Children's home run by North East Specialist Therapeutic Services CIC in Northumberland

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:

 The home is nurturing and this is particularly appropriate for the younger age group with which the home currently work.  The children are supported well to come to terms with past traumas and difficulties. This is supported with planned life story work and therapeutic play sessions.  The children are settled and make progress in all areas of their lives.  All children attend school and make good progress there.  The therapeutic work is overseen by highly experienced external consultants and is carried out by staff who have been trained in therapeutic residential care.

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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 recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

(d) full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (3)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that no staff member starts work without an in depth interview, in depth references being sought and a satisfactory DBS check being received. 10/12/2015

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Requirement Due date

5 Engaging with the wider system to ensure children's needs are 10/09/2015 met

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the engaging with the wider system to ensure children's needs are met, with particular reference to children’s personal education plans and return from missing interviews, the registered person must ensure that staff –

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Requirement Due date

(c) if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority's or a relevant person's performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child's needs are met in accordance with the child's relevant plans.

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Requirement Due date

(a) keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure the description of the homes therapeutic approach and the section on sanctions is clear. Ensure staffing details are up to date and that statement of purpose does not identify the address of the home.

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the protection of children standard, with particular reference to ensuring the garden is safe for children to use and play in, the registered person must ensure –

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Requirement Due date

(2)(d) that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child's health. 10/08/2015

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Requirement Due date

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that staff understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Ensure that information is recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. Specifically, ensure that records of progress made by children are clear. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, Page 62 paragraph 14.4)

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Information about this children's home

The home may provide accommodation for up to three children with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties (EBD). The home is privately owned.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

27/03/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness

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good

The children do make progress in all areas of their lives and this progress is positive and steady.

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good

Staff make detailed care plans that outline the nurture plan for each child. These detail children’s individual routines and demonstrates how staff should provide consistent care and management. All the children have regular therapeutic play sessions and life story work sessions which are planned by key workers. These key workers have regular supervision and have regular access to an external consultant who has therapeutic oversight of the work. This detailed planning and highly individualised work clearly helps children make progress. One child who was very violent and aggressive on admission has been able to work through past traumas and is now much more settled. Another child who was not attending school prior to admission is now attending full time and clearly making good progress. Another child who was unable to sleep without medication prior to admission is now sleeping well with no medication. The social worker of one child said, ‘they are

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good

doing absolutely excellent work, he is doing exceptionally well, he is attached to staff and is much more relaxed’.

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good

Another social worker said, ‘staff offer really good care, they are attuned to his needs and he has a good attachment to staff’. She went on to say that staff involve the children well in running of the home.

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good

Staff place a high importance on being able to share experiences with children. All the children are involved in house meetings three times a week and staff attend these as well. The meetings are designed to be forums where children and staff can share positive parts of their lives and where children can raise other issues as they wish. Children are supported to chair these meetings and are helped to record what has been agreed. Staff and social workers comment that this sharing does help raise children’s self-esteem and confidence. Staff also plan shared activities with children. One staff member talked enthusiastically about being able to share walking his dog with a child and also taking them out to music concert. Another member of staff talked about loving doing activities such as cooking with children and being able to give praise when children succeeded at new tasks.

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good

This therapeutic work and shared activities has helped children to develop better attachments with staff.

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good

Levels of personal care are high. All children have a bedtime story every night included in their bedtime routine. Children are able to have bubble baths with bath toys and trained staff are able to offer simple massage to children to help them relax if requested. This level of nurture and personal care is appropriate for the ages of the children and an important part of the milieu. Staff talked about ‘duvet night’ on a Friday night where children can watch a DVD in pyjamas and can be comfortable sitting with their own duvet in the lounge. This weekly event is carefully arranged and monitored but provides a real homely atmosphere.

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good

The home is well resourced with toys and leisure activities that are appropriate to the ages of the children and is warm and comfortable throughout.

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good

The children are encouraged to join outside clubs. One child talked enthusiastically about enjoying the local sea cadets organisation and about playing football and cricket locally. Another child attends and enjoys gym, dance and swimming classes. The home admits younger children and offers long term placements and they have a good record of continuing to work with some troubled young children. Children and staff clearly have good relationships with each other. Children are accompanied to school by staff who walk with them and they are greeted warmly on their return from school. After school children are offered healthy snacks. The home has a relaxed comfortable feel. Staff levels are high with their being at least as many staff as children around at all times. This means that children get a great deal of individual attention when required. Children were observed to be relaxed and interacting well with staff and with each other. Children clearly feel

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good

safe and are able to talk about getting on well with staff. One child said, ‘staff are fantastic’.

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good

Children are supported to have contact with their families where possible. Staff have made good contact plans for all the children and go to considerable effort to support contact with children’s extended families. This means that although some children are unable to see their parents often they are able to keep in contact with other members of their family and this undoubtedly helps them maintain a sense of identity.

