Children's Home run by Castle Homes Care Limited in Barnsley

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:

- Young people are safe. They are well cared for and develop good relationships with staff. - Missing instances have reduced. Young people are not often missing form care. When they are, staff go out looking for young people and follow the individual protocols ensuring their safe return. - Young people make educational progress in comparison to their starting points. They have aspirations for their future. - Health outcomes are improving. Young people make positive changes to their smoking and drinking habits. - Young people develop the skills for successful transition into adulthood. They receive good support helping them plan for and prepare for their future. - Staff are motivated and keen to help young people succeed. They feel supported in their work with good access to supervision, support and training helping them to develop professionally. - Staff have opportunities to progress their career within the home and on a

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

wider scale within the company. - The manager provides both staff and young people with stability and consistency. She goes the extra mile to ensure young people are happy, well cared for and safe. She has good relationships and is effective in her role. - The warm, nurturing home environment provides young people with a sense of belonging.

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Information about this children's home

The children’s home is privately owned and managed. It is registered to provide care and accommodation to up to three children and young people with emotional and behavioural needs. The home provides on-site education provision.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

24/02/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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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

If the registered person considers a placing authority or relevant persons performance to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge them to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with their plans. (Regulation 5 (C)) 30/12/2015

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Recommendations

 Staff should continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. When 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 Quality Standards, paragraph 9.5, page 42). In particular, this must be recorded in young people’s records so that progress can be measured and actions reviewed.

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outstanding

Young people experience stability and consistency in their lives enabling them to build secure relationships with adults at the home. The caring staff team are mindful and supportive of young people’s individual needs. They sensitively explore young people’s views, enabling them to influence the running of the home. This encourages young people to invest in the placement as their home.

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outstanding

Good information sharing and planning ensures young people have opportunities to visit the home prior to admission. One-to-one support helps young people to understand their care plan and the reason why they are unable to live at home. Stability in placement assists them to strengthen familial relationships. One young person said, ‘I get on better with my family. I can see my mum regularly now. It’s a lot better for me here.’

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outstanding

Positive relationships between staff and young people promote a culture of openness. Young people know how to escalate their grumbles into complaints. The manager’s formal response reassures young people that their views are highly valued. This helps to reinforce their sense of belonging and importance at the home.

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outstanding

Educational outcomes are mixed with some young people making good progress while others take small steps to re-engage and develop trust with teachers and other pupils. One-to-one support from qualified learning assistants ensures young people attending the on-site school receive intensive input. Young people attending education off-site are transported daily. This ensures they arrive at school in a safe and timely way while good attendance and learning helps increase their life chances. One young person said, ‘I really enjoy my college course. Staff are great, they get me there every day.’

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outstanding

Young people are encouraged to take part in a range of social and recreational activities helping develop their confidence, interests and talents. They love fishing, pampering sessions, shopping, going to the cinema, and playing board games. This provides them with appropriate fun and leisure time while exploring new activities such as boxing, horse riding, and gym membership. Regular fund-raising events enable young people to give back to their community. This promotes their sense of pride and achievement and positively influences their emotional wellbeing.

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outstanding

Routine medical care, healthy nutritional meals and good sleeping patterns further promote good health and wellbeing. The child-centred staff advocate on behalf of young people for specialist intervention. This enables young people to regulate their emotional responses, change learnt behaviours and make positive changes. They pursue referrals to smoking cessation and substance misuse services for additional support. One young person said, ‘I don’t smoke as much as I used to. I have reduced the amount by a lot.’ Another young person said, ‘My drinking habits have changed. I don’t drink as much anymore. This lot can always tell if I do have a drink.’ The young person suggests staff have a good awareness of his individual behaviours.

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outstanding

Semi-independence work takes into account young people’s starting point and need for positive, nurturing care. Young people acquire the necessary skills essential for adulthood at a pace that is suited to their individual needs and maturity. Basic household chores are developed to incorporate cooking, budgeting, independent travel and managing safe relationships. Staff promote young people’s dignity sensitively and in turn, they are respectful of adults. Good transitional work prior to moving onto independent living promotes positive endings. One young person says, ‘I want to get a part-time job and continue with my studies. I’m ready to move on and I know I have the support I need.’

