Children's Home run by Considerate Care Limited in Liverpool

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 very positive, nurturing and supportive family like home. They are able to develop positive and trusting relationships with staff. They know that staff are interested in their lives, and that they are on their side and will fight to make sure they get the best possible support and opportunities. Young people feel valued and know they are the staff’s priority. They know that their wishes and feelings are important, listened to and influence the decisions about their lives.  The high quality of personal care that young people receive is making a positive and significant difference to their lives. They are making very good progress in all areas of their development. The staff are adept at tailoring support to meet the individual needs of each young person. They are resourceful and creative in finding ways to promote young people’s welfare, improve their confidence and enrich their lives.

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The children’s home provision is good because:

 A strong safeguarding culture has helped young people to become safer. Very effective partnerships with families and other agencies are reducing risks to young people’s safety. Young people are now less likely to go missing, use alcohol and new psychoactive substances, be exploited and be involved in gangs.  The home is managed effectively in the best interests of the young people. A strong ethos of listening to young people and improving their lives in a positive and safe home environment is firmly embedded throughout everything staff do. The manager is an inspirational and supportive leader who has energised and developed the experienced and skilled staff team. She uses thorough monitoring to prioritise and secure improvements in the quality of care that impact positively on young people’s lives.  The registered provider has not, in every case, carried out all the required recruitment checks before agreeing that a member of staff can start working

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The children’s home provision is good because:

at the home. The written records do not always evidence young people’s views about their experiences and progress or outline the effectiveness of the support they receive.

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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 ensure that the home’s statement of purpose covers all the matters listed in schedule 1, including the details of the experience and qualifications, and arrangements for professional supervision, of any staff commissioned to provide education or healthcare. (Regulation 16(1)) 31/08/16

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may only employ an individual to work at the children’s home if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3); and full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in schedule 2, in particular two written references, including a reference from the person’s most recent employer, if any. (Regulation 32(2)(a) and (3)(d)) 31/07/16

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):

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Recommendations

 Ensure that recruitment of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them; in particular, keep a written record of the enquiries made when a person wishing to work at the home has a criminal conviction and the assessment of that person’s suitability. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)  Ensure that the quality of care review and children’s written records clearly focus on the impact the care is having on outcomes and improvements for the children. Also, ensure that written records of direct work include staff’s assessment of the effectiveness of the work and children’s views and reflections on their experiences and progress. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.2)

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Information about this children’s home

This privately run children’s home can accommodate up to five young people with emotional or behavioural difficulties and/or learning disabilities.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

29/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

17/03/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Good

Young people live in a safe, nurturing and supportive family home. They receive a very high quality of care from extremely positive, understanding and competent staff. Their consistent and personalised support has brought stability to young people’s lives, which has helped them to feel safe and make significant progress across all aspects of their development. Young people are increasingly settled, happier, safer, achieving in education, healthier, building confidence in their talents and abilities, and less likely to go missing or use alcohol or harmful substances.

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Good

The manager and staff have the right skills and personal qualities to form meaningful relationships with young people. They have a sensitive and thoughtful understanding of some of the reasons young people may find it difficult to trust adults. They use knowledge of attachment theory to create a consistently warm and reliable home environment. This is enabling young people to feel emotionally secure and to build appropriate and sustainable relationships. Staff treat young people with honesty and respect, praise them, listen to their wishes, feelings and worries and take them seriously. Young people are involved in every decision about their lives and the running of the home. This is done as a natural part of young people’s daily lives. They can talk to staff at any time and staff are interested in their ideas and opinions. Young people make decisions about the food they eat, the clothes they wear, how they spend their spare time, how their home is

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Good

decorated and the support they will need in the future. The staff are very good at helping young people to think about the implications of their decisions and what is best for them. They supported a young person to write her own profile about her needs, the support she required and the things she wanted out of a foster placement. Staff ensured that the young person played a central role in the planning of her future. She worked with staff, social workers and the new foster carers to carefully plan her move in a way that best met her needs.

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Good

Young people know that staff care about them and will always fight for what is in their best interests. Staff tirelessly ensure that the young people get the best possible support and opportunities, as every good parent would. A young person said that a member of staff ‘is patient. He listens to me and understands me. He is a good listener and helps me when I’m upset. He takes time to read my book and recognises my achievements.’

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Good

The staff are committed to helping young people, regardless of the challenges the young people may face or the complexity of their needs. Their patience and perseverance has helped young people to feel more able to accept help and guidance. They tailor their approach to the individual needs of young people and change things if plans are not working. Examples include making a young person’s targets around her personal care more realistic and achievable; sharing information with young people in ways that they can easily understand, such as using a visual incentive plan; and giving young people the right amount of information and time to make sense of it, and checking that they understand.

