Children's home run by Ingleside Children’s Home Limited in Birmingham

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:

 Young people enjoy stable placements. This gives them the opportunity to experience positive attachments with their peers and adults, who they trust.  Young people’s safety is given the highest priority. Staff have good knowledge and understanding of young people’s risks and vulnerabilities. This ensures that appropriate action is taken to keep them safe from harm.  Care planning is good and relevant and, as a result, young people’s educational, social and emotional needs are met.  Young people make continuing and positive progress in most aspects of their lives.  The manager is enthusiastic and highly child focused, and provides clear leadership to a committed and skilled staff team.

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendations:  Review the home’s location risk assessment to include the identification of any risks and opportunities presented by the home’s location in relation to child sexual exploitation, radicalisation and strategies for managing these. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.1)  The registered person should ensure that the home has a homely and nurturing environment that meets the needs of the young people. This is with particular reference to ensuring a programme for the redecoration of the home and the replacement of bathrooms. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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Information about this children's home

This private home provides accommodation and care for up to seven children and young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

11 January 2016 Interim Improved effectiveness

p.5

Good

Young people experience stable and secure placements in this home, enabling them to make good progress in all areas of their emotional, educational and social development. They form positive relationships with the staff team and there is good evidence of mutual understanding, and respectful and trusting relationships. A young person commented, ‘l know that the staff care about me and the others, even when we are being silly. They support me all the time and never judge me. They are good people.’

p.6

Good

Staff ensure that they have good historical information for each young person from placing authorities, families and relevant professionals. This gives them the knowledge and understanding of the individual needs for each young person and how best these can be met. As a result, when there are dips in young people’s behaviour or emotions, these are well managed and young people are soon back on track. Staff are tenacious in finding what works best for each young person, resulting in continual progress in health, behaviour and emotional development.

p.6

Good

Generally, young people come into the home with poor educational experiences and, for some, long absences from any mandatory schooling. Staff work hard to engage them successfully back into education. As a result, all young people are engaged in mainstream education or alternative provision. Attendance for all young people is of a good standard, with the majority achieving between 90 and 100% attendance, resulting in one young person taking GCSEs a year early and others being entered for more than five GCSEs in Year 11. An educational professional said, ‘Staff have been instrumental in getting young people engaged in education and raising the attendance level.’

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Good

Staff value young people and have high aspirations for them all. They are extremely proud of all the achievements that they make and display certificates and awards in the home. The team understands the importance of continually raising the self-esteem of each young person. They do this in numerous ways by giving young people specific roles and responsibilities in the home. For example, one young person is the fire marshal, receiving appropriate training from the fire brigade, another young person has responsibility for working with staff on the preparation of the weekly menu and another works on group activities at the home. As a result, this is very much a ‘family’ home where young people interact well with each other. Young people have access to a range of indoor and outside activities. During the inspection, young people participating in their own house quiz and discussions on current social topics. Television and electronic games take a

p.6

Good

secondary place for young people, who prefer to interact with each other and staff in a group environment. One young person commented, ‘the younger ones can be annoying, but we are a family and l like spending time with everyone.’

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Good

Young people are encouraged to do as much as possible for themselves within the bounds of age and capabilities. As they approach independence, support and encouragement to gain skills such as cooking and budgeting prepare young people well to function and live independently.

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Good

Young people are safe living in the home. They say that they feel safe and trust the staff to know how to protect them. Bullying is not an issue and does not feature in the young people’s relationships.

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Good

Staff are good role models, and have comprehensive knowledge and understanding of young people’s perception of gang culture, peer pressure and staying safe. They know and understand the signs to look for and have clear strategies and risk management plans to ensure that young people are safeguarded

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Good

Young people understand and take note of potential risks to them while out in the community, and are keeping themselves safe.

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Good

The home works well with other agencies and takes a proactive approach to ensure the involvement of other professionals in keeping young people safe. This provides young people with a good and consistent level of support that is designed to reduce any risk-taking behaviour, such as going missing, and child sexual exploitation

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Good

The good relationship between young people and the staff team plays a key role in behaviour management in the home. Staff are aware of what works well for each individual young person. Physical intervention is used as a last resort, with staff preferring to use de-escalation techniques, which work well. An effective restorative approach is a preferred method following any incidents and prevents the unnecessary criminalisation of young people.

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Good

The home is situated in a safe part of the borough and the locality risk assessment identifies potential risks in the area. However, it would benefit from knowledge of the wider community and the risks to young people from sexual exploitation and radicalisation.

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Good

The building provides a safe environment for young people. Fire, health and safety check are regularly undertaken. The home is spacious. However, bathrooms require replacing while in places the décor of the home is looking tired.

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Good

The registered manager has managed this home since 2011. She is a qualified social worker, holds the level 5 management qualification and has considerable experience in residential childcare. She leads by example and provides effective leadership to the staff team.

p.8

Good

The manager is child focused and has excellent oversight of the home. Young people, the staff team and other professionals hold her in high regard. She is enthusiastic and motivated in delivering a high-quality service for all young people, and has a commitment to driving forward improvements in the home.

p.8

Good

All staff say that they feel supported and that the work they do is recognised. They are given opportunities to attend regular training to improve their knowledge and skills by the local authority and the in-house therapist. This results in a skilled team of staff who are able to offer consistency and stability to young people.

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Good

The majority of the staff team holds a recognised or equivalent qualification for residential care. New members of staff are due to complete their qualification by the end of the year.

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Good

Care planning for young people is effective. Care plans are live documents that are relevant to the individual needs of the young people. The manager monitors the progress and development of young people against their actual individual achievements. This enables her to monitor trends and patterns. Any areas of concern identified are addressed and dealt with quickly.

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Good

Families and significant people in young people’s lives have developed good working relationships with the manager and staff team. A parent said, ‘the good work that they have done for my son has challenged me to want to do better as a parent. I am so thankful that he was placed in this home.’

p.8

Good

Managers recognise that they cannot alone meet the needs of young people. Therefore, they advocate a multidisciplinary approach to meeting their individual and often complex needs. They maintain positive relationships with a range of professionals, including child and adolescent mental health services and education, to ensure that young people have access to all the resources and support needed to do well.

p.8

Good

The home meets the aims and objectives as set out in its statement of purpose. Child-focused practice is embedded in the philosophy of the home and, as a result, young people are thriving and achieving positive outcomes in many aspects of their lives.

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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 looked after children 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 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 ‘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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