Children's Home run by Pear Tree Projects Limited in Darlington

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 make excellent progress and achieve improvements in a range of areas including education, behaviour and health.  The registered manager and staff offer high levels of consistency and continuity. This helps young people feel settled and secure.  The staff are very effective in developing constructive relationships with young people. Young people trust the staff and value their support and guidance.  Monitoring of quality is not fully robust. Internal monitoring reports do not provide for an action plan to address shortfalls and the views of local agencies are not sought when undertaking the annual location assessment.  Young people's risk assessments are not sufficiently comprehensive.

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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

When conducting the annual location review, the registered person must consult, and take into account the views of each relevant person.

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take account of the following recommendation(s):

 Clearly identify in the registered manager's quality monitoring reports any actions required for the next six months and how those actions will be addressed. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 65, paragraph 15.4).

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take account of the following recommendation(s):

 Continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. This includes an assessment of the risk of being a victim of inappropriate behaviour. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 42, paragraph 9.5).

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Information about this children's home

The home is owned and operated by a private company. It is registered with Ofsted to provide care and accommodation for up to three young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

24/02/2015 Interim Declined in effectiveness

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Good

Young people make good progress across all aspects of their development. For example, they have excellent levels of attendance and achievement at school. This was summed up by one young person who said, ‘I’m doing a lot better at school now, compared to before I lived here. I’m more calm now and I get into trouble less often. I’m learning now.’ Young people are well-motivated to attend school and employment.

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Good

Young people also make good progress in physical and emotional health. The staff ensure young people have regular health check-ups with doctors, dentists and opticians. They also facilitate support for young people from specialists such as agencies supporting young people to address previous offending behaviour. This targeted support, along with support from the staff has helped to bring about good overall progress and prevent re-offending.

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Good

The quality of relationships between young people and staff is very good. One young person said, ‘I like it here and the best thing about it is the staff. They are chilled which makes us chilled also.’ The staff know the young people and their needs well. They therefore care for young people in an individualised way which boosts the children’s sense of self-esteem and well-being.

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Good

The registered manager and staff seek the views of young people and wherever possible incorporate those views into how the home is run. For example, they have a full say in the décor of their bedrooms, they choose the activities and annual holidays and are involved in day-to-day issues such as choice of meals.

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Good

All young people are supported to learn skills that will be useful when they are older and living independently. They learn how to shop, prepare food and cook meals. They gain full competence in independent use of public transport and to cycle to work or for leisure.

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Good

For those young people who live a long way from home, the staff fully support them to maintain contact with their families. They enable them to have frequent telephone contact and provide transport to enable them to visit and stay for overnights in line with the arrangements in their care plan.

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Good

Young people live in an environment that is homely and well-designed. All young people have an ensuite shower and sink in their bedroom which promotes choice and privacy. One young person said, ‘I like my bedroom. I can put up my posters and I’ve lots of space. It’s nice having my own shower.’ In discussions, all young people said they liked their bedroom and were happy with standard of furniture and fittings in there.

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Good

The registered manager and staff identify risks to young people's welfare and record clear guidance as to how risks will be reduced. The procedure for assessing risks is currently being improved and staff are receiving training in this. There is a weakness in current risk assessment procedures because the likelihood of any young person being a victim of inappropriate behaviour is not recorded. There is therefore less assurance that a significant issue such as this has been responded to safely.

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Good

At the inspection, all of the young people living at the home said, ‘I feel safe here.’ The premises are secure and where necessary, special safeguards are put in place to keep young people safe. The registered manager and staff know and understand the needs of young people well. They are effective in identifying their personal needs or vulnerabilities and addressing them appropriately. As a result young people feel assured and settled.