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Good

The staff also work very effectively with young people’s parents and families to promote their well-being. They have overcome a parent’s mistrust of residential care to forge a strong relationship where the parent plays an appropriate and active role in her daughter’s life. They have worked together successfully to reduce risks of harm to her in the community. This includes staff and her mum giving her a consistent message of what is in her best interests, including supporting her to have dental treatment, which she had previously refused. Her mum is extremely positive about the quality of support that the staff are providing and the difference this is making to her daughter’s life. She said, ‘I am really, really, really happy’ with the home.

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Good

Staff help young people to understand what makes a healthy relationship and support them to make friends with other young people. They also help young people to understand that some friendships may not be in their best interests and may place them in dangerous situations, including risks of exploitation, alcohol and substance use and involvement with gangs. Their work is having a positive influence on young people’s ability to recognise damaging friendships and increasingly reduce these risks.

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Good

The manager and staff provide structure, encouragement and opportunities for young people to take part in education. Their positive attitude towards education and effective support has helped to improve young people’s attendance, progress and attainment. They have strong working relationships with young people’s schools, the virtual head and the education support service. They work together to support young people’s education and tackle barriers to their participation and learning. The manager has successfully used the appeals procedure to challenge and change a school’s decision to end a young person’s placement. She recognised that the young person had struggled in the school; however, the young person still wanted to go there, and the manager believed it was the best place to provide her with educational opportunities that meet her needs and abilities. The young person, manager, school and virtual head have devised together a suitable plan to

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Good

support her, which included the school making changes to better suit the young person’s specific educational needs. They have worked collaboratively to improve opportunities for the young person. Another young person continues to do very well in school and make good progress, while having to cope with difficult family circumstances. She has received a number of awards from the headteacher for her efforts and progress.

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Good

The manager and staff provide young people who are currently out of school with daily routines and support to prepare them to return to school. This includes completing suitable academic work, baking and watching educational programmes and films, such as Romeo and Juliet. Young people are well motivated and take part in these activities.

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Good

The manager and staff support and encourage young people to enjoy new things through informal learning. They promote independent study, writing and reading for pleasure, and opportunities to develop their talents. The provider has commissioned artists to come to work with young people each week. Young people are benefiting from the art as a therapeutic tool, as well as developing their creative skills and interests. A young person told the artist that she is determined to get a much higher grade in GSCE art. The home’s statement of purpose, however, does not include details of the experience and qualifications of the artists commissioned to work in the home with young people, or the arrangements for their professional supervision.

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Good

Young people get the right support and guidance to help them develop their life skills, including shopping, cooking and managing money. A member of staff supported a young person to renovate her new bedroom from scratch. The young person designed how she wanted the room, the furniture, colour scheme, soft furnishings and art work. Then she costed and measured up before carrying out the work with staff. She got small tables from a charity shop, sanded them down and painted them to fit in with the décor. She made her initials out of wood and painted and decorated them with sequins matching the border on her walls. It is a lovely room and she is very proud of what she has achieved. It has helped to give her a sense of ownership, develop her self-esteem and express her creativity and individuality.

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Good

Young people live in a healthy environment where staff actively promote their physical health and emotional well-being. They enjoy very healthy and varied diets and get plenty of physical exercise. Staff have encouraged young people’s enjoyment of exercise through fun activities, where everyone joins in, including keep-fit classes in the home and taking part in local Parkrun events. The staff provide young people with good advice about sexual health and relationships, drugs, alcohol, smoking, diet and exercise, which is helping them to understand the importance of healthy lifestyles. Young people, as a result, have changed their behaviour by eating healthier meals and no longer using alcohol or new psychoactive substances. Young people have access to community and specialist health services, including counselling and drug and alcohol services. Staff have an excellent understanding of children’s specific health needs and manage their health with sensitivity and

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Good

confidence. They closely monitor children to make sure they are healthy, supporting them to attend routine health checks and treatment. They also ensure that the young people always get suitable medical advice and treatment when they are feeling unwell or they are concerned about their health. The arrangements for storing and managing young people’s medication are safe. Staff ensure that young people receive the treatment they require in line with their prescription and doctors’ advice. They encourage and support young people to take more responsibility for managing their own medication safely.

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Good

Young people live in a bright and comfortable family home. The design, location and decoration of the home meet their individual needs and promote their safety. The house is maintained to a high standard and young people have plenty of personal space. They have personalised their bedrooms and influence the decoration of the whole house.

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Good

Young people are safe and protected because staff give their safety and well-being the highest priority. Staff have created a strong safeguarding culture where the young people know that staff are concerned about their welfare and will go above and beyond what is expected to keep them safe. This has included staff flagging a police car down for help when they were concerned that young people were at immediate risk in the community. Young people have good relationships with staff. They live in a safe, open environment where they trust the staff and feel able to talk to them about any worries or concerns they may have. Staff have excellent communication skills and will stop what they are doing to listen to young people, as they see this as their priority.