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good

Young people feel safe. They live in a secure home environment where they develop trusting relationships with the staff team responsible for their care. Young people feel able to disclose abusive relationships with awareness that the proactive manager and staff take appropriate action. This helps them feel safe and protected in response to their allegations.

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good

Missing from care has reduced. These have generally related to unauthorised stays with family members, short-term absence or late return in the local community. Staff have a good understanding of individual behaviours and the levels of risk involved. They effectively adhere to individual protocols minimising the potential for further harm. Staff go out in search of young people, contact family members and undertake welfare checks if their whereabouts are known. Effective liaison with the police and other safeguarding professionals ensures a coordinated response and a safe and timely return. Independent return home interviews follow- up any unidentified concerns.

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good

Good communication between safeguarding professionals helps keep the risks under review and actions open to challenge. Notifications to the regulator are timely and identify the required actions to implement further safeguards. This further promotes good working relationships. Behaviour management strategies are effective. Staff use their knowledge and training to de-escalate challenging situations leading to very little need for physical interventions. Destructive behaviours have reduced with young people showing respect for the home and each other. Restorative sanctions are fair and proportionate. They help teach young people vital lessons about consequences. Staff follow up any sanctions in writing to young people. This helps clarify the reasons for the sanction and seeks feedback about their views. This response enables young people to reflect on their behaviour, understand the need for the imposed consequence and improves relationships with staff.

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good

Staff have a good understanding of the risk posed to young people through social media and internet use. Various e-safety courses and discussions help to educate young people about these dangers. Appropriate supervision implemented within the home is an additional safeguard. Proactive input from the homes anti-bullying champion further helps to educate young people and keep them safe.

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good

Risk assessments and behaviour management plans do not always reflect the level of interventions used by staff. One young person thought to be at risk of self-harm and missing behaviours has restrictions on her free time. The home use surveillance through door alarms during the night as an additional safeguard. Although the placing authority agrees with the need for these interventions, they are not reflected in her risk assessments and plans therefore appear unnecessarily restrictive. Furthermore, records do not demonstrate how the interventions are reviewed. This in turn, means there is no effective measurement of any progress.

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good

The manager provides effective leadership and oversight of the home. She is in a permanent position and was registered in 2012 for this home. She has considerable experience and a level 5 diploma in leadership supporting her in the role.

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good

The home is well staffed with a suitable mix of new and experienced staff. They offer a good quality service to young people. There have been attempts to recruit a deputy manager. However, potential candidates have not measured up to the managers high expectations. The manager and senior members of staff are able to cover this vacancy in the interim.

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good

In addition to monitoring undertaken by the manager and independent visitor, further auditing of the quality of care is undertaken through an internal peer review process. This level of scrutiny supports the Registered Manager to swiftly identify any shortfalls and minimise the impact on young people.

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good

Good levels of consultation with stakeholders and learning from complaints further enhance the manager’s knowledge of the homes strengths and areas for improvement. These are identified in the homes development plan, which assists the manager to focus on continuous child-centred improvements.

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good

The identification of gaps in service provision for young people leads to swift and proactive action. The staff teams strong advocacy skills stem from the manager’s passion for improved outcomes for young people. One example of this is when a placing authority commissioned therapeutic services rather than keeping a young person on a lengthy waiting list. Such timely action enables young people to overcome adversity and trauma and helps promotes good outcomes.

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good

Staff benefit from regular supervision, support and training. This addresses all generic issues involved with caring for young people but also focuses on more targeted and specific issues. Staff engage with monthly team meetings and new staff have access to peer mentoring supporting their practical ‘on the job’ skills. This ensures they develop good relationships with peers and have formal input addressing their development. One member of staff states, ‘Formal support is great but the level of informal support we have is amazing. There is always someone available to talk to me about anything.’

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good

Careful planning of new admissions ensures the impact of young people’s individual and collective behaviours is assessed appropriately. Child-centred admissions start relationships off on a positive note and further promote placement stability.

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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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