Children's home run by Lancashire County Council in Preston

Unique reference number SC039689 Inspector Sarah Oldham Type of inspection Interim Provision subtype Children's home

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Registered person Lancashire County Council Registered person address PO Box 78 County Hall Fishergate Preston PR1 8XJ Responsible individual Brendan Francis Lee Registered manager Jane Margaret Tandy Date of last inspection 14/02/2014 2 of 6 Inspection date 26/03/2015

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Previous inspection good progress Enforcement action since last inspection none

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This inspection

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

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This inspection

Since the last inspection in January 2015 the home has had a short period of time to address the requirements and recommendations made. It is positive that of the six requirements made, five have been addressed with ongoing systems in place to continue to build on the progress made.

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This inspection

The Registered Manager and staff have worked consistently to ensure the young people living at the home benefit from support, care and guidance to provide stability and help then to address their behaviours in a constructive manner. Some young people had little or persistent non-attendance at education prior to moving into the home, impacting on their opportunity to gain positive educational outcomes. The home works in partnership with the lead virtual head teacher to enable educational placements to be sourced. This has resulted in an overall increase in educational attendance for the vast majority of young people.

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This inspection

Young people are supported with their individual health care needs and are registered with appropriate health care professionals. When young people require additional specialist resources to meet their psychological and emotional health care, staff are proactive in resourcing these. However, some young people decline to engage with these services. When this happens, the service maintains links with health care professionals to receive guidance to enable staff to provide appropriate responses to young people's complex needs. Staff encourage young people to lead healthy lifestyles through making informed choices about healthy diets, activities and lifestyle. However, some young people continue to smoke and this may impact on their health outcomes in the future.

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This inspection

The home has worked in partnership with the local missing from home co-ordinator from the police. Training has been provided to staff to enable them to have an increased understanding of the procedures to follow when a young person is missing 3 of 6 from the home and also when to access police for advice and support. This has reduced the recent number of calls to the police from the home, and ensured missing from home reporting adheres to agreed protocols to safeguard young people. Missing from home reports completed by staff contain greater information about the action taken following a young person not returning to the home at the agreed time, and the details of when the young person does return. Staff ensure requests are made for young people to speak with their social worker following a reported incident of missing from home. However, not all young people receive these visits in a timely manner. The manager raises this with the appropriate social

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This inspection

workers and team managers to address this.

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This inspection

Regular young people's meetings along with individual key working sessions encourage young people to be involved in having a say in how the home functions. When it is not possible to act upon their wishes and views, this is explained to them clearly. Young people spoken with during the inspection felt positive about their placement. One young person said 'things are going a lot better for me and I am happy to stay here.' Another young person said 'staff have supported me to continue with my education and they listen to me.'

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This inspection

Young people are supported to manage their behaviours through positive praise and encouragement. Negative consequences are rarely used. If they are, they are discussed with the young people and written records maintained. Over recent months, challenging behaviours of some young people have been disruptive and this has impacted on other young people living at the home. The Registered Manager, along with senior managers within the Local Authority, has reviewed the matching of these placements, resulting in a change of home for some young people, where it is felt their individual needs can be met more effectively. Although this has enabled the behaviours and outcomes for the young people remaining at the home to improve, the impact of new admissions to the home is not robustly assessed to minimise the risk of this happening again. To address this, the Registered Manager is currently reviewing the impact assessment documentation to clearly reflect clearly decisions

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This inspection

Staff receive regular supervision and this, together with team meetings and daily handovers, enables them to have a good understanding of current issues for young people, and to provide them with the agreed levels of care and support.

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This inspection

Monitoring of all records is undertaken by the manager and this enables shortfalls to be identified and addressed. In addition, the home has monthly independent monitoring undertaken which provides an overview of how the home is operating and ongoing areas for development.

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This inspection

Since the last inspection, the home has had some redecoration undertaken to make it feel more homely. Further refurbishment is planned but has yet to be undertaken.

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This inspection

As a result of this inspection, two requirements have been made. These relate to 4 of 6 ensuring consideration is given to matching the needs of young people placed at the home with those currently living there and to ensure the décor and furnishings of the home provide a homely environment. 5 of 6

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Information about this children’s home

This service is a local authority children's home. The home provides care and accommodation for six young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/02/2014 Interim good progress 01/11/2013 Full good 07/01/2013 Interim good progress 31/05/2012 Full good

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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 Regulations 2001 and the National Minimum Standards. The registered person(s) must comply with the given timescales.

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure the children's home is conducted so as to promote and make proper provision for the safeguarding and welfare of children accommodated there, specifically the home adheres to risk assessments and takes account of the needs of young people already living there when considering new admissions to the home (Regulation 11(1)(a)) 30/04/2015

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure that all parts of the children's home used by children are kept clean and reasonably decorated and maintained (Regulation 31 (2)(3) 30/05/2015 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Reg. Requirement Due date

This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the source and date of publication are stated.

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What inspection judgements mean

At the interim inspections 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

The purpose of this inspection is to assure children and young people, parents, the public, local authorities and government of the quality and standard of the service provided. The 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 relevant regulations and meets the national minimum standards.

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Information about this inspection

The report details the main strengths, any areas for improvement, including any breaches of regulation, and any failure to meet national minimum standards. The judgements included in the report are made against the framework of inspection for children's homes.

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