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Good

Young people feel safe and secure living in this environment. A young person said about a member of staff, ‘When other residents have been aggressive, he has made me feel safe.’

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Good

All the staff have completed mandatory child protection training. They know what to do if they should have a concern about young people’s welfare and take appropriate action to ensure that they are safeguarded. A looked after children’s nurse said, ‘Staff from the home work together with professionals to address safeguarding issues.’ Staff are quick to identify potential child sexual exploitation concerns. They share this information with social workers and the police, and work together to understand the risks and put into practice suitable protective plans.

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Good

Staff make good use of direct work sessions with young people to address safeguarding concerns. They also ensure that young people have access to support from external specialist agencies, including alcohol and substance use services. When young people have declined the support of these services, the staff have made sure that the young people understand the serious risks to their health. Young people have taken on board this advice and are no longer using new psychoactive substances.

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Good

Staff have actively developed their own knowledge and understanding of the use of new psychoactive substances, for example nitrous oxide, to enable them to raise young people’s own awareness of the dangers to their health. They have used team meetings and supervision to share information about the recent changes in the law relating to new psychoactive substances. This has ensured that they use effective, consistent approaches to manage the risks and support the young people. The recent implementation of young people having a main key worker and a co-keyworker has enabled the effective sharing of information and support for the young people. Furthermore, handover meetings provide excellent opportunities for staff to effectively share all the up-to-date and relevant information about risks to young people and the arrangements for protecting them.

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Good

Since the last inspection, there has been an increase in the times when young people have gone missing from care. The manager and staff work effectively with social workers, the police and families when young people are missing. They take effective action to establish the whereabouts of young people by trying to contact them on their mobile phones, going out to look for them in areas they are known to frequent and by contacting their friends and family. They share information with the police, other professionals and family members to help to locate the young person as soon as possible. Staff have been proactive when they have had concerns that a number of young people were planning to go missing together. They quickly located the young people and, with the assistance of a parent of one of the young people, were able to divert them from going missing and got them to return home.

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Good

Staff consistently follow the home’s clear and appropriate missing from care protocol. As part of this, they ensure a direct work session takes place with young people as soon as possible within 24 hours of them returning home. These sessions consider with young people the reasons for them going missing, find out their account of what happened and their views and wishes, and identify any support they may benefit from and how future incidents can be avoided. Young people are no longer going missing. They are now really good at letting staff know where they are when they go out and are coming in on time.

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Good

Young people are always offered a return interview with a person independent of the home to talk about the reasons why they went missing and identify any potential risks. However, they have all declined the interviews, which limits the opportunities to fully understand what had happened and the best ways to reduce the risks of them going missing in the future.

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Good

The management team give careful consideration to safeguarding issues when making decisions about young people’s admission to the home and the potential impact on the young people already living there. However, recently the admission of two young people within a few days of each other was not successful. Important information about their needs, and potential risks, only started to emerge following them moving into the home. Safeguarding concerns in relation to their use of alcohol, level of aggression and involvement with criminal gangs impacted on the safety of other young people. The manager established early on that they were not able to effectively safeguard these young people and, in consultation with the placing authority, made the decision to end their placements. The manager has reviewed the admissions procedures to improve decision-making and practice. Another young person has since moved in, but only after a detailed impact risk

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Good

assessment was completed. This assessment clearly sets out his assessed needs and any safeguarding concerns. It shows that the manager and staff are able to meet his needs, and understand and are able to manage any potential risks to his safety and that of the other young people.

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Good

The quality of young people’s written risk assessments is improving. Staff are using a new format, which is much more specific about risks for individual young people. It includes space for young people’s views about the risks they face and how staff can best help them to manage these risks. Staff are using the risk assessments as dynamic working documents that are regularly reviewed and take into account events and changes in young people’s needs and circumstances. Consequently, staff have a clear understanding of risks to each young person, and the support required to manage and reduce the risks.

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leaders and managers

The manager has been in charge of the home since November 2015 and was registered with Ofsted in April 2016. She is a very experienced and suitably qualified manager. She is a confident, supportive and inspirational leader with high aspirations to change and improve young people’s lives. She leads by example, with a very child-focused approach aimed at providing vulnerable young people with more opportunities and a high standard of care and giving them a voice in a positive and safe home environment. These values are firmly embedded throughout the ethos and culture of the home. The manager and staff ensure that young people are treated with respect, and their wishes and feelings are listened to and always taken into account. Staff’s unconditional warmth and consistent approach is helping young people to develop positive social relationships, build their self-esteem and become resilient.

