Children's Home run by Bryn Melyn Care Limited in Telford and Wrekin

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 are positive about the care and support they receive and feel safe and comfortable in the home.  The manager ensures that staff receive regular supervision and training to ensure that they are skilled and competent to meet the needs of the young people they care for.  Staff promote contact for young people so they sustain their close relationships with the people who are important to them.  Young people are consulted on a regular basis through formal meetings and during informal conversations.  The manager ensures that there is effective communication and working relationships between the staff, social workers, parents and other professionals to support the development of young people.  Young people learn independence skills, taking into account their ages and understanding.  The manager and staff ensure that all young people are fully supported to attend school or college.  The home is both comfortable and well equipped. Young people’s individual

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The children's home provision is good because:

interests are encouraged and supported and they are given opportunities to try new activities.  There is one shortfall. This relates to young people having their access restricted by staff practice of locking certain doors in the home.

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that must be taken so that the registered persons meet 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 persons must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

(b) children can access all appropriate areas of the children’s home’s premises. (Regulation 21(b)) 09/09/2016

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Information about this children's home

The home is run by a private organisation. The home is registered to provide care for up to two young people, irrespective of gender, aged between 10 and 17 years.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

08/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

09/03/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Good

The manager ensures that young people enjoy positive relationships with staff who are successful in engaging them in one-to-one discussions, to further their care plans and to work with them to achieve agreed aims and ambitions. Young people say that they feel valued and are listened to by staff. One young person reports, ‘If I have anything to say or I’m worried about something, I can always tell the staff.’ Staff help to ensure that young people's placement plans take account of their assessed and individual needs. Young people are involved in the development of their plans and are clear about their individual goals and incentives. Young people are aware of their wider statutory care plans and are supported by staff to attend statutory review meetings. The manager ensures that the healthcare needs of young people are met. They are encouraged and supported to attend routine appointments with dentists,

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Good

doctors and opticians. The organisation’s therapeutic team works alongside staff and young people, providing clinical oversight and offering one-to-one sessions with young people. This enables individual young people to explore their feelings and emotions in a safe and supportive environment. The manager makes sure that the arrangements for dealing with medication are safe so that young people receive medication important to their health. The manager has ensured that suitable education arrangements are now in place for all young people. These are tailored to their needs and take into account their previous education circumstances. Although attendance and engagement in education are not consistently high, small improvements represent big steps for young people who were previously resisting all efforts to engage in education. Young people are fully involved in day-to-day decisions in the home. They contribute their views through regular meetings and regular communication with

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Good

staff. This helps to ensure that young people have ownership of decisions made in the home. Young people confirm that they know how to make a complaint if they are unhappy or have any concerns about their care. Young people are encouraged to maintain contact with their families and carers in accordance with their care plans. Staff clearly understand the importance of contact for the young people and, if required, support contact arrangements. This ensures that young people remain close to individuals who are important to them and benefit from being involved in a wider support network outside of the home. Young people are well supported to develop basic life skills. They are provided with lots of opportunities to develop new skills, with good support and encouragement from staff. These include independent travel on public transport, shopping and the preparation of meals. This helps young people to develop practical skills and

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Good

enables them to complete daily tasks safely and independently. Young people engage with positive activities outside the home, where they can develop sporting talents and hobbies. This provides them with opportunities to have fun and enjoyment and to build confidence and self-esteem.

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Good

The manager ensures that young people are safe in the home. Staff fully understand policies and procedures in relation to safeguarding, and social workers confirm that staff keep young people safe, reporting, ‘The staff do a very good job at keeping him safe.’ The manager and staff have very good knowledge of individual young people's vulnerabilities. They develop detailed risk assessment and management plans for each young person, which are monitored and updated so they remain relevant and effective. Staff supervise young people in line with their risk management plans to ensure their safety in the home and the community. Positive behaviour is promoted through an incentives system that is in place for individual young people and works well. The manager has ensured that staff have received training in positive behaviour management and restraint. There has been one incident of physical restraint in the home since the last inspection. A social

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Good

worker reported, ‘The home deals with challenging behaviour well through the use of support and negotiation.’ Young people rarely go missing from this home. Staff demonstrate good knowledge of the joint police and local safeguarding procedures to follow when young people do go missing. The manager ensures that location and environmental health and safety risk assessments are completed. The assessments detail any specific risks associated with the home and its locality. Staff make sure that the home is safe, by undertaking regular health and safety checks and making sure that equipment is serviced. They also practise the home's fire evacuation procedure and test the system on a regular basis. Young people also participate in fire evacuation so that they know what to do in the event of an emergency. Young people are protected by the organisation's robust recruitment practices. Staff are vetted and assessed as suitable before any appointment is confirmed.

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Good

These procedures promote the safety of the young people by preventing unsuitable adults from working with them. This home is a detached property in its own grounds in keeping with surrounding houses. It provides a good choice of communal rooms and sizes of bedrooms to meet individual preferences. The doors to the lounge area and kitchen are locked and not accessible to young people at specific times. This means that young people’s access around the home is restricted and is not in keeping with the environment of a family home.

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Good

The home has an appropriately qualified registered manager in place. The manager has been in post since February 2015 and holds a diploma in leadership, health and social care at level 5. The staff group is highly experienced and all members hold the national vocational level 3 qualification in childcare. There are sufficient staff to meet young people’s needs and to provide the appropriate level of support and supervision that young people require. Staff receive regular supervision and annual appraisal and attend regular staff meetings. These arrangements allow staff members to reflect individually, and as a whole staff team, on young people’s needs and their own professional development. The manager ensures that staff undertake regular training, which helps to improve their skills and knowledge, keeping them up to date and in line with good practice. This helps to ensure that young people’s current and emerging needs and

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Good

behaviours are well supported and that they are effectively cared for. The manager ensures that the home's statement of purpose is a detailed document that accurately describes how the home operates and how young people are cared for. This makes it possible for parents and placing authorities to have a clear understanding of services available. The children’s guide is produced in a format of simple language and pictures with information about the home, and includes useful contact numbers such as those of independent advocates. The manager ensures that each month an independent visitor attends the home to evaluate the quality of care and to monitor safeguarding. The independent visitor consults with young people, parents and social workers, to ensure that their views are considered in service improvement. The manager frequently seeks feedback from young people on their views of the home and recently sent electronic

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Good

questionnaires out to staff, seeking their anonymous feedback on their views of the home. This demonstrates the home's commitment to improving outcomes for young people. The manager ensures that liaison with outside agencies is particularly effective. A professional reported, ‘He had not previously engaged with youth offending service, so the fact that staff and managers have applied the appropriate gravity and encouragement for him to attend and participate, in my opinion, speaks volumes.’ A social worker commented, ‘I am very pleased with the communication I receive. I get a report every week explaining how he is doing.’ This demonstrates that all those working with the young person are kept up to date and that there is a collaborative approach to meeting the young people’s needs. The manager has in place a detailed development plan, which is under review, to help drive forward further improvements to the service.

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Good

There were no requirements or recommendations raised at the last inspection.

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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

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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