Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in North Yorkshire

Inspection date 27 June 2016

Previous inspection judgement This is the first inspection of the home.

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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 live in a warm, friendly environment that is safe and allows them to test the boundaries.  Young people benefit from the high aspirations that the staff have for and instil in them. This helps young people to improve their confidence and address areas of their lives where they previously had difficulties.  Staff strive to build trusting relationships with young people who have behaviour that is significantly challenging due to their past experiences.  The staff are caring, supportive and committed to promoting young people’s well-being. Staff take good account of young people’s historical experiences in providing tailored care plans.  Young people are empowered to have a good say in their care and in the running of the home.  Safeguarding practice is robust and young people’s safety has dramatically improved. Staff have a good understanding of the risks to young people and are proactive in protecting young people from harm.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Leadership and management of the home require improvement to be good. There have been too many changes in manager, key aspects of the service guaranteed in the statement of purpose are not provided, and there are administrative failings. Other strengths have so far prevented these shortfalls having a negative impact on the experiences and progress of young people.

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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 the ‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’. The registered person(s) must comply with the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that the home is at all times conducted in a manner which is consistent with its statement of purpose. (Regulation 16 (5))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that residential staff have extensive training on the impact of traumatic experiences and on child sexual exploitation. This should be complemented by ongoing workshops led by qualified clinical adults who build specific therapeutic skills, for example visual imagery techniques, within the residential staff team to enhance their abilities to work with the children and young people. 30 September

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that the home is at all times conducted in a manner which is consistent with its statement of purpose. (Regulation 16 (5))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure― that work is conducted within a structured programme, guided by clinical psychologists through regular consultations with the adults teams; that the clinicians will work alongside the residential care team and teaching team to complete a multi-disciplinary assessment which will involve a review of personal and family history, assessment of child sexual exploitation risk, educational assessment, psychometric assessment of cognitive abilities, emotional well-being and resilience and clinical formation of presentation; and, that this multi-disciplinary approach will lead to recommendations to a child’s or young person's local authority in relation to their therapeutic and placement needs. 30 September

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendations:  The registered person should only accept placements for children when they are satisfied that the home can respond effectively to the child's assessed needs as recorded in the child's relevant plans and where they have fully considered the impact on the existing group of children ('The guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 56, paragraph 11.4). In particular, 'impact assessments' should evaluate fully all identified risks and the 'pre-admission assessments' should evidence the ability of the home to meet the needs of children.

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Recommendations

 The registered person must challenge (under regulation 5(c)) any placing authority who asks them to accept a child in the absence of a complete and current relevant plan, as the expectation that a placement of a child without the necessary information would go ahead is inadequate in relation to their role (‘The guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 56, paragraph 11.5). In particular, obtain a copy of the placing authority's assessment of the child and use this to inform the home's pre-admission assessment prior to a child being admitted.

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Information about this children's home

A private company has registered this home to provide care and accommodation for up to four young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties. The home opened at the beginning of April 2016 and specifically caters for young people subject to child sexual exploitation. There is provision for on-site education.

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Recent inspection history

This is the first inspection of this children’s home.

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Good

Young people benefit from a committed staff team who are caring, supportive and understanding. Staff engage young people in open, honest discussion about their behaviour, expectations and boundaries. This nurturing environment helps young people build positive and trusting relationships with staff. Young people are empowered as their views are listened to and they can strongly influence their care and the running of the home.

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Good

Staff are determined to help young people achieve and enjoy their time at the home. Significant preparations were underway at the time of inspection to give a young person a splendid birthday party. Young people are encouraged to access a private gym and they enjoy shopping, leisure trips, bowling and swimming. Young people’s health improves due to their impressive reduction in smoking, alcohol and substance misuse. They take part in more physical activities and have healthier diets. They have asked for and started to access therapeutic services to promote their emotional well-being and to be able to cope with strong feelings of anger. In the meantime, staff are supporting young people to develop their own individual coping strategies. Young people’s attendance at school is vastly improved and achievements are made in class. Although there is some way to go to reach full-time education, this progress is a big start compared to levels of missed schooling in the past.

