Children's Home run by The Caldecott Foundation Limited in Nottinghamshire

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:

 The needs of young people take priority for a staff group that is nurturing and supportive, resulting in young people making sustained progress from some difficult starting points.  The service has a good range of resources that ensure that effective therapeutic intervention takes place to support young people, including life- story work and psychological support. This complements the day-to-day care provided by the skilled residential team.  The registered manager and staff encourage and support contact between young people and their families. They work in partnership with professionals to ensure that contact is monitored, safe and in the best interests of the young person.  Young people living in this home become increasingly safe. Staff help them to reduce, and sometimes stop, risk-taking behaviours.  Young people’s rights, views and entitlements are respected. Their views matter and they are encouraged to express them in a number of ways.

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The children's home provision is good because:

When young people complain, they are listened to, and the complaint is addressed quickly and satisfactorily by the registered manager.  A qualified and committed registered manager, who is ambitious, drives the service forward. The staff team is stable, and staff benefit from good training and development opportunities and remain focused on providing a good service to young people.  There are some areas for improvement identified at this inspection. The registered manager has not ensured that, following incidents of physical intervention on young people, the staff members involved receive a debriefing. The supervision of the deputy manager has not taken place regularly. The physical presentation of the building could be improved by removing the window retainers on the ground floor and a dilapidated playhouse. Additionally there has been a delay in placing local authorities being notified of some restraints.

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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 ‘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

12: The protection of children standard In order to meet the protection of children standard, the registered person must ensure— (2)(a) that staff— (vii) are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies. 21/09/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33(4)(b)) 21/09/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (‘the authorised person’) has spoken to the user about the measure. (Regulation 35(b)(i)) 21/09/2016

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  For children's homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of children, they will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. Children's homes must comply with relevant health and safety legislation (alarms, food hygiene, etc.); however, in doing so, homes should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  Staff need to have the knowledge and skills to understand each child's education and training targets, and their next steps for learning. If a child's progress is not in line with their agreed targets or next steps, staff should seek expert advice from education professionals, such as the virtual school head, learning mentor,

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Recommendations

or teacher. Staff must challenge the child's education or training provider if the child does not receive sufficient support to progress as outlined in their relevant plans. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 27, paragraph 5.11) 

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Information about this children's home

The home provides care and accommodation for up to seven children and young people who have emotional and behavioural difficulties. The home is owned and operated by a registered charity.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

15/01/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

05/01/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Good

The effective and high quality care provided at this home is making a positive difference to the lives of young people. A stable and consistent staff team provides good, nurturing care that prioritises the needs of the young people. Young people make sustained progress from some difficult starting points in many areas of their lives. In particular, those young people who have been at risk become safer, their behaviour improves and they achieve stability in education. A parent stated: ‘What they do is amazing. They have supported us to develop our relationships and have helped us, also respected us. I cannot commend them enough.’

p.7

Good

All the young people have an educational placement, attending either mainstream schools or the integrated school on site. The registered manager and staff believe that education is fundamental to young people making progress in all aspects of their lives. Staff will go into school to support young people in the classroom environment if needed. They ensure that homework is completed, and support young people taking on additional studies during holidays and weekends. The quality and completion of personal education plans for young people are not yet robust though. For example, one young person’s personal education plan review was cancelled a number of times by agencies, leading to delay. Additionally, at times, the plans lack detail and could be more ambitious for young people.

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Good

A key priority for the registered manager and staff is young people’s health needs. The young people maintain regular contact with a variety of professionals who meet their primary healthcare needs. Annual health assessments are completed, and opticians and dental appointments take place. To their credit, the registered manager and staff do not tolerate young people smoking and, as a result, none of the current resident group smoke. The young people are provided with healthy, nutritious and varied diets, and they are encouraged to exercise and lead healthy lifestyles.

