Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Shropshire

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 young person receives good-quality individualised care from a consistent and child-focused staff team.  The young person is making good progress across all areas of her development.  Staff encourage and inspire the young person to have aspirations for her future.  The young person feels safe and she feels that staff listen to her.  Staff have a good understanding of safeguarding procedures. The young person’s risk-taking behaviours have decreased.  Partnership working is good. Staff use other professionals’ knowledge to guide and inform practice.  There is a strong and child-focused manager in post.  Staff feel, and are, well supported by their manager.  The manager is tenacious at ensuring that the young person receives the services she needs to make good progress.  Staff receive good-quality supervision. They use research to inform their practice.  The manager and staff are committed to the young person in their care.

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Recommendation

To improve the quality and stands of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation:

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Recommendation

 The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and make best use of information from independent and internal monitoring, with specific reference to having a current development plan, to ensure continuous improvement (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 10.24).

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Information about this children’s home

This is a privately owned children’s home registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four young people. It specialises in providing a 12-month therapeutic programme for young people at risk of, or involved in, child sexual exploitation.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

p.5

Good

Good-quality, individualised care has helped the young person to make progress. Staff are reflective in their practice and want to understand behaviours in order to be able to implement effective behaviour management strategies. Because of this, they have worked with the clinical team to complete bespoke behaviour management plans which focus on the impact of early trauma. They review behaviour management plans and the young person is involved with them. A psychologist said: ‘The team is really reflective and wants to understand the young person better. One of its strengths is its ability to reflect and act on challenges. As a team, it offers consistency and stability.’ The young person is making good progress. Staff have supported her to engage with education, and consequently her school attendance has increased to 100%. A social worker said: ‘I am so proud of my young person and how well she is doing.

p.6

Good

She has got 100% school attendance. I really value the relationships she is making with staff.’ The young person has started to make friends with peers in school. Staff encourage and support her to have ambitions for her future. For example, they discuss university and help her to research different careers. Good relationships between the young person and staff mean that staff are able to engage the young person in meaningful key working sessions. When there have been difficulties in relationships between the young person and some staff members, staff have worked as a team to offer a consistent approach. They support positive relationships in the home. There is thoughtful consideration regarding the staffing ratios and shift patterns in the home. This consistent and mindful approach has resulted in the young person starting to recognise the support and help that staff provide to her. The young person enjoys positive experiences in the home. She takes part in

p.6

Good

activities such as fishing, shopping, playing games and recently went to her school prom. Staff offer positive praise and recognise her achievements. Staff provide an individualised reward system which is child focused. A social worker said: ‘Staff are very positive, and yes they do challenge the negatives but they understand that my young person works best with positive feedback. There is a clear focus on goals.’ Staff provide a homely environment. They all make sure that they eat together both for breakfast and dinner. This time together has supported positive relationships in the home. Staff work with the young person’s family to support meaningful contact. Staff ensure that they involve the young person’s family as much as possible within the placement. They support phone contact as well as direct contact. The young person is able to identify the progress that she has made regarding contact with

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Good

her family and feels that this is positive.

p.7

Good

The young person is safe and feels safe in the home. Staffs’ understanding of risk- taking behaviours, such as missing and sexual exploitation, is good. Personalised and frequently reviewed risk management plans provide staff with guidance on how to keep the young person safe. Staff use research and other professionals’ knowledge and skills, such as the psychologists within the clinical team, to understand more about managing risk-taking behaviours. Consequently, their understanding of how to keep their young person safe is good. Young people’s risk-taking behaviours have reduced significantly. There have been no missing incidents or physical interventions. Staff have meaningful and purposeful discussions around risk-taking behaviours. A young person said: ‘I feel safe. I trust the manager and also some of the staff. I have learned that I don’t want to go back to running away and putting myself in so much danger. I think

p.7

Good

back now to what I used to do and I will never do that again.’ Staff have a good understanding around safeguarding procedures and the manager has been tenacious at ensuring that any child protection allegations are followed up. Consistent boundaries provided by a consistent staff team have increased the young person’s feelings of safety and security. Consequently, this has supported her decrease in risk-taking behaviours. A member of staff said: ‘We understand her past and what her risks are as part of this. We make sure we follow her risk management plans.’

p.7

Good

There is a strong and child-focused manager in post. He is qualified up to national vocational qualification level 3 in residential childcare and he is enrolled on the national vocational qualification level 5 in leadership and management. He is currently going through the registration process with Ofsted to become the registered manager. Out of the home’s 11 members of staff, five are qualified up to national vocational qualification level 3 in residential childcare. Plans are in place for new staff to commence their level 3 qualifications. The manager is supported by a deputy who is currently completing his level 5 national vocational qualification. The manager has worked tenaciously to address the shortfalls raised in the previous inspection and which led to the judgement of inadequate in April 2016. He has met all of the requirements from the last inspection. While previous development plans for the home have focused on the identified shortfalls, there

p.7

Good

now needs to be a focus on how the home will continue to move forward now that the previous shortfalls have been addressed. A young person said: ‘The manager has made things so much better here. It is a million times better than it was before. I think this home is good.’ The manager is aware of the strengths and areas for development within the home. He has ensured that staff are provided with ongoing training. Team meetings have focused on research around issues such as sexual exploitation. The manager has created and established a culture within the home where staff reflect on their practice. He advocates strongly for staff having some level of autonomy and responsibility for finding new ways of working. An example of this is a staff member who recently brought in a new rewards system. Supervisions are regular and of good quality. Staff feel well supported and cared for by the manager. Consequently, they invest in the home and the young person. A staff member said:

p.8

Good

‘Every time you walk through the door, you feel like the manager cares about everything to do with you: your home life and work life, how things are with the team, who we work with on shift and if everything is OK with them. His best quality is his support.’ The manager knows the young person and he has implemented new monitoring systems which map out the young person’s progress. He recognised that there were gaps previously in staff’s knowledge about how to work effectively with the young person, as they did not understand the impact of early life trauma. As a result, he worked with the clinical team and sought training for the staff to equip them with the skills they needed to meet the young person’s needs. He is focused on the needs of the young person and this filters down to his team which is equally as focused on the needs of the young person and ensuring that she makes progress. Consequently, the manager is delivering the home’s statement of

p.8

Good

purpose. Partnership working is good. The manager has established effective working relationships with a variety of professionals, such as the local police, psychologists, placing authorities and teachers. The manager escalates concerns appropriately and is tenacious at ensuring that his complaints have an outcome. The manager works collaboratively with other professionals to ensure that young people receive a team approach from the professionals around them. This ensures that the young person has consistency from the adults around her and the support and services she needs. A social worker said: ‘The manager and staff are really good at feeding back to me and they work with me. The manager often approaches me and we come to decisions together regarding my young person’s care. I am really happy with how my young person is doing.’

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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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