Children's Home run by Platinum Services for Children (Residential Care) Ltd in Staffordshire

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 environment is comfortable and welcoming and young people are able to personalise their rooms and choose the décor in the shared areas.  Young people make significant progress in several areas of their development, including keeping safe, education and independence skills.  Young people enjoy warm and trusting relationships with committed staff who work hard to support their complex emotional and behavioural needs.  Staff provide clear and consistent boundaries in addition to enthusiastically engaging young people in fun activities.  Young people are involved in their placement plans, risk assessments and behaviour management plans. Staff listen to their views, wishes and feelings and respond positively.  Highly trained and skilled staff keep children safe. They effectively identify risk and follow safeguarding policies and procedures when young people go missing. Staff constantly work with young people to teach them to keep

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The children's home provision is good because:

themselves safe.  The very experienced and child focused registered manager ensures that staff feel supported in addition to monitoring their practice and challenging them in regular supervision and team meetings.  Areas for improvement include the registered manager ensuring the views of all stakeholders are recorded; ensuring concerns are escalated within local authorities, when they fail to respond to young people’s needs quickly enough. Lastly, ensuring notifications of incidents to local authorities include information that is useful to them and to the young person.

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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 the system for reviewing of quality of care undertaken by the registered provider provides for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, parents, placing authorities and staff (Regulation 45 (5)) 31/12/2015

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Requirement Due date

5: Engaging with the wider system to ensure children's needs are met

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the engaging with the wider system standard the registered person must ensure that staff: -

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Requirement Due date

(c) if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority's or a relevant person's performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child's needs are met in accordance with the child's relevant plans. 31/12/2015

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation:  Staff should be familiar with the home's policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. 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 section should outline: This privately run children’s home is registered to care for up to two young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties. It is located next to its sister home. The service currently provides short or long-term care for children and young people aged 8 to18 years.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

25/02/2015 CH - Interim Sustained effectiveness

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good

Young people relax in a comfortable, welcoming and well-maintained home. They have personalised their rooms and chosen the colours for the newly decorated living rooms. There are photographs of the staff and young people enjoying outings and activities together.

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good

Young people benefit from warm relationships with staff who they know well. They can trust staff to understand their complex needs, but can also share banter and a joke with them. Enthusiastic and energetic staff encourage young people to enjoy fun activities like football, go karting, music and new experiences like surfing. Learning life skills, including cooking and using the washing machine are part of daily routines. Firm boundaries and consistency of the staff team supports young people’s sense of security, stability and emotional well-being.

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good

Young people with autistic spectrum disorders have experienced a high standard of care from staff who are highly knowledgeable and trained. This has enabled them to develop social skills and the ability to begin to manage their emotions and behaviour. This in turn has opened up opportunities in educaiton and employment that they were previously unable to access.

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good

One young person has made significant and sustained progress since he arrived and now fully engages in and enjoys a weekly programme of education and vocational training. This has helped raise his sense of achievement and self- esteem and given him the confidence to plan for his future.

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good

One young person is struggling to maintain the progress that she has made since she moved in. She had settled and was attending school and then college. However, in recent months, her needs and behaviour have become increasingly complex and challenging. Staff have now identified that the service is no longer equipped to meet her needs. Highly committed staff have, in close collaboration other professionals, responded appropriately and skilfully to her personal issues, changes in behaviour and going missing.

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good

Despite acknowledging that staff care for her well, listen to her and involve her in her risk assessments and behaviour management plans, she has begun to disengage from the placement and has expressed a strong wish to leave.

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good

Young people attend weekly house meetings; can contribute to decisions about how staff run the home and express any views or wishes they may have. If issues with, for example, the placing authority cannot be resolved staff offer young people independent advocates.

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good

Diversity is valued for each young person and staff support their identity with family contact, memory boxes and a range of cultural wall displays to encourage interest in other cultures.

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good

A young person says, 'it's good here', I like the staff’. He confirms that he is happy to stay here until he moves to independence. He feels listened to.

