Children's home run by A Wilderness Way Limited in Cumberland

Outstanding

The children's home provides highly effective services that consistently exceeds the standards of good. The actions of the home contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 Staffing arrangements ensure that young people benefit from consistent care and support, enabling them to develop positive attachments.  Staff are highly skilled and experienced in supporting young people to settle quickly into the service, engaging them and obtaining their trust despite often being given little or no notice of their move.  Staff support young people effectively to develop a range of new skills through their participation in a wide range of activities that are physically challenging. This is extremely successful in motivating young people, developing their confidence, resilience and self-esteem.  The service is proactive and successful in raising young people’s awareness of behaviours that make them vulnerable to exploitation. Staff provide them with education and practical strategies that successfully promote their safety.  The home has a good track record in reducing young people’s risk-taking

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

behaviours, specifically the incidence of young people going missing in relation to their starting points.  Staff quickly develop and maintain meaningful relationships with young people that are productive in engaging young people to participate fully in placement planning to ensure they invest successfully in the programme and achieve their goals.  Staff encourage young people to have a voice that enables them to feel valued and respected. They promote their involvement in activities that also increase their knowledge and understanding of children’s rights.  Staff play an active role in re-stimulating and supporting young people’s interest in education and learning. This is particularly pertinent as many young people have previously disengaged with learning and missed significant periods of their education.  Most young people make excellent progress having gained greater insight into their former behaviours with many developing a renewed optimism for

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

what they can achieve in their future.  Most young people leave the service moving positively forward into more permanent settled placements.

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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

Ensure that the records set out in Schedule 4 are kept up to date. This relates specifically to maintaining an accurate and up to date record of children admitted to and leaving the home. (Regulation 37 (2)(b)) 14/03/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify Ofsted and each other relevant person without delay if there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40(3)(e)) 14/03/2016

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Information about this children's home

 The service is a mobile programme provided by a private company.  It is registered to provide care and accommodation in separate locations for up to eight young people with emotional or behavioural difficulties.  Only one young person is cared for in each location at any one time and each placement can last no longer than 120 days.  Placements may be made at short notice and in emergencies.  The service is also inspected by The Adventure Activities Licensing Authority (AALA).

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

30/01/2015 CH - Interim improved effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

13/03/2014 CH - Interim Inadequate Progress

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outstanding

Many young people appreciate the unique experience that this mobile service has to offer and understand that this is a time-limited opportunity to make significant changes in their lives. One young person commented,’ I am lucky really, this is not what I thought I would want, but it is a good opportunity for me to experiment and try new things. I didn’t know I was coming. My social worker just turned up and told me to get ready. Staff understood how shocking it was for me to arrive. They have been warm and supportive. All the staff that I have met are really lovely, cheerful and bubbly.’

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outstanding

The service offers young people a range of highly stimulating and adventurous activities such as climbing, kayaking and ghyll scrambling. Their inclusion in these activities is designed to challenge and motivate young people to learn appropriately about managing risk and developing trust in those that are there to support them. Staff focus successfully on educating young people about the dangers associated with their past behaviours using a wide range of learning resources. These provide immense value in increasing young people’s awareness and helping them to understand how to avoid and withdraw from those activities that are likely to compromise their safety. One social worker commented, ‘The activities they organise are excellent.’

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outstanding

Young people often know little about this service prior to their placement as their move is often made at short notice in response to crisis in their lives and circumstances. Social workers frequently decide to withhold information from them about their move to promote their safety as many are deemed highly vulnerable having considerable histories of regularly being missing. Many have also been involved in other risk-taking behaviours such as alcohol and drug misuse, which has heightened their risk of exploitation. Despite this lack of consultation prior to their admission, most settle very quickly, responding positively to staff that are highly skilled and experienced in developing rapport and engaging young people at an early stage in their placement.

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outstanding

Staff involve young people from the outset to fully contribute to their placement planning process. They encourage and provide a range of opportunities for young people to express their wishes and preferences and shape the package of care and support they receive. Consequently, young people feel listened to and know that their views and opinions are respected and valued. One social worker commented of staff saying, ‘They were committed to her and always listened to her views on how she would be rehabilitated back to the care of her parent.’ Staff encourage young people to consider the range of activities that the service can provide and participate in those that most interest and appeal to them. Young people find that they enjoy the experience of many of the outdoor activities available and find this an excellent opportunity to learn new skills that they would not ordinarily have access to. They develop increased confidence in their abilities,

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outstanding

resilience and improved self-esteem as a result.

