Children's Home run by Step-A-Side Company Limited in Gloucestershire

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:

 The registered manager is effective in his role. This home is very well led and managed and as a result, this benefits young people. The registered manager ensures that staff keep up to date with care practices and that their work is informed by reflective discussions, training and research.  The registered manager leads a dedicated, stable and committed staff team. Changes to the staffing structure are rare. As a result of a stable and consistent staff team, young people have come to form particularly strong positive relationships with each member of staff. Consequently, young people, who have lived in the home, for in excess of four years, experience good stability and their personal development is exceptional.  Young people make excellent progress, both educationally and socially, and thoroughly enjoy living in the home. One young person shared his views saying he: ‘loves living in the home.’ A further strength of the manager and

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The children’s home provision is outstanding because:

his staff team is, in ensuring that the young people experience opportunities to integrate into the local community, access learning opportunities and enjoy social events.  Young people’s bedrooms are highly personalised with pictures, certificates of achievements and play equipment. They develop an enormous sense of achievement and pride in their accomplishments.  The staff team is attentive to the complex needs of each of the young people. They understand extremely well the differences, identities and behaviours of the young people, and are able to communicate effectively with them. Consequently, young people experience calm and nurturing responses that help to reduce their anxieties, worries and insecurities.  The manager has a strong and effective presence in the home. He has excellent monitoring and reviewing systems and is committed to securing sustained improvement in the quality of care provided. In particular, he has

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The children’s home provision is outstanding because:

been instrumental in producing and introducing a number of tools to improve staff supervision and to obtain feedback on the quality of care provided to the young people. Senior managers have now implemented this work across their other homes.  Staff report that they love working in the home. They receive regular supervision and, great training opportunities. As a result, practice is constantly developing and improving to benefit the young people.

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation:  For children’s homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. Children’s homes must comply with relevant health and safety legislations (alarms, food hygiene and so on). However, in doing so, homes should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression. In particular, this relates to the use of colours, soft furnishings and items that personalise the communal areas of the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home is one of two run by the same limited company. The home currently provides long-term and short-break care and accommodation for a maximum of five children and young people with emotional or behavioural difficulties, or learning disabilities.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

03/11/2015 Interim Declined in effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

03/02/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Outstanding

Young people benefit from highly personalised and individualised care that captures the differences and complex needs of each young person. As a result, they flourish while living in the home because staff have an excellent understanding of their individualities. Young people are happy and very settled. Young people who use the home for short-breaks have also done so for more than two years.

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Outstanding

The manager and staff team spend a significant amount of time talking with and listening to the views of young people, families, schools and the local authority. As a result, staff have developed excellent skills to interpret the needs of each young person. The staff make excellent use of a range of tools to evaluate the impact of their work with young people. In doing so, they ensure that their approaches and methods of communication capture and consider young people’s views, opinions and wishes. As a result, young people remain central to the planning and development of their home. Warm, caring and nurturing interactions between staff and young people were observed during the inspection.

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Outstanding

Young people’s health, educational, social and psychological development have progressed from their starting points to a considerable degree because of living in the home and visiting for short breaks. Young people receive support from a therapeutic team made up of qualified professionals. This means that the high level of care that the staff provide is further enhanced and the young people’s physical and emotional health needs are well met. One parent said that as a result of the care their young person receives, ‘massive changes’ were seen, ‘he’s less aggressive’ and ‘he’s learned to share’.

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Outstanding

The manager and staff understand the importance of working with families, and go the extra mile in supporting parents with their young people in their family homes. For example, a young person underwent an eye operation and staff visited the family home several times a day to assist with the post-operative care. This support was described by the social worker as ‘amazing support’ and the parent said it was ‘impressive’. As a result the family were supported to manage behaviours of the young person during this period, and contribute to the young person’s recovery and much-improved vision.

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Outstanding

All young people attend school regularly and data gathered by the manager evidences remarkable progress for all of them. Through hard work and determination by the young people, coupled with the support, high aspirations and commitment of the staff, the young people’s outcomes are very good. Education plans are tailored to support the young people and contribute to maximising their potential. For those young people who are moving towards independence, bespoke learning experiences are identified and enjoyed by the young people. These experiences allow young people with learning and behavioural difficulties to develop skills, independence and a sense of purpose, and to be included in their community. For one young person, the manager demonstrated excellent advocacy skills and was successful in challenging a further education college’s admission protocols, resulting in the young person enrolling on a course of their choice.

