Children's Home run by The Together Trust in Stockport

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

This home was judged Good at the last full inspection. At this interim inspection Ofsted judge that it has sustained effectiveness .

p.2

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

Children and young people continue to make good progress and benefit from a range of enjoyable experiences during their short breaks. The home is increasingly using photographic evidence to show children engaging in stimulating and interesting activities. The home is setting up a memory book for each child and those who already have them enjoy looking at their photographs and reflecting on their experiences at the home, with staff. This helps children to share their positive experiences with others. Transition planning is good. The home works well with partner agencies and parents, ensuring that staff have all the information they need to help children prepare for and enjoy overnight stays at the home. This involves following children’s routines and taking account of their particular, individual, complex needs. The home continues to provide good support to children and their families in the transition to adult services.

p.2

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

The home communicates well with parents and partner agencies, seeking information before each child’s visit and providing regular reviews of children’s progress that inform education, health and care plans. Staff are successful in helping children to achieve agreed targets and develop new skills in accordance with needs identified by parents, other professionals and the home. Managerial oversight and monitoring of the home’s operation and practice is strong. Records, including restraint and serious incident records are well recorded and reflected upon. Managers highlight shortfalls in practice and these are followed up at staff team meetings to ensure lessons are learned and practice is improved. For example, where a member of staff has not followed the agreed practice of keeping the kitchen door locked for the health and safety of a particular child, the manager has quickly addressed the matter with the staff member and with the full

p.2

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

staff team. This promotes the child’s safety by strengthening and reaffirming safeguarding practice. Staff are vigilant in ensuring that other children’s freedom to move around the home and garden is not curtailed and they use the fire exit door as well as the kitchen door to access the garden. Independent visitor reports demonstrate close scrutiny of incidents and careful review of practice. The home uses these visits and reports to improve the quality of care and outcomes for children. Consequently, the home’s capacity to improve remains good. The home has met a requirement made at the last inspection to update the statement of purpose. The new document is written in line with the quality standards and contains all the required information. However, it falls short of providing a good reflection of the particular specialist facilities available at the home, such as adapted equipment and communication aids. This means the

p.2

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

document does not provide commissioners and parents with valuable information which would help them to have a better understanding of the services the home provides. The home has taken steps to improve practice by addressing the recommendations made following the last inspection. Despite the limited time since the report was issued, some progress has been made in all of the matters raised. The management team recognise there is still more to be done. Recommendations are reissued where further work needs to be done to secure positive outcomes. Staff assist children to make their views known using alternative communication methods, where necessary. Staff use symbols and story boards to help children understand a wide range of important messages. For example, the home uses these tools successfully to help children understand how to make a complaint, how to respond in the event of a fire and what to do if they want some private time.

p.3

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

Staff are issued with a set of symbols which they use to aid communication with children and some children have their own individual sets, which they also use at home and school. This helps children to use communication methods they are comfortable and familiar with. The home wants to do more to improve the ability of the staff team to communicate with children who use a variety of alternative communication systems. To this end, and in line with a recommendation from the last inspection, it has arranged further specialist training for staff, which is due to take place in the near future. In response to a recommendation for more training, the home has carried out a full audit of staff training needs and a new programme of training events has been agreed. In addition to a rolling programme of mandatory training, the organisation is arranging for staff to complete further training in understanding autism. This is

p.3

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

to enhance their knowledge and skills and help them respond more effectively to the children who have short breaks at the home. Dates have not yet been set. Some staff have completed training in child sexual exploitation and this gives them a greater awareness and understanding of how to recognise signs of abuse. Most children receive one to one support from staff who prepare well at the start of each shift. This ensures they have the key information they need to look after the particular child they are assigned to support. The home has taken steps to improve continuity of care for some children by forming a small team of care staff who are always assigned to that child. This has made a huge difference to the child’s progress and experiences. In a comparatively short time, the child’s challenging behaviour and anxieties have significantly reduced. Staff have been more consistent in the way they respond to the child and manage her behaviour.

