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Requires improvement

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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The children’s home provision requires improvement because:

 Young people spend significant periods away from the home.  Staff do not achieve relationships with young people that encourage school attendance.  Young people’s frequent absence from the home, mean staff do not form strong enough connections to help them improve their physical, emotional and mental health.  Staff do not explore all avenues to help young people to prepare for their transition into adulthood and independence.  Young people do not have access to an interpreter when English is not their first language.  Some young people’s bedroom walls have offensive graffiti on them that managers and staff do not promptly address.  Managers and staff are aware young people smoke in their bedrooms, but do not take sufficient action to reduce this risk taking behaviour.  Managers have not ensured the home’s fire risk assessment reflects the increased risk of fire because of young people’s smoking.

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The children’s home strengths

 Good communication between partnership agencies.

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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

6: The quality and purpose of care standard

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Requirement Due date

(1) In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard registered person must:-

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Requirement Due date

(b) ensure that staff: (ii) protect and promote each child’s welfare (iii) treat each child with dignity and respect (vi) help each child to develop resilience and skills that prepare the child. (c) ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to: (i) meet the needs of each child. 12 July 2016

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the education standard the registered person must ensure:

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Requirement Due date

(ii) support each child’s learning and development, including helping the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study

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Requirement Due date

(v) promote opportunities for each child to learn informally

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Requirement Due date

(viii) help a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non-attendance and to return to school as soon as possible.

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Requirement Due date

(b) that each child has access to appropriate equipment, facilities and resources to support the child’s learning. 12 July 2016 9: The enjoyment and achievement standard

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the enjoyment and achievement standard the registered person must ensure:

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Requirement Due date

(a) that staff help each child to: (iii) make a positive contribution to the home and the wider community. 12 July 2016

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the health and well-being standard the registered person must ensure:

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Requirement Due date

(a) that staff help each child to: (i) achieve the health and well-being outcomes that are recorded in the child’s relevant plans. 12 July 2016

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the positive relationships standard registered person must ensure:

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Requirement Due date

(iii) encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding

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Requirement Due date

(vi) help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful. 12 July 2016

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the protection of children standard the registered person must ensure:

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Requirement Due date

(b) that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm

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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. 12 July 2016 13: The leadership and management standard

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the leadership and management standard the registered person must enable, inspire and lead a culture in relation to the children’s home that: (a) helps children aspire to fulfil their potential. (2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to: (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. 12 July 2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements, after consultation with the fire and rescue authority, to take adequate precautions against the risk of fire, in specific reference to a fire risk assessment.(Regulation 25 (1)(a)) 07 June 2016

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Information about this children’s home

The home may provide care and accommodation only for up to four young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home is privately owned.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

25 March 2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Requires improvement

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for young people. The incidence of young people going missing or absent from the home remains significantly high. For example, one young person has stayed at the home for only three nights since the last inspection, whereas another returns only for pocket money. This is not the unique responsibility of the home, and the home has worked hard raising concerns with the placing authorities. However, this response has not been successful, with the result that the situation remains.

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Requires improvement

Young people are at various stages of engaging with their placement. Some young people have been at the home for a significant period and have made limited progress. Other young people are struggling to engage with boundaries and daily routines. As a result, young people go missing or remain away from their home for considerable periods. In respect of another young person, a member of staff says, ‘In the last six months I have only seen the young person probably for two weeks.’ Young people acknowledge they do not like the boundaries and therefore do not return to their home.

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Requires improvement

Young people do not engage in education or training despite any incentive plans staff put in place. When young people refuse to attend education they are often unoccupied and lacking in routine throughout the day. As a result, they do not always engage in positive and meaningful educational activities that will enhance their learning and development. This means that young people do not maximise their educational and vocational opportunities.

