Children's Home run by Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council in Sefton

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:

 Children enjoy very positive short breaks that enhance the quality of their lives. They enjoy trusting relationships with the staff and take part in meaningful activities. They have fun, make friends and love coming to stay in the safe, friendly, stimulating and supportive environment. They make very good progress in all aspects of their development.  The staff have expertise in supporting disabled children. They are resourceful and creative in providing an excellent quality of personalised care. They understand children’s individual needs, how they communicate, experience the world and process information. They encourage all of the children to express their wishes and feelings and make choices. They communicate effectively with children and help them manage their feelings, anxieties and frustrations constructively. This approach has successfully reduced incidents of distress and difficult behaviour.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 The manager and staff have strong partnerships with parents, social workers, schools and health workers to ensure children get the right support to meet their needs. Parents enjoy excellent communication with the staff and are fully involved in the support their children receive. They are comfortable about leaving their children in the staff’s care and are confident that they receive a high quality of care and support.  Strong safe care practices that protect children from harm, bullying, exploitation and from going missing. They have a thorough understanding of the risks to individual children’s safety, including the risks associated with their disability, and consistently follow well-informed plans to manage the risks successfully.  The leadership and management are effective with a strong commitment to provide disabled children and their families with a high quality service where they can make progress and become more independent. The manager and

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The children's home provision is good because:

staff are never complacent and strive to continue to improve the standard of their work and be responsive to the needs of the children. They have secured improvements in assessing children’s needs, planning their care, measuring their progress and reviewing their placements. Also, the quality of the monitoring of the running of the home is improving.

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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 notify HMCI of any revisions to the statement of purpose and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16(3)(b)) 31/01/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person in order to complete the quality of care review must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating the feedback and opinions of children about the children's home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it. (Regulation 45(2)(b)) 31/01/2016

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Information about this children's home

This local authority children’s home provides a short break service for up to seven children at any one time with learning disabilities, physical disabilities and/or complex health needs.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

17/03/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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good

Children benefit greatly from very positive short breaks. A social worker said: ‘It is an invaluable service for children with learning disabilities and complex health needs. Children benefit from their stays and in some cases is preventing children from coming into care by providing families much needed support.’ The short breaks provide children with opportunities that improve their quality of life. They have fun and take part in a wide variety of activities in the community, including doing things they may not be able to do with their family. They are developing good social and communication skills, get a good night’s sleep, they make friends, develop life skills, learn to take more responsibility for their own personal care, including recognising when they need to use the toilet and using it independently. A parent said: ‘My son benefits from the social aspects, interacting and spending time with more people and other children.’

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good

Children enjoy trusting and warm relationships with the staff. They love coming to stay and feel settled and comfortable in the safe, friendly, stimulating and supportive environment. Parents said: ‘My daughter is always happy to go and comes back happy and relaxed’ and ‘We have been very impressed and happy with the care provided. The staff have always been very approachable, supportive and encouraging to our child, who has always enjoyed visiting’ and ‘The demeanour of my son when he goes or when he comes back is always bright and pleasant.’ The staff have expertise in supporting disabled children and make sure they receive with an excellent quality of personalised care. They understand the full range of children’s individual needs, including how they communicate and process information, and the supported they require to feel safe and secure. The manager and staff start to build up a detailed picture of each child’s needs

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good

before they come to stay. The manager completes a thorough assessment of children’s needs and only agrees to provide them with a placement once she is confident that they are able to meet their needs safely and effectively. This assessment involves the manager visiting children in their homes and at school and gathering information from children’s families and carers, social workers, teachers and health professionals. Children and their parents visit the home, often several times, to explore the space, meet staff and have a say about the plan. This also provides the manager and staff with useful information about how the children with manage the environment and get along with other children. Children’s stays are carefully and sensitively planned with their families. The manager and staff skilfully and carefully match the groups and children usually stay with the same groups. This provides them a chance to develop friendships. A child said: ‘I like

