Children's home SC016732

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 exceptional progress because of their short stays.  The number of staff on duty is always enough to meet the needs of young people and to support them in their diverse activities, visits and important appointments.  A competent staff team fully understand the needs of young people and deliver high-quality sensitive care.  Staff celebrate young people’s transitions, reflecting on their achievements and key milestones from their short stays.  Staff are meticulous in ensuring young people and their families are inclusive of key decisions. This includes making sure two-way communication is adaptable to meet diverse needs.  Young people are protected from harm by the diligent care and supervision provided by staff.  The manager ensures that partnership working is always focus on the young person’s and their family’s best interest.  The manager uses research practice and all available resources to help her

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

to succeed in shaping the service, in which young people always come first.  The manager is a very visible leader who is accessible, responsive when required and highly regarded by teachers, social workers and families.  The manager understands the importance of self-evaluation in taking account of the experiences of young people and families. However, external monitoring does not add an extra layer of professional challenge.

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation:

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Recommendations

 Ensure that any individual appointed to carry out visits to the home as an independent person must make a rigorous and impartial assessment of the home's arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children in the home's care (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.5).

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Information about this children's home

This private charitable children's home is registered to provide care and accommodation on a short-break basis for up to 12 children and young people, irrespective of gender, who have physical and/or learning disabilities. Short-break stays are usually arranged on a planned basis.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

2 March 2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

25 March 2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Outstanding

The quality of individualised care provided to young people during their short stays is exceptional. The staff work hard to make sure young people experience care that is sensitive to their individual needs. Staff are alert to young people’s emotional, physical and social needs and pace their admissions and length of stays according to individual needs. There is a warm and caring relationship between the staff and young people. Staff show affection to young people as they arrive from school. This initial welcome quickly puts young people at ease. Staff treat families and carers in a fair and inclusive manner. This means ensuring there is effective two-way communication with families and carers. This effective partnership generates substantial benefits in the way young people are looked after during their short breaks. Detailed information from schools in the form of written summaries also contribute to the staff team’s understanding of a young

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Outstanding

person’s needs. This shared knowledge informs practice and determines how shifts should be planned. Staff help young people to utilise all the leisure opportunities available in the home and the garden areas. Newly installed play equipment provides even more variety of choice. For example, a wheelchair accessible swing is a popular recent addition. The staff ensure that the accommodation and facilities provides a bright, safe, pleasant and stimulating environment that is accessible to all young people. The sensory room contains an impressive array of new technologies, including touch- sensitive screens, which allow young people to interact with their environment and to take control of it. Lighting, music, ambient sounds are controlled according to the preferences of young people, to suit their needs. In-home activities are enhanced by regular access to external community facilities, including theme parks. A weekend away at a holiday camp has become a regular feature of care

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Outstanding

that is eagerly anticipated by young people. Keen listening and observational skills are used exceptional well by staff. This helps staff to understand the wishes and feelings of young people. Barriers to communication are overcome by the persistence and patience of skilled staff who are trained in different methods of communication. This given young people diverse ways of securing meaningful engagement in which their feelings and views are at the heart of everyday practice. Young people are encouraged to state their wishes and preferences on the heart board in the foyer. This is then used as a resource by staff members, who incorporate these ideas into planning of activities, celebration events and menus The one-to-one support ratio means that young people are closely supervised at all times. Young people appreciate the nurturing care that they receive and this is reflected in their behaviours. Young people adapt to the home and become accustomed to spending time with

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Outstanding

familiar staff and other young people. The longer young people spend at the home, the more they participate in a variety of stimulating and challenging situations. They grow in confidence and look forward to the ways in which they spend time with staff, both inside and outside the home. One young man who has used the service for the past ten years, did not settle in the home initially. As he has matured, his relationships with staff has also developed and is now a very confident young man. He exemplifies the progress that is possible through dedicated support. As young people move on to adult services, staff and carers reflect positively on the considerable difference that the home has made to young people and their families. It is at these times of transition that the totality of their journeys of progress is most apparent. On leaving the home, each young person has a celebration party with presents and mementoes of their times at the home.

