Children's Home run by Aspire Child Care Ltd in Rochdale

Good

The children's home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

p.2

The children's home provision is good because:

 Staff are effective at building positive and nurturing relationships with young people. This enables and supports young people to make good progress from their individual starting points.  Young people report that they are made to feel welcome, happy and safe. They confirm that their positive and planned transitions into the home have supported them to settle in quickly.  Young people’s needs are understood well by the staff team that works hard with young people, their parents and other agencies to ensure that these needs are highlighted and addressed quickly.  Parents and professionals are complimentary about the care and support that their children and young people receive from the committed and dedicated staff. One parent said, ‘The staff at the home are great and support us all. They support us with our contact and help us with this. The manager is lovely and I can contact her whenever I need. They keep me

p.3

The children's home provision is good because:

updated about [Name] and they do loads with them.’  The manager uses the internal and external quality assurance systems adequately. This ensures that the manager highlights and addresses any areas for development quickly and effectively. These processes enable the manager and staff to continue to enhance the experiences and progress for all young people.  Areas for continued development relate to staff training, supervision, recruitment practice, obtaining delegated consent and medical consents, health and safety checks, missing-from-care risk assessments and ensuring that young people’s placement plans are completed fully as identified in the home’s missing-from-care policy and procedure.

p.3

Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that must be taken so that the registered persons meet 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 persons must comply within the given timescales.

p.4

Requirement Due date

12: The protection of children standard (1) In order to meet the protection of children standard, so that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe, (2) the registered person must ensure that (d) the premises used for the purpose of the home are maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child's health. This particularly relates to ensuring that all health and safety checks, specifically the fixed wiring periodic inspection is carried out within the prescribed time frame. 31/08/2016

p.4

Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that the home is at all times conducted in a manner which is consistent with its statement of purpose. This is with particular reference to ensuring that the supervision arrangements for new staff are maintained as identified in this document. (Regulation 16(5)) 31/08/2016

p.4

Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. The registered person may only employ an individual to work at the children’s home if the individual satisfies the requirements identified in Schedule 2. This is with particular reference to ensuring that a full employment history, together with a satisfactory explanation of any gaps in employment are addressed in writing. (Regulation 32(1)(2)(a)(3)(d)) 31/08/2016

p.4

Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendations:

p.5

Recommendations

 The registered person must ensure that each child's placement plan sets out the permission that their placing authority has delegated to the registered person. This should be signed by those with parental responsibility and/or placing local authorities and provide clarity on the home's ability to give permissions for school trips, sleepovers or the child's involvement in sporting, leisure and cultural activities. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 31, paragraph 6.2)

p.5

Recommendations

 The registered person must ensure that each child's record includes permission for staff to administer first aid and non-prescription medication from a person with parental responsibility for them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.14)

p.5

Recommendations

 The registered person must ensure that the procedures to be followed, when a child is missing from care or away from the home without permission, are systematically followed and that young people's placement plans and individual risk assessment with regards to missing from care clearly outline the risks, triggers and actions that staff will take when this situation arises. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’. Page 45, paragraph 9.28)

p.5

Recommendations

 The registered person must ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources and should understand the key role they play in the training and development of the staff in the home. This is with particular reference to ensuring that all staff receive training in regards to physical intervention, self-harm and working with children and young people with sexually harmful behaviours. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)

p.5

Recommendations

 The registered person must notify Ofsted if one of the situations specified in regulation 40(4)(a)-(d) occurs. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.10)

p.5

Information about this children's home

This children’s home is privately owned. It is registered to provide care and support for up to two children and young people. The home provides support and accommodation for children and young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

p.6

Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

p.6

Recent inspection history

02/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness

p.6

Recent inspection history

24/03/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

p.6

Good

Young people make good progress in most aspects of their lives as staff provide a good level of individual care and support to them. Staff are skilled at developing positive relationships with young people. The staff use these positive relationships, incentives and rewards well to encourage and enable young people to achieve their individual goals and aspirations that they themselves have identified. This approach has proven to be effective in assisting some young people to make good choices about their lives. particularly with regards to increasing their education attendance and improving their behaviour. Good links with education providers ensure that young people attend a suitable education provision tailored to meet their individual needs at the point of their admission. Staff are proactive and consistent in supporting young people to attend and achieve in education. Staff actively support and encourage young people to

