Amber House

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 receive good quality care. Staff are emotionally warm and nurturing. Staff get good support to help them fulfil their role in improving young people’s experiences and progress.  Staff work confidently alongside others to safeguard young people. Staff give young people clear boundaries and expectations and apply these consistently. As a result, risks to young people are significantly reducing.  There is effective leadership and management. The manager is a strong advocate for young people and continually strives for improvement. He is effective at holding others to account to ensure young people get the support and services they are entitled to.

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Statutory Requirements

This section sets out the actions which must be taken so that the registered person 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 must comply with the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (5)) 30 September

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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

 To meet the aspirations embodied in the Quality Standards, children’s homes need to connect with and be part of the wider support system for each child in their care. (‘Guide to the children’s home’s regulations including the quality standards, page 11, paragraph 2.3)

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Recommendations

Specifically, continue to develop and improve neighbourhood relationships by working in close partnership with the local community, the local authority and the police.

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Recommendations

 Staff should be familiar with the home's policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Recommendations

Specifically, define care planning objectives and set clear timescales to achieve these in order to better monitor young people's progress.

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Recommendations

 The registered person's review should focus on the quality of the care provided by the home, the experiences of children living there and the impact the care is having on outcomes and improvements for the children. ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 64 paragraph 15.2). 

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Information about this children's home

This children’s home is run by a private company. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four children with emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

23 February 2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

26 February 2015 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Good

Young people who have been at the home for several years make good progress. This is evident in the improvements made in their educational achievements, emotional resilience, and independence skills. The range of cultural needs of young people are recognised in a way that does not mark difference, but values their diversity. This strengthens young people’s sense of self-esteem. Young people who are more recent arrivals to the home are helped to settle in quickly. They maintain their education and get immediate support to address the troubling aspects of their lives. One young person who is new to the home said she had been made to feel welcome and helped to understand how the home worked; ‘Everything has been explained to me and I know who to talk to if I need help.’ Staff are very effective in helping young people begin to accept care from adults, to invest in themselves and learn to better control their emotional responses to

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Good

situations. For example, one young person now responds in a more mature way to frustration and disappointment. Another no longer feels the need to self-harm. One parent noted, ‘I couldn’t ask for a better group of staff to care for my daughter – this is the first time I’ve seen her laugh or smile for a long time.’ The majority of young people have good attendance at school and are achieving their educational objectives. The educational journey for others is not always straightforward. In these situations the manager is pro-active in securing the right kind of provision to help young people to re-engage in full time education. Staff are skilled at helping young people and their families to have good quality contact. An independent reviewing officer (IRO) described staff as, ‘Really supportive of in developing the contact between X and her mother which had broken down previously.’ This good quality support recently helped another young

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Good

person to move back to her family home. Young people learn practical skills for independence, taking into account their age and level of understanding. This successfully equips them to be able to manage on their own and deal with the complexities of adult life. Judgement grade

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Good

Social workers, families and young people themselves see the home as providing a place of safety from child sexual exploitation and other dangers. Effective safeguarding practice has helped to significantly reduce the number of times that young people go missing from the home. A social worker said of one young person, ‘She said she feels safe here. That is a massive thing for her.’ When such incidents occur, effective action is taken to make sure that young people are quickly found and returned home. A recommendation to improve practice and procedure in relation to missing from home incidents has been met. As a result the quality of recording is improved and young people are better supported. A social worker noted, ‘There are comprehensive risk assessments in place which staff regularly monitor alongside myself.’ Staff understand the difficulties that young people have experienced in their past, and how this affects their well-being. Staff act on guidance from the in-house

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Good

psychologist and other professionals to support young people improve their behaviour. A social worker commented, ‘Staff have placed robust boundaries around X which she responds well to. The staff team all have the same approach to dealing with her which has made her feel safe and secure.’ Rewards schemes help young people to develop acceptable behaviour and regulation of their emotions. The emphasis is on praise, rather than sanction. This works well, minimising the need for physical restraint. There have been several occasions when a police response has been necessary to deal with incidents and disturbances in and around the home. These have involved young people from the home and young people, known to the local authority, from the community. This has had an impact on young people within the home and created difficulties for the home and the community. The provider is engaging with the local police, council and members of the

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Good

community to resolve these issues Although the situation is calming down, work still needs to continue with neighbours, the local community and the local authority to minimise this situation arising again. Judgement grade

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Good

The registered manager has a level 5 management award and has managed this home since 2014. He leads a well-established and well-qualified team who, one social worker explained, ‘Always put the interests of the child first.’ An IRO said, ‘They don’t let things drift. They are pro-active and keep pushing for the child and, in the absence of the social worker, have requested information from me.’ The manager ensures that the identified needs of young people are met and that planning is compliant with the expectation of placing authorities. This could be further improved by giving more definition to young people’s individual objectives, with clear timescales for their completion. This would assist monitoring and help capture the significant gains that staff have helped young people achieve. Young people’s views are influential in the running of the home and the decisions made about them. These views, and those of their families and others are not

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Good

evaluated in the manager’s six-monthly assessment of the home’s performance. There are a number of effective mechanisms in place to support staff in their work, such as supervision, appraisal and training. The manager and staff are reflective about their work. They know what has gone well and what could have been done better. They learn from this process of reflection but the manager does not include these reflections in his six-monthly evaluation of the home’s performance. This is an opportunity lost to demonstrate good practice and how it affects the quality of care provided to young people. The independent visitor’s report gives a detailed and helpful appraisal of the home is operating. This helps to raise standards, improve practice and ensure compliance with the regulations. The manager and staff understand that other professionals have an important contribution to make to young people’s safety, progress and success. Partnership

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Good

working is very effective with key agencies such as the police, education and health. A social worker said, ‘Communication is excellent. I receive weekly reports and phone calls and emails with urgent information.’

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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 looked after children 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 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 Text phone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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