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Good

The emotional and behavioural needs of young people are of crucial importance to the managers and staff. The young people receive therapeutic services provided by the child and adolescent mental health services, or the psychologist working with the home. Life-story work is also undertaken with some young people. This means that each young person will have an individualised programme of therapeutic work tailored to meet his or her needs. The staff team benefits from, and values, weekly staff group meetings with the psychologist who works with the service. The staff have found this insightful and helpful in guiding them to provide the best possible individual care for young people. The registered manager and staff place great importance on young people’s relationships with their families and those who mean a lot to them. Contact between young people and their families is promoted and facilitated by the staff

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Good

team. Regular reviews are held of contact arrangements, and plans are adjusted in accordance with the needs of young people. For young people with high levels of contact with family, the staff coordinate plans well with the local authority and other agencies. Staff are also sensitive to the needs of young people who are not seeing their families regularly, and the emotional impact this can have on them. They provide reassurance and comfort, and help young people to come to the realisation that all the residents have differing levels of contact.

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Good

The views of young people are listened too and taken into account by the registered manager and staff. The young people meet regularly to discuss issues that are important to them, and they also have access to an independent rights agency. The registered manager, staff and young people are currently working on diversifying the format of the children’s guide to make it more interactive. This demonstrates the importance the registered manager and staff give to young people’s views.

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Good

The registered manager and staff understand the importance of cultivating young people’s interests, hobbies and activities. The young people enjoy a range of interests. For example, one young person attends a drama club, and another attends the army cadets and very proudly showed his uniform to the manager and staff during the inspection. Other young people enjoy football, bowling and the cinema. This helps to improve young people’s confidence, self-esteem and skills.

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Good

Young people’s independence skills improve through structured programmes. Improved life skills are developed. These include shopping, cooking, budgeting, household management, making good decisions and healthy life choices. The young people complete, with key workers, specifically identified and targeted areas with which they need support, to help and improve skills that are vital to their later life.

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Good

The registered manager and staff understand the importance of safeguarding young people, their good practice keeps young people safe. Risk assessments are thorough, detailed and considers the risk to the young person concerned and, potentially, others. The registered manager ensures that there is sufficient staffing deployed to provide constant supervision for young people, and that the staff have read and understood risk assessments and implement the agreed risk management plans consistently. Young people benefit from a secure and comfortable home environment. The fabric of the home is maintained to a high standard and young people decorate their rooms as they wish. Detracting slightly from the pleasant home environment are the window retainers on the ground floor, being an unnecessary restriction to the environment. Additionally, there is a dilapidated playhouse in the garden which is no longer fit for purpose.

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Good

The registered manager has completed a rigorous location risk assessment. She has captured the views of the local police and receives very regular updates from police, as they deem appropriate. This assists the registered manager to anticipate and respond to any concerns in the wider environment and community in which the young people live.

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Good

The registered manager ensures that the needs of all young people are taken into consideration when new young people come to live at the home. A detailed impact assessment takes place, setting out the needs of both the new young person and the young people already resident. This assessment also looks at staffing levels and the ability of staff to provide care effectively for all the young people. A social worker stated: ‘They took the time to ensure that the young people are matched well and have taken the needs of the young people into account.’ For those young people placed in an emergency, the registered manager takes time to collate and analyse a wide range of information regarding the young person to provide immediate and effective care.

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Good

Young people at risk of going missing from care and exploitation receive the protection, support and help that they need to become increasingly safe. Incidents of being missing from care are rare. The last incident was February 2016. Staff members develop good and trusting relationships with young people. They complete individual work with young people in response to specific risk factors. This, combined with close supervision of young people and good multi-agency plans consistently implemented by staff, reduces the chances of young people putting themselves at risk. A social worker stated: ‘There is good communication, and they work as part of a team and understand risk issues.’

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Good

Young people’s behaviour is managed well by the registered manager and staff. Young people live in an environment of high praise for achievement and genuine warmth from staff members, who provide nurturing and supportive care. Incentives and rewards are used to promote positive behaviour. The use of discussion, negotiation and compromise to arrive at solutions to problems is commonplace. This helps young people to learn to deal with issues in a good way.