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Outstanding

The experiences on offer during short stays are novel and challenging for young people. Young people respond to the encouragement of staff and take the opportunity to try new activities. A large soft-play area, accessible by hoist if necessary, is a favourite of many young people. The air hockey table-top game provides a fun gaming experience for young people and staff alike. The quality of young people’s experiences on a day-to-day basis is organised to reflect the care that they receive in their own homes. The priority for staff is to make short stays seamless with the care that young people are familiar with. For each individual short stay, bedrooms are customised with furnishings, toys and posters that young people have chosen. These personal touches are successful in creating a home-from-home environment, where young people feel safe and comfortable. Routines from home, such as waking and bed times, are replicated

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Outstanding

during the short stay. Food choices reflect young people’s everyday preferences. All young people are supported to attend their usual education provision. This ensures that educational attainment and achievement is maintained. Complex health needs are met by the safe administration of medication and by the sensitive provision of personal care. Staff help young people to manage lifelong conditions with dignity and respect, by providing a continuation of the care that they receive at home. Transitions to and from the home are successful because they are managed thoroughly. The good links between families and carers mean that staff have a full understanding of the young people’s current needs and behaviours. This shared understanding results in child-centred care where needs of young people come first.

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Outstanding

Managers and staff ensure that each separate short-stay episode is informed by a reassessment of risk, in the light of up-to-date information provided by the family or carers of the young person. Activities are risk assessed in relation to the needs of each young person involved. Staff are proactive and creative in choosing varied and interesting activities with young people. They are also skilled in anticipating any related dangers or risks associated with particular activities. During young people’s time at the home, staff ensure that they not at risk of being exploited. The close supervision of young people means they stay safe. The use of tablet computers is supervised and managed in such a way that young people are protected from risks of online harm. A real strength of the care provided is the way in which staff express clear and consistent boundaries for young people. Staff members take time to explain that

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Outstanding

the need for such boundaries is to prevent harm to staff or young people. Young people reply to verbal instructions from staff by using objects of reference and symbols to communicate. Young people learn that they have a responsibility to keep themselves and others safe. The robust and detailed recruitment process means that only adults who are safe to work with young people are appointed as carers.

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Outstanding

The registered manager is appropriately qualified and has worked in the home for over 10 years. She is an assertive manager and she provides sound leadership for the service. She retains a detailed knowledge of the different needs of young people and plays an active role in handovers. Care practice is shaped by the manager’s understanding of research-based practice. She used this to improve communication in the care setting. She has recently attended a seminar on the theory of change and used this knowledge to led change in the way in which care is delivered. The manager also scrutinises practice to assess how each individual activity and intervention makes a difference to young people’s lives. The manager’s aim is not only to provide a continuation of the care, but also to offer an experience that is meaningful to young people. To this end, the manager has developed a recording system, which captures young people’s progress

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Outstanding

towards targets agreed with parents, carers and schools. These targets help to focus staff on the purpose of the care provided during a short-break stay. The manager has a clear understanding of the progress that young people are making, and the service’s contribution to their development. This is reflected well in her quality of care review reports. However, the reports by the independent person lack the extra layer of challenge, with less detailed captured. A staff development officer ably assists managers in supporting the staff team through the provision of effective supervision and productive team meetings. Both of these processes have the experience and progress of young people as their core function. All staff members possess the appropriate qualification to practise. Skilled, qualified and motivated staff members provide high-quality care for young people. The management team is proactive in its pursuit of high standards. The

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Outstanding

management of performance in the home demonstrates this. Disciplinary procedures are followed when the circumstances are appropriate. Managers do not shy away from taking decisive and effective action when it is necessary. The manager ensures that the home achieves its aims and objectives as set out in its statement of purpose, in terms of the quality of care provided. The parent of a young person, who has enjoyed short stays for the past ten years, best expresses the quality of working relationships. Reflecting on the success of the joint working between the home, family and school, the parent said, ‘We are a real team.’

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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. 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

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What the inspection judgements mean

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 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 that 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 whom 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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