Children's Home run by Hampshire County Council in Hampshire

Outstanding

The children's home provides highly effective services that consistently exceeds 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:

 Staff provide extremely personalised care to children and young people to ensure they have very positive experiences.  Children and young people’s care plans are comprehensive and provide detailed information to staff to ensure they know each child and young person very well.  Children and young benefit from care provided by staff who are highly knowledgeable about the needs and circumstances of each individual.  Staff engage exceptionally well with children and young people.  Staff are adept at understanding children and young people’s cues for indicating their wants and needs when they are unable to communicate verbally.  Staff value children and young people’s views and through excellent communication skills, and strategies enable them to express their opinions.  Children and young people experience nurturing and caring relationships with staff.  Staff are supportive and responsive and interactions are filled with joy and

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

laughter.  Staff work tirelessly to ensure children and young people are positively occupied and stimulated during their stays at the service.  Children and young people make exceptional progress in developing their abilities.  Staff ensure children and young people staying together are matched extremely well.  The management team fosters a culture where children and young people are highly valued.  Staff strive to ensure children’s and young people have extremely positive stays at the service.  Manager’s and staff have exceptional relationships with parents.  Children’s and young people’s participation and feedback is at the centre of the service.

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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 the arrangements for the safeguarding of children from abuse or neglect (required by regulation 34) are clear and explicit within the homes policies (Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations including the quality standards, April 2015, Page 44, paragraph 9.19)  review the appropriateness and suitability of the location. The review should be updated with any changes and include details how these changes impact on the risk and appropriateness of location (Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations including the quality standards, page 64, paragraph 15.1)  ensure the children's home provides a homely, domestic environment. In particular, ensuring the outside areas are cleared of rubbish, broken equipment and the fence repaired (Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations including the

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Recommendations

quality standards, April 2015, page 15 paragraph 3.9)  ensure that the supervision of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. This includes providing and recording debriefs offered to staff after incidents to ensure incidents are reflected on and improvements to practice are identified and made (Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations including the quality standards, April 2015, page 62 paragraph 13.1)  ensure the review of physical interventions provide the opportunity for amending practice to ensure it meets the needs of each child. This includes reviewing children and young people's positive support plans (Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations including the quality standards, page 49 paragraph 9.59)  ensure that staff continually and actively assess the risks to each young person and the arrangements in place to protect them. This includes ensuring risk assessments are updated after incidents (Guide to the Children's Homes

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Recommendations

Regulations including the quality standards, page 42 paragraph 9.5)  ensure staff recognise and celebrate the achievements of the children and young people, by recording when young people have made progress against their targets demonstrating achievement and progress (Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations including the quality standards, page 31 paragraph 6.7)  ensure that recruitment procedures safeguards children and young people and minimises potential risks to them. In particular ensuring all the required checks as specified in schedule two are completed. (Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations including the quality standards, April 2015, page 62 paragraph 13.1)

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Information about this children's home

The setting is owned and operated jointly by a local authority children's services department and a National Health Service Foundation Trust. This service offers short breaks for up to nine children and young people who have learning disabilities that may include sensory and physical disabilities, complex health needs or challenging behaviour.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

19/05/2015 CH - Interim improved effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

21/10/2014 CH - Interim sustained effectiveness

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outstanding

Staff provide extremely personalised care to children and young people to ensure they have very positive experiences whilst staying within the service. Staff have developed effective relationships with children and young people’s parents, schools and placing authorities to learn as much as they can about the children and young people using the service. This includes knowing their likes, dislikes, interests and preferences. Even details such as how each individual likes their bedding or their pyjamas put on are established. This ensures that children and young people are cared for in the way they prefer and are relaxed and comfortable when staying at the service. Children and young people’s care plans are comprehensive and provide detailed information to staff to ensure they know each child and young person very well. This supports staff to provide highly individualised care for children and young people who have diverse, and in some cases very complex, needs.

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outstanding

Children and young benefit from care provided by staff who are highly knowledgeable about the needs and circumstances of each individual. As a result, staff engage exceptionally well with them, providing support and reassurance when needed. Staff are adept at understanding children and young people’s cues for indicating their wants and needs when they are unable to communicate verbally. Staff highly value children and young people’s views and through excellent communication skills, and strategies enable the children and young people to express their opinions, choices and wishes through a variety of communication techniques and aids. Children and young people experience nurturing and caring relationships with staff. Staff are supportive and responsive and interactions are filled with joy and laughter. As a result, children and young people feel valued by staff and their self-esteem grows. During their stays, children and young people are encouraged to have fun and to

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outstanding

develop their skills in a safe, caring environment. Staff work tirelessly to ensure children and young people are positively occupied and stimulated during their stays at the service. They are able to take part in a range of activities including trips out. Children and young people are continuously asked what they would like to do and for their feedback on attended activities. This ensures children and young people have opportunities to try new things and their hobbies and interests are promoted. Staff are committed to ensuring that all children and young people’s requests for activities are honoured and are extremely organised and innovative in how they achieve this. Staff encourage children and young people to do as much as they can independently. Staff work closely with parents and the children and young people’s educational establishments to ensure they work towards shared goals and use a consistent approach. Through small achievable steps, children and young people

