Children's Home run by Castle Homes Care Limited in BirminghamOfsted inspection, 27 Aug 2015

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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 enjoy a good level of care provided by staff that have a strong awareness of their needs and how these are to be met.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Planning is individualised and updated on a regular basis to ensure that it is pertinent to young people’s current situation. Some minor additions are necessary to plans regarding those that may go missing.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Staff consistently support young people’s health. Young people attend a range of health appointments and good links are in place with differing agencies supporting a healthy life.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Excellent work is completed with young people that have previously put themselves at risk of sexual exploitation.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Educational achievements are promoted and all young people attend school or training.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Young people are listened to well although complaints information does not always show the outcome of concerns raised.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Good safeguarding procedures are in place and young people feel safe in the home and with staff.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Behaviour management systems are well understood and young people gain rewards. Sanctions are based on restorative justice to ensure they learn the effect of negative behaviours.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 The management team work well and lead a strong team of experienced and trained staff. Staff are supported through regular supervision and appraisals. All receive regular training to keep them up to date with current working practices.

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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 manager must ensure that a record is made of any complaint, the action taken in response, and the outcome of any investigation (Regulation 39.3) 30/12/2015

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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 that where there is a possibility that a child will run away or go missing from a children's home placement, their placement plan should include a strategy to minimise this risk. If the child is looked-after, their care plan (arranged by their placing authority) should include such a strategy (The Guide to the Quality Standards page 45 paragraph 9.24)

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Information about this children's home

The home is part of a large private organisation. It offers care up to three children primarily with emotional and behavioural difficulties within an age range from 8 to 18. It is set within a residential environment.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

23/03/2015 CH - Interim Improved effectiveness

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people living in the home are

Young people enjoy good relationships with the staff team, receiving a high quality of care. They are positive about being at the home and the adults that work with them. All are aware of their keyworkers and the expectations to work with them on a regular basis, examining their paperwork and developing improvements in their lives. Individualised work is effective and highlights that staff have a structured approach. A project relating to young people’s home towns highlights their backgrounds and raises awareness of cultural differences both in the locality of the home and from where they have been placed.

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people living in the home are

Complaints records show that staff listen to young people and understand issues raised by them. Records do not consistently show the outcomes of complaints, to show that they have been completed to the understanding of the young person.

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people living in the home are

Good contact arrangements are in place for all young people, having been organised from the point of their admission. Parents state that the home is supportive with organising contact and ensuring that relationships between young people and their families is important.

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people living in the home are

Excellent arrangements are in place to support young people’s health. All attend local health care appointments when necessary. Staff have a high awareness of concerns relating to young people’s eating habits and consistently promote positive body images. This develops self-esteem and a confidence in their appearance. Staff promote individuals sexual health and the need for regular checks, undergoing injections to show young people the ease of looking after themselves. Additional work is completed through an external counselling service to further develop their self-esteem. Young people are encouraged to be involved with a range of activities, to develop a healthy lifestyle as well as allowing them to learn new skills and meet new people.

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people living in the home are

All young people are currently attending educational placements, showing improvements in their educational achievements. They are positive about the way that they are doing and are able to talk about their development, with one stating that, ‘I probably would have been kicked out of school a while ago, but staff have helped me through some tricky situations.’

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people living in the home are

All young people have placement plans written by the home that relate well to the admissions information and Looked After Children documentation. Plans show the ways that staff work with young people and which areas of their care require specific support or development.

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people living in the home are

The home provides a pleasant and homely environment. Young people enjoy the ability to personalise their rooms and communal areas are comfortable. A plan for the necessary upgrading of some areas of the décor and the refitting of the bathroom is in place.

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people living in the home are

Independence planning is completed well. Young people learn how to cook and budget in preparation for living at their next placement. They state that they have to do their own laundry and are developing an ability to use their own time productively.

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people are helped and protected

Young people state that they feel safe in the home and that the staff team help this to happen, with good security and staff helping them to understand how to keep safe in the community. Where concerns relating to sexual exploitation exist staff work well on an individual basis to support their awareness of issues and how to respond to these.

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people are helped and protected

The home has a good risk assessment approach, examining a wide range of risk factors relating to concerning behaviours. Assessments are updated following both increases and decreases in concerning behaviours. This means that they are up to date and pertinent to the needs of the young people. Health and safety checks are completed regularly to support the welfare of both young people and staff, including fire safety checks and drills.

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people are helped and protected

Child protections systems ensure that when safeguarding concerns arise they are dealt with quickly and support young people’s welfare. Staff training is completed regularly, keeping all up to date with current recording and reporting processes. This is provided both within the organisation and by the local safeguarding children’s board to ensure that it relates specifically to the work done in local area.

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people are helped and protected

Young people occasionally go missing from the home. There is not always sufficient proactive strategies in place in the care planning process to fully support them to reduce the risk. The majority of previous missing episodes relate to a young person that has left the home. When young people do go missing staff attempt to contact them and informing the police and other agencies. Records follow a clear chronology, showing that all professionals are involved both during and following the incident. Behaviour management systems promote positive behaviours well. Reward structures encourage good relationships at the home and attendance at education. Sanctions are appropriate and based on restorative justice principles to raise their awareness of the effect that their poor behaviours have on others. Restraints are rare and fully recorded in each instance. Staff are fully trained in restraint to support young people’s safety. Staff challenge bullying behaviours well. Good

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people are helped and protected

bridge building discussions take place following incidents where concerns have been raised.

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people are helped and protected

Staff are safely recruited to the home, with all necessary checks completed prior to them starting.

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leaders and managers

The Registered Manager has been in position since 2006 and is qualified up to level 5. Staff are positive about her leadership, stating that she is, ‘always supportive and helpful.’ She has a high awareness of the home and the young people’s plans. A detailed development plan shows an expectation to move forwards and to respond to the needs of the young people. A previous recommendation relating to the registered manager receiving supervision has been met.

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leaders and managers

The management team complete monitoring of the home’s systems and records well. Where concerns are raised these are responded to swiftly by staff. The manager challenges those within the home and social workers to work effectively with the young people. This results in young people receiving an improved service. Monthly monitoring by an external party is informative and helps to guide the staff towards possible improvements in their practice. Monitoring includes discussions with the young people, staff and professionals involved with the home to ensure a fuller picture of the home is reported on.

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leaders and managers

Regular reviews of care plans ensure that they are pertinent and concur with the expectations of the placing authority. Staff are well prepared for young people’s reviews, encouraging young people to be involved with making decisions about their time at the home and their future plans.

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leaders and managers

The home’s statement of purpose gives a clear picture of the role of the home and the young people that are best suited to it. It includes details of staffing and is helpful to placing authorities. The young person’s guide to the home gives a range of information about the way that the home works, including basic rules and who to talk to if they have a concern or worry about their care. An error relating to one of these contacts was corrected at the time of the inspection.

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leaders and managers

Staff receive regular supervisions and appraisals, which link to individual’s development plans. This helps to support their training at the home and provide improved outcomes to young people. Staff state that they receive a good level of training and the vast majority have completed their level 3 training. A local drug and alcohol awareness organisation offers support to young people as well as training staff. Training is updated on a regular basis, with all staff being aware of mandatory courses.

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leaders and managers

The staff team is made up of a good mix of experienced and qualified staff, with differing cultural backgrounds. Recruitment of staff is well considered to meet the needs of the young people and ensure that they have positive role models working with them at all times.

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leaders and managers

The management team inform differing professionals of significant events. Notifications are completed swiftly and show how the home has responded to issues raised.

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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

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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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