Children's Home run by Semi-independent House Limited in CambridgeshireOfsted inspection, 15 Dec 2015

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 progress in all areas of their development because of the intervention they receive from staff in this home.  Positive relationships develop between staff and young people, this is characterised by the dependable care that staff deliver.  Staff attune to young people’s individual presentations and behaviours and support them to develop an understanding of these.  Young people engage in a range of activities and staff promote safe peer relationships outside of the home.  In line with care plans, the manager and staff actively involve family members in young people’s daily lives.  Staff understand risk and effectively safeguard young people without restricting their life experiences.  The home presents as warm and welcoming. Some areas would benefit from modernisation in line with young people’s wishes.  At this time, staff do not maximise opportunities to encourage young people’s academic progress within the home by engaging them in

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The children's home provision is good because:

educational activities.  Records are of a variable quality dependent on the author. They do not always reflect young people’s voices. Staff do not support the contribution they make to pathway and transition planning with formal records. This limits the effective assessment of progress.  The missing and bullying policies require updating to ensure staff respond consistently and in accordance with local protocols.  There are no physical memories of the time young people spend in the home. Young people do not currently benefit from a record of significant events now or when they reflect on their life journeys.

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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

6. The Quality and Purpose of Care Standard In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard, with particular reference to the environment, the registered person is required to: (2)(c) (i) ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to meet the needs of each child 18/01/2016

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Requirement Due date

8. The Education Standard In order to meet the education standard, with particular reference to supporting educational achievement, the registered person must ensure that: (2)(a)(ii) staff support each child’s learning and development, including helping the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study; (v) promote opportunities for each child to learn informally 18/01/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must prepare and implement a policy for the prevention of bullying in the home, which must in particular set out the procedure for dealing with an allegation of bullying. (Regulation 34 (3)) 18/01/2016

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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 staff help each child to prepare for any moves from the home, whether they are returning home, moving to another placement or adult care, or to live independently. This includes supporting the child to develop emotional and mental resilience to cope without the home’s support and, where the child is moving to live independently, practical skills such as cooking, housework, budgeting and personal self-care. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 17 paragraph 3.27)

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Recommendations

Ensure staff actively seek to make the fullest contribution to working with other relevant persons in respect of the pathway planning process. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 17 paragraph 3.28) Ensure the home’s procedures take into account the views of appropriate local services and have regard to police and local authority protocols for responding to missing person's incidents in the area where the home is located. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 45 paragraph 9.29) Ensure that staff are familiar with the home's policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child and family. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 62 paragraph 14.4)

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Recommendations

Ensure staff encourage young people to see the home’s records as ‘living documents’ supporting them to view and contribute to the record in a way that reflects their voice on a regular basis. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 58 paragraph 11.19)

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Recommendations

Ensure staff keep and encourage children to keep appropriate memorabilia of the time spent living at the home and help them record significant life events. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 62 paragraph 14.5)

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Information about this children's home

Stonald House is a privately owned provision. The home provides care for up to three children or young people who may have emotional or behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

15/05/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

22/08/2014 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Good

Strong relationships appropriately develop between staff and young people in this home. The staff and manager use consistent boundaries and routines to underpin the care they deliver. They gauge young people’s individual responses and, in agreement with young people’s professional networks, they adjust the care they provide. A young person said: ‘I would be fine if I had to stay here longer, the staff are great, really kind and understanding.’

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Good

The difficulties that young people in this home experience socially and emotionally reduce because of the dedicated support they receive from staff. The manager and staff proactively engage in multi-agency planning. They work in conjunction with specialist child and adolescent mental health professionals and the insightful staff observations inform cohesive care planning.

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Good

Staff support young people to engage in community activities, this includes a local youth club and gym. As a result, young people improve their social skills and build peer friendships outside of the home. One young person said: ‘I want to go into the army, I am training in the gym. I meet new people and I really like it.’

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Good

Relationships between young people and their families improve when they move into this home. Staff support them and their family members to explore their relationship issues.They seek solutions to overcome them in line with young people’s needs. As a result of more positive familial relationships, young people begin to invest in themselves and experience increasing self-worth.

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Good

The manager and staff seek young people’s wishes and feelings in multiple ways. These include key work, meetings and a grumbles book, along with feedback questionnaires. The manager explores any issues with young people, this ensures young people realise the importance of their views. If staff identify the need, young people also access advocacy to further support them to communicate their views. A young person said: ‘Staff involve us in things, this is our home and our views count.’