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Good

Timetables are flexible to meet young people’s needs and also cater to individual interests. Work experience in a restaurant is planned to support a passion for cooking. Young people who have left school are supported to explore their options in relation to college and further education. Family contact is important for young people and there is good support to help them maintain this. Contact arrangements are agreed with placing authorities and staff are very flexible in helping with transport. This is particularly beneficial for young people who live a long way from their families.

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Good

Young people like cooking and have good opportunities to develop independent living skills. They partake in chores around the home and are encouraged to follow an independence programme. Achievements and progress to greater degrees of independence with less staff supervision is monitored closely in-line with assessed risks to young people. Judgement grade

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Good

Young people are safe in this home and risks to their welfare have vastly reduced. Their levels of risk-taking are significantly lower compared to before they moved to this home. High levels of missing from home incidents, involvement in child sexual exploitation, alcohol and substance misuse and offending behaviour are now all almost non-existent.

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Good

Staff understand the young people’s detailed care plans and risk reduction strategies, particularly in relation to child sexual exploitation. There is appropriate balance for young people to access telephones and the internet, while remaining safe. Similarly, contact with family members is organised effectively and possible risks to young people are taken into account.

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Good

Staff follow good care practice to ensure that young people do not go missing and that they return safely when they do. There is a strong, proactive emphasis on engaging young people positively in the home to prevent missing from home incidents in the first place. Since the home opened, there has only been one occasion when a young person has been missing. In this instance, there was effective communication with partner agencies to ensure that the young person returned safely. There are good links with the local police and the local authority, including attendance at monthly risk management meetings for vulnerable young people.

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Good

Young people engage in regular key working sessions with staff about improving their welfare and safety. The level of engagement and relationships between young people and staff is helping develop individual strategies to reduce self-harm and cope with strong emotions.

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Good

Staff are able to reflect and understand why young people’s behaviour can be challenging. Staff are resilient, patient and persistent, they develop effective de- escalation and distraction strategies that help young people to dissipate their aggression. Staff would use physical intervention but only as a last resort to keep young people safe. So far this has not been needed.

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Requires improvement

The manager is new and this was her first full day working in the home after her induction. She has a range of relevant qualifications and previous residential childcare experience. Since the home opened, she is the third person to take on the management role after an interim manager and the departure of the original manager. These changes impact negatively on the strength and quality of leadership and compromise the ability to develop the service. There is a lack of evaluation and analysis of the admissions process. The quality of current records does not reflect a robust enough system for admitting young people to the home. The registered provider is not thoroughly demonstrating that young people’s needs will be met post-admission. Decision making about admissions does not refer to assessments of young people completed by placing authorities. Key aspects of the statement of purpose are not met in practice. The registered

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Requires improvement

provider undertakes to give staff extensive training on trauma and child sexual exploitation. This has not taken place so far but training dates have been arranged for the near future. Additional workshops for staff and clinical support for young people are missing due to vacancies in the clinical team. The registered provider has recruited new clinical staff to start in the future. The current skills and knowledge of staff and their ability to provide good quality care minimises the impact of these shortfalls on young people. There is a competent deputy manager who provided effective direction for staff through the changes in management. This ensured that young people benefited from positive care experiences and have been able to make good progress.

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Requires improvement

Staff complete an induction and a range of basic training courses. The new manager has identified where there are gaps in staff training and is starting to address this. Similarly, supervision is becoming more regular. Staff feel that there is good management support, they work well as a team and provide young people with the necessary safety, security and stability.

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Requires improvement

An independent visitor completes monthly checks on how well young people are safeguarded and whether their needs are being promoted. This process has helped to identify areas of weakness that the management team are starting to improve.

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Requires improvement

There is good partnership working with other key agencies, such as placing authorities and teaching staff. Decisions are made together and young people can see and experience a positive, consistent approach to their care where everyone is working together in their best interests.

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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 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 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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