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good

staying with my friend. We do each other’s hair and nails. We like to go to a café together with staff for a pot of tea and a cake.’ The manager and staff support and encourage all of the children to express their views and have them taken into account. Where children have limited verbal communication and the staff successfully help them to use signs, pictures and symbols to express their wishes and feelings and make choices about food and activities. They also use close observations of children’s mood and behaviour to work out how they are feeling. The staff consistently follow children’s individual short breaks plan and help them to achieve their personal goals; including feeling settled and safe staying overnight away from their family, trying a new activity, carrying out personal care tasks, or learning new life skills, such as managing money or baking. Children’s short break plans are regularly reviewed to ensure the support they are getting continues to

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good

meet their needs, reflect any changes, and identify and address any concerns about their progress. The manager and staff contribute to each child’s review and work successfully with children, parents, social workers, teachers and medical staff to ensure that they get the right support. They also play an important role supporting children’s transition to adult services. They share important information about their needs, how they are best supported and manage their distress. They take them to visit new services and introduce them to the new staff. A parent said: ‘I am worried about what is going to happen after he is 18, but the manager has reassured me because they will help introduce him to a new place.’ The manager and staff are resourceful in developing their practice and improving the quality of care. They creatively use research-informed practice around sensory needs to better understand children, tailor support to manage children’s emotions

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good

and measure their progress. For example, recently they have successfully helped a boy to reduce his distress around his hair and help him to feel comfortable to let staff brush and wash it. They developed a good understanding of the reasons why he did not like his hair being touched and helped him to understand the need to care for his hair. They sensitively worked with him and enabled him to take the lead in the plan and have a say what happened; including which staff would work with him and respecting his wishes if he did not want his hair touched. The staff used clear strategies from research to build up his confidence and reduce his anxieties. For example, brushing his hair in front of a mirror so he can see where and when the hairbrush is about to touch his head and reduce the element of surprise. The next step of the plan is to enable him to wash and brush his own hair. The manager and staff work extremely well with parents and teachers to promote

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good

children’s education and learning. They tackle barriers to children’s education, including supporting a parent to arrange safe and suitable transport to take her daughter to school. They have a good understanding of children’s individual targets and progress and support their learning during their stays. In addition, they provide opportunities for children to learn, develop their skills and achieve new things. Children enjoy a wide variety of fun activities and new experiences during their stays that otherwise may not be available to them, including learning to cook, going to the park, attending youth clubs, activity centres, the cinema, ten pin bowling, swimming, and going out for meals. They enjoy their favourite activities and develop different interests by trying new things. Consequently, they have greater access to a wider range of opportunities to explore the world they live in, build confidence in the community, and enjoy life to their potential. The children

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good

respond positively to the challenges that staff provide them with to promote their personal growth. They take opportunities to become more independent appropriate to their age, level of understanding and disability. They take more responsibility for their personal care, going shopping, cooking and helping around the house.

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good

Children enjoy healthy lifestyles and continue to have excellent access to a full range of health services. The staff have an excellent understanding of children personal health needs and ensure they are met on a daily basis. Children enjoy nutritious meals made from fresh ingredients. The staff ensure their specific dietary needs are followed and encourage them to expand their tastes and try different foods. A parent said: ‘The staff have been successful in widening my son’s diet.’ Staff closely monitor children’s health and ensure they always get suitable medical advice and treatment when they are feeling unwell or showing signs of distress.

