Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in East Riding of Yorkshire

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 manager and staff have developed exceptionally trusting and secure relationships with the young people, allowing all young people to make significant progress across all areas of their lives.  The unique and innovative way of encouraging young people to be part of their care planning and recording of events allows them to feel in control of their stories, particularly what happens next.  The manager and staff team have extensive knowledge and expertise in working with young people who are experiencing exploitative and abusive relationships. They work closely with a wide range of professionals who hold them in high regard.  The manager is an excellent role model to the staff. She encourages research-based practice to support care plans and support sessions. The staff team is keen to develop new and innovative ways to support young people.  The manager has very high aspirations for the young people and empowers

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The children’s home provision is outstanding because:

both her own staff team and other professionals to meet these expectations.

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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

 The registered person is responsible for deciding what each review should focus on, based on the specific circumstances of the home at that particular time and any areas of high risk to the children that the home is designed to care for, such as going missing from care or exploitation. They will also consider what information or data recorded in the home will form part of the evidence base for their analysis and conclusions. There is no expectation that the registered person will review the home against every part of the quality standards every six months, and registered persons should use their professional judgement to decide which factors to focus on. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.4)

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Recommendations

 The home’s record of serious events must include a description of the action taken and the outcome of any resulting investigation, specifically ensuring that information is recorded consistently and accurately. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.14)

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Information about this children’s home

This privately run children’s home is operated by a large national organisation. It is registered for up to five young women with emotional and behavioural difficulties. There is a flat attached to the main house for one young person who is working towards independence.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

02/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

24/02/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Outstanding

The manager and staff are dedicated and passionate about providing young people with ways to recover and grow into young adults who have a positive outlook on life. They listen and ensure that they understand their previous life experiences and how the young people think about themselves. This information is then used to provide an individually tailored plan to ensure that the young people are safer and have opportunities to try and understand their past. Careful and sensitive planning, together with being involved in the process, allows young people to feel more in control of their lives and less likely to run away or disrupt the placement.

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Outstanding

Education and learning are seen as a top priority and young people make good progress in education. They sit examinations and have a positive attitude to going on to college. For those who need recovery time from their life experiences, alternative learning opportunities are provided until they are ready to become involved in more structured learning. Young people develop a sense of self-worth and achievement as staff recognise their efforts, especially those very early steps.

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Outstanding

The manager has built an extremely strong network of professionals who support the young people. These professionals come from many different agencies and have a wealth of experience to help the young people. Specialist healthcare services are encouraged to work alongside key workers to allow for maximum impact on the young people’s complex health problems. The manager’s tenacity and passionate advocacy ensure that their healthcare needs are quickly identified and that treatment plans are put in place as soon as possible.

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Outstanding

Consultation with young people is done in a natural and consistent way. The young people are encouraged to express their feelings and supported to talk independently to advocates and mentors. Young people know how to make a complaint and said that they know how complaints are dealt with. Practice developments are linked to learning from consultation and incidents, allowing young people to feel listened to and valued.

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Outstanding

Contact with families and significant adults is very important for young people. This contact has to be safe and in some instances carefully managed. A social care professional stated that, ‘the manager regularly goes beyond what is expected’ to ensure that young people have contact with their families. The staff also support young people when there is no family contact and focus work on understanding what has happened in the past and, when appropriate, how relationships can be rebuilt. Judgement grade

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Outstanding

Young people become increasingly safe due to the proactive and consistent approach of the staff. Young people say that staff ‘listen and understand.’ Another young person said: ‘They don’t judge me, so I feel I can tell them anything.’ All young people have complex previous life experiences and have experienced trauma, which all the staff know and understand. They use strategies to assist young people to feel more in control and to build their self-esteem and self-image, which helps them break cycles of abusive behaviour.

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Outstanding

Young people still go missing but the number of episodes has reduced dramatically. There is an extremely robust missing-from-home pathway that is followed by the staff team to ensure that young people are returned as soon as possible. Young people on free time in the community have regular telephone calls to ensure that they are safe. The staff search extensively for them if they do go missing and use information from return-to-home interviews to gather information which is used to keep young people safer. There is an excellent relationship between the police and other agencies working to increase the safety of young people who go missing from care.

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Outstanding

The manager and staff team have exceptionally well-developed practice in working with young people who are in exploitative or abusive relationships. They understand the nature of these relationships and how to manage them. They work closely with the police and other enforcement agencies to ensure that those responsible for the exploitative behaviours are made accountable.

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Outstanding

An approach adopted by the manager and staff team to allow young people to freely express their feelings results in young people starting to explore the feelings connected to their previous life experiences. Recovery from these can be a very slow process as it requires the young people to feel safe and secure. Often young people feel that they have to test the boundaries to see if it is ‘safe enough.’ The sometimes difficult and challenging behaviour resulting from this is handled sensitively and turned where possible into a learning opportunity.

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Outstanding

The inquisitive nature of the ‘search until it makes sense’ approach of the manager and staff ensures that all information is used to help build thorough and individual risk assessments. These have robust plans to help manage risks. It is also clear that they are not risk averse in allowing young people the opportunity to learn to self-regulate their own behaviour. This is particularly important as most of the young people are working towards living independently.

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Outstanding

The manager employs strict safer recruitment processes, ensuring that people who work in the home are suitable. Staff performance is regularly reviewed and any poor or unsafe practice is quickly dealt with. Young people therefore live in a safe environment and see positive behaviour and role models.

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Outstanding

The home is exceptional well managed by a strong, confident manager. She is appropriately qualified and experienced. She is a passionate and exemplary advocate for the young people. She is highly regarded by her staff team and the large network of professionals with whom she works. A social care professional stated that she was ‘an excellent communicator and advocate.’

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Outstanding

She manages a motivated staff team whose members work well together and share a common goal of the young people achieving their absolute best. The staff are creative and say that they feel they can bring new ideas to the team’s approach. They are supported by regular and reflective supervision, allowing them to remain focused and feel safe.

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Outstanding

Case recording has improved tremendously since the last inspection. The recording is far more child centred and encourages young people to be part of the recording processes. The recording techniques used allow for analysis of incidents and lessons to be learned from incidents. Good practice is also highlighted and is disseminated across the organisation.

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Outstanding

The manager has a very thorough monitoring process which she uses to ensure that the home is being effective and safeguarding the young people. She does evaluate the performance of the home, but needs to improve the way that this is recorded in audit reports. The manager has a clear understanding of the notifications process, but needs to ensure that these are recorded consistently and accurately.

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Outstanding

Professionals working with the manager and staff are very complimentary about the way they work with young people, particularly the work that is done to explore healthier relationships and to improve mental health. Excellent communication and persistence are key words used by professionals to describe practice within the home. The manager has the confidence to challenge where appropriate and is keen to ensure that she maintains an up-to-date knowledge of research and developments.

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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 the ‘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 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

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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

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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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