Children's Home, Residential special school run by Mayne Enterprises Limited in East Sussex

Outstanding

The children's home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the home contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 Staff have extremely high aspirations for all young people in their care. As a result, young people make excellent progress across all areas of their lives, including social skills, behaviour management and education.

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 The on-site registered school delivers well, with outstanding areas of education (Ofsted education inspection, January 2016). The school provides a smooth transition between the home and school on a daily basis, reducing anxiety for the young people. Communication between the school and residential staff takes place on a daily basis and is highly effective.

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 Leaders and managers continually strive to improve the service. The leadership inspires the staff to achieve the most positive outcomes for young people, some of whom have poor pre-placement history, for example non-school attenders. Leaders are highly competent in accessing research- based studies to develop the service and practice.

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 Young people feel very involved in the running of the service and in decision making. The staff know the young people well, develop positive relationships and treat young people with a great deal of respect. Young people enjoy the company of the staff team. They feel listened to and that their individual needs are met. Comprehensive personalised learning and support plans guide staff on how to provide the best possible care.

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 Safeguarding is, in general, well managed. However, the method of physical intervention used is being reviewed because it does not provide exactly what the home needs. In particular sufficient methods of soft physical intervention. Leaders and managers have identified this gap and are researching an alternative method. In the meantime, practice is safe. Therefore, for this inspection the judgment for safeguarding is good.

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Information about this children's home

This is a children‟s home with an on-site registered school. The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to 11 children with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties, learning disabilities and mental disorders excluding learning disabilities.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

26 November 2015 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

17 February 2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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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 „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 prepare and implement a policy (“the behaviour management policy”) which sets out the measures of control, discipline and restraint which may be used in relation to children in the home; in particular future changes to the service‟s chosen method of physical intervention (Regulation 35 (1) (b)). 31 August 2016

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Outstanding

The culture of the home is firmly cemented in the development of relationships with young people at the centre of practice.

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Outstanding

Young people settle in very soon after admission. They quickly develop strong relationships with the staff team, particularly individual key workers. This enables young people to make rapid progress and to develop trust, knowing that the staff really do care about them and their future lives. As a result, young people make outstanding progress, taking their starting points into account. This can be seen in areas such as education and health, including mental health, and social and emotional well-being. One young person said `I wouldn‟t be doing as well as I am now if it wasn‟t for the staff here‟.

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Outstanding

All young people attend school or college. Attendance is, for the vast majority, excellent. Those who have previously been poor school attenders soon improve significantly. Education is seen as a very important and positive part of young people‟s lives, with staff continually praising them for achievements, both big and small. For those young people who may struggle going to school at times, the residential and education staff team‟s work together to implement a plan to enable continued access to education. Excellent results are achieved and young people soon fully re-integrate into school again. The staff team also supports young people in gaining work experience that they have an interest in and enjoy. The staff team will support young people for the first few days, if necessary. Young people successfully gain valuable employment experience and skills. Young people‟s success with the service enables them to go into further education

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Outstanding

placements when they leave. One social worker said that the service `had exceeded expectations for a young person‟.

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Outstanding

Young people‟s views are promoted and valued. Young people say that they are listened to, that they can express their concerns easily and understand how to make a complaint, knowing that they will be taken seriously. The staff team ensures that each young person has numerous ways to voice their feelings and opinions, including through independent visitors and advocates. A key aspect is the one-to-one key-working meetings. These are meaningful, and young people are able to reflect on their thoughts and feelings. This helps them to understand decision-making processes and to make better future choices.

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Outstanding

Care planning, having been subject to recent review, is of the highest standard and it ensures that young people‟s specific needs are met. Physical, emotional, educational and behavioural needs are highlighted through comprehensive learning and support plans. Young people are involved in all aspects of care planning and contribute fully. This ensures that their cultural and personal identities, and wishes are taken fully into account. Young people are positive about the very wide range of activities on offer, both on-site and in the local and wider community. They particularly enjoy the large garden surrounding the property. Local activities include membership of a local rugby club, attending local youth clubs and swimming. Wider activities include attending national conventions such as Comic Con. For one young person, the activity programme has resulted in a significant decrease in the time that he spends playing computer games, which has in turn

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Outstanding

Young people benefit greatly from the in-house therapeutic service developed and delivered by a qualified therapist. She leads on areas such as anger management, and extends her role to work with parents and carers. An esteem and anxiety course is also offered, as is life story work, in partnership with the placing social workers.

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Outstanding

Young people are provided with high-quality food. The cook provides healthy and balanced meals using local fresh produce. She is aware of individual preferences and records all the meals taken. Young people thoroughly enjoy the food that they are provided with, and many enjoy helping in the preparation and cooking of the meals. This adds to the development of their life skills.

