Children's home in Birmingham

The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

children and young people since the most recent full inspection.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

This home was judged requires improvement at the full inspection. At this interim inspection Ofsted judge that it has declined in effectiveness . This is because the home did not have a Registered Manager for over 26 weeks. Consequently, the lack of consistent management impeded its effectiveness.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

However, the appointment of an experienced and suitably qualified manager in November 2015 has strengthened the management of the home. His application to be registered is currently being considered by Ofsted. His clear, positive and effective leadership has brought stability to the home and secured improvements in the young people’s participation in education, how they manage their emotions, the monitoring of the quality of care, the management of risk, and the evaluation of behaviour management strategies. He has successfully motivated staff to develop their knowledge and skills and is building a coherent and competent team that is making a positive difference to the young people’s lives.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

The young people are making very pleasing progress in in all aspects of their development. They live in a warm and supportive environment where they feel safe, happy, relaxed, and more confident being around other people. They get on well with each other, and enjoy positive and trusting relationships with the manager and the staff. A young person said: ‘This is a really comfortable environment and everything is really good.’

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

The manager and staff are developing a detailed understanding of the young people, their individual needs, views, the challenges they face associated with their disabilities and life experiences, and how best to help them. The staff consistently follow young people’s education, health and care plans to ensure that they receive good individual support and guidance. They are now making better use of the advice available to them from speech and language therapists and autism specialists to inform their care practices. They understand how learning disabilities and sensory needs affect how individual young people experience the world around them. They know that one young person best understands concepts visually; therefore, they are using visual prompts effectively, including short written notices and cartoons, to help him manage his day. For example, a notice by the door reminds him to take his mobile phone with him when he goes out and to tell staff

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

where he is going. He now does these things automatically every time he leaves the house. Also, the manager and the staff have informed their practice by completing a formal qualification in understanding autism. They are using this knowledge to improve practice; for example, communicating more clearly and concisely is helping young people to better understand what is being said and asked of them. The more effective communication between staff and young people is helping them to build stronger relationships.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

Young people are treated with respect. They feel valued and have a say in the decisions that affect their lives and home, including interviewing people wishing coming to work at the home and expressing views about how well staff work with them. The manager takes their views seriously and fully into account when he makes decisions about appointing staff and reviewing staff’s performance.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

Changes in the behaviour management strategy to a focus on praise and rewarding positive behaviour are helping the young people feel less anxious and frustrated, and to manage their feelings and behaviour safely. The number of incidents of aggressive behaviour and self-harm have reduced significantly. Their resilience and emotional well-being are improving. They have coped well with the change of manager and working with new staff. The manager and the staff have worked with the young people to set clear and fair boundaries that help them to know what is safe and acceptable, how they will be looked after by the staff, and what will happen if they done stick to the agreed rules. Also, the staff consistently use a coherent strategy for working with each young person informed by their education, health and care plan. The focus is clearly on helping to young people to recognise, name and understand their emotions and find ways to respond to them

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

constructively. The staff help them to manage their feelings by reminding them of the positive outcome by making good choices, giving them space and time to relax by going to their room, or out for a walk or getting involved in another activity. The use of regular and prompt rewards tailored to the young person’s wishes, needs and interests is helping to reinforce acceptable behaviour. Young people occasionally struggle to manage their feelings and staff provide them with the opportunity to talk about what happened and to think of ways they could have dealt with their emotions more appropriately. These discussions are helping young people to think about the impact of their behaviour on other people; for example how swearing makes other people feel, and what they can do to sort things out.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

The manager thoroughly reviews every serious incident and the use of restraint. This includes talking to the young people and the staff about what happened. He is developing a clearer understanding of young people’s feelings and behaviours and the factors that lead them to feel upset and work out how best to support young people to manage their feelings. Staff’s consistent and insightful practice is helping young people accept their boundaries and avoid confrontations; for example, encouraging a young person to have a shower is no longer a battle of wills because they make sure he knows that after his shower, he will be able to play a game. Likewise, the manager has identified patterns of behaviour around bedtime and changed a young person’s evening routine to help him relax and settle at night, including staff reading him a bedtime story. This better understanding of young people’s feelings is helping staff to be more confident in maintaining

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

appropriate boundaries in the context of a nurturing relationship. A member of staff said: ‘We are no longer just containing them, but actually working with them to improve their lives.’

