Children's Home run by Dove Adolescent Services Limited in Wakefield

Good

The children's home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 The young person prospers as a result of the strong and secure child focussed care provided by staff. This is reinforced with the positive relationships built which foster trust and have enabled the placement to be longstanding.  Excellent collaborative working with professionals ensures that the safety, health and education of the young person remain a priority.  Staff are committed, persevering and dedicated to supporting the young person to make positive choices.  Staff build and maintain trusting relationships with the young person’s family to secure a strong support network.  The young person receives consistent care from the staff team, which is directed by strong leadership and management.

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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 maintain records ("case records") for each child which- (a) include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child: (b) are kept up to date. (Regulation 36 (1) (a) (b)) In order to meet the regulation focus work should be undertaken at regular intervals in line with the young person’s plans and risk assessments. 26/02/2016

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  The registered person should work with the placing authority to ensure that each child's transition is planned and help each child to prepare for leaving (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 57, paragraph 11.9) In particular that the young person has a completed pathway plan which ensures that staff can follow and fully implement this to provide the very best support.

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Information about this children's home

This privately owned children's home is registered to provide care and accommodation for one young person with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

02/03/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

p.5

Good

The young person is the sole focus and priority of the staff team. His interests are at the centre of all that staff do. His wishes and feelings are gained and included in the planning of his care. Staff have built strong and trusting relationships with the young person. They recognise the importance of building his emotional resilience and wellbeing to ensure that he is equipped to manage daily life and any challenges that occur. The independent reviewing officer said, ‘This is the most settled placement X has and he has benefited greatly from this.’ As a result, the young person has maintained and profited from long term security, which has provided stability in his life.

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Good

Staff give high importance to establish positive family contact. This includes them building trusting relationships with a number of family members. A professional said, ’They have been prepared to work with families and have got things right. The family trust staff. I’m impressed with their commitment to X.’ Staff have regular phone contact and visit family members with the young person. This maintains the young person’s feeling of belonging and maintains a strong support network with people that are important to them, now and in the future.

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Good

Staff recognise the significance of education. They work tirelessly with professionals to help obtain and maintain education provisions and alternative placements for the young person. Numerous placements have been secured, some being more successful than others. However, the young person has not managed to maintain the education provisions provided. Staff continue to work closely with the young person and those involved in his education to help the young person improve his educational outcomes.

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Good

The young person benefits from good health. Staff encourage and support him to attend routine check-up. The young person has attended some but not others. Staff continue to persist and advise him on the importance of attending all health appointments. The young person has access to emotional support services and the Looked After Children’s nurse, who said,’ Staff are proactive in contacting me, to get advice to best support X. Work has been undertaken and continues on the risks of drugs misuse. This assists in promoting the young person’s good health.’

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Good

The young person takes an active role in his care planning and attends his own reviews. This ensures that his views and opinions are listened to and taken on board when planning for his future. Care plans and other supporting records are regularly reviewed and updated. In the main, a suitable level of focus work is undertaken with the young person. These reflect the identified support areas of the care plan and risk assessment. However, some gaps have been noted in the focus work. Staff have not addressed recent events in detail. This does not ensure the young person is assisted and given continued direction to prevent similar incidents occurring again.

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Good

The young person has gained the necessary daily life skills in preparation for living independently. Staff said, ’X is more than capable, can cook and is doing well at budgeting; cleans his bedroom, does chores around the home and processes his own laundry.’ This work is on-going and will enable him to adequately care for himself when leaving care. However, the pathway plan is not yet fully completed. Therefore, a comprehensive plan for the young person’s transition is not in place. This does not ensure that all necessary areas and support work have been identified. It does not allow the staff to implement and make sure all preparation is completed in full with the young person to make sure the move to semi- independence is successful.

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Good

The young person benefits greatly from the strong emphasis the staff place on keeping him safe. He lives in a safe and secure environment where proactive responses are made to any matters which may affect his safety and wellbeing. A professional said. ‘In the context of other placements, X’s safety has significantly improved.’

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Good

Staff demonstrate a very good awareness of safeguarding matters and how they must respond and support the young person. They are fully alert to the risks and vulnerabilities of the young person in their care. The support and guidance from staff has brought about the young person becoming increasingly safer, with risk taking behaviour considerably reduced. Staff keep in regular contact with the young person when he is out and about in the community or when visiting family and friends. They work closely with all professionals and implement a coordinated response to safety concerns. Immediate action has been taken to address missing from home episodes and once again these instances have reduced to a low level. Consequently, young people are kept safer.

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Good

The young person responds remarkably well to the very strong focus on positive behaviour. There are consistent boundaries, goals and the strategies in place. The strong trusting relationships built between young people and staff have significantly contributed to successful outcomes in this area. This has brought about a reduction in criminal, challenging and inappropriate behaviour. There have been no physical interventions since the last inspection. Sanctions for poor behaviour are low, with a restorative justice approach being more beneficial for the young person. As a result, the young person maintains and routinely presents good behaviour.

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Good

The registered manager has over ten years’ experience of working with young people and holds the level four in leadership and management in Health and Social Care. He has been registered manager at the service since 2011 and has a good understanding of the services strengths and weaknesses. This enables him to quickly address shortfalls and ensure the care provided to the young person continues to improve.

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Good

The young person benefits from being cared for by a stable core staff team who have experience in caring for children. They are very well trained in a wide range of areas with the majority of staff holding a level three diploma. This is complimented with training which includes safeguarding, restraint and first aid. In addition, staff knowledge is further extended with more specialist training, such as child development, E-safety, self-harm, life story, social pedagogy and child sexual exploitation. This equips them very well to care and meet the needs of the young person and others in their care now and in the future.

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Good

Staff receive regular supervision which they greatly gain from. This enables them to continually reflect on their practice. They feel well-supported by their manager. This is boosted by detailed daily shift handovers and regular staff meetings. Staff are resolute that the team work consistently to provide the young person with good care. They work within an environment where good practice is promoted and young people are at the fore of all that they do. As a result, the young person in placement has benefited from a positive and stable placement where he has made progress.

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Good

There is excellent partnership working with professionals to make child-centred decisions. A professional said,’ I have always been very impressed with their communication, not just receiving a regular detailed progress report, but phone calls and emails. They are a specialist resource; they think outside the box and are flexible. I am impressed with their commitment to X.’ Staff work proactively with professionals to regularly review the care, safety and wellbeing of young people. As a result, their care is enriched by positive and aligned working with all professionals which contributes to their success. The requirement and recommendation made at the last inspection have been addressed. Previous and current The young person’s achievements are defined in their case records. This demonstrates clearly the progress that they have made. The manager’s monitoring report includes consultation with young people in the

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Good

home, and others. This informs, changes to practice where required, taking into account their views on the standard of care provided. Thorough monitoring of the service takes place and is routinely completed by the Registered Manager and the provider. This is supplemented with a number of other internal weekly and monthly audits on health, safety and procedural matters. This ensures that shortfalls are quickly detected, addressed and the quality of care provided is constantly reviewed. This makes certain that the current young person receive good and improving 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

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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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