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good

The arrangements for managing children’s medication are safe. The manager and staff take great care that children receive the medicines they need in line with their prescription. Staff routinely carefully check children’s medication when they arrive for their short stays. This includes checking the prescription on the pharmacist label and the child’s placement plan. When they have any questions or concerns about a child’s medication they always contact with parents and the prescribing doctor for advice to make sure they only given the correct medication. They maintain accurate records and medicines are safely stored. They are suitably trained in managing medication, including in specialist medication and equipment for epilepsy, using oxygen therapy and gastronomy tubes. The manager closely monitors staff practice and the medication records to minimise the risk of any errors being made. Children stay in a suitably designed and comfortable house. The building has been

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good

adapted to meet the needs of all the children who stay. The lay out of the house enables children with a full range of mobility needs to get around easily. It is very well maintained, clean, equipped and suitably decorated. Bathrooms are adapted and equipped to meet the children’s personal care and mobility needs. Children’s bedrooms are well-designed and furnished to promote their privacy. They are personalised to provide a welcoming space for each child and to meet their specific needs in relation to their health and disability. For example, children who are sensitive to noise have rooms in the quieter parts of the house. Judgement grade

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good

Children stay in a safe and supportive environment. The staff use strong safe care practices that protect children from harm, bullying, exploitation and from going missing. They have a thorough understanding of the risks to individual children’s safety, including the risks associated with their disability, level of understanding and communication and health conditions. They are well trained in safeguarding, able to recognise the signs and symptoms of abuse and neglect, and aware of the children’s vulnerability to sexual exploitation resulting from their disabilities. They take suitable action when they have concerns about children’s welfare. The staff use detailed and up-to-date written risk assessments really well to develop a clear understanding of risks to individual children’s safety and guide them effectively to manage and reduce these risks. They get the balance right between protecting children from identified causes of harm and allowing them to take risks that

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good

promote their personal growth and independence, such as trying out new activities or managing their own personal care. The staff’s use of well-informed strategies, based on effective communication and positive relationships, is helping children to manage their feelings. Consequently, children are less upset and incidents agitated behaviour, including self-harm, have reduced. The staff know the children very well and quickly pick up when something is wrong by noticing changes in their behaviour, mood or health. For example, recognising a particular child is becoming anxious when his body tenses and breathing becomes rapid. They also have an excellent understanding of situations that may upset individual children. They, therefore, anticipate and take action to reassure children and distract them from negative behaviour. Depending on the child, by removing the source of anxiety, helping the child move to a less stressful

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good

situation, distracting them by singing, suggesting they do one of their favourite activities or using a toy that helps them feel calm. The staff effectively use clear communication techniques to help children deal the things they find difficult or things they may not want to at the time, such as when they prefer using their tablet computer rather than a tablet of soap or get ready for bed. They talk to the children to let them know what is going to happen, what they need to do in ways that they can understand and by ensuring they are given the time they need to make sense of the information. They have successfully used symbols and pictures to establish a good morning routine for a particular child. His frustrations and aggressive behaviour have significantly reduced because the staff have helped him understand that when he has brushed his teeth, washed and got dressed, then he can use his IPad. Likewise, the staff adapt children’s environment

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good

to help them get ready for bed. For example, they have helped a child to settle better at night by reducing the levels of stimulation, and light and noise leading up to bedtime. The staff work together consistently and follow agreed plans to promote positive behaviour and help children manage their feelings. They are good at sharing ideas about what works to help manage potentially difficult behaviour. They are confident to critically reflect on situations and think about how it may have been managed better; this includes sharing information with managers to learn lessons and help to improve practice; for example giving children time to understand what is being asked of them to reduce the need of staff physically intervening. Restraint is used appropriately protect children and guide children and young people away from potentially harmful situations. The records provide a full and clear picture of what happened to enable the incidents to be reviewed and

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good

reflected on to inform future practice. The manager ensures that people wishing to work at the home are carefully vetted, which prevents unsuitable people from working with the children. All the staff have gone through a rigorous selection procedure, including those who have been redeployed from other jobs within the local authority. The manager makes sure that they have the right qualifications, experience, skills, personal qualities and motivation to work with children with disabilities.

