Children's home run by Kirklees Council in Kirklees

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:

 Young people receive an excellent standard of care that attends to their individual and highly complex needs. Their health improves, they experience fun and appropriately challenging activities and they develop social skills that enhance their life opportunities. The care offered is highly responsive and holistic.  This care is given by a dedicated staff group who are enthusiastic, offer warmth and affection and understand each young person’s needs well. Staff respond and balance the wide spectrum of young people’s needs, ensuring that each develops to their potential.  The manager and staff have extremely well-developed relationships with other agencies. This ensures that young people receive timely services that meet their immediate and long-term needs.  The manager is passionate in providing truly child-centred care. She provides good, clear leadership to the staff and is highly regarded by other

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The children’s home provision is outstanding because:

professionals for her knowledge, skills and experience.  Young people make significant and continuing progress through living at this home. Their achievements are individualised and specific to their strengths, vulnerabilities, health needs and overall development.

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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 within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (‘case records’) for each child which: include the information and documents listed in schedule 3 in relation to each child; and are kept up to date. (Regulation 36(1)(a)(b)) In addition, that young people’s records relating to progress are 30/09/16 maintained and specify goals and outcomes.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that, within five days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35(3)(c)) 31/08/16

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard 12. In order to meet the protection of children standard, with particular reference to the updating of risk assessments, the registered person must ensure that staff: (v) understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. 15/08/16

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2) This is with particular reference to supervisions being undertaken within the local authority’s stipulated timescales and records of such are comprehensive and reflective.  The registered person should plan staffing levels to ensure that they meet the needs of children and can respond flexibly to unexpected events or opportunities. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’ page 54, paragraph 10.1)

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Information about this children’s home

This home is run by the local authority and can provide accommodation for up to eight children with sensory impairment, learning disabilities and physical disabilities.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

8 March 2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

11 March 2015 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Outstanding

Young people maintain and continue to make excellent progress across all spectrums of their lives. This progress is relative to their strengths and vulnerabilities and is measured in small but significant steps.

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Outstanding

The patient and positive care that young people experience ensures that they make progress in their ability to manage increasingly more demanding social situations. All young people attend school and, through the high-quality care they receive, make progress in interacting with peers and responding appropriately in that environment. They learn to live together cohesively and over time begin to develop friendships. Their social awareness of other young people grows and, from previously seeking only isolated play, they now play alongside each other.

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Outstanding

For many young people whose communication is limited, staff work exceedingly hard on reflecting upon their observations of young people to evaluate the best possible means of communicating. A wide range of systems are used, such as sign language, picture and symbol exchange, and technology such as tablets. The strong staff team share their insights and there is a genuine desire to ensure that young people are understood and that they continue to develop in all aspects of their lives. This gives young people a sense of safety and creates trust.

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Outstanding

Young people’s identity is promoted through active levels of liaison with family members and the promotion of contact. Family are welcomed into the home and they form an integral part of the team that provide well-informed care to young people. One parent commented, ‘I have a great working relationship with them. He can’t tell you when he is unwell and we have to work together and it has always worked. I have been very happy as a parent and when he has to move at 18 I will be very sad.’

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Outstanding

Some young people new to the home experience outstanding progress in a short period of time. From previously being unable to tolerate a school environment, and showing signs of distress through high levels of aggression and social inhibition, they are now in school full time and enjoying former activities again. One social worker commented, ‘She is a lot more settled. Her behaviour of stripping her clothes has reduced hugely and her aggressive behaviour has really subsided. She went swimming with her personal advisor which is a really big step forward for her; this couldn’t have been done before. They have gone above and beyond.’

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Outstanding

Another social worker commented, ‘He use to scream and be quite determined, kicking and biting. Now he listens and responds a lot quicker to requests. He is very much liked at the home. They give consistent and firm boundaries that he has responded to.’

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Outstanding

Young people’s complex health needs are exceedingly well managed. There is a determined effort on behalf of young people to ensure that they receive the best possible services in a timely manner. One social worker commenting on this aspect of care said, ‘Staff are on top of monitoring his health and monitoring this really quickly. In fact the home have been much more on top of it than the health services.’ For one young person, this attention to health needs has resulted in significant progress towards weight-bearing and walking.

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Outstanding

Young people live in a comfortable, well-maintained environment that offers space and individual time alone. Bedrooms reflect young people’s tastes and interests. These over time continue to be added to and developed. Staff continuously seek to increase young people’s abilities to enjoy a more stimulating environment. Through the dedication and persistence of staff, young people learn to appreciate more soft furnishings and decoration in their bedrooms, when previously their preference was for a bare and ‘clinical’ environment.

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Outstanding

Staff are ambitious for young people. Young people are appropriately and gently challenged to increase their opportunities to enjoy a wider variety of activities. This increases their social skills and, as they move towards adulthood, their life chances also. Activities offered include shopping and theatre trips, horse-riding, swimming, youth clubs, walks in the park and camping. One social worker commented, ‘She is more amenable to new experiences and open to experiencing different things with more people.’