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Good

The manager plans admissions into the home. Where these are emergency placements, the manager carefully reviews information about the prospective admission. He uses pre admission information to prepare for the destabilising impact of change. Before agreeing new placements, the manager also assesses the potential impact of new placements on young people already in the home. Staff offer support for young people with transitions from the home. They endeavour to skill them for independence, however do not currently support this with a robust and measureable plan.

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Good

Due to emotional and behavioural difficulties, young people living in this home have historically had poor education experiences including temporary and permanent exclusions. One young person sat formal exams at the end of the last school year and continues to attend a local college. The manager and staff work closely with education providers and placing authorities to seek formal education for young people. Staff do not currently engage young people in academic work in the home. This means that staff do not fully enable young people to reach their full potential.

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Good

The home is clean, tidy and welcoming but décor in the home is dated and young people identify areas that they would like the manager to improve. An example of this is cracked tiles on the floor of the young people’s bathroom and candelabra style lighting in young people’s bedrooms, which they would not choose themselves.

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Good

Staff effectively safeguard young people. They understand, identify and respond to risk in an appropriate manner. The manager and staff work with external professionals and family members to develop and implement robust risk assessment and management plans. Staff use individual key work to discuss areas of risk and support young people to develop risk reduction strategies. Staff manage risk without it becoming oppressive for young people; this improves young people’s responses and reduces risk. A young person said: ‘I feel safer here, more than I did before. I was doing some stupid things before I came here.’

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Good

The manager and staff quickly identify new behaviours in young people. They use their observations to inform behaviour management planning and to review the appropriateness of approaches. Staff use sanctions and rewards appropriate to behaviour and young people’s individual responses. Where staff use physical intervention they precede this with attempts to de-escalate behaviours. The manager has clear oversight of these incidents.

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Good

Staff responses to missing are robust and a test of this was the recent placement of a young person at risk of child sexual exploitation and missing. Staff use their knowledge and training to protect young people and as a result, incidences of missing reduce. Whilst staff comprehend their duties, the missing policy does not contain all of the required information about local missing procedures. This compromises new staff’s understanding of actions they must take in the event that a young person is missing from the home.

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Good

Young people do not report bullying as an issue in this home. Staff receive training, which supports their ability to identify and respond to bullying and to promote resolution of conflict between young people. Staff do not have access to an up to date anti bullying policy. This leads to mixed responses, which can leave young people unclear of how staff will keep them safe.

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Requires Improvement

The registered manager has been in post since 2012, he is also the responsible individual. He is a qualified social worker and continues his professional development and training to meet the needs of the home. The manager spends less time in the home than previously. A new deputy manager has been appointed; this positively impacts on the management oversight of the home’s daily functioning. The new deputy manager shares her insight with the manager into areas to improve and they work closely, aiming to develop the provision.

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Requires Improvement

Policies and procedures do not reflect up to date regulations and guidance. This means that staff do not fully understand the legal requirements of the care they deliver and their practice can lack focus.

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Requires Improvement

The manager and staff contribute to transition planning and work closely with placing authorities. However, they do not have a clear plan and outline of the intervention they provide. As a result, staff provide support, which on occasion, lacks direction. The manager is then unable to formally assess the impact of the support staff offer young people.

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Requires Improvement

Some records vary in quality and lack clarity. They have limited use to young people now and in the future. Records do not reflect the care staff deliver and the positive progress that young people make whilst living in this home.

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Requires Improvement

The manager builds strong relationships with professionals and information sharing is integral to care planning in the home. This cohesive approach means young people receive consistent responses from professionals, which in turn helps them build a sense of safe care.

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Requires Improvement

Professionals and family members provide regular feedback in respect of the care provision. The manager uses this to inform plans for the service. A social worker said: ‘The manager understands the young person’s needs, he makes sure everybody knows what is happening and has quickly developed appropriate responses to provide safe care. He keeps me well informed.’

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Requires Improvement

The manager and deputy oversee recruitment and deliver an induction and ongoing training program. This ensures that they appropriately match and develop staff skills to the needs of the young people in the home. New and existing staff use their comprehensive training to underpin their practice. Where staff identify new training needs, the manager seeks to meet the needs. Staff receive regular supervision, which reviews how they contribute to each young person’s experience in the home. The manager effectively manages staff who do not fulfil their roles appropriately. He supports this with clear and measureable development plans. As a result, staff know what the manager requires of them and he ensures that he addresses shortfalls in practice.

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Requires Improvement

An independent person provides the required reviews of care, these are informative and the author of the reports applies appropriate scrutiny across the home. The manager utilises these to further improve the home.

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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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