p.7

Good

attend and liaise regularly with education staff, so they are aware of young people’s strengths and challenges as these occur. This partnership working ensures that appropriate action can be taken to address immediately any concerns about behaviour or shortfalls in learning to ensure that the right level of support can be sourced and applied. Young people’s health needs are supported well by the staff. Young people are registered with doctors, dentists and opticians on their arrival and are encouraged and supported effectively to attend their routine appointments. Good links with specialist health services, such as child and adolescent mental health services, and the looked after children’s nurse ensure that all young people’s known and emerging health needs are met promptly. Young people are encouraged to engage in positive activities of their choice in the local community. Some young people enjoy playing football and pool with the staff

p.7

Good

and enjoy trips out to the local museums. These activities, alongside healthy lifestyle choices, such as maintaining healthy diets and exercise, support and enhance young people’s physical well-being. Parents and young people confirm that the staff make every effort to sustain positive relationships between themselves and their children. Staff are proactive in facilitating and transporting young people to and from their contact visits and offer flexibility with this to ensure that they go ahead as scheduled. Furthermore, staff work well with parents, young people and placing authorities to support and facilitate increased contact plans for young people with their families. This has enabled some young people to move back home or on into their own supported tenancy successfully. Transition arrangements for young people joining the home are good. The manager gives suitable consideration to all young people’s needs and

p.7

Good

vulnerabilities and identifies well how these may impact onand affect other young people living in the home. Detailed and sufficient introduction arrangements, which include informing the staff and other young people sensitively about a young person’s arrival and facilitating introductory visits, support young people to move into the home successfully. Young people confirm that they feel safe, happy and settled in the home. The staff support young people to consider their actions and their longer-term goals through informal discussions and more structured individual key-working sessions. Young people confirm that the staff give them plenty of opportunities to identify the things that they would like to do and to take part in, and they report that they feel at ease raising any issues or concerns with the staff. This practice enables young people to remain central to their care planning while providing them with

p.8

Good

the opportunities and information for them to consider and reflect on, so that they can make more informed and suitable choices. Young people live in a comfortable semi-detached home, which is clean and appropriately decorated and furnished throughout. Young people report that their privacy and dignity are respected by staff and that they are encouraged to personalise their own bedrooms to reflect their individual tastes when they join the home.

p.8

Good

Staff are aware and understand the potential risks that young people are faced with throughout their lives as they receive adequate safeguarding training. Staff can articulate well the risks that are associated with the use of the internet, such as child sexual exploitation and bullying, as well as the risks associated with young people who go missing from the home. Staff sensitively support young people through regular informal and formal discussions so that young people can consider their behaviours, actions and consequences and staff can respond to their emotional responses in a clearer and more appropriate way. While this and well thought-out strategies have supported some young people to refrain from leaving the home without permission, other young people have continued with these activities. When young people do go missing from the home, the staff respond adequately. They make suitable efforts to contact the young people and their

p.8

Good

families and to inform the social worker and police. Young people are supported sufficiently by the staff to consider and modify their behaviours, which may be deemed to be unacceptable and challenging. When necessary sanctions are used, however, they are used sparingly and are appropriate to support young people in modifying their unacceptable behaviour. Young people are offered the opportunity to discuss and consider their behaviours, following any incident, so that they can identify alternative strategies for the future. In addition, suitable advice, guidance and support from other agencies, such as the police, are sought appropriately to aid young people to increase their knowledge and understanding of the possible consequences of their behaviours both now and in their future. This was confirmed by one police officer who said, ‘This home is one of my better homes. They only contact us when necessary as

p.9

Good

they always try to address any issues with their young people as best they can. They will get us in to support them with addressing young people’s behaviours appropriately if they need to.’ They went on to say, ‘The staff are switched on. They communicate with us well. The manager contacts us if she has any issues or wants advice, and she always contacts us when a new young person joins the home, which is good for us if we need to respond to any issues.’ The manager ensures that there are suitable processes in place for the staff to manage well unsafe situations with young people. The staff use the on-call systems in place sufficiently to support them when unsafe situations with young people arise in the home. The police are requested as a last resort when young people are posing a risk to themselves or others, and placing social workers are informed of all significant incidents. The manager ensures that young people are