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

The manager and staff understand the importance of education. They work relentlessly to ensure that young people are supported to go to school, develop their knowledge and skills, and do well. The daily routines actively support young people’s participation in education. The manager and staff have good relationships with young people’s schools. They work together effectively to promote their learning and to understand tackle any problems they experience; for example concerns about refusing to go to school, bullying and worries about exams. They speak with teachers on a daily basis, always go to parents’ evenings and education reviews, and have a detailed understanding of young people’s needs, progress and the support they need at home. The young people have excellent attendance and are making very good progress in school. The manager and staff successfully helped a young person to return to school. He is now attending every day and

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

working very hard. His recent school report was extremely positive. His teachers said that he is a pleasure to teach. He is on track to achieve his expected targets in all his subjects; his behaviour is consistently very good, consistently produces consistently really good pieces of work, especially in maths, and works very well with other young people.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

The manager and staff’s good safe care practices ensure that the young people are protected from harm and neglect. They are able to identify when young people are upset find out what is wrong. They take decisive action when they are concerned about a young people’s welfare and work collaboratively with social workers, schools, health workers and safeguarding services to protect them. They continually assess risks to individual young people’s to inform detailed and evolving written risk assessments. They have an up-to-date understanding of each young person’s vulnerabilities and the risks to their safety. They use these assessments and to guide them and successfully to manage and reduce these risks. The protective measures are reasonable precautions based on each young person’s age, needs, circumstances and learning disabilities. They focus on enabling to young people to understand risk and keep themselves and other safe. This means

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

that they enjoy the same experiences and opportunities as other young people, including using social media and mobile phones, using public transport and seeing friends independently. The staff work creatively and persistently to help young people know about risks in ways that they easily understand. They continue to work with young people around using social media safely, in particular not to always accept what they are being told online as the truth. They understand and monitor young people’s use and encourage them to talk about their online experiences. Young people tell staff when they have worries and ask their advice. They are developing clear understanding of how to keep themselves safer. A young person said: ‘I don’t accept people I don’t know as friends.’

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

The quality of the monitoring of the home has strengthened. Leaders and manager now have a clear and accurate understanding of the strengths of the home, young people’s progress and the areas for development. Thorough and impartial monthly reports provide scrutiny of the home’s effectiveness in protecting the young people and meeting their assessed needs. The manager’s comprehensive review of the quality of care provides an in-depth analysis of young people’s experiences and views, care practices, written records, and administrative systems. He has developed clear and reasonable action plan to develop the quality of the support young people receive. He has already secured necessary improvements in the quality and relevance of young people’s risk assessments and support plans. The overall quality and accuracy of written records, incident reports, information about young people and their progress is improving to provide a clearer picture of their

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

lives. He has strengthened the arrangements for managing medication safely through daily checks and regular thorough audits; for example ordering and collecting repeat prescriptions in plenty of time to make sure young people get the medicines they need. The manager has identified that the development of the staff team is key to improving the quality of care and young people’s progress and experiences. He is using his experience and expertise in managing young people’s feelings to provide staff with consistent and effective guidance and support. The staff feel much more positive about working at the home and feel that they are making a difference to young people’s lives. They are well-supported professionally and emotionally through regular and meaningful supervision and team meetings. They are enthusiastic about opportunities to develop their skills and knowledge through training and working alongside experts in autism, mental health and

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

communication. The manager has developed a clear workforce plan that systematically identifies the action needed to ensure the staffing arrangements effectively to promote and safeguard young people’s welfare, including the recruitment of additional staff. It identifies the staff’s training and development needs to improve their knowledge and understanding of autism, attachment, attention and behaviour difficulties, and recording skills. It sets out the plan and timescales for this to be achieved.

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Information about this children's home

The service is run by an established private provider. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three young people with learning difficulties and associated behavioural needs.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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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.

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

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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 .

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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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