p.3

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

The child feels safer with a dedicated, regular staff team. The home is in the process of reviewing the impact and effectiveness of this way of working and intend to roll it out to a small number of other children in the coming weeks. Much has been done to improve the children’s guide to make it a more user- friendly document and the changes are impressive. Photographs are used to show children the facilities available and the sort of activities they can expect to engage in when they have a visit. However, the document is still work in progress and does not yet contain information about the home’s complaints process and the contact details of the children’s commissioner. Person-centred risk assessments guide staff in the best way to support individual children and manage the behaviour that could cause harm to the child or others. While most provide good guidance for staff, not all are updated following a serious

p.4

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

incident, such as a child running away from staff near a busy road. This means that staff working with that child may not be well prepared to respond swiftly and effectively to known, predictable behaviour that places him and others at risk. Children’s safety and welfare are at the heart of the home’s practice. The home aims to support individual children in a way that reduces their anxieties, frustrations and levels of distress and enables them to have positive, enjoyable experiences. This is evident in the careful, regular review of children’s progress. A few children continue to present volatile and challenging behaviour which includes assaults on staff and occasionally on peers. Restraint is used minimally and each incident is carefully reviewed. Touch support is used to guide children away from challenging situations, changing the environment and reducing their anxieties. Such interventions are fully recorded as restraints and are appropriately reviewed

p.4

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

by managers. Behaviour management strategies have not always been effective and on two occasions staff have isolated children for brief periods as a means of managing their aggressive behaviour. The management team has reflected on this practice and recognise that isolating children is not an acceptable method of behaviour management and serves to raise and not diminish children’s anxieties. The deputy manager has made it clear that this practice will cease. More positive strategies of behaviour management by a small team of consistent staff are in use and achieving positive outcomes. This demonstrates that the management team recognises where there are dips in the service and takes action to address them so that children’s safety, emotional security and welfare are not compromised.

p.4

Information about this children's home

The home provides short breaks for five children with physical disabilities and learning disabilities including autism spectrum conditions. It is run by a charitable organisation.

p.6

Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

p.6

Recent inspection history

17/10/2014 CH - Interim improved effectiveness

p.6

Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  plan staffing levels to ensure they meet the needs of children. Ensure that staffing structures promote continuity of care from the child's perspective. In particular, review staffing arrangements to ensure, wherever possible, that each child is looked after mainly by a core team of staff he knows well (The Guide, page 54, para 10.15)  ensure that each child has access to the home's children's guide, which helps them to understand how they can access advocacy support or independent advocacy if eligible; and how to contact the Office of the Children's Commissioner (The Guide, page 24, para 4.22)  ensure that each child is provided with support (appropriate to their age and understanding) to communicate their views, wishes and feelings and participate as fully as possible in all aspects of their care planning and daily care. In

p.7

Recommendations

particular, ensure children are supported to use any communication aids or equipment that helps them and they have any necessary language support (The Guide, page 22, para 4.6)  Keep the statement of purpose under review. Ensure it is child-focused, indicating how the home provides individualised care to meet the Quality Standards. In particular, ensure it accurately reflects the service provision, including any specialist facilities and methods aimed at meeting the needs of the children who use the service (The Guide, page 14, para 3.5)  ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs. In particular, provide access to more advanced training in understanding the needs of children with autism and how to protect them from self-harm and sexual exploitation (The Guide, page 53, para 10.11)  ensure that staff know and follow the home's approach to promoting positive

p.7

Recommendations

behaviour and the measures of control, discipline and restraint. In particular, ensure that the restriction of children's liberty is only used as a last resort, when alternative intervention strategies have proved ineffective in protecting children and others (The Guide page 46, para 9.33)  ensure that, where there are safeguarding concerns for a child, risk assessments that form part of a child's placement plan include details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risks on a day to day basis. In particular, ensure that risk assessments are updated following incidents where a child's safety has been compromised and provide clear guidance for staff in how to manage the risk. (The Guide page 42, para 9.5)

p.7

What the inspection judgements mean

At the interim inspection we make a judgement on whether the home has improved in effectiveness, sustained effectiveness, or declined in effectiveness since the previous full inspection. This is in line with the Inspection of children's homes: framework for inspection.

p.8

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 focused on the effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of children and young people since the most recent full inspection.

p.8

Information about this inspection

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 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 .

p.8

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,

p.9

Information about this inspection

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.9

Information about this inspection

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.9

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

p.9