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Good

Overall, safeguarding is outstanding. However, a judgment of good has been given due to the leaders and managers having identified that the current method of behaviour management practice does not fully fit their high standards. The service focuses on de-escalation rather than physical intervention. However, the current method does not have the full range of soft methods of intervention that they wish to have. The number of physical interventions is very low, and young people are not at risk of inappropriate interventions as the current methods used are safe. Leaders are researching alternative methods and are closely monitoring practice until they source a more suitable method. Their priority remains to de-escalate rather than to physically intervene.

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Good

The registered manager and senior leaders ensure that good and prompt action is taken to keep young people safe. Policies and procedures are well written and guide staff to follow correct procedures if they have a concern. The registered manager and leaders review the child protection policy regularly, ensuring that it is fully up to date with changing national legislation and local protocols. The registered manager meets with a local safeguarding group. This gives him a good level of local knowledge and an opportunity to share information and keep up to date. He has developed very good professional relationships with representatives from the local police missing person‟s team, the local police and Local Safeguarding Children‟s Board. This enables staff to access expert advice to inform risk management practices, including the local environmental risk assessment. The registered manager has undertaken suitable training and has highly effective

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Good

systems for keeping and monitoring records, from low-level concerns through to more serious concerns. Daily contact with senior leaders, also trained in child protection, ensures that he is not making decisions in isolation. Training for the manager and the staff team includes addressing radicalisation and child sexual exploitation. Staff are well informed and understand their duties in relation to reporting any level of concern. The service is competent in working with a wide range of professionals, including agencies concerned with radicalisation. The registered manager shares his knowledge by delivering seminars to other local services in relation to deprivation of liberty and behaviour management, for example.

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Good

The systems in place to monitor and manage bullying are effective. Young people feel confident in the process for alerting and reporting incidents, and in the staff‟s ability to manage it. The number of incidents are low, due to the staff‟s ability to recognise triggers and vulnerabilities. They are able to prevent any potential incidents.

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Good

Health and safety checks are taken seriously, and regular checks ensure that the home is safe for both young people and staff. Routine checks of fire equipment and regular fire evacuations mean that young people and the staff know what action to take in the event of a fire. All health and safety checks are well organised and recorded. The service responds swiftly to accidents to ensure that young people and staff are kept safe. For example, it installed new door handles throughout following an accident to one young person involving his bedroom door handle, and there is ban on certain games.

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Good

Young people can be assured that the staff recruited are safe to work with young people. This includes the therapeutic lead and independent visitor. Leaders are continually reviewing their recruitment procedures to ensure, as far as possible, that all adults are safe to work with them.

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Outstanding

Leadership and management are exceptional. The registered manager is highly suitable and has extensive experience. He has been in post for three years and has proven to be extremely effective. He has a national vocational qualification level 4 in children‟s social care and a registered manager‟s award. The responsible individual supports the registered manager, and together they from a strong leadership team. They have established and implemented a development plan that drives their improvement agenda. Staff are informed of the plan and, therefore, are aware of the service‟s more strategic targets.

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Outstanding

A comprehensive training programme ensures that all staff receive excellent training and development opportunities. The staff team has completed both mandatory and specialist training. Courses delivered are of a high standard. Over 90% of staff have a level 3 diploma or equivalent. One member of staff is due to complete their qualification in the next few months and another is due to commence in the very near future. This fully meets the requirements of the children‟s homes regulations.

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Outstanding

The registered manager creates a supportive environment where staff can seek his support at any time. Staff enjoy their roles, and focus on improving the young people‟s lives and futures. They „go the extra mile‟ on many occasions.

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Outstanding

Record keeping is excellent, with regular reviewing and development of the systems and formats that enable the service to improve continually. This enables the staff team to focus on areas such as target setting to deliver local authority health, education and care plans. There is excellent management oversight. Auditing and monitoring are of the highest standard, from monthly independent visitor reports through to detailed six-monthly quality assurance regulation 45 reports completed by the registered manager. In turn, these reports feed into the service‟s development plan and aid analysis of events. All significant events are notified promptly to the relevant authority. This means that incidents are overseen appropriately and that action taken in response is with the knowledge of other professionals. Young people benefit from living in a home where it is the norm to desire to adjust practice to improve outcomes.

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Outstanding

The statement of purpose sets out the ethos of the home. The on-site school allows for a smooth transition each day from residential to education. The cohesive working between the residential and education staff brings about positive change to education and behaviour achievements. A children‟s guide enables young people to have information to hand prior to and during their time at the service. There are plans for the guide to be reviewed with the input of young people.

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Outstanding

Leaders and managers know the home‟s strengths and its very few weaknesses. There are realistic developments plan in place to address the minor shortfalls.

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Outstanding

Feedback from professionals is highly positive regarding the leadership and management of the home. The registered manager and responsible individual will challenge other professionals for the benefit of young people, if necessary.

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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 „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 0300 123 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, work- based 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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