Children's Home, Residential special school run by Staffordshire County Council in Staffordshire

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

This home was judged Outstanding at the full inspection. At this interim inspection, Ofsted judge that it has improved effectiveness .

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

This service is constantly evolving in order to meet the changing needs of young people. Since the last inspection, young people have made progress in many areas of their development, due to the opportunities afforded to them by the service.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

The centre continues to provide young people with a welcoming and safe environment. Staff maintain the centre to a high standard and the decor reflects the interests of young people. Enthusiastic and creative staff provide young people with an increasingly wide range of stimulating and enjoyable activities, such as swimming more, outdoor activities, and visits to a tramway museum. Highly skilled staff support young people to communicate their wishes and feelings and to take part in activities they enjoy. Since the last inspection, young people have had fun together during a ‘superhero’ weekend.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

Staff use a wide range of communication tools to enable young people to make a significant contribution to decisions about the centre. This strong emphasis on communication has also led to young people increasingly attending their child in need reviews. They benefit from a staff team, which wants them to achieve and believes that they can always make progress. The innovation of a ‘Step down’ club helps young people and parents move on when they are no longer in need of the short breaks service. Staff have successfully helped one young person to stop using the service after a long period of weekend breaks. This is in keeping with ethos of the service that disabled young people should be empowered.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

Dedicated staff listen to young people’s wishes and feelings and give them serious consideration. Young people make significant progress in their relationships, how they spend their time and in education and learning. A parent commented that staff have helped her son to progress from choosing to watch television alone, to mixing with his peers. Staff have also skilfully helped his speech to progress.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

The registered manager holds a level 5 qualification in leadership and management and has for many years, provided an excellent service for young people with disabilities. She also manages another local authority resource centre, which is outstanding. The registered manager provides the constant attention to detail which is essential to maintain and improve on the quality of the service. Staff supervision is both supportive and challenging with expectations that staff will prepare for supervision with an agenda.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

Systems for gathering information and feedback from young people, staff, parents and other professionals are in place and regularly reviewed. The registered manager incorporates this feedback into her review of the quality of service and responds to any ideas or issues they put forward. She ensures that staff training is up to date and relevant and all of the managers are now doing their level 5 qualifications.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

Since the last inspection, the registered manager has arranged for a group of parents to train staff about caring for disabled children from their perspective. Staff have all had child sexual exploitation training and the registered manager has now instigated competency tests for staff regarding medication. The social worker for one young person, who was recently referred to the service, praised the registered manager. The registered manager had provided the staff with specific training needed to meet the young person’s complex health needs and bought a special bed to enable that him to stay for overnight breaks. Without these actions, the young person would not have been able to access the service.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

Staff respond appropriately to minor accidents, none of which have required medical intervention since the last inspection. Highly perceptive staff look for the reasons behind any incidents of challenging or violent behaviour. They worked closely with the parent of one young person to address his heightened anxieties and how best to manage his behaviour. Staff reviewed his care plan, enabled him to communicate his feelings and provided him with consistent care from a carefully chosen core staff team. The registered manager gives safety the highest priority. She has recently audited the fire procedures and undertaken evacuations for young people. On one occasion, a young person refused to leave the building. After fully preparing the young person, staff undertook a second and successful evacuation.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

Staff run regular anti-bullying workshops to help young people to understand how to keep themselves safe. Staff engaged one young person, who has very limited communication, in an intensive piece of work to establish that she did not feel comfortable in a certain situation. The registered manager fully and successfully addressed her concerns.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

Staff and the registered manager work on a daily basis with other professionals and with families to support progress and improve the experiences of young people. In addition to this, the service invited social workers to join them for an informal lunch to promote ‘joined up thinking’ and enable staff and other professionals to understand what young people are experiencing.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

The registered manager has supported parents to form a panel to interview the candidates for a resource worker post. Three parents with very different children presented two questions each to the interviewees.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

The service continues to support a group for ethnic minority families with disabled children. This also serves to educate the staff about different identities and cultures.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

The service now uses emails and texts to speed up communication with parents. One parent commented that these improvements in communication are, ‘a great help and help the young people…. I can't fault them - I can't praise them enough'. She works very closely with staff and regularly attends meetings with them to exchange information.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

There were no requirements or recommendations made at the last inspection.

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Information about this children's home

This resource centre provides short-break care for up to six young people who have learning and/or physical disabilities and/or sensory impairments. The service is managed by a local authority.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

13/03/2015 CH - Interim Sustained effectiveness

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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

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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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