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good

The home employ two external consultants to oversee the therapeutic work and to give psychological advice and guidance to staff. One consultant said, ‘the team have a clear, passionate desire, they think things through well and the quality of care and outcomes is impressive’. She said that in her opinion, not many places come close’.

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good

Staff ensure that children’s health needs are well met and there are good records on file of regular health appointments being kept. While all children attend school well and are reported by the schools to be making progress, two children do not have current personal education plans on their files. Judgement grade

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requires improvement

The children in this home are kept safe. Because of the age of the children they are supervised closely when out of the home and this is appropriate. There has only been one incident when two children went missing for a very short space of time when they ran off during a supervised trip to the park. Staff were very active in searching the local area and were able to quickly return the children to the home. On this occasion staff did not ensure an independent return was completed.

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requires improvement

There have been no child protection incidents at all.

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requires improvement

Children are able to work through previous traumas in the life story and play sessions as they feel able and this will build resilience and enable the children to understand their past and protect themselves as they get older.

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requires improvement

Staff offer clear boundaries to children’s behaviour. Part of the ethos of the home is around consistency and predictability of action. This means that children learn what is acceptable and what is not. Staff take time to record triggers to behaviour and are often able to calm and de-escalate situations quickly. The number of restraints carried out in the home has been quite high but has reduced significantly over recent months. These have been carefully monitored throughout. The manger has said that they work with younger children who have suffered trauma and that often they are unable to control their behaviour themselves when they are admitted. The staff offer consistent care and control and children are helped to feel safe and cared for and are able to start to settle and control and regulate their behaviour themselves. Social workers of the children placed are aware of these issues and confirm that the approach works well. Children I spoke to feel safe and

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requires improvement

Staff rarely use sanctions but these are appropriate and recorded well when they are used.

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requires improvement

A requirement made at the previous inspection about recording the duration of restraints has been met.

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requires improvement

There have been some concerns around the recent recruitment of staff. The manager has not been as robust in the recruitment process as is required and has not completed sufficient checks in as thorough or timely manner as is required. Although, at present, these concerns have not impacted on the safety of children it does mean that staff have been recruited without sufficient care and that any risk they may pose has been insufficiently assessed.

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requires improvement

Requirements have been made around these issues and they now require improvement.

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requires improvement

The manager and staff are very committed to ensuring the needs of the children are given the highest priority and that the running of the home is child centred. They understand what children need and how to deliver care that meets these needs. Children are making good progress in all areas of their lives and this is directly related to the commitment and skill of the staff and management team. Often children are admitted suffering significant traumas and often having broken other placements down so that their behaviour is challenging and they have complex emotional needs. The staff team make progress from these starting points and children do settle well.

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requires improvement

The recording systems are being reviewed currently and the new placement plans are better than before. Although children clearly make progress from their starting points this is not always well recorded or evidenced. The care planning recording needs to be further improved and needs to ensure that progress is well recorded and evidenced.

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requires improvement

The manager ensures that staff are well supervised on a regular basis and the content of this supervision is good. There has been a high priority given to training and the staff team have been able to undertake a great deal of training including therapeutic residential care training. Staff also have regular access to outside consultants to discuss and plan therapeutic work sessions that they carry out with the children.

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requires improvement

Generally the management team have good relationships with outside professionals but they have not escalated some concerns when needed. Two children do not have a personal education plan in place and a return interview was not conducted when needed. There is evidence of good communications with local schools and local health providers.

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requires improvement

The home’s Statement of Purpose says that it provides a therapeutic environment for the children at the home. However the description of the work in the statement of purpose is insufficiently clear about the therapeutic work they engage in.

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requires improvement

The manager and staff are ambitious in their stated aim of offering a high standard of therapeutic work. To this end they aspire to work to the Service Standards for Therapeutic Communities for Children and Young People produced by the Consortium of Therapeutic Communities and they aspire to become accredited by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. The homes statement of purpose does give an overview of the ethos of the home and does broadly meet their stated aims and objectives but does not give sufficient detail about the model of therapeutic work the home practices. This requires more clarity and some updating. The statement of purpose also needs to be updated with a better description of permissible sanctions, staffing details and needs to ensure that it does not identify the location of the home. The manager is clear about this lack of clarity and is addressing the issues.

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requires improvement

The shortfalls in recent recruitment processes described above also require improvement from the management team.

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requires improvement

Although the house is maintained to a high standard the back garden is in a poor state. It is overgrown and now very uneven following the replacement of pipe works and has building debris that needs to be removed. The separate coach house is in a poor condition and is not currently used except to store goods. Currently the children are unable to use the back garden because it is dangerous. There is an appropriate risk assessment in place.

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requires improvement

The manager has been in post since the home was registered in March 2015 and was previously the manager of a children’s home nearby when they relocated to the current address. He is appropriately qualified. The manager is aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the home. He is taking steps to better describe the therapeutic way of working that has been adopted by the home and he is aware of the need for greater clarity in recording and the evidencing of their work.

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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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