story work and difficult personal issues.

p.7

outstanding

Staff encourage young people to be healthy. In order to help them to stop smoking, staff arrange for a nurse to meet young people to offer advice and support. People working at nearby offices have been challenged staff for walking past the young people whilst smoking and a local shop keeper knows not to sell them cigarettes and calls the staff if he thinks their young people are smoking. Judgement grade

p.7

outstanding

Young people feel safe and they are protected by highly trained and experienced staff who understand the implications of their personal histories for their vulnerability. Within a complex setting, where there are frequent changes of young people, the strong emphasis on forming positive relationships with young people is underpinned by the principles of social pedagogy. Staff are aware that positive and trusting relationships with staff enable young people to work with staff to keep themselves safe.

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outstanding

Staff are highly vigilant if young people leave the home at unsafe times and use a number of strategies to monitor young people’s wellbeing and safety. These include following young people and sitting at a distance to watch them without intruding if they are with friends, telephoning and texting young people to encourage them to return and having ‘safe’ words that young people can use to summon help from staff. In this way, young people retain a strong measure of control over their behaviour, whilst knowing that staff care about them. Of one young person the social worker said, ‘Staff kept him safe, he was on a tag and when the time was nearing for his curfew they would go out and look for him.’

p.8

outstanding

One parent expressed that when her son arrived she was concerned that he would go out whenever he wanted to and she felt that staff were not establishing and enforcing boundaries. She now says she ‘can't fault them’, that his needs are being met, he comes back to the home as arranged and he listens to her. He has not had a missing episode since he arrived and another young person who had 9 missing episodes at a previous placement, has not had any since being here. Self- harm incidents have also reduced for one young person and there are no incidents of bullying.

p.8

outstanding

When safeguarding incidents do occur, staff follow their polices, updating assessments and working closely with other professionals and families. Judgement grade

p.8

outstanding

The registered manager demonstrates an impressive knowledge of the strengths and areas for development in her staff team and creatively uses supervision, staff meetings and training opportunities to improve practice. Staff feel well supported by her and comment that she is knowledgeable, approachable and ‘always knows what to say’.

p.9

outstanding

Reflective practice is an integral part of regular staff supervision, enabling them to learn from their experiences and improve practice on an ongoing basis. She has actively empowered her staff to advocate on behalf of young people to a wide range of other professionals and to retain an exceptional child focus in all areas of their work. The registered manager herself challenges local authorities and education on behalf of the young people to positive effect.

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outstanding

The registered manager has been proactive in researching some resilience training provided by the local authority as an additional support for staff and has booked them on to it. She also ensures that staff have access to counselling support to address their feelings when violent or distressing incidents occur.

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outstanding

She constantly strives to improve the service for young people by, for example, changing staff shifts to enable the night staff to come in earlier to have time to spend with young people before bed instead of coming in at bedtime. This is to support the night staff having relationships with young person. This also means the handovers occur well before the staff have to collect young people from school.

p.9

outstanding

The registered manager promotes a positive and nurturing approach to young people. Staff understand and speak with authority about the theoretical basis of their approach to their work and of the aims of the service. One highly experienced and motivated staff member said that, ‘Social pedagogy tells young person that tomorrow is another day and they need positivity- building a relationship is key’ . The registered manager’s leadership ensures that they all adopt a consistent way of working with young people. This promotes young people’s sense of self-worth and security.

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outstanding

In a positive response to the requirements from the last Ofsted inspection, the registered manager has established a consultation book to record the feedback from children, parents and placing authorities. This is then used to inform her review of the quality of care provided to young people. She has also sent out a questionnaire and received positive feedback from young people and social workers regarding the service. One young person said that they would have liked to have stayed longer.

p.9

outstanding

She has instigated a new system for monitoring measures of control, including restraint, sanctions and rewards in order to improve the review and evaluation of their effectiveness for individual young people. The review takes into account feedback from young people about what works for them. The registered manger demonstrates a willingness to use this learning to drive up standards for young people.

p.9

outstanding

The registered manager has identified that by including more detail in young person’s records staff could improve the service further. This would offer additional valuable support to staff when they are planning and undertaking key work sessions. She is proactive in seeking ideas to improve the service and is willing to try out new approaches to issues in order to find the best way forward.

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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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