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outstanding

Staff express clear expectations of young people’s behaviour and contribution during their placement. Many young people have missed significant periods of time in education, and for them their programme includes their co-operation in some formal education to re-establish their engagement with learning. A dedicated teacher is available to provide one-to-one support and co-ordinate their education programme for the duration of their placement. Young people benefit from the staff support provided, gaining a range of vocational qualifications and having their interest in learning re-stimulated. Young people are successful in learning new skills that promotes their independence, preparing them as they move towards adulthood.

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outstanding

Staff provide young people individually with dedicated support and a high level of supervision that successfully promotes their safety and well-being. Young people express considerable satisfaction with their accommodation albeit that they rarely like the remoteness of their location that is specifically chosen to reduce their opportunities to go missing. The service has a suitable number of well-furnished and highly maintained properties that enable young people to be safely and comfortably accommodated. The availability and flexibility to accommodate young people in a range of locations ensures their personal safety is maximised.

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outstanding

Young people receive considerable consistency in their care and support with the service striving to ensure that young people are cared for throughout their stay by the same dedicated staff team. Staff are nurturing in their approach and show appropriate sensitivity and empathy that enables young people to achieve trust and value their relationships with staff. For example, one young person that plans to move to a supported living arrangement in the area has requested and identified benefit in continued short-term support from staff on an outreach basis.

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outstanding

Staff effectively promote young people’s health and well-being. They demonstrate a clear understanding of young people’s individual health care routines and requirements ensuring that those needs are well prioritised. The service works closely with their local children looked after nurse to ensure that all young people’s needs are promptly identified and that practitioners and services are secured to support their general health care and more specialist health requirements.

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outstanding

Placing authorities express a high degree of satisfaction with the quality of relationships achieved by staff that enable young people to make significant progress and move positively forward with their lives. One social worker commented, ‘I have been impressed by the commitment of support staff throughout the time the young person was with this service. She built up a very positive relationship with staff during her time with them which has enabled her to gain trust and respect for others. I received regular updates of how she was progressing which has been very helpful in my role to support her.’

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outstanding

The service is highly successful in keeping placing authorities and families informed of young people’s progress and promoting contact. This is reassuring to many young people that are a distance from their home areas and need to maintain and develop those relationships that are most important to them. Staff actively support and supervise arrangements where these are consistent with their care planning, often travelling some considerable distances across the United Kingdom to sustain and promote arrangements. A social worker said, ‘Communication has been good. Staff have fully supported contact arrangements and have had to be flexible in their approach.’

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outstanding

The majority of young people that access this service make excellent progress having gained greater insight into their former behaviours and a renewed optimism for what they can achieve. Most leave the service moving positively forward into more permanent settled placements.

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good

Young people say they feel safe and appropriately secure, reassured that staff are concerned with their safety and well-being and act consistently to prioritise this. Staff benefit from a wide range of training opportunities provided by the organisation that enable them to be familiar and up to date in their knowledge of child protection matters and good safeguarding practice.

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good

The home has a good track record of working with young people that have frequently been missing and identified as being at high risk of exploitation prior to their placement with this service. For the majority of young people, the home is highly successful in significantly reducing and preventing the incidence of them going missing. On the occasions when incidents have occurred staff have responded in accordance with agreed procedures, working co-operatively with relevant police forces and actively searching to ensure the young person’s swift return to their care. A police representative commented, ‘I have no concerns regarding this service. I am in touch with the manager and feel that the service is running well.’ Staff regularly review and update young people’s individual risk assessments to ensure that their records reflect and inform staff of the most current risks and concerns. These are sufficiently detailed and robust, ensuring that staff have

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good

consistently clear information to identify potential trigger points and known and agreed strategies that will help to minimise and manage those risks.

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good

Staff on the whole are successful in developing highly effective relationships with young people. Positive behaviour is encouraged with a range of appropriate incentives that are agreed and linked to behavioural progress targets identified during placement planning. Staff are effective in using a range of approved de- escalation techniques that help them manage difficult and challenging behaviour. As a result, the use of restraint is low and only ever used as a last resort in accordance with legislation to protect a young person or staff from harm. One young person said, ‘It’s been calm here and I’ve never been restrained in this home. I would recommend this home if someone needed to chill.’

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good

Young people are supported individually by staff and rarely come in contact with each other. Staff are acutely familiarity with young people’s individual vulnerabilities, especially the dangers posed by such as their access to the internet and other forms of communication. Comprehensive planning and consistent management of such issues works well to ensure that young people are not exposed to further exploitation. These measures additionally minimise the potential for peer and cyber bullying.