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Outstanding

The young people enjoy living in a spacious and rurally located home. They have access to countryside, forests and gardens providing vast opportunities to play and explore. However, the house has undergone some damage since the previous inspection and is now requiring a refurbishment and updating of some areas. A recommendation is therefore made to ensure that these areas are made homely, and young people are involved in this process.

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Outstanding

Young people say that they feel safe and love the home. For those young people with communication difficulties, observations of staff and young people interacting, talking and playing showed that relationships between them are attentive and caring, as well as loving and fun. Consistent boundaries and structures provide the young people with a home where they feel safe and secure. In addition to this, social workers spoken with did not report any safeguarding concerns. Referrals to the local authority designated officer are rare, but when they have occurred, professionals report that procedures are followed correctly and young people’s safety remains paramount.

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Outstanding

The manager and staff team have supported and cared for the young people for in excess of four years. As a result, they understand the subtlest of communications, both verbal and non-verbal, of the young people. Staff are able to respond swiftly, positively and reassuringly to young people becoming agitated or anxious. Incidents of young people requiring physical intervention are reducing significantly and young people do not currently go missing. Sanctions are used rarely, but when they are, they are fair and proportionate. All incidents of physical intervention are effectively analysed by the manager and staff and are discussed with the young person and their family. These measures mean that young people are included in the self-management of their needs and behaviours, and in their overall individual progress. The young people benefit from a staff team that has been stable and consistent for many years. The team receives a variety of learning opportunities and mandatory

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Outstanding

training courses that ensure that they remain up to date with current safe practice and research developments. Staff understand that currently, due to the young people’s ages and abilities, they are supervised when away from the home. However, the manager and staff team commit time through group and individual learning to understanding the potential risks for the young people as they become increasingly more independent. A range of assessment and reporting tools are used by the manager and staff to risk-assess play, holidays and activities, and a robust locality risk assessment is reviewed annually. This means that young people are able to learn and develop their independent skills through taking appropriate risks.

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Outstanding

The registered manager has extensive knowledge and experience of supporting young people with additional needs, including challenging behaviours, learning difficulties and autism. He has a range of care, leadership and management qualifications. His commitment to continuing professional development is an inspiration to the staff. Consequently, the staff team is led by someone who is dedicated to providing an environment that embraces learning and reflective practice.

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Outstanding

The majority of staff members are well qualified. This helps to ensure that young people are cared for by a professional and competent staff group with the skills and knowledge required to provide consistently high quality care.

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Outstanding

Staffing levels are good. Agency staff are not used, which means that young people receive excellent care from a stable and consistent staff team with individualised care and attention. All newly appointed staff undertake an induction programme which covers all of the key elements of their work. Staff spoken with confirm that they receive ongoing training to support them in their work with young people. A comprehensive package of training, which includes both face-to- face and online learning ensures that the staff team’s practice remains current. The manager understands the importance of staff’s practice remaining up to date and will routinely provide them with research related literature.

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Outstanding

The aims and objectives of the children’s home and short-breaks service are clearly and accurately described in the statement of purpose. Young people are provided with a children’s guide that is colourful, age appropriate and comes in different formats for those with communication and literacy difficulties to understand.

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Outstanding

The manager competently monitors, reviews and collates data to produce excellent development plans and reports that are shared with partners, stakeholders and families. This attention to detail, and the manager’s dedication to the young people, is valued by a social worker reporting that she receives regular, ‘very helpful, detailed and analytical reports.’

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Outstanding

As a result of the strong leadership and management of a highly skilled staff team, young people are making excellent progress. Records indicate very few notifiable incidents. Those that are reported are dealt with in accordance with policy and procedure. All requirements and recommendations made at the previous inspection have been met.

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What the inspection judgements mean

The experiences and progress of children and young people are at the centre of the inspection. Inspectors will use their professional judgement to determine the weight and significance of their findings in this respect. The judgements included in the report are made against ‘Inspection of children’s homes: framework for inspection’.

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What the inspection judgements mean

An outstanding children’s home provides highly effective services that contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help and protection and care. Their progress exceeds expectations and is sustained over time. A good children’s home provides effective services that help, protect and care for children and young people and have their welfare safeguarded and promoted. In a children’s home that requires improvement , there are no widespread or serious failures that create or leave children being harmed or at risk of harm. The welfare of children looked after is safeguarded and promoted. Minimum requirements are in place. However, the children’s home is not yet delivering good protection, help and care for children and young people. A children’s home that is inadequate is providing services where there are widespread or serious failures that create or leave children and young people being

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What the inspection judgements mean

harmed or at risk of harm or result in children looked after not having their welfare safeguarded and promoted.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people living in the children’s home. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the difference 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 children looked after 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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