Children's home run by North East Lincolnshire Council

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:

 Exceptional care empowers children and young people to make outstanding progress in different aspects of their lives. They benefit enormously from the stable, nurturing environment of the home.  Children and young people are valued as individuals. Their self- confidence increases and they achieve well because staff have high aspirations for them.  Care planning and practice are excellent and take account of the diverse needs of children and young people.  The dedication of the staff team puts children and young people’s well- being, safety and progress first and foremost.  Safeguarding practice is very strong and empowers children and young people to significantly reduce risk-taking behaviour.  Children and young people have positive relationships with staff, enjoy living in the home and feel safe.  The manager is highly motivated to support children and young people to achieve their potential. His high-quality leadership makes this a reality.

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Information about this children’s home

The local authority home is registered to provide care and accommodation for one child or young person who may have emotional and behavioural difficulties, drug or alcohol problems, mental health needs or a learning disability.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

30 March 2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

20 March 2015 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Outstanding

The individual needs of children and young people are met to a very high standard. This impacts extremely positively on their current experiences and progress as well as effectively supporting their life chances, providing them with opportunities for success in later life. One young person completely turned his life around, gaining employment, behaving as a responsible father to his new-born child and supporting his partner and her family. One of his relatives commented, ‘This home has been his saviour.’ The home is comfortably furnished and provides children and young people with a safe, secure and homely environment. The young person resident for the last two inspections very recently moved out, and a younger child moved in almost immediately after he left. Staff ensure that the decor, furnishings, personal belongings and photographs in the home all reflect the individuality of whoever is living in the home. Staff were very efficient in altering decor from a young man’s

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Outstanding

choice to that of a much younger child. This commitment to individuality adds to children’s and young people’s feelings of belonging and being wanted, which are especially important given their historical trauma and rejection. The staff are nurturing and committed, and have high aspirations for children and young people to succeed. Children’s and young people’s needs are fully taken account of, with very well documented individualised care plans and practice. Excellent use is made of the ‘Signs of Safety’ model to highlight risks and provide care that empowers children and young people to achieve very well. This includes, for example, improving school attendance, sitting exams and finding a job when previous risky behaviour included high levels of substance misuse, crime and frequent missing-from-home episodes. Care plans have a strong focus on health promotion and staff encourage regular exercise and healthy eating as well as

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Outstanding

substance misuse. Family relationships and friendships are thoroughly supported. Relatives and friends receive a warm welcome when visiting the home. Plans to promote relationships have included sleepovers, enabling particular friends and family members to stay at the home. This shows the extra lengths the manager and staff will take to ensure that they provide important support to children and young people. This is crucial to promoting children’s and young people’s identities and their significant relationships. It reduces the potential for isolation in a solo placement, and is another way in which staff demonstrate to children and young people that they have their best interests at heart. The manager and staff are proactive in helping children and young people develop social skills and in promoting individual leisure pursuits. They plan and organise new activities, such as swimming and dance lessons, so that children and young

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Outstanding

people enjoy life and are happy. Friends and relatives take part in activities alongside children and young people, and they go out for meals together. This helps strengthen and widen friendship circles as children and young people participate more in the local community, giving them a better feeling of inclusion. Children and young people have a really good say about their care and the running of the home. They attend their reviews, contribute to their care plans and comment on their care records. Staff spend a lot of time talking to children and young people and listening to their views. Staff show children and young people that they are invested in their welfare and value their individualities. This contributes to children and young people developing much higher levels of confidence and self-esteem and growing significantly in maturity. Relatives and professionals agreed that one young person’s success was due to the way in which

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Outstanding

staff listened and treated him appropriately as a young adult. Children and young people benefit from becoming more independent according to their ages and abilities. In addition to learning basic life skills, their support networks become stronger and they start to fulfil adult responsibilities. The manager ensures that robust leaving-care arrangements are in place and that staff provide outreach support to help with the transition of leaving the home.

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Outstanding

Children and young people like living in this home and feel safe. A small team of dedicated staff knows their individual vulnerabilities well and is very effective in protecting them from harm. Admissions are robustly planned, which ensures that any potential risks are swiftly identified with strategies in place to protect children’s and young people’s vulnerabilities. These measures are kept under constant review and adapted as children and young people make progress. Overall, risk management is comprehensively thorough. Excellent practice ensures that children and young people are empowered to take risks in a measured way that promotes their development and independence. The patient, sensitive and persistent approach of staff helps children and young people make safer choices, for example overcoming a past lifestyle, characterised by risks of child sexual exploitation, poor relationship choices, substance misuse, offending

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Outstanding

behaviour and high levels of missing. This has been replaced by positive engagement with staff, learning from their advice and making sensible choices about future employment, prospects and supportive, fulfilling relationships with significant others. The experienced well-trained staff team fully understands the potential dangers to children and young people when they are missing from home and the risks of child sexual exploitation. They educate young people to understand and avoid these risks. Those younger children who are more vulnerable are afforded higher levels of staff supervision to keep them safe. Missing-from-home incidents are very rare. When they do happen, staff implement individualised protocols, going out and searching for children and young people and make frequent efforts to find them through contacting friends and relatives. Staff are relentless in their efforts until children and young people return safely.

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Outstanding

The manager has strong links with partner safeguarding agencies that work effectively together to protect children and young people from harm. He also uses these networks to keep up to date with information about local crime and hotspot risk areas. This is used effectively to inform individual risk management plans and decisions about admissions to the home. There is a very strong positive ethos of promoting the emotional safety and well- being of children and young people. This is supported with input from specialist services, enabling staff to give children and young people bespoke care and a nurturing environment. This allows children and young people to safely test the boundaries and build trusting relationships with staff. Staff help children and young people learn how to achieve fulfilling goals by agreeing individual incentives and making reward charts together. The focus on positive rewards and achievements helps children and young people increase their

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Outstanding

feelings of self-worth and self-esteem. The success of this approach empowers children and young people to be well behaved. Consequently, this negates the need for staff to use any sanctions or to use any form of physical intervention.

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Outstanding

The registered manager has been in charge nearly a year. He has a wealth of experience of managing other homes and has been a registered manager since 2009. He is appropriately qualified and is very successful in managing this home, putting children’s and young people’s needs foremost. His leadership, combined with support and dedication from a competent senior and able staff, ensures that children and young people make exceptional progress. The manager ensures that the small team of staff has the right gender balance, mix of experience and skills to maintain high standards of care for different children and young people. Careful thought and planning ensures that, individually and as a team, staff provide children and young people with very positive experiences. All the staff are qualified and undertake a wide range of training. Staff feel well supported through effective supervision and good communication. This is

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Outstanding

especially important as this contributes to effective lone working arrangements. The staff team ensures that the care provided is in line with the statement of purpose in which it is stated that the home aims to give children and young people: ‘Physical and emotional care of the highest quality,’ and that, ‘…each child experiences warmth, stability, structure and boundaries constantly and consistently.’ The experiences and progress of children and young people clearly show that these aims are fully delivered. There is good partnership working between the staff team, social workers, independent reviewing officers and health and education services. There is excellent inclusion of children’s and young people’s relatives and friends. This helps children and young people enjoy and achieve well in all areas of their lives. The manager effectively monitors the quality of care in the home focusing on giving children and young people the best experiences possible. He knows the

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Outstanding

children and young people very well and uses this knowledge, his skills, experience and a well informed and experienced staff team to make a real difference to children’s lives. His high expectations are shared by the staff team that works effectively together for the benefit of children and young people. He has taken further steps to improve the quality of monitoring to better evidence how the views of children and young people, their relatives and placing authorities contribute to continuous improvement.

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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 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

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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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