Children's home run by Cornwall Council in Cornwall

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:

Children enjoy spending time in this home where they are able to make and sustain meaningful friendships with peers. They benefit from the careful matching of children who spend time with those of a similar ability and with similar interests. The activities provided offer opportunities for children to try out new and exciting things. Staff have a positive ‘can do attitude’ which promotes age appropriate risk taking and inclusion for all children. During the summer children had the opportunity to go camping, something of a first for many. Managers have a clear and informed understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the service. Plans for development are multi-facetted to include staff development, changes to the environment and update of records. Children are consulted where possible, the service provided is child focussed and children clearly influence change. Staff understanding of need and their attention to planning and risk assessment

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The children's home provision is good because:

promotes the safety of children. Children appear relaxed, safe and at home in this environment. Parents report that children look forward to spending time here. Several said they would like additional short breaks because of the positive impact the home has on their children. All children are considered able to and encouraged to make choices. A variety of communication methods are used to support children. They commonly choose activities, furniture and fittings alongside food and drinks. The quality of food and choice available is enviable. All food is prepared using fresh ingredients by dedicated chefs who cater for special diets where needed. Children are encourage in health eating alongside access to some treats and comfort food.

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  Ensure staff are familiar with the homes policy on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Ensure records are kept up to date and information is known to all staff. (The Guide to the Quality Standards page 62 paragraph 14.4)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs. In particular provide training in understanding and interpreting the presenting behaviours of young people, communication skills, and assisting young people to travel safely. (The Guide to the Quality Standards page 52 paragraph 10.7)

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Recommendations

 Ensure children have access to a computer and the internet to support their education and learning, unless there are specific safeguarding reasons why this would be inappropriate. In such cases, the home should consider whether and how it can support the child to access the computer and the Internet safely.(The Guide to Quality Standards page 29 paragraph 5.19)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the children's home provides a nurturing and supportive environment that meets the needs of the children, this will in most cases, be a homely and domestic environment. In addition ensure young people have access to all shared areas of the home unless this would not meet their needs. (The Guide to the Quality Standards page 15 paragraph 3.9 & paragraph 3.10)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that both the person supervising staff and the staff member have a copy of the record of supervision. (The Guide to the Quality Standards page 61 paragraph 13.4)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the complaints policy follows the requirements set out in Regulation 39, in particular that a record is made of any complaint to include the action taken and the outcome of any investigation. (The guide to the Quality Standards Page 22 paragraph 4.13)

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Information about this children's home

The home is registered to provide a short break for up to twenty one children and/or young people who have learning difficulties and/or physical difficulties. The home is managed and owned by the local authority. The home is situated adjacent to a school whose students use the kitchen and dining facilities.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

16/03/2015 CH - Interim Declined in effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

30/10/2013 CH - Interim Inadequate Progress

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Good

Careful collection of information from parents and other stakeholders informs care planning and assessment of young people’s needs prior to them spending time here. Initial visits and overnight stays move at the pace needed by young people and their parents. This ensures all are happy with arrangements and young people are comfortable and feel safe before staying overnight. It is usually possible for managers to match groups of young people spending time together depending on their ability and needs. This allows for meaningful friendships to develop and allows activities to be specifically tailored to promote positive and varied experiences. Young people tend to spend the same nights each week in the home making it possible to book community resources in advance. Regular bookings of community facilities include the use of a hydrotherapy pool and horse-riding facilities. The staff are imaginative in providing a varied and exciting range of opportunities

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Good

for young people. Disability is not considered a barrier to inclusion and young people commonly take part in physical activities, sport and crafts. Over the summer holidays many went camping for the first time. Ice-skating, bowling and surfing are amongst many favourite activities chosen by young people. Parents make positive comments about the home one said her daughter ‘absolutely loves it’, adding ‘they match young people really well, she comes back energised, we think the staff are fantastic’. Each young person has targets for development, these are often linked to independence skills and are agreed by parents and education providers. A parent described her son ‘beginning to tell people when he needs the toilet, also learning to sit at a table to eat and use a fork’. All young people are considered able to make meaningful choices. Several communication methods are used and promoted to inform young people,

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Good

encourage consultation and choice. The young people’s council help with planning activities for school holidays, they have also chosen colour schemes for the home, games, and furniture and fittings. Since the last inspection several changes have been made to make this a better environment for young people. This includes the creation of a small second lounge in an area of the dining room, a new changing room and some personalisation of bedrooms. Work is ongoing and plans included new flooring to be fitted in the dining room area, additional storage cabinets to be fitted in bathrooms and replacement of some old furniture. Young people do not currently have a useable computer or access to the internet. This limits their opportunities to develop IT skills and to make use of all that access to the internet provides.

