Children's Home run by Spark of Genius North East LLP in Stockton-on-Tees

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:

 The manager and staff have a good understanding of how to develop positive, secure relationships with young people.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 The manager and staff promote education attendance and attainment. They show aspirational thinking in relation to the young people’s achievements.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Contact with family and friends is well supported.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 The manager and staff promote an inclusive culture, and young people are involved in all aspects of their care.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 The manager and staff have positive, effective relationships with other professionals who support young people.

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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 within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

Schedule 4 sets out the other information that the registered person must keep in relation to a children's home. The registered person must—

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Requirement Due date

maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4; ensure that the records are kept up to date; and retain the records for at least 15 years from the date of the last entry (Regulation 37(2)(a),(b) and (c)). 10 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises used for the purposes of the children's home at least once in each calendar year taking into account the requirement in regulation 12(2)(c) (the protection of children standard).

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Requirement Due date

When conducting the review, the registered person must consult, and take into account the views of, each relevant person (Regulation 46(1) and (2)). 30 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

13. In order to meet the leadership and management standard, with particular regard to the development of the workforce plan, the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children's home that—

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Requirement Due date

(2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

(a) lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home's statement of purpose; (b) ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate; (c) ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; 30 June 2016 12. In order to meet the protection of children standard, with particular regard to ensuring health and safety is maintained, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

(d) that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child's health; 31 May 2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development; receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; (Regulation 33(4)(a) and (b)). 31 May 2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records ("case records") for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child; are kept up to date; and are signed and dated by the author of each entry (Regulation 36(1)(a), (b) and (c)). 31 May 2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation; an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious; there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there; a child protection enquiry involving a child — (i) is instigated; or (ii) concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious (Regulation 40 (4)(a), (b), (c), (d) and (e)). 11 May 2016

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  Regulation 19(2) details sanctions that are prohibited in behaviour management. Any sanctions used to address poor behaviour should be restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community. In some cases it will be important for children to make reparation in some form to anyone hurt by their behaviour and the staff in the home should be skilled to support the child to understand this and carry it out (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38).

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Recommendations

 The references to well-being in the Regulations mean the quality of a child's life. Child well-being is multi-dimensional and therefore includes dimensions of physical, emotional and social well-being; both for the immediate and future life of the child. The definition of child well-being incorporates subjective measures such as happiness, perception of quality of life and life satisfaction as well as objective measures around supportive personal relationships, education and training resources and health status (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 33, paragraph 7.2).

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Recommendations

 The Statement of Purpose is of particular importance to this Standard (regulation 6(2)(a) and (b)(i)). Homes are required to develop and keep under review a "Statement of Purpose" (regulation 16 and schedule 1). The home's Statement of Purpose should be child-focused, indicating how the home provides individualised care to meet the Quality Standards for the children in their care. In particular, the Children's Guide should contain all relevant information and be up to date (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 14, paragraph 3.5). 

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Information about this children's home

This home accommodates up to five young people, who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. It is provided by a private company.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

17 February 2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

13 March 2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Good

Young people are settled and achieving in all aspects of their life. They are actively involved in the planning of their care and have their own action plan. They contribute to this on a weekly basis in a session with their key worker. This enables young people to gain confidence and improve their self-esteem by seeing their achievements and progress. In addition, it offers a safe environment in which to look back at the poor choices they have made and enables them to see their journey. They learn about how a different choice would have led to a different outcome.

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Good

Education is well promoted. All young people are in school or awaiting college placements to begin at the start of the next academic year. Overall attendance is high. Where there have been decreases this has related to specific times when young people have had stresses in their life. Staff know how to manage these times and support young people to return quickly to education. The result is that the positive message about educational attendance is consistent.

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Good

Young people are healthy, maintain a healthy diet and regularly contribute to a choice of menu. Most young people attend health appointments readily. Where this does not happen it is highlighted within action plans. However, when these actions are ineffective there is no change in practice to ensure progress. The result is that not all young people receive health input to ensure a healthy lifestyle.

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Good

The home is well maintained. There is a current programme of refurbishment underway to which young people have contributed. They have each chosen a communal area and have been involved in the planning and decoration. The young people’s bedrooms are comfortable, well equipped and personalised. This demonstrates a high level of ownership by young people. Young people are consulted on a regular basis about their care prior to their reviews and within the key-worker sessions. The impact is that young people feel listened to and valued.

