Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Herefordshire

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:

 Staff proactively support young people’s good progress. They work in partnership with schools. They attend assemblies, discos and fundraising events. They respond in times of crisis or behavioural or emotional outbursts by staying and supporting the school as long as is needed to settle the young person and ensure the success of the placement.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Young people are making good progress in all areas of their lives. They are all in fulltime mainstream education or at college. They are active in the local community taking part in clubs and undertaking voluntary work.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Young people have positive relationships with staff and make excellent progress learning new strategies to manage their behaviours. This results in a significant decrease in the number and duration of incidents and physical interventions. There have also been no missing from care incidents.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 The new registered manager strongly advocates on behalf of young people. Where necessary he raises concerns with local authorities to ensure young people have access to education, a named independent reviewing officer, regular social work visits and timely review meetings.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Some improvements are needed. Some staff lack an understanding of effective partnership work with parents. This results in parents needing to raise complaints to address practice issues. Risk assessments are in place for young people but do not always describe the actions staff need to take to keep the young person and themselves 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

The registered person must ensure that all employees undertake appropriate continuing professional development. This specifically relates to training in partnership working with parents. (Regulation 33(4)(a)) 30/10/2015

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  Ensure staff continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. Where there are safeguarding concerns for a child, their placement plan, agreed between the home and their placing authority, must include details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risks on a day to day basis. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 42 paragraph 9.5)

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Information about this children's home

This is a privately operated children’s home. It provides care and accommodation for four 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

05/03/2015 CH - Interim Improved effectiveness

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good

Young people make good progress in all areas of their lives because they are effectively supported by a staff team who have a good understanding of their individual needs.

p.6

good

Young people are leading healthy lifestyles, exercising and participating in physical activities through football clubs, swimming lessons, gym membership, spin classes, evening and weekend activities. This has resulted in weight loss for one young person who is proud of her drop in dress size. By stabilising behaviours, and liaising with medical professionals, one young person has significantly reduced the amount of medication he is taking. Another young person has given up smoking since moving to the home. School and college attendance is excellent. Over the summer holiday staff have proactively supported young people to prepare and successfully start new school and college placements. The registered manager has successfully advocated on behalf of a young person to ensure he had access to a school placement at the beginning of term. He has also worked in partnership with the school to ensure the young person had a proper introduction to help with the

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good

success of the transition. The young person since starting has been made star of the week for two consecutive weeks.

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good

Staff support and enhance young people’s progress. They develop positive relationships which the young people find ‘invaluable’. Young people describe staff as ‘great fun’, ‘amazing and so supportive’ and ‘firm but fair’. They feel valued and listened to and are actively involved in choosing activities, planning menus and furnishing and decorating their bedrooms and the rest of the house.

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good

Staff effectively promote family contact, providing transport and supervision where necessary. They are good at ensuring visits take place and are successful. For some young people this has resulted in increasing contact with their family. The staff team are also very effective at ensuring contact arrangement are appropriate and safe and will advocate on a young person’s behalf where they are not. Friendships developed through volunteering, clubs, school and colleges are also encouraged and help young people strengthen their sense of identity.

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good

Staff support young people to move in and out of the home. A young person stated: ‘When another young person moves in we do nice things to try and help them feel at home. This time we brought a card and some new bedding as a welcome present. We also got to help staff paint her bedroom before she moved in. It was great fun.’ Young people are helped to move on from the home in line with their plans. Young people learn life skills as part of the home’s normal routine throughout their stay to support these transitions. Staff also promote independence and are very proud of a young person who has recently successfully moved out of the home to a semi-independent placement.

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good

The staff team form positive relationships with young people which mean they do not go missing from care. Staff have good working knowledge of procedures which ensure they work in partnership with external agencies. Young people learn to keep themselves safe. They talk to staff about risks and become independent safely with the reassurance of proactive staff support.

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good

Young people learn new skills which result in a significant decrease in the number and durations of incidents and physical interventions they experience. Staff use a wide range of interventions including well-structured days, incentives, positive relationships, role modelling and self-soothing to achieve positive outcomes. Negative consequences are very rarely used. As a result young people learn to communicate emotions more effectively, regulate their behaviour and participate in a wider range of activities more successfully.

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good

The registered manager and staff team have a good overview of incidents and are quick to notice where patterns of behaviours change. They are able to clearly identify changes in young people’s lives that might cause this and put support in place to help them. However, risk assessments are not robust. They describe risks, but do not detail the actions staff should take to reduce those risks. This is potentially unsafe for staff and young people.

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good

Managers and staff manage effectively manage safeguarding concerns in partnership with external agencies. Any internal investigations are carried out effectively and shared with the local authority’s designated officer. This protects young people and staff.

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good

The home’s environment is safe, welcoming and homely. Young people are involved in the furnishing and decoration of the house. They are currently revamping the sitting room. The have chosen colours and painted. They are now waiting for the maintenance team to hang pictures and the television on the wall. Judgement grade

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good

The new registered manager started in post April 2015. He is currently working towards his level 5 diploma in leadership in children and young people health and social care. He already has NVQ 3 in health and social care. The registered manager, deputy and one of the seniors are also completing the organisation’s internal management development programme.

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good

Internal and independent monitoring reports demonstrate that the registered manager has a strong understanding of the service’s shortfalls, where improvements need to be made and how these are going to be achieved. Some complaints received about the service and standards of care have stemmed from a lack of experience and understanding by some staff of working in partnership with parents. Where complaints have been raised about practice there have been thorough investigations. The outcomes of these investigations have been shared with Ofsted and the relevant local authority. The registered manager and operations manager welcome this challenge to practice and acknowledge that this feedback has helped them improve practice and outcomes for young people. However, good practice and effective and reassuring communication in the first place could have avoided complaints at all.

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good

This home has had a very stable staff team for a significant period of time. This year has seen a number of changes to this team. These have been managed well without the use of agency staff. Vacancies have been quickly filled. New staff are positive about their induction and are enjoying good training. All staff develop their practice through structured team meetings and regular supervision, both of which support their personal development.

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good

There are good systems which enable the registered manager and staff to assess the impact of their care and report on the progress of young people. The registered manager also uses a development plan to set short and long term aims. He makes good use of feedback. Paperwork is shared promptly with local authorities and feedback about incidents is clearer to parents.

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good

There are some good relationships with partner agencies. Most are positive about the quality of communication and commitment of the new registered manager and staff team to the progress of young people. A health professional stated: ‘I have always been able to make contact with staff with ease. They have always been able to give me the relevant information asked for and have been proactive in contacting me if there have been concerns between review appointments. The young person in question has made significant progress and I believe this is in part due to the consistent and positive approach taken by staff.’

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good

Overall, the new registered manager and staff team continue to review and develop practice to raise standards and improve outcomes for young people and their families.

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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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