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outstanding

have been able to develop their abilities and some have been able to carry out some tasks independently. These are exceptional achievements for some children and young people and supports them to build on their self-confidence and self- esteem. However, staff have not been consistently recording against targets which may impact of their ability to monitor children’s and young people’s progress and celebrate their achievements. Staff work extremely closely with parents and social workers to tailor the child or young person’s transition into the service to their particular needs. The child or young person is able to visit the service on as many occasions as necessary, prior to staying overnight. Staff’s careful planning and regular contact with children and young people prior to using the service ensures a successful transition. One of staff’s top priority is to ensure children and young people staying together are

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outstanding

matched extremely well. This has supported children and young people to develop friendships and build on their social skills. Staff support children and young people to complete ‘scrap books’ of their stays at the service, which they are able to take with them when they finish using the service, promoting a positive ending.

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good

Children and young people’s demeanour indicates that they feel happy and comfortable and have positive relationships with staff. They have highly individualised and comprehensive risk assessments in place. These demonstrate that staff have a strong understanding of each child or young person’s specific vulnerabilities and that they have developed strategies to care for them in the best way. However, staff have not updated a minority of risk assessments after significant incidents. This means they do not contain all relevant information, which may affect staff’s ability to safeguard the individuals they are supporting. Staff are competent, vigilant and suitably trained in safeguarding procedures. They use their knowledge and training in safeguarding to monitor children and young people’s welfare. The service’s high staffing ratios ensures that children and young people receive the level of support and supervision they require to have a positive,

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good

safe experience. However, the service’s safeguarding policy does not describe the measures staff should take following an allegation or disclosure in order to protect the child or young person. This could result in staff not taking appropriate action to protect children and young people. Children and young people do not leave the service without permission and there has not been an incident of staff reporting a young person as missing for a number of years. If such an event was to occur the service has suitable procedures in place. Staff understand children and young people’s behaviours as communication and they respond to it as such. Staff have an excellent understanding of why children and young people may be displaying a behaviour and of the best approach to distract and support them to be reassured and reduce their anxieties. There has been no use of physical intervention since the previous inspection, demonstrating

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good

the success of staff’s intervention. There have been some escalation in some young people’s behaviour resulting in occasional aggression against staff. These incidents have been managed well, however it is not clear if staff have had an opportunity to discuss and reflect on these incidents, which may prevent areas for improvement in practice being identified. The home’s location assessment demonstrates that staff have considered the risks the local area may present and taken action to minimise them. This is regularly updated and changes noted. However, it is not clear if staff have considered the impact these changes have had on the risks to the children and young people. This may result in staff not taking responsive action to protect children and young people. The home's design is suited for its purpose and the standard of accommodation and facilities are good. However, some of the garden areas need

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good

addressing to ensure children and young people can access and use these areas safely. The registered manager demonstrates a good understanding of safe recruitment procedures. However, references had not been obtained from some staffs members’ previous employment with children, young people or vulnerable adults as required by regulation. This means their reasons for leaving these roles were not established. As a result, recruitment procedures are not robust to ensure that only suitable adults are employed to work with young people.

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outstanding

The Registered Manager is a qualified nurse and has been registered with Ofsted for eight years. She has completed a level four qualification in leadership and management and is experienced and competent in her role. She is dedicated to improving her practice and as such is currently completing a level 5 award in leadership and management to support her continuous professional development. An enthusiastic and knowledgeable deputy supports the registered manager. The management team fosters a culture in which children and young people are highly valued and where staff strive to ensure children and young people have extremely positive stays at the service. The managers are committed to ensuring the care children and young people receive is of a high standard. This is reflected in practice as staff are driven and determined to ensure children and young people are treated as individuals, have every opportunity to share their views, choices and

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outstanding

have their rights promoted. To support staff’s excellent practice, managers continuously improve their support plans, these provide comprehensive information on each individual and contribute to an extremely personalised service. Managers and staff have exceptional relationships with parents, they ensure parents are involved in all aspects of their child’s care and share information consistently to ensure support plans remains accurate and up to date. The staff team have developed strong links with other professionals to proactively support children’s and young people’s needs. The manager regularly contacts professionals to arrange meetings and engagement events to strengthen these ties for the benefit of the service and the children and young people they support. The manager actively challenges other services to ensure children and young people receive the best care possible. Children’s and young people’s participation and feedback is at the centre of the

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outstanding

service. The manager ensures that they are continuously provided with opportunities to share their views on the service they receive. The service also works closely with their parents to obtain their opinions on where the service could improve. This ensures that those using the service have a say in how the service is managed and this supports the manager in ensuring they receive an improving service. The manager’s monitoring of the service is extensive and she continually evaluates the quality of care provided to identify any strengths or weaknesses. These then form the basis of the service’s development plan to ensure improvements are made. Over the past year, the management and staff have faced some difficulty in staffing levels. However, the dynamism of the staff team has ensured that the care children and young people received continued to be of a high standard. These issues have now been resolved and the manager leads an enthusiastic and

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outstanding

dedicated team. Staff members receive regular supervision to ensure they are able to reflect on children young people’s needs, their practice and how the service can be improved. Staff members attend a range of training to ensure that they are able to meet the complex needs of the children and young people they support.

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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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