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leaders and managers

The manager, alongside the deputy manager, has been influential in building staff’s confidence and practice, and streamlining the administrative and recording systems, for example to avoid unnecessary recording of the same information in different places. She has also introduced clear and helpful tools to measure and review young people’s progress. These detailed written records provide an accurate understanding of young people’s progress in meeting the objectives set out in their plans and for identifying priorities for future work. For example, identifying areas of unmet need around emotional well-being for a young person has resulted in staff accessing counselling for her. The efficient and effective management of the home is enhancing the quality of young people’s day-to-day experiences and personal development.

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leaders and managers

The manager and deputy manager use regular one-to-one staff supervision and team meetings to develop staff’s knowledge and skills. This helps staff to critically reflect on their practice and devise consistent strategies that have a positive impact on young people’s lives. The manager and deputy manager provide staff with excellent advice and guidance about how to build relationships with young people who are reluctant to accept their support. In particular, they get staff to think about their own behaviour when they are trying to engage with young people and about whether there is anything they need to change in their approach. They are finding that an upbeat, chatty, humorous and positive approach is highly effective. The managers are also supportive of staff’s ideas and suggestions for the running of the home and working with young people. They have enabled staff to develop projects around heathy living and decorating a bedroom, which have built young

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leaders and managers

people’s self-esteem and skills, and encouraged them to use their creative talents and take pride in their achievements. Staff are extremely positive about the changes that the manager has introduced. They feel supported, valued and included in the development of the quality of care and the running of the home. The staffing arrangements ensure that there are always enough permanent staff available to meet the assessed needs of the young people and fulfil the home’s objectives and functions. Young people are cared for by an established, experienced, resilient and skilled staff team. The staff are knowledgeable and clearly understand their responsibilities and work cohesively to promote young people’s welfare. They have relevant qualifications and continue to build their knowledge and expertise through appropriate training that is bespoke to the needs of the young people. They keep up to date with changes in legislation and

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leaders and managers

guidance and the implementation of new areas of work, such as understanding the potential risks associated with social media and the internet, radicalisation and the dangers of new psychoactive substances.

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leaders and managers

The managers have not always received all of the required information about staff’s suitability before making the decision to employ them. This does not minimise potential risks to young people’s safety. They have not, in every case, received two written references about a member of staff’s suitability to work with young people, although they had spoken by telephone with each referee before the member of staff started work. In addition, they do not always keep a written record of the enquiries they make when a person wishing to work at the home has a criminal conviction and the assessment of that person’s suitability.

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leaders and managers

The managers and staff have strong working relationships with young people’s families, social workers, schools, health workers and the police. They work together effectively to ensure that young people receive the best possible support to meet their needs. The managers and staff ensure that the other people involved in young people’s lives are kept up to date, including appropriately sharing safeguarding information and working together to protect young people.

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leaders and managers

The managers and provider use effective systems to monitor and review the home’s effectiveness in meeting young people’s needs and promoting their safety. As a result, they have a detailed and realistic understanding of the home’s strengths and actively work towards improving the quality of care they provide for young people. An independent person visits the home every month and provides an impartial and thorough assessment of the arrangements for safeguarding and promoting young people’s welfare. The independent person evaluates the quality of staff’s direct work with young people to meet their assessed needs, and seeks the views of the young people, parents and social workers to help her reach her assessment. The manager values her views and puts her recommendations to improve the quality of care into practice. This has included making risk assessment more focused on each young person’s needs and circumstances to better inform

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leaders and managers

the support they need to reduce the risks they may face. In addition, the manager has arranged for staff to have training to understand education data about young people’s progress, and to develop strategies to tackle the barriers to learning and young people’s participation in education.

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leaders and managers

The manager has completed a thorough and detailed review of the quality of care. It accurately measures young people’s progress and experiences, and informs the home’s development plan. The manager has secured improvements in the quality of the accommodation, and introduced new ways to help young people understand about healthy lifestyles and make physical exercise fun. She is also seeking young people’s views about the quality of support they receive from individual staff members and taking this information into account in appraisals of the member of staff’s performance. This is helping young people to feel valued and know that their views of their experiences are important. In addition, the young people’s comments help staff to see what difference they are making to young people’s lives.

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leaders and managers

The manager also uses complaints from young people as an opportunity to improve the support they receive. She takes complaints seriously and investigates each one thoroughly and reaches reasonable conclusions based on the evidence. In response to complaints, she has removed locks to the lounge door, arranged further medication training for staff, and improved the quality of support for young people by making sure that staff are always available to talk to them throughout the night when they are worried or upset.

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leaders and managers

The review of the quality of care and the written records are available in the home; however, they do not clearly show the impact of living in the home is having on their lives and development. The records do not always provide a detailed account of the work staff are doing or staff’s evaluation of its effectiveness. They do not include young people’s views and reflections on how they feel things are going for them, what is going well, what needs to change, what support they find helpful, and their views on their care plans. This information would assist in the understanding of young people’s lives and inform the plans for their futures.

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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, 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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