p.9

Good

not unduly criminalised for their behaviours and that all the correct information is shared with the placing local authorities and parents. However, the manager does not notify Ofsted when a significant event resulting in the police being called to the address has taken place. Thus, the regulator cannot be assured that the correct statutory agencies have been notified, so that they can discharge their safeguarding duties promptly. Young people’s welfare is compromised in the home as safe recruitment practice is not systematically undertaken by the manager. For example, the manager has not evidenced that she has considered the gaps in employment history for one member of staff. Judgement grade

p.9

Requires improvement

The home is managed by a suitably qualified and experienced manager who has been registered with Ofsted since October 2009. The manager brings a wealth of experience to take on both her roles as the registered manager and the responsible individual for this and another small home owned by this organisation. A suitably experienced and qualified deputy manager supports the manager with her management tasks. The manager and deputy manager work together well to ensure that the staff team is sufficiently supported. The manager and staff adequately deliver the aims and objectives identified in the home’s statement of purpose, which has recently been updated. This document provides young people, their families and placing local authorities with a good understanding of the services that are provided in the home and those services that are available to support young people if they are unhappy about any services

p.10

Requires improvement

that they receive. Positive and effective working relationships with partner agencies have contributed to the progress made by young people. One education provider said, ‘The staff did a terrific job at building up positive relationships with [Name] and they really supported him to get involved with us. This helped him engage well with us. We worked well together as we both shared our ways of working with [Name]. This provided consistency for him and he benefited from this joined-up working.’ The manager deals with complaints against the home promptly and adequately. When people in the local community have raised areas of concerns, the manager has investigated these complaints promptly and ensured that a suitable solution is identified quickly. Thorough investigations into the complaints and carefully considered strategies, which include working closely with other agencies, ensure that the likelihood of further complaints is reduced.

p.10

Requires improvement

The manager has taken appropriate steps to address the one requirement and one of the two recommendations raised at the previous inspection. Consequently, staff now have their fitness to perform their roles appraised annually, and the manager can evidence how she has effectively challenged the placing authorities when they do not comply with their statutory requirements. The further recommendation with regards to ensuring that that there is a clear missing-from-home policy and procedure in place has yet to be suitably addressed. There are no specific individual risk assessments or risk management plans in place to inform and direct staff about how to respond should a young person go missing from the home. Thus, staff are not provided with clear and structured guidance as to how they will manage and respond to these incidents consistently. Furthermore, this information is not available in young people’s placement plans as identified and stated in the

p.10

Requires improvement

home’s own missing-from-care policy and procedure. A number of new staff have joined the home. They bring with them a wealth of relevant experience and knowledge, which complement the small core staff team. The majority of the care staff have attained the required qualifications, and sufficient plans are in place to ensure that the others achieve this within the required time frame. That said, general training for staff is insufficient, as the manager has failed to ensure that all the staff receive regular refresher training in the management of physical interventions. Furthermore, the manager has not provided training opportunities for staff to meet the specific needs of the young people whom they are providing care and support to. For example, there have been no training opportunities for staff to guide them in their management of young people who may self-harm or who may exhibit sexually harmful behaviours.

p.10

Requires improvement

The staff are supported adequately by their manager to deliver consistent care and support to young people. Regular handovers and team meetings ensure that staff are kept up to date with young people’s changing and emerging needs and the plans that are in place to address these. While some staff are supervised regularly to support them with their ongoing professional development and to keep them up to date with any changes with regards to the young people and the development of the home, records viewed demonstrate that new members of staff are not afforded the additional level of supervision that is identified in the home’s statement of purpose. A range of health and safety checks are routinely carried out by the manager and staff to ensure that young people and staff continue to live in a physically safe environment. However, the manager has failed to ensure that a fixed wire periodic inspection has been carried out and there is no certificate available to record when

p.11

Requires improvement

this was last completed. Young people’s records and case files provide a detailed picture of their needs, progression and future goals. While these files are reviewed and updated regularly, they do not contain signed medical consent forms, nor do they contain signed delegated authority consent forms. Consequently, young people's opportunities are compromised, as the manager has not ensured that she has the relevant delegated authority for young people to enable them to engage in a wide range of activities. Furthermore, the manager has failed to secure consent for young people to access both prescribed and non-prescribed medical treatment.

p.11

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’.

p.12

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

p.12

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.

p.12

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 whom 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

p.13

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 .

p.13

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,

p.14

Information about this inspection

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.14

Information about this inspection

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.14

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

p.14