Children's home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Stockport

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:

 The exceptional care and support provided by staff has enabled young people to make outstanding progress in their lives.  Young people are no longer engaging in risk-taking behaviours. Staff are diligent and provide intensive support and guidance, resulting in young people no longer putting themselves at significant risk of harm and injury.  Age-appropriate routines and boundaries within the home provide consistency and security for young people. Missing from care episodes have drastically reduced.  Staff have invested time working with family members to re-establish relationships. This has resulted in regular meaningful contact for young people.  Young people and staff enjoy excellent relationships. Staff invest time in establishing warm and caring relationships with the young people. As part of a small team, they are able to provide intensive emotional and practical day- to-day support.  The monitoring systems in place are thorough, and chronologies and graphs

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The children’s home provision is outstanding because:

clearly demonstrate progress and achievements made by young people.  There is a rigorous process in place to ensure that the reviews and updates of risk assessments and care planning documents occur.  The persistence and continued efforts of staff ensure that young people have access to appropriate educational resources.  The home is efficiently run by the registered manager as a result of his child-centred, organised and enabling approach.

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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

 The registered person should oversee the welfare of the children in their care through observation and engagement with: each young person, the home’s staff, family/carers where appropriate, and other professionals involved. (Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.23). This is particularly in respect of the collation of compliments and comments from the young person, staff, family and others, not just by using the consultation form currently used.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is operated by a private provider. They are registered to provide care and accommodation for one child or young person aged between eight and 18 years old with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

p.5

Recent inspection history

17 February 2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

5 March 2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Outstanding

Young people thrive as a result of the excellent relationships they have with staff. The committed staff team provides young people with exceptional emotional and practical day-to-day support. As a small team, staff invest considerable time with young people. This leads to young people developing trusted relationships with staff. Staff promote a culture of openness, which results in young people making exceptional progress in their psychological and emotional health. Young people are encouraged to make healthy food choices when selecting meals and begin to improve their own diet. They have gym membership and attend outside physical activities with staff including paintballing, go-karting and trampolining. This promotes a healthy lifestyle. Young people develop a sense of belonging at the home, which provides stability in their lives. The staff’s enthusiasm and commitment underpins young people’s progress and achievements. One staff member reports, ‘We strive for the best

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Outstanding

outcomes to ensure that our children are prepared for adulthood. We put the child at the centre of all planning.’ Staff persist in their efforts to ensure that young people have access to the right educational resources. This is in spite of some young people not accessing full-time education. They provide constant encouragement to young people, which raises self-esteem. This leads to young people having the confidence to apply for jobs and to attend education or training. Staff develop extremely good relationships with young people’s wider families. They encourage the attendance of family members and friends at the home. One parent reported that the home is, ‘cosy, clean, nice and homely.’

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Outstanding

Age-appropriate information is available to young people to support and guide them with decisions regarding lifestyle choices. Staff provide up-to-date information to young people using research or by obtaining information through training or professional advice. This includes information about the locality, drugs and alcohol, safe tattooing, places of worship, radicalisation and sex and sexuality.

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Outstanding

Young people enjoy living in a comfortable, homely property and are encouraged to engage in activities both at the home and within the community. This strengthens staff relationships further and boosts young people’s confidence in their abilities. Staff listen to young people’s views and advocate strongly for them. They know their likes and dislikes. Young people know how to complain and have access to independent visitors and advocates. This means they are more likely to share their opinions and raise any concerns. With constant staff encouragement, young people develop essential independent living skills to prepare them for leaving care. This is evident through the use of the home’s own designed workbooks. Staff take pride in the achievements of the young people, with one staff member saying, ‘Progression and independence is strongly supported.’ Staff provide ongoing outreach support and young people stay in contact with the

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Outstanding

home after they have left. This is as a result of the relationships they have built with staff.

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Outstanding

Young people experience a high level of safety, security and supervision. Staff provide clear boundaries and structure. This promotes stability and consistency of care. Through developing a strong relationship with young people, staff become highly intuitive. They recognise when young people’s behaviour changes or if they are struggling emotionally. Staff are proactive and take protective action to support young people. This helps to keep young people safe from harm and abuse. There are no current child sexual exploitation concerns.