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Good

The registered manager responds robustly to significant incidents. Although rare at this service, the manager and staff understand what constitutes a significant incident and what action to take. They understand the procedures to follow and the roles of professionals, for example what action to take should they be concerned about the actions of a professional. This means that young people are cared for by staff who are adept at understanding the importance of procedures and implementing them.

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Good

Relationships between young people are monitored closely and any concerns over bullying are tackled by staff. The relationships between the young people improve through individual key-worker sessions on both a planned and unplanned basis. Staff members work hard to raise the understanding of young people of their impact on others and improve their empathy. This has meant that relationships between the young people are generally good, with mutual respect and care for each other.

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Good

Staff members have, at times, had to resort to the use of physical intervention when they, or others, have been at risk from the behaviour of young people. The incidents of physical intervention have been proportionate to the circumstances and were carried out in strict accordance with accredited methods of intervention. Following the interventions, debriefings have taken place with young people, but not for staff members involved. This is a shortfall, hampering the registered manager in obtaining a full understanding of what took place. This understanding of the situation aids reflective analysis and can help to reduce the occurrence of physical intervention overall. The organisational policy sets out that the reporting of incidents of physical intervention to the placing local authority must take place within one working day. This timescale negates circumstances when incidents take place over the weekend and leads to incidents being reported several days later.

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Good

This can hinder local authorities in evaluating incidents quickly and responding immediately, should this be required.

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Good

The young people and staff benefit from a suitably qualified registered manager. She has achieved the level 5 diploma in leadership and management and has considerable experience, having been in her current post since 2013. The registered manager is committed, skilled and focused upon continuous improvement of the service for the benefit of young people. The registered manager receives a good level of support from her line manager, the wider organisational management group and her deputy manager, who is experienced and knowledgeable.

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Good

Young people receive good and consistent care from a sufficiently resourced and stable staff group. The registered manager plans all shifts and rotas to ensure the correct number of staff to young people. Vacancies in the staff group are rare and the registered manager does not have to rely upon the services of agency staff. This means that young people have individual time with staff with whom they have developed close and positive relationships.

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Good

A comprehensive training and development programme enhances the care provided by staff to young people. Most staff members have now completed the level 4 diploma in residential care. They also benefit from a range of training opportunities, including safeguarding and child sexual exploitation, drugs and alcohol awareness, diversity training and autism awareness, together with a range of mandatory training. Staff members benefit from weekly group meetings with a psychologist, who facilitates supervision and group reflection on staff’s practice with young people.

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Good

Staff have annual appraisals and most benefit from regular professional supervision. The supervision sessions have a clear structure and focus upon the needs of young people, together with the member of staff’s own performance. Not all staff have received supervision regularly though. The deputy manager has not received formal supervision for several months. This hampers the deputy manager from receiving the structured support and monitoring required in fulfilling this important role. This is a shortfall.

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Good

The registered manager has completed an accurate and detailed statement of purpose. This document, which is regularly reviewed, updated and forwarded to Ofsted, provides a true account of the service. Any prospective local authority considering placing a young person at the home can be confident about the information provided in this statement.

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Good

The registered manager understands the strengths and weaknesses of the service. She has a number of systems in place to assist her in identifying things that are working well in the home, as well as things that are working not so well. Monthly monitoring takes place through visits by an independent visitor, who produces a report for the manager. These visits are robust and scrutinise all aspects of the service. The registered manager also utilises feedback from staff and young people and any complaints received. Additionally, she completes a report every six months which focuses on what is working well, and also what needs to improve. This means that young people benefit from a service that is continually looking to improve.

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Good

The registered manager takes complaints about the service seriously and addresses them robustly. Since the last inspection, the service has received three complaints from young people. These were investigated and resolved to the satisfaction of the young people involved. As a result, young people know that their grievances are important to the registered manager and staff, who will seek to resolve their concerns.

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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’. 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 looked after children is safeguarded and promoted. Minimum requirements

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What the inspection judgements mean

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 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 ‘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 0300 123 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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