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good

The service is attentive to ensuring that young people and staff are well protected by good health and safety monitoring and practice. All living environments are regularly scrutinised and assessed to ensure all potential hazards are removed or addressed to minimise the likelihood of any harm. The service routinely consults with fire safety officers when any new properties are to be used and staff show vigilance in checking and maintaining the effectiveness of available fire safety equipment. Regular fir evacuation practice makes sure that young people are familiar with escape routes in the event of a real emergency. Together these practices ensure safety within the home environment is appropriately addressed. Young people participate in a number of adventurous activities that are not without risk. For these activities, young people are led by trained, qualified and competent staff that also ensure any equipment used is regularly checked and safely

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good

maintained. This aspect of the home’s function is also scrutinised by the Adventures Activities Licensing Authority (AALA) to ensure good safety management practices exist. At their last inspection the license supplied was for the maximum period recognising the high standards that the service maintains. Their inspection noted that, ‘The service has high standards for safety and instruction in activities. Equipment is maintained to high standard.’ The home promotes safe recruitment and selection practice, ensuring that all staff are qualified, suitably experienced and fully checked and vetted prior to coming to work in the home. Staff ensure that all visitors have a legitimate reason for visiting the service’s properties and that their credentials are checked before gaining entry to the property. These measures are designed to ensure that young people are not exposed to adults that may cause them harm.

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good

This service is effectively led and managed by a qualified and experienced Registered Manager that possesses a level 5 diploma award in Leadership for Health and Social Care. She has good knowledge and experience of this type of service, having worked previously as the home’s deputy manager and as an outdoor practitioner for many years prior to working in this environment. She is a trained and qualified outdoor instructor and has been proactive in maintaining her professional development, with specific focus on research and practice relating to children that go missing and are at risk of sexual exploitation. She operates the service in accordance with its’ Statement of Purpose, ensuring that the service’s aims and objectives are achieved.

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good

The service has recently strengthened its’ management structure, increasing management capacity to include the new posts of a support manager and development officer to assist the Registered Manager with further development and expansion of the service. She intends that these new arrangements will enable her to delegate some routine management tasks that will better facilitate and improve the quality of her time spent with young people. The full impact of these changes is not yet apparent.

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good

The Registered Manager clearly expresses her expectations of placing authorities when planning and agreeing admissions to the home to ensure that they fulfil their obligations. For example, arrangements are appropriately clarified that ensure that young people will receive a prompt independent return interview should they go missing during their time in placement. This demonstrates good practice; promoting young people’s rights and safeguarding their interests, especially as most are placed some considerable distance from their home area.

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good

The management team ensures that staff have a clear understanding of young people’s needs and specific vulnerabilities as they enter the service. This ensures that work is focused and targeted to achieve measurable progress. Good systems exist for tracking young people’s progress throughout their placement to ensure that staff support remains effective in helping them achieve their goals. Staff ensure that placing authorities are kept well informed of young people’s activities and progress, providing social workers with regular reports and telephone updates. The home promotes transparency in its operation ensuring that placing authorities and other relevant parties are notified without delay when any significant events occur. However, during this inspection it was identified that the home has omitted to inform Ofsted of one particular event. Although this did not appear to be a deliberate omission, the home on this occasion fell short in keeping Ofsted

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good

The Registered Manager has established and maintained positive professional relationships with a good range of partners. In addition to the good relationships that exist with placing authorities, good collaboration exists with partner agencies such as the police, the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board, health professionals and those promoting children’s rights initiatives.

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good

The home supports the local Residential Children in Care Council (RCiCC) and successfully encourages young people to have their voice heard in this forum. A representative from the group commented, ‘The Registered Manager and her service have been a proactive and regular member of the RCiCC. The Registered Manager or one her staff members have always attended the staff planning meetings offering ideas, staff time and where possible resources. When appropriate they have brought young people along to the young people’s sessions. The young people have been well prepared and joined in.’

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good

Staff report that they are well supported, receiving a comprehensive induction to the service and being offered frequent opportunities to attend training to widen their knowledge and promote their professional development. Staff team meetings are regular and well organised enabling staff good opportunities to share information and reflect on young people’s current management strategies, their effectiveness and progress.

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good

The service is robustly monitored by both the Registered Manager and the service’s independent person. Strengths and weaknesses well understood, enabling the manager to identify and plan for further development of the service. For example, staff feedback has been positively received and listened to regarding the intensity of learning required during new employees’ probationary period. As a result the Registered Manager has proposed changes to ensure that staff are ready and conversant with induction standards prior to moving on to work on their diploma 3 award. The service development plan also reflects further proposals to implement an electronic system that will support and improve record keeping arrangements.

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good

Young people’s records are well organised and maintained ensuring that they provide a full and accurate account of their time with this service. However, some minor shortfalls were identified in the home’s admission and discharge register that failed to ensure the maintenance of an accurate and complete record. This shortfall has no impact on 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

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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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