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Good

The manager and staff understand the importance of contact with family and friends for young people. They promote and support contact with family and friends well, where appropriate, either via transport or supervising the contact. A parent said, ‘The staff keep me updated, she is doing a lot better since she has been there.’ Judgement grade

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Requires improvement

Overall, young people are safe within the home. The staff gather all relevant information to ensure that risks are understood and managed. Risk management and care plans are updated regularly by staff, but are not always signed off in a timely manner by the manager. This similarly applies to records of restraint and sanctions, which are completed by staff yet not always evaluated and signed off by the manager. The impact of this is that the oversight of plans and practice from a strategic perspective is not visible, and guidance to staff is not recorded. The manager remains focused on practice on a day-to-day basis and there is evidence of this having a positive impact. While this does not affect the day-to-day safety of young people, it could impact on the wider, long-term safety aspects of the care provided. A member of staff said, ‘The manager is a good role model for staff in how to do things day to day.’

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Requires improvement

Young people state that they feel safe within the home and are proud of where they live. A young person said, ‘This is a good home and staff are great.’ Another young person said, ‘I don’t like it when others kick off, but I know the staff will protect me.’ Behaviour is well managed within the home. The expectations of behaviour are clear. This provides good structure and stability for young people. Staff understand individual triggers for young people and know how to de-escalate behaviours. This impacts positively on young people’s feelings of safety and security.

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Requires improvement

Physical interventions are sometimes required when young people are finding it difficult to regulate their own behaviours and emotions. De-escalation techniques are used whenever possible. Following an incident, records are completed. Detail is often sparse and it is difficult to get a full picture of what happened, leading up to and following incidents. The actions taken within the interventions are clear. The impact is that learning from the incident for both staff and young people is not always evaluated and informing future practice. Sanctions are recorded, but are not always clearly linked to the behaviour that they were meant to address. Restorative practice is carried out, but is not always recorded clearly. The result is that change in behaviour is often immediate but superficial, and opportunities for consistent, long term change are missed.

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Requires improvement

The management team listens to young people’s views and has completed investigations into concerns that young people have voiced about incidents. However, the records show that there are occasions when comments and allegations made by young people are not followed through. There is a heavy reliance on the knowledge that this is a learned behaviour by some young people. The designated officer stated, ‘Those allegations they have brought to my attention have been dealt with well.’ The impact is that allegations are not always forwarded appropriately so that decisions about investigation can be made by other relevant professionals.

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Requires improvement

Staff and the manager have positive relationships with other professionals who offer additional support to young people. A social worker said, ‘They work well in partnerships with us.’ Police involvement within the home is well supported by the manager and the staff. A police officer said, ‘Information is always readily available and I always feel welcomed.’ This ensures that young people learn to trust adults who are involved in their life and accept help when needed.

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Requires improvement

The deputy manager is currently acting as the manager. She has significant experience of working with children in residential care and is supported by a service manager.

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Requires improvement

The manager has a clear sense of both the strengths and weakness of this home but has not, as yet, produced development and improvement plans. The monitoring systems available to managers are not being fully utilised throughout the home. The result is that the manager has full knowledge of what happens within the home and can discuss all aspects of practice. However, this does not transfer to evidence of management oversight, and many different records were not signed off. Risk management systems of the utilities of the home were also out of date. These were addressed immediately on the day of the inspection, but are a further example of the need for the manager to step away from practice to ensure that monitoring needs are addressed.

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Requires improvement

The young people’s case files are excellent. It is evident that the manager has given direction and clear expectations to the staff, who have responded positively to this. The files are thorough, accurate and up to date. They create a very interactive record of what is happening in the young people’s lives. However, there is no evidence that these are either overseen on a regular basis by the manager or fed into the development of either individuals or the home.

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Requires improvement

Staff are robustly recruited and records of recruitment are complete. Training for staff does take place, verified by staff, but there is no workforce development plan in place to give a full picture of training needs.

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Requires improvement

Staff speak highly of the manager and feel well supported on a day-to-day basis. More than one member of staff commented that they ’Love it here.’ Supervision of staff remains an issue for the manager. Where supervision takes place it is well recorded and offers opportunities for reflection by staff. The issue continues to be one of regularity of the supervision of staff. The manager hopes that the recent introduction of a deputy will allow significant improvement in this area in the coming months.

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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’. 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.

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What the inspection judgements mean

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.

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What the inspection judgements mean

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.

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What the inspection judgements mean

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 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.

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Information about this inspection

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.

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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 ‘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

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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