Children's home run by Platform Childcare Ltd in East Staffordshire

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:

 Young people make significant progress from their starting points within a short space of time, particularly with regard to their emotional well-being, education, daily living skills and behaviour.  Education is an integral part of this home. Young people enjoy learning and want to be at school or participating in educational activities.  The emotional and physical health of young people is well promoted. Staff have a good understanding of their needs and are passionate at providing a nurturing and supportive home for young people.  The views, wishes and feelings of young people are important to staff. They listen to young people.  Staff believe that strong, trusting relationships with young people are important. They want young people to feel valued and nurtured. Young people feel safe because staff make them feel safe.  The registered manager provides strong, effective leadership. She has a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the home and has

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The children's home provision is good because:

plans in place to address shortfalls. Staff feel very well supported. They have access to a good training programme, which gives them a good understanding of the needs of the young people living in the home.  Staff currently do not have all the skills, experience or qualifications to care for the specialist needs of young people as detailed within the statement of purpose.

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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

Compile in relation to the children‟s home a statement (“the statement of purpose”) which covers the matters listed in Schedule 1. This specifically refers to ensuring that staff have the skills, qualifications and experience necessary to meet the needs of the young people detailed within the statement of purpose (Regulation 16 (1)). 31 May 2016

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Information about this children's home

This is a privately owned children‟s home that can cater for up to four young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties. The registered manager is registered for two of the company‟s homes that are close to each other. The home has recently been relocated and so has been re-registered. The staff team and manager have remained the same.

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Good

Young people make significant progress from their starting points within a short space of time, particularly with regard to their emotional well-being, education, daily living skills and behaviour. For example, young people who struggle to talk about their feelings are now starting to do this as staff build strong and trusting relationships with them. Young people move on from the home in a planned and sensitive way. Staff enable them to grow in confidence and self-esteem as well as building on their resilience to ensure that they can start to manage difficult areas of their lives. A social worker said, „He had a positive experience at the home, so moving was not an anxiety-related experience.‟ Education is an integral part of this home. Young people who are not in education when they move in are quickly found an appropriate education placement. The registered manager works closely with virtual headteachers‟ to ensure that young

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Good

people are in the right educational placements for them. While young people are waiting for a placement, staff work with them to complete educational type activities such as going to the library, working through appropriate key stage workbooks for maths and English, baking and physical activity. Young people who go to mainstream schools are transported there and back. Staff attend all meetings concerning the young people, including parent‟s evenings. Young people who are starting in a new educational provision do so in a gradual way, supported by staff, to help the young person settle back into learning in a more formal setting. A young person said, „I enjoy school, it‟s fun.‟ The health of young people is highly promoted. Young people are encouraged to attend all healthcare appointments, which they do, and follow any prescribed treatments. The emotional health of young people is important to staff, so staff

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Good

provide a nurturing and homely environment. They also work closely with children‟s mental health services and other agencies to help support young people, but also to better understand them. For example, staff attended multi-agency training to gain a better understanding of transgender young people when a young person who is transgender lived in the home. Young people are also supported with their personal hygiene skills to ensure that they are presentable and maintain good health. Young people are also encouraged to make healthy choices for meals and take regular exercise. Young people know how to make complaints and are given opportunities such as the „Kids Chat‟ meetings to discuss any issues that they have. Complaints are resolved satisfactorily and quickly. Young people say that they feel listened to by staff. Young people are consulted about their care and the running of the home. For example, they will give their views about staff for appraisals, decor of the

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Good

home and activities. The hobbies and interests of young people are supported. For example, a young person who wants to learn to draw, and has a talent for this, sat with a member of staff and a sketch book working through a guide on how to create beautiful pictures. Young people enjoy a range of activities including swimming, the golf range, cooking, reading and trips to the library. The home has recently been completely refurbished and provides a homely and nurturing environment. Many ornaments adorn the shelves as well as bright pictures and words of wisdom on the walls. Young people have their own private bedrooms which are highly personalised. They are looking forward to the garden being landscaped, which is to be completed in the near future.

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Good

Staff believe that strong, trusting relationships with young people are important. They want young people to feel valued and nurtured. Staff have a good understanding of young people‟s backgrounds and why they behave in the way that they do. This enables staff to provide empathetic care that focuses on encouragement rather than punitive measures. Consequently, there have been very few incidents of challenging behaviour, no sanctions have been given and staff have not used physical intervention. Young people are valued and nurtured. Staff provide consistent, strong boundaries which help young people to feel safe and secure. The practice to keep young people safe is very good. A young person said when asked what is good about the home, „It‟s safe. You‟re just safe as the staff make sure you‟re safe.‟ Staff have a good understanding of the home‟s safeguarding policies and child protection procedures. Young people generally get on well with

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Good

each other. Bullying is not part of the culture of this home. Young people do not get involved in offending behaviour, smoke, drink alcohol or take illegal substances. Young people who have smoked have stopped when they moved into the home. Young people say that this is because they cannot get any cigarettes from anywhere, but they also say that they hope they do not start again. Staff have a good understanding of young people who self-harm and manage this effectively. A member of staff described an incident where a young person was threatening to jump off the top of a building. The member of staff‟s actions, which were calm and born of a good knowledge of the young person, meant that the young person returned to the home safely. Most young people do not go missing from this home because they feel safe and secure. However, staff followed procedures appropriately for a young person who did go missing on a few occasions. They also worked proactively with the missing

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Good

coordinator for the local police and the young person‟s social worker. Partnership working helped to keep the young person safe and to return home.

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Good

The home has recently been re-registered as it relocated. The manager and staff team remained the same. The management of this home is strong. The registered manager provides strong, effective leadership. She is extremely experienced but does not yet hold the required management qualification. She is currently looking into this to source an appropriate course. The registered manager has an in depth understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the home and has plans in place to address these. For example, she is currently building a strong staff team by recruiting the right people, having regular training sessions, ensuring that staff complete the appropriate qualification and providing good support for staff. The registered manager works in partnership with relevant external agencies. She has also provided training for external agencies. The staff team is passionate, competent and committed to the young people. They

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Good

work hard to create a home for young people rather than an institution. Staff members have a range of experience and qualifications or degrees. However, currently only one member of staff has a relevant qualification in residential childcare. Other staff members are either completing the relevant qualification or are in their induction period. The organisation provides an in depth induction period of training prior to starting work in the home. Staff are then supported with specialist training opportunities which enable them to meet the needs of the young people. For example, staff have completed attachment, separation and loss, transgender and life story level 3 accredited training, as well as mandatory training such as on safeguarding children, physical intervention training and first aid. Furthermore, senior staff are enthusiastic about teaching new staff, „I want to empower staff at an early stage to implement boundaries and rules and to

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Good

challenge the young people positively.‟ Staff have very good information about young people to work with. Documentation is detailed and helps staff to have a good understanding of young people. The emotional resilience assessments and plans are an example of good practice. The statement of purpose does not provide an account of the home that the staff can currently fulfil. For example, staff do not currently have the specialist skills or qualifications to manage the specific challenges that the statement of purpose says that young people can have. Furthermore, it is not clear what qualifications staff hold. It is also misleading as it states that the home provides „specialist therapeutic care‟ as it currently does not.

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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 that 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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