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Requires improvement

Staff are not always effective in securing additional help and resources to ensure young people’s identity and diversity needs are fully met. For example, when English is not a young person’s first language, they do not benefit from an interpreter or a young person’s guide in their language. This has a negative impact for young people on their progress and understanding of the aims of the home and their placement. Furthermore, this inhibits key worker sessions due to the language barrier. Consequently, young people’s safety and well-being are compromised.

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Requires improvement

Some young people smoke, drink alcohol and engage in drug use. Staff have good relationships with partner agencies. However, they are unable to motivate the young people to engage with health services and external agencies which can support their emotional and physical well-being, including substance misuse. This lack of engagement does not help or encourage young people to address their behaviours and make progress in their lives.

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Requires improvement

Young people’s views are sought in respect of the decor of the home. However, young people’s views in respect of the quality of care they receive are not fully explored. For example, key worker sessions with young people do not reflect their needs or the aims of their care plan. This is significantly impaired by the fact that young people are often away from the home.

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Requires improvement

Young people’s engagement in independence work is poor. Therefore, young people do not learn the practical and emotional skills they need for their transition into adulthood and independence.

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Requires improvement

Young people go missing or remain away from their home for substantial periods. Since the last inspection, a number of young people have been absent from the home. As a result, some young people are potentially exposed to a risk of significant harm.

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Requires improvement

The home has clear procedures in place to notify the relevant bodies in the event of a young person going missing. Staff understand the relevant policies and procedures and implement them when necessary. The home has established relationships with supporting agencies that ensure that correct procedures and protocols are followed. A professional comments, ‘The manager certainly does his best to bring professionals together to ensure that the young people in his care are safeguarded.’

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Requires improvement

In general, care plans and placement plans identify individual needs, routines, concerns, risks and the aims of the placement. Risk reduction plans detail the individual risks of young people and are regularly reviewed and updated. However, these are not effective given the high level of absences from the home. As a result, young people’s risks remain, which may have a negative impact on their safety and welfare.

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Requires improvement

There have been no complaints or allegations. Young people know how to make a complaint and raise concerns that they may have. The fire risk assessment has been updated since the last inspection but does not clearly detail the needs of the home to ensure young people’s safety fully. For example, young people smoking in their bedrooms: this compromises theirs and others safety.

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Requires improvement

A suitably experienced registered manager manages the home. He has managed residential settings for over 14 years. He has a qualification in working with children and an appropriate managerial qualification. The majority of staff are qualified. Those who are unqualified are within regulatory timescales at present to obtain their qualification.

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Requires improvement

The registered manager is aware of the majority of the home’s strengths and the areas that require developing. For example, the decor of the home is improving but areas upstairs, particularly in respect of young people’s bedrooms, require further decoration and furnishing. One young person’s bedroom wall has offensive graffiti daubed over it, and young people’s bedroom curtains do not have a pole to hang them from. In addition to this, young people smoke in their bedrooms. Staff have yet to secure a consistent approach to how to counter risks and ensure young people’s dignity is respected.

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Requires improvement

Staff receive regular formal supervision and annual appraisals. This provides them with an opportunity to reflect on their practice and to identify their training and developmental needs. Staff receive appropriate training to meet the needs of young people. The staff team has been tested recently by the need to care for young people with considerable complex behaviour who do not engage in their placement and adhere to boundaries. This challenge has resulted in an increase in verbal abuse and an assault on staff. It is a credit to staff that they continue to try to engage with the young people.

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Requires improvement

The registered manager has developed relationships with professionals from a wide range of agencies, including education, missing from care coordinator, social care and health. He offers challenge when the responses from other services are not effective and escalates to senior managers in his own organisation. However, this has not ensured that young people always get the support they need, such as an interpreter. As a result, young people are not progressing in key areas of their lives.

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Requires improvement

The registered manager is now more robust in his challenge to placing authorities, creating effective transitions for young people. The requirements from the last inspection have been met.

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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 children looked after is safeguarded and promoted. Minimum requirements are in place, but 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, work- based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It inspects services for children looked after 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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