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good

Highly trained and skilled staff use key work sessions and informal conversations with young people to address safety. Young people acknowledge that they feel safe and that they engage in these conversations with staff. Staff have kept both young people safe, despite the challenges of going missing, substance misuse and risks of child sexual exploitation.

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good

Staff have agreements with young people as to when they are to return to the home. They also undertake unobtrusive safe and well checks when young people are out in the community by themselves. Staff have successfully encouraged young people to engage with substance misuse agencies and the youth offending service. This has helped reduced their risk taking behaviour and increased their understanding of consequences.

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good

In response to the risks entailed in going missing, staff recognise the importance of forming positive relationships with young people’s friends. Staff invite them to the home for meals or take them out with the young people for activities like bowling. They also effectively contact the friends’ family members to ensure young people are safe, as any other parents would. Consequently, if young people go missing, staff know where they are likely to be.

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good

Staff follow the safeguarding procedures when young people go missing and liaise closely with the local police to find them. Regular dialogue with the police ensures that staff are informed about any specific risks in the area. The home’s locality assessment is up to date as are young people’s detailed individual risk assessments. Young people are involved in their risk and behaviour plans so that they understand staffs concerns and responses.

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good

The Independent reviewing officer for one young person said: ‘He was at huge risk from gangs where he was living before and it has worked moving him here. He has gone missing, but staff act quickly and appropriately. They do all they can to keep him safe’.

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good

A parent says, ‘He got into the wrong crowd a bit, once he started going out’ adding of the staff, ‘ They keep him safe, definitely. They could not do better’.

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good

The registered manager holds a level 5 diploma in management. She has had many years’ experience of working with children and young people, and has been in this post since 2008.

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good

The registered manager, also very effectively manages the sister home next door. Information and recording systems in the home are clear and efficient and enable staff to access information in order to work effectively with young people. However, the information included in incident notifications by staff members do not always detail the work planned to prevent it happening again in the future. This makes notifications less informative for the child and placing authority.

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good

Training is up to date and additional training arranged as needed, to meet the needs of the young people in placement. Enthusiastic staff are keen to learn and sometimes take annual leave to attend training.

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good

Staff feel listened to by the registered manager. They are encouraged to contribute to the progress of the home both in supervision and in the monthly team meetings. S upervision is regular and clearly recorded and signed. Staff supervision is very positive, challenging and informative for staff. The registered manager ensures that they are always thinking and learning about good practice and puts challenging child-centred scenarios to them to discuss and resolve. This means that they are constantly preparing for a wide range of events, which might affect the young people and can therefore respond in the most appropriate ways.

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good

Staff feel secure in their relationships with each other and with the registered manager, ensuring a strong and cohesive team. However, staff anticipate that there will shortly be some personnel changes in the home. The provider, who has applied to register a new home, intends to redeploy some of the staff group.

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good

Staff and the registered manager have addressed these changes with the young people, and asked them to choose new key workers. When some of the existing staff leave, they are ensuring that any disruption to young people’s key relationships is minimised and that staff themselves are fully prepared.

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good

One staff member says, ‘we all work together, if you are unsure about something you can always ask. The support (from the manager and team) is absolutely fantastic, both in work and with personal issues’.

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good

The registered manager and staff are in constant communication with young people, family members and other professionals. A parent stated the staff are, ' Brilliant I can’t fault them; they are very accommodating. Any problems and they call me'. An independent reviewing officer commented that, ‘Staff provide me with weekly reports, which is very unusual’.

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good

If issues arise regarding the placing authorities responses to young people’s needs, the registered manager and staff advocate on their behalf via emails, telephone calls and in meetings. Staff also ensure that they offer young people independent advocates, if they wish. However, the registered manager does not always take issues higher in the local authority, thereby, missing the opportunity to resolve matters more quickly for young people. For example, it has taken a number of months for one young person’s placing authority to address her changing placement needs. The registered manager has therefore missed out on being more effective by challenging the local authority even further, escalating the concerns higher and consulting with therapeutic services to support the process.

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good

Whilst the registered manager constantly consults with children, staff, families and professionals, she and the staff do not capture and recorded feedback. This reduces her effectiveness when reviewing the quality of service provision and seeking to drive up the standards of care.

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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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