Children's Home run by New Forest Care Limited in Hampshire

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:

 Young people make excellent progress from their starting points.

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 Pre-admission procedures are bespoke and mean staff and young people are fully prepared for life in the home.

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 The home’s practice strongly reflects the relationship-based theory detailed in the Statement of Purpose.

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 Young people moving from one home to another within the organisation have their needs and attachments prioritised.

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 The home maintains excellent working relationships within the wider professional network.

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 Communication within the home is highly effective and enables consistent care for young people.

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 Young people have access to a wide range of highly individualised therapeutic and educational resources.

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 Strong relationships, meticulous processes and robust procedures keep young people safe.

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s): Ensure that staff are sufficiently ambitious in securing young people skills and experience to create employment opportunities. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 52 paragraph 10.5)

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Recommendations

Ensure that the independent person’s reports are sent to Ofsted promptly, and that the independent person makes a rigorous and impartial assessment of the home’s arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in the home’s care. (The Guide to the Quality Standards page 65 paragraph 15.5)

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Recommendations

Ensure that all staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs. This particularly relates to staff transferring from adult care settings. (The Guide to the Quality Standards page 53 paragraph 10.11)

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Information about this children's home

A private company owns and operates this children's home. The setting accommodates a maximum of one young person of either gender between the ages of 10 and 17 years who has complex emotional, behavioural and educational difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

17/02/2015 CH - Interim improved effectiveness

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outstanding

Care given to young people is highly individualised. This begins during the admission process when both the young person and his past and previous carers are consulted, so that the care offered is matched as closely as possible to the young person’s needs. A specific multi-disciplinary team is built around the young person in line with the assessment of need, and once the assessment phase is completed care planning and delivery begins. Young people strongly benefit from this bespoke approach, and their ongoing progress is closely monitored through the regular care planning reviews. These excellent care-planning processes effectively involve both young people and the wider professional network and ensure that key people are fully aware of young people’s progress and experience.

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outstanding

Careful matching of young people and staff creates the best opportunities for positive relationships. Young people are happy with this arrangement and one commented, ‘I can tell any of the staff anything, and I like always knowing who’s coming on shift’. External colleagues comment positively on the effective and consistent strategies used in behaviour management, which helps young people develop emotional maturity. Young people are also encouraged to develop other sides of themselves through shared activities with staff, for example supporting and playing sports and competing on their X-box. Some young people enjoy developing their musical side, and learn what clothing styles they like. The staff strongly support young people’s exploration of their identity through appearance and, where necessary, positively advocate to their families about this. This accepting and highly positive environment enables young

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outstanding

people to build up their identity and grow in confidence and self-esteem.

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outstanding

Young people’s emotional health is further developed through very regular therapy sessions. These have enabled outstanding progress in very important areas of young person’s lives: for example, contact arrangements. Young people’s wider health needs are strongly supported by a complex professional network, which is efficiently held together by key staff in the home. Young people engage with education, attend very well and some now have aspirations for their future. Particular young people are able to accept that their exam results were not as good as they hoped, and with staff support are working towards re-sitting some of these. This ability to acknowledge disappointment but to keep trying, demonstrates a very positive development of personal resilience.

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outstanding

The home is adept at implementing cohesive packages of preparation for independent living and plans appropriately early for their implementation. This means that they are well placed to advocate for young people to receive supportive services, but inevitably, this is not always successful. However, external professionals positively comment on their ability to keep trying.

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outstanding

Excellent attention is paid to young people’s views, for example, the home’s approach to Christmas festivities. Staff have shown appropriate sensitivity to the distressing memories this festival can provoke. Particular young people have chosen how the home is to be decorated, and this has successfully restored a young person’s feeling of control at this time of year. Practically, the home is happy to support long distance contact arrangements both at this time of the year and ongoing, and this means fragile but vital relationships can be further secured. Judgement grade

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outstanding

Young people’s risk assessments are reviewed every six weeks along with the reviews of their care plans. Risk assessments are comprehensive, and usefully reflect the foreseeable challenges that a young person might face. They are not used to prohibit young people’s experiences, but to make them possible. For example, highly detailed risk assessments were drawn up to enable a successful reunion between estranged family members and a young person. After a number of successful meetings, the risk assessment has been amended to reflect the progress made.

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outstanding

Over a period of some months, the number of incidents relating to a particular young person has decreased, as has the severity level of these incidents. This means that staff have effectively helped the young person to become increasingly safer. This has enabled staff to look at decreasing staff ratios and increasing free time. This positive progress also relates to missing behaviour. Incidents of missing have decreased overall, and specifically there have not been any recent overnight examples. The home’s missing-person protocols are individualised, clear and followed by staff. Police from the missing persons’ unit describe the home’s practice as ‘excellent’ and describe the home taking responsibility if young people go missing and acting ‘proactively’. This approach, together with young people’s increasing internal sense of security and belonging, means young people are well safeguarded from the risks of going missing.

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outstanding

External agencies mention that a particular strength of this home is staff consistency. One professional said, ‘I never come across staff who don’t know what’s happening; everyone is well-informed’. This limits confusion for young people and helps them to feel secure. There is no use of agency staff. All the small staff team are very well informed about what makes a particular young person tick, and what strategies are effective. This, plus a banding system which rewards aspirational good behaviour, means that young people are functioning within clear boundaries. The impact of this is that extreme behaviour is rare, and on occasion when this does happen, an effective approach based on reparation rather than criminalisation is taken. This means young people can take immediate responsibility for their actions, and can learn from the benefits of behaving appropriately without statutory consequences.

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good

The manager has been in this role since August 2015 and his application to be a registered is currently being assessed by Ofsted. He has previously successfully held Registered Manager and Operational Manager posts, and is both appropriately qualified and highly experienced for this role.

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good

Young people’s highly complex needs are central both to long-term planning and to day-to-day activities. For example, staff teams around the young person are planned to match, as far as possible, young people’s individual needs and interests. From particularly disadvantaged starting points, young people usually make great progress in this nurturing environment across all measures. Particular young people recognise the progress they have made with managing their emotions saying, ‘two years ago I would have punched someone else, 18 months ago I would have punched a wall and now I usually talk to staff about what I am feeling.’ Managers have sophisticated software systems that record progress across personalised targets, and routinely use this information to adjust care practice accordingly. However, some young people may be able to make more progress in their job searches if staff further assisted them with

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good

External monitoring visits are carried out regularly and are generally thorough. However, the reports are not promptly sent to Ofsted, which limits the effectiveness of the scrutiny provided. In addition, they contain insufficient evaluation of whether young people are safeguarded and their well-being promoted.

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good

Staff regularly attend appropriate mandatory training, and have further specific training opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills in caring for young people with complex care needs. A good quality induction package is available, but it is insufficiently detailed for staff who may come from an adult care background.

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good

Both supervision and appraisal frequency and content is appropriately focused on individual staff needs. Managers will adjust supervision content to address a staff member’s weaker areas. A refurbishment programme has also recently been completed in the home. A recommendation was raised at the last inspection relating to involving young people in the development of the home. This has been appropriately met through involving young people in this refurbishment.

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good

The home’s Statement of Purpose is explicit in its commitment to an attachment-based care model. Day-to-day practice in the home strongly reflects this. For example, young people moving between the organisation’s homes take with them staff members with whom they are particularly attached. Another particular strength of the home is the quality of relationships it has with each young person’s professional network. Other agencies positively comment on this, citing how ‘helpful’ the home is and makes you feel, ‘part of the team around the child’. However, the home is still both open to challenge from other agencies and willing to challenge on young people’s behalf for example, if crucial transition planning is not forthcoming.

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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 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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