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Good

Young people behave in a sociable and considerate manner. One young person summed this up saying, ‘Before coming here my behaviour was not very good. I used to get angry and hit out at people. Since I came here I’m a lot calmer because the staff have helped me. The listen and help me sort things out.’ Young people's positive behaviour is apparent in a variety of ways. For example, they very rarely go missing. Since the previous inspection 13 months ago there have been no occasions when any young person has gone missing or whose whereabouts have been unknown. In addition, the staff have never needed to restrain any young person in this period and the use of sanctions for inappropriate behaviour has been minimal. Incidents of self-harm have been rare and where this has happened the registered manager and staff have responded responsibly and effectively. The registered manager and staff set effective and consistent boundaries for behaviour

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Good

and this helps young people feel secure and promotes their well-being.

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Good

Young people get on well together and there is no bullying. The registered manager carefully assesses the needs of any young person considered as a possible new admission to the home. He also considers the needs of the current residents in relation to this. Consequently the needs of the group of young people in the home are well-matched and they get on well together. Professional technicians regularly service the electrical equipment, gas appliances and equipment for preventing, detecting and extinguishing fires. The staff and young people take part in regular fire drills and update the fire risk assessment regularly.

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Good

Appropriate arrangements are in place to ensure that staff recruited to work with young people are suitable and safe.

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Good

The registered manager has been in post for nearly four years. They have the necessary experience and qualifications for their role.

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Good

From their point of admission to the home, young people make good progress in line with their care plan. The registered manager is effective in assessing and prioritising children’s needs. These are recorded clearly in up-to-date care plans along with guidance as to how the staff are expected to meet these needs. Each young person has a key worker who has regular one-to-one time with their young person to ensure their opinions and feelings are known. The staff are effective in advocating for young people in review meetings and in supporting them to make their opinions known. They produce a detailed and comprehensive review report for each statutory care review meeting. All this helps to ensure each young person’s wide range of needs are met effectively.

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Good

The staff are supported well. They benefit from effective induction procedure; they are supported and encouraged to become qualified in their care role; they receive regular formal one-to-one supervision and they have an annual appraisal of their performance. Feedback from staff in their pre-inspection surveys and at the inspection was that support through training and supervision was effective. In a survey, one member of staff said, ‘I have improved immensely with supervision from my present manager.’ The team of staff are well-established and have worked at the children's home for several years. The registered manager ensures provision of a high degree of consistency through permanent staffing rotas and a strong sense of routine. This helps young people feel settled and secure.

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Good

Monitoring of the quality of care is adequate and the registered manager is well- motivated to provide a high quality of care. One member of staff said, ‘My manager considers my views about how to improve the home. He is a good listener and wants to improve the home I work in’. There are nevertheless some weaknesses in the arrangements for quality monitoring. In line with legislation, an external visitor makes an unannounced visit to the children's home once a month to assess the quality of care. They talk to young people, their parents/carers, members of staff on duty and they contact those social workers who have a young person placed at the home. They make recommendations where necessary and assess how well the recommendations have been addressed at their next visit.

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Good

The registered manager also assesses the quality of care on an ongoing basis. In line with legislation he also produces a quality monitoring report every six months and sends a copy to Ofsted. There is a lack of assurance that shortfalls will be addressed appropriately as the report does not provide a plan describing what actions will be taken as a result of the monitoring.

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Good

The registered manager conducts an annual assessment of the children's home to evaluate the appropriateness and safety of its location within the local community. This assessment is not sufficiently robust because the views of agencies suggested by government guidance are not sought. Such agencies include the local authority children’s services department, the local probation service and youth offending team.

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Good

The registered manager has effective working relationships with a wide range of agencies including the police, child protection agencies, education and health agencies and specialist health promotion agencies including medical expertise for special conditions. Where the agencies are not responding to children’s needs in a timely or effective way, the registered manager advocates effectively and challenges the agencies to provide the necessary support.

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Good

The home has a written statement of purpose which describes its function and how it operates. The ethos of care, as described in the statement, is to provide a therapeutic environment based on environment, values, activities and assessment. The home is delivering care in line with this ethos.

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Good

At the previous inspection Ofsted made two requirements and one recommendation. Since then, the registered persons have addressed all of the issues. As a result, Ofsted can now be aware of significant developments because the registered manager and staff notify it of all significant events. In addition there is now full accountability for how any child protection incidents have been addressed.

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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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