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Outstanding

Staff regularly update and review the comprehensive risk assessments, care plans and behaviour management plans. This ensures information is up-to-date to reflect young people’s changing needs. Further guidance is available through the organisation’s psychologist providing therapeutic insight and responses to individual behaviour. Ongoing training and individualised discussions within supervision and team meetings further enable staff to reflect on their actions. These considerate strategies provide staff with a comprehensive picture of young people, their presenting difficulties and the best way to respond to these.

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Outstanding

Staff are consistent in their approach, with incentives provided to encourage positive behaviour. There are clear strategies in place, with young people involved in risk management decision-making. This leads to young people working with staff and complying with the boundaries put in place.

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Outstanding

Staff continually use relevant up-to-date research, not only to inform practice but also to educate young people in their risk-taking behaviours. Staff work with substance misuse professionals for a coordinated approach. This results in open and honest dialogue between young people and staff about any relapses.

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Outstanding

There have been no restraints of young people since the last inspection as the staff team have skills obtained through training to defuse altercations before they escalate. Staff’s in-depth knowledge of young people also provides them with insight into when a situation may escalate. There is a reduction in difficult and unsafe behaviour as a result of the young people developing a sense of belonging through their positive relationships with staff.

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Outstanding

Staff have an excellent understanding of safeguarding and whistle-blowing procedures, as well as missing from home procedures. Effective links made with the local police ensure that there is a timely and co-ordinated response to missing episodes. Monitoring forms are comprehensive and provide a full history of events. Independent return to home interviews are consistently offered to young people. As a result of the consistent approach by staff, missing from home episodes have drastically reduced.

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Outstanding

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since 2011 and currently manages two homes. He shares his time equally between both homes; and as they are close to each other he can quickly respond to emergencies. Senior staff deputise effectively in his absence.

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Outstanding

The manager has the necessary experience, qualifications and skills. He has a visible presence within the home and knows the young people well. The home is efficiently run as a result of his child-centred, organised and enabling approach. Young people’s needs are put first and progress continues to be made as a result of his strong leadership and management.

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Outstanding

The well-established and highly committed staff team is suitably experienced, skilled and knowledgeable about the young people. The eclectic mix of staff are of differing ages, different genders and with a variety of skills and knowledge. This provides a range of experiences to the young people and evokes a sense of family within the home. One young person has given family orientated roles to the staff team, such as ‘the baker’, ‘the shopper’.

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Outstanding

Staff from the neighbouring home provide emergency duty cover. This provides consistency of high quality care for young people at all times. The manager said that the staff team’s strength is that they ‘make a plan together, stick to it together, and offer consistency to young people’.

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Outstanding

Timely supervision and appraisals take place, with staff reporting that they feel supported by the management team. Supervision is used to discuss staff strengths and personal development opportunities. Training covers any identified gaps in knowledge. Staff are very keen to learn and develop their skill-set to ensure that they can provide the best possible care to young people.

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Outstanding

The management team invites discussion and ideas at team meetings and staff feel empowered to input their thoughts and ideas and report that they ‘feel listened to’. The cohesive staff team feels that they can be open and honest with each other. This leads to a unified and supportive team.

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Outstanding

The manager has streamlined recording systems, which are now very comprehensive, detailed and transparent. Young people are involved in planning and keyworkers feed back information at team meetings for staff to action.

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Outstanding

Monitoring systems clearly outline progress made by young people but can also instantly identify any stagnation or decline in progress. Staff review care planning to ensure that young people continue to achieve successful outcomes. A professional reported that they are, ‘very proactive and honest staff’.

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Outstanding

The requirement from the last inspection has been met in that staff are identified for each objective within the care planning documents and a timescale is given. This provides effectively planned care for the individual young people.

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Outstanding

The manager has a coherent understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the home. The strong staff team has a tenacious approach of not giving up on the young people. The manager said, ‘Young people are given an abundance of support. We try our hardest and show them we care.’

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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. 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, 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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