Children's Home, Residential special school run by Seashell Trust in Stockport

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 receive personalised child-focused care to meet their individual complex needs.  Staff use a range of communication methods to ensure all young people are enabled to communicate their wishes and views about their care and support.  The young people feel safe and well cared for.  Careful consideration given to the placement of each young person in their accommodation promotes positive relationships.  Staff liaise with on-site education and health care staff closely. This supports young people’s education and health care promotion and aids their overall progress.  The new build houses are designed to provide accommodation to meet the complex needs of young people, provides welcoming, homely accommodation. All young people have their own bedrooms deigned to their personal taste and need. Communal facilities provide space and comfortable areas for dining, socialising, and recreational activities.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 A range of activities available within the home, school facilities and in the local community supports young people to enjoy social and leisure opportunities.  Comprehensive and effective behaviour management strategies enable young people to manage their behaviour through positive support and guidance.  The home has been through a recent reorganisation and this has impacted on the continuity of staffing for the young people. The manager has been asked to address this as well as reviewing the patterns and trends in staffing issues. The other shortfall identified is in relation to all staff understanding the missing from home risk assessments and procedures for each young person.

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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

13: The leadership and management standard

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the leadership and management standard, in particular reference to consistency of care for each child, the registered person must ensure – © the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child 31/12/2015

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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 must specify the procedures to be followed and the rles and responsibilities of staff when a child is missing from care or away from the home without permission and how staff should support the child on return to the home. This is specifically in relation to ensuring all staff are aware of the missing from home risk assessments for each young person and the procedure to follow (Guide to the Quality Standards, page 45, 9.28)  Staffing structures should promote continuity of care from the child’s perspective (Guide to the Quality Standard, page 54, 10.15 )  The registered person should monitor and review the patterns and trends regarding staff turnover, whether agency or directly employed, and be able to understand and where possible, address any negative trends. (Guide to the

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Information about this children's home

This home is owned and managed by a charitable organisation. It is registered to provide both short breaks and longer-term to children and young people with complex needs and sensory impairment. The home also accommodates young people aged over 18 and is registered with the Care Quality Commission. The home forms part of a school campus and the school is inspected separately by Ofsted.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

09/03/2015 CH - Interim declined in effectiveness

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good

Young people live in a supportive and homely environment which contributes to them making good progress in all areas of their development. A range of communication methods, including sign, pictorial and computerised methods enables them to communicate their wishes and feelings well. They have access to speech and language therapists who further promote communication methods.

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good

All young people attend school; with the vast majority attend the onsite school. Residential staff liaise with education staff to ensure effective communication and support maximises overall educational outcomes. Health care plans identify needs and support required to meet these. The home has access to health care professionals working for the organisation, including nursing staff, occupational therapists, the physiotherapist and speech and language therapists. This means assessment of specific needs inform support measures required to promote holistic health care.

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good

Young people receive support to develop strategies to manage their behaviour. This includes the opportunity to spend time on their own if they wish to for a short period to calm before re-joining their peers or using the sensory room, garden or play areas to relax in.

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good

All young people are encouraged to develop additional skills. This includes independence skills in relation to their specific abilities. They are supported to move into adult services in a planned manner.

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good

Family members are welcomed into the home and are involved in the planning of the care for their child. Recent examples of this include consultation and support with young people moving into their new accommodation. This enabled the young people to move in planned way.

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good

Young people are safe in their home and have developed positive relationships with each other and the staff who support them. One placing social worker said: ‘staff have a good understanding of the needs of the young people with very complex needs. They encourage and engage the young person I support to be involved in his care. They demonstrate a good understanding of the specific risks associated with his needs and are proactive in implementing measures to minimise these risks.’

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good

Young people have clear behaviour management strategies in place. Positive praise and encouragement promotes this. Where physical intervention is used, this is to protect young people from hurting themselves or others. Detailed records are maintained and monitored. The home has access to a behaviour management co- ordinator to review the effectiveness of plans and source additional strategies if required. This supports young people with extremely challenging behaviour to minimise these.

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good

Staff have effective working relationships with other professionals, including education, health and social work professionals. This enables effective information sharing to further promote the safety and welfare of young people.

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good

All staff complete safeguarding training, including specific training in relation to children and young people with complex needs. This enables them to develop and implement risk management strategies to manage and minimise potential risks; including missing from home risk assessments and the procedure to follow in the event of this occurring. However, not all staff are fully conversant with the procedure to follow as to there have been no incidents of young people going missing from the home.

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good

The manager undertakes comprehensive pre-admission assessments for new admissions to the home. This ensures their needs can be met as well as supporting effective matching with young people already in the home. This provides additional safeguarding measures.

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good

Recruitment and selection processes are robust. Appropriate checks, including completion of application forms, formal interviews, references, and enhanced disclosures are undertaken prior to any new staff commencing work at the home. These measures further safeguard young people.

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good

The home has detailed health and safety plans and checks in place to make sure that young people live in a safe environment.

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good

The Registered Manager has been in post since December 2013. She is an experienced manager and holds relevant qualifications in childcare. As the Registered Manager, she sets high standards for the care of the young people living at the home and has overseen the completion and transition of the young people into the purpose built accommodation. However, she has just tendered her resignation and will be leaving the organisation at the end of October 2015. She has notified Ofsted of this and the organisation is in the process of recruiting a new manager.

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good

The manager is supported in her role by team leaders assigned to each house on site, and residential care workers. The organisation that runs the home has had a period of reorganisation. This has led to some posts no longer being in operation and some vacancies within the staff team. Agency and bank staff have temporarily fulfilled this shortfall. However, this has not provided a consistency of staff and has resulted in an impacted on building strong and positive relationships for some of the young people. A recruitment and retention plan is in place to fill vacant posts with permanent staff in the near future, with interviews already commencing.

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good

All new staff have an in-depth induction programme prior to working with young people, and complete mandatory training, followed by a period of shadowing existing staff. This ensures that new staff have the necessary knowledge, skills and mentoring prior to working on an individual basis with young people. All staff receive regular supervision and support to further strengthen knowledge, skills, and practice. Additional training in sign language and autism is also undertaken. Staff spoken to at the time of the inspection were very positive about the training and support received. One staff member said: ‘I had a very detailed induction and have found the training and support of a very high standard. This has given me the confidence and knowledge to undertake my role within the home.’

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good

Young people have detailed person centred plans in place. These provide a good overview of their individual needs. Records are well-maintained and reflect the young person’s progress. As part of management oversight, audits of young people’s files are completed, which enables any shortfalls to be rectified.

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good

The home has monthly independent visits undertaken to provide oversight of the service provided. Where there are identified areas for improvement, the manager works with staff to address these. This, along with the managers monitoring systems is effective in raising standards. The manager has a good understanding of the homes strengths and areas for improvement. The priority is for recruitment and retention of staff to provide continuity of care for all young people.

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good

The vast majority of houses which fall under the registration are new developments and provide tailor made accommodation for the young people. Currently those young people who receive a short break service remain in older accommodation, awaiting the completion of second phase of the new development. However, this does not impact on the standard of accommodation which remains well maintained and suitable for young people to stay in.

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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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