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Good

Young people are safe in this home. Information collected from parents and other stakeholders informs risk assessment and care planning to make sure that any health and safety issues and risks are understood and taken into account. Staff are attentive to the needs of the young people in their care. The atmosphere in the home is warm and friendly. Young people appear happy and comfortable. Clear boundaries and expectations linked to development needs and understanding help young people to feel safe and to trust the staff. Behaviour management is focused on understanding young people’s behaviour. Staff are able to recognise when young people maybe anxious or becoming upset. They use diversion, praise and encouragement to avoid incidents. Where young people’s behaviour has potential to impact on others additional staffing has been provided. Duty officers make sure the staff allocated to look after individuals have

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Good

the skills and experience needed. This is particularly important when young people present additional behavioural challenges. Staff allocation of tasks is dependent on their experience and skills. For example competence is assessed before staff take responsibility for medication administration, lifting and handling, and duty officer tasks. This practice protects young people and avoids mistakes. Sanctions are not used in this home and the use of restrictive physical intervention is limited to keeping young people safe, avoiding accidents and injury. This protects young people’s dignity and helps them to feel safe. Night time monitoring of young people is for the most part consistent with their needs and compliant with risk assessments. There is some overzealous checking of young people in the early mornings particularly by agency staff. This could disrupt young people‘s sleep and compromised privacy. The manager took immediate

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Good

action to stop this practice. Safer recruitment practice protects young people from those who may seek to harm them working in the home. Attention to health and safety avoids young people being exposed to unnecessary risks. Prior to each shift the duty officer considers the needs of each child and emergency evacuation tasks are assigned to individual staff. Specialist evacuation equipment is available for young people with mobility issues. The staff practice using this equipment so that they now what to do in an emergency. New fire doors have been fitted throughout the upstairs of the building and substantial work has been completed in the roof space to reduce the potential for fire spreading. Young people have variable and limited understanding of risk. This makes them vulnerable both to physical risk and exploitation. The staff produce detailed risk assessments before taking young people out into the community and when

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Good

undertaking any specific activities. This protects young people from exposure to avoidable risks. Staff understand how to safeguard and protect young people should they have any concerns or suspect abuse. Recent updates to safeguarding policy and the provision of additional training for staff have reinforced safe practice. A grievance made by a young person was not recorded as a complaint. Although fully investigated this issue didn’t feature in complaints records that are monitored by independent visitors to the home.

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Requires improvement

The strengths and weaknesses of the home are understood and many developments to benefit young people and make the care provided ‘more professional’ are underway. Additional time is needed for the manager to review and update and implement some changes to practice. The current shortfalls do not appear to impact on the experiences or enjoyment of the young people using this short breaks service. Following a lengthy unsettled period with the management arrangements a new manager is now in place. She has many years of experience in working with children and young people who have additional needs and holds suitable management and care qualifications. The manager is supported by a deputy and senior worker, together they have the confidence of the staff team. A parent commented ‘things have improved since the new manager took over, before I always felt turned away at the door when dropping my child off, a few of us felt

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Requires improvement

like that, but it’s better now’. Records are not consistently useful in understanding the experiences and progress made by young people. Discrepancies between records exists and do not support staff understanding of policy, particularly where some things such as marks on young people should be recorded, and/or night time monitoring arrangements. There is also some delay in updating and summarizing records in the absence of the assigned worker. Essential training for staff is provided on a regular basis. Specialist training has been difficult for the manager to source. This leaves some of the staff with gaps in knowledge, ability and skills which would benefit young people. In particular training in understanding autism and alternative communication methods such as ‘Makaton’ (which is used by several young people). The numbers of staff trained to assisted young people and make sure they are safe when travelling is limited and

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Requires improvement

the manager has been unable to sort out further training. The manager and deputy manager do not have copies of their own supervision records to provide clarity about what actions have been agreed with their manager. Supervision is provided on a regular basis to all permanent staff. In addition the senior management team undertake observations of practice as a tool for offering feedback and improving staff skills. The development needs of staff are identified and additional support is readily available to increase skills and ensure competence where needed. Work with other agencies supports the practice in this home. Staff attend reviews and meetings for young people. Parents and education provides are commonly consulted and the shared information is used to improve safety and maximise progress and comfort for young people. The home provides some great open spaces for wheelchair users. There are a variety of differing areas in the home including a sensory room which is very

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Requires improvement

popular with some young people, and also enclosed safe outside areas with specialist play equipment. The environment doesn’t lend itself easily to being homely and cosy. It is a large institutionalised building with high ceilings and industrial fluorescent lighting. The kitchen and dining area of the home are used to prepare and provide lunch time meals to children attending the nearby school. Although much development work has been done efforts to bring about change are complicated by this arrangement. Access to the kitchen for those spending short breaks here is restricted limiting some options for developing independence skills. Sufficiency of staffing remains an ongoing issue and despite several recruitment drives it has not been possible to find staff with the skills, experience and/or potential needed. Meanwhile, the staff team work additional hours and several agencies workers do regular shifts to compensate and provide consistency and

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Requires improvement

familiarity for young people. There is a real determination amongst the managers and staff to develop practice and provide a leading service. The capacity, willingness and ability to continue with improvements is evident.

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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

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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