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Outstanding

Young people preparing to move from the home into adult services are given carefully planned and sensitively executed transitions. Staff and the manager are very involved in ensuring that young people’s needs will continue to be met in the identified provision. Staff, alongside the social worker, visit the services, spending a considerable amount of time assessing suitability for the young person.

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Outstanding

A strength and outstanding feature of the home is that the staff and the manager respond in a holistic and unflinching manner to young people’s needs. The approach taken by the staff is not to identify someone else ‘whose job it might be’, but rather to respond to the immediate needs of the young person. For example, when there is shortfall of contracted transport to school, staff automatically assume this responsibility. Young people experiencing difficulties in school are given daily support from the staff, with staff supporting and sharing their insights with the school until the problems are resolved. This high-level support ensures that young people receive continuous and consistent care. Judgement grade

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Good

Young people’s individual vulnerabilities, both socially and physically, are understood well by the staff. High staffing levels and security systems within the home ensure that young people are kept safe. There have been no missing from home incidents, and no safeguarding concerns or bullying incidents since the last full inspection. The safety of young people is a high priority for the staff.

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Good

Staff have a high level of understanding with regard to young people’s means of communicating and insight into their personalities. This ensures that any signs of distress, discomfort or illness are quickly identified and addressed. Physical restraint is rarely required, as staff employ successful de-escalation techniques in order to manage young people’s distress. On those occasions when it has been necessary, although the manager has had oversight of these incidents, there is no record that the young person was spoken to about the measure. This is an administrative error and does not impact upon the welfare of young people.

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Good

Young people are further protected by good recruitment systems that ensure that the adults working with young people do not pose a threat to their welfare. Induction of new staff is thorough and well supported by other staff and supervisors. Young people are therefore given care by staff who understand their needs.

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Good

There are regular health and safety checks of the home, and this ensures that the young people’s environment remains both safe and comfortable. In addition, there have been recent improvements to the outside play area, ensuring that any trip hazards have been minimised.

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Good

Young people are offered consistent and supportive approaches to enable them to behave in socially acceptable ways. Any risks that a young person’s behaviour may pose to other young people within the home are carefully and closely monitored. Over time these behaviours decrease and supervision is adjusted accordingly.

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Good

Although assessments are completed and identify potential risks to young people, either from their own behaviour or from others, these are not consistently updated. In addition, the templates are not individualised, leading to some areas being poorly completed due to the risk being ‘non-applicable’. The manager has identified this as an area of improvement and produced a more focused assessment format. However, this has not been applied to all young people’s assessments. The inconsistent approach could be confusing for staff less familiar with young people. Judgement grade

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Good

The registered manager is suitably qualified and has many years’ experience in providing outstanding services to young people. She was registered as manager at the home in 2012. The manager is aware of the strengths and areas of development for the home and has a suitable and achievable plan in place. The manager is extremely committed to providing the best possible care to young people. She leads an equally committed and well-skilled team of staff, who share the ambition of ensuring that young people make optimum progress and enjoy their lives.

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Good

Since the last inspection, the manager has met the requirement to improve the home environment, and plans are well under way to construct a room set apart from communal areas. This will ensure that a suitable space is available to young people that enables them to enjoy time away from others in a sensory environment.

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Good

A true strength of the staff and management team is the strong relationships they build with other professionals. These relationships cover every aspect of young people’s lives, such as specialist medical professionals, schools, child and adolescent mental health teams, occupational health and adult services. This well- established liaison, and comprehensive understanding of the service landscape, ensures that young people’s care covers all areas of their lives. In addition, the manager seeks to continuously improve care through making contact with similar services in other districts. This facilitates the sharing of ideas and brings fresh ways of offering care into the home.

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Good

The manager offers good on-hand support to all staff. Her presence within the home is felt by young people, families and professionals alike. She has an excellent understanding of each young person, their progress and how care is continuously adjusted to meet their needs. However, the supervision offered by some of the management team does not meet local authority timescales of frequency, and is poorly documented and unfocused.

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Good

The staff keep good photographic evidence of activities that can be shared with young people. This helps to reinforce success and achievements and provides topics of discussion with young people. However, some case records often duplicate each other, with staff using different systems to record direct time spent with young people. Also, staff do not have access to the educational healthcare plans for all young people as these have not been secured from the local authority. Although records relating to young people’s ‘journey’ are completed, these do not record or evaluate how these outcomes have been achieved.

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Good

These administrative shortfalls have resulted from pressures in staffing and the particular challenges that some young people have presented. In order to maintain the quality of services offered, staff and managers have concentrated their time and resources on ensuring that day-to-day care for young people is not compromised.

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Good

Staff have access to good levels of training that enhances their skills and knowledge base and underpins the informed care that young people receive. Recent training has included loss and attachment, sensory training, sign language and autism.

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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 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 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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