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good

The home is effectively and efficiently run by a very experienced and suitably qualified Registered Manager. She has been in charge for over 12 years and provides strong leadership in providing disabled children and their families with a high quality service that prioritises their welfare and enables them to make significant progress. The culture and ethos of home meets its aims to provide a warm, welcoming, stimulating environment that assists children to develop their personal, social, and life skills and independence. The manager and staff team constantly look for ways of improving children’s development. They challenge perceptions around children’s abilities by widening their daily life experiences and strongly advocate for children who struggle to verbalise their needs. The home’s statement of purpose is regularly reviewed and provides an accurate picture of its objectives and how it is run. However, the manager has not supplied Ofsted with an up-to-date copy of the

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good

The manager has a clear understanding of the home’s strengthens and the areas for development. They have taken decisive and effective action to improve the quality of the service. She has strengthened the systems for assessing children’s needs, planning their care, measuring their progress and reviewing their placements. She always makes child-centred decisions about children coming to stay at the home. She gives priority to the safety and stability of the children staying and makes good decisions about the suitability of the home to meet children’s needs safely. Cl earer and detailed recording of children’s starting points is enabling measurement of their progress with their individual goals. This is helps the manager to explicitly show how children are benefiting from their time at the home. She has also identified weaknesses in the planning for children’s support when they become adults. She has raised her concerns with senior managers in

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good

the local authority and come forward with ideas to improve children’s the transition to receiving support from adult services.

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good

Each child’s short break plan is now routinely reviewed to consider their p rogress and continued suitability of the home to meet their assessed needs. This means children, parents, and people working with them have regular opportunities to reflect on their progress and any changes in their needs or circumstances to make sure they continue to get the right support.

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good

The staff are highly competent and skilled at building trusting relationships with children and meeting their individual needs. They work together effectively as a coherent team and provide children with consistency and stability. They work collaboratively to deal with difficult and challenging situations, including around the management of children’s feelings and changes to the service, by developing consistent approaches to supporting children’s needs. They are reflective and keen to develop their skills. They are very well supported by the manager and senior colleagues. The manager encourages them to share their views and ideas about supporting children and improving the service. The staff are suitably qualified and have regular opportunities to develop their knowledge and practice through relevant training, including using sensory approaches, understanding the changes to the regulations and new quality standards, and evidencing children’s progress

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good

and promoting better outcomes in short breaks services. The impact of this training is evident in their practice and thinking. They are particularly enthusiastic about the potential benefits of sensory work with children and showed how this is helping children to manage their feelings. However, the manager is not complacent and is working with training providers to design more bespoke training for staff in safeguarding and managing behaviour.

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good

The managers and staff strong relationships with parents, social workers, schools and health workers to promote children’s and make sure they get the support they need. Parents are confident leaving their children for their stay. A parent said: ‘I am really happy with the home. The staff are lovely and put me and my child first. I felt very comfortable letting him stay.’ Communication between the staff and parents is excellent. Parents feels staff are also available and keep them involved about their children stay. They feel fully involved in the running of the service and feel able to raise any worries or concerns they may have. Parents said: ‘Staff are fantastic. Every one of them is approachable friendly and go that extra mile to get to know the whole family which is very important and you can ring anytime and there is always a good listener on the other end of the phone’ and ‘I only ever had one minor issue and this was dealt with promptly and very satisfactorily, so there is

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good

no reason to think anything else would not be’ and ‘They always listen and take into consideration all of our needs.’

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good

A new system of independent monitoring was introduced in September 2015 and is improving the level of scrutiny of the home. An independent person has visited every month, provided detailed reports of their findings with recommendations for action. The manager has addressed these recommendations, including making children’s rooms more welcoming and improvements to the decoration of the house. The improved quality of monitoring is assisting the leaders and managers to understand the effectiveness of the home’s approaches or to secure improvements and better outcomes for children. In addition the manager routinely carries out a thorough review of the quality of care children received. However, the review does not include children’s views about the support they receive or observations of how they experience the quality of care provided.

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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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