Children's home run by Keys Child Care Limited in Telford and Wrekin

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 manager and staff team provide a stable and nurturing environment which allows young people to explore and understand their emotions.  Young people are making good progress and have positive experiences because of living at this home.  Staff spend time with young people and form good relationships with them.  Clear expectations and a consistent staff approach result in a reduction in high-risk behaviours and an increase in age-appropriate activities.  Safeguarding requires improvement. Staff practice that was not in line with young person’s plan or the organisation’s procedures had resulted in a young person going missing and placement breakdown. The organisation’s and registered manager’s response was timely and robust, but did not result in a formal review of lessons learned.  The home has recently undergone some refurbishment. Work remains ongoing. This means that young people are not yet benefiting from a

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The children’s home provision is good because:

comfortable environment that enables them to relax and socialise. There is a lack of detail in records about young people who go missing from care.

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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.—(1) The protection of children standard requires that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. (2) In particular, this requires the registered person to ensure— (a) that staff— (i) assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to having risk assessments in place if a young person is not allowed access to the internet.

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Requirement Due date

(ii) have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm.

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to staff supervision of young people.

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Requirement Due date

(d) that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health.

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Requirement Due date

This is in relation to some of the home’s decor, furnishings, fixtures and fittings. 31/12/2016

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  Keep records detailing all individual incidents when children go missing from the home (regulation 36 (schedule 3(14)). This information should be shared with the placing authority and, where appropriate, with the child’s parents. Evaluation of missing incidents should be undertaken to identify any gaps in training, skills or knowledge for staff or to record and retain evidence of what worked well. This evaluation should inform the review of the quality of care (see paragraph 15.2). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.31)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the registered person learns from disruptions and placement breakdowns, and proactively implements lessons learned and sustains good practice. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)

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Information about this children’s home

The home is registered to accommodate up to two young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The service is owned by a private company.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 11/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 27/07/2015 Full Good 26/02/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness 05/09/2014 Full Adequate

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Good

Young people develop and gain confidence from living in a very stable and safe environment. High-risk behaviours are reduced and they participate in age- appropriate activities. They are able to move forward in their lives and begin to learn to make well-informed decisions. A social worker stated: ‘The staff have accepted the young person and all her behaviours. They have consistently nurtured and really cared for her. They understand all her issues and have worked hard with the young person for her to become the more settled person who she is today.’

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Good

Young people develop positive social skills and leisure interests. Their ability and experience of living alongside others and reasoning with them significantly improve. This is due to the support, guidance and positive regard that they receive from staff and other professionals. They discuss a wide range of topical and social issues. In key-worker sessions, they discuss their individual aims and objectives. They also meet as a household to discuss issues arising and to make plans together. As a result, young people develop a strong sense of self-confidence and a better, more tolerant, understanding of others. This helps them improve relationships with their family members and prepares them to move forward into adulthood.

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Good

Staff proactively promote healthy lifestyles and help young people to stay in good health. Young people are able to make informed choices about their health. They understand the health impacts of high-risk behaviours such as self-harm. They make positive health changes to their lives and continue to explore, with the support of staff, how they can progress.

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Good

Young people are progressing well in their education. For some, this is a significant improvement to their situation prior to their admission to this home. The staff team prioritises and promotes learning as important to young people’s future success. This improves their educational attendance and progress. Staff have a heightened understanding of the complexities and challenges that face some young people, whose emotional well-being affects their ability to attend education. The likelihood of them having better prospects in adulthood is enhanced by their education attendance and successes. Young people and their families are valued and listened to. The staff team has good insight into the particular needs of young people living a long way from home and promotes family relationships. Staff provide transport and supervision, where necessary. Staff are good at ensuring that visits take place and are successful.

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Good

Young people are developing confidence and a degree of independence. Staff encourage this by providing new experiences and opportunities while ensuring safety. Individual progress is appropriate to age, understanding and assessed vulnerability. Young people are actively involved in identifying the skills that they want to develop, such as caring and being responsible for a pet or pursuing a hobby such as horses. They are also involved in the life of the home. They choose activities, plan menus, and have chosen furniture and decor.

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Requires improvement

There have been two incidents of poor staff practice that was neither in line with a young person’s plan nor the organisation’s procedures. This practice potentially led to a young person going missing from the home. The young person did not return to the home, as the local authority gave notice on the placement. The organisation is taking appropriate action with regard to investigating the specific incidents relating to each staff member. The registered manager was on annual leave when the incident took place. He has reflected on aspects of each incident, but has not undertaken a formal, systematic review of the disruptions and placement breakdown. This would identify the lessons to be learned and the actions to be implemented.

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Requires improvement

Records of missing from care do not reflect the staff’s good practice or the regular dialogue that they have with professionals and known contacts during a ‘missing’ episode. Records are not all in one place, making it difficult for the registered manager to review incidents to inform future practice. When a young person goes missing from care, staff respond immediately. They follow the local multi-agency protocol for missing young people, as well as taking specific agreed action for each young person. They go looking for the young person every day. They stay in contact with the young person on the phone and travel miles to have face-to-face contact.

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Requires improvement

Staff have a clear understanding of how to manage any safeguarding allegations. They receive regular safeguarding training, which includes a range of topics, including children missing from home and raising awareness in relation to child sexual exploitation. The staff team reflects on practice and continues to develop members’ relationship skills. They role model and work with young people to resolve issues. They have also consulted with young people and developed a system that rewards positive actions and interactions. Young people are engaging well and are each working towards a different individual reward.

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Requires improvement

Staff support effectively those young people who display emotional and behavioural difficulties. For some young people, the main initial focus of their placement is immediately to reduce specific high-risk behaviours and keep them safe. To achieve this, staff work proactively with families and other safeguarding and mental health professionals to identify strategies. The impact of this work is that young people significantly reduce their historical risk-taking behaviour. For example, incidents of self-harm stop and ‘missing’ incidents are reduced. A social worker stated, ‘The young person has been given clear boundaries and a high level of support which has resulted in her making significant progress.’

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Requires improvement

Incidents of violence, damage to the property or the need for staff to intervene physically are very low. However, when incidents do occur, staff work proactively in partnership with other agencies. They ensure that young people engage with youth offending services and support them to engage with community services.

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Requires improvement

Young people know how to raise issues and how to complain. They say that they feel safe and well supported. They have access to a range of staff and individuals whom they can go to if they have any worries.

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Requires improvement

Young people are provided with safe and comfortable accommodation which is clean and tidy. Some work has been undertaken to decorate and refurbish areas within this home. It was identified at the last inspection and by the home’s independent visitor that some of the home’s decor and furnishings are a little shabby and in a worn condition. The large size of the building and garden mean that some areas do not feel cosy, due to a lack of furniture or its small scale. The registered manager has an ongoing plan of maintenance and upgrades. However, there has been a delay in completing some of this planned work due to the knock- on effect of the planned renovation of the home’s garage into a third bedroom. Currently, young people’s comfort is still not being fully promoted through the overall standards of the accommodation that is provided. Judgement grade

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Good

The home is managed by an experienced person who is currently in the process of gaining the level 5 qualification that is required for the role. He also manages another registered children’s home which is situated nearby. The manager’s time is shared between the homes, depending on the needs, demands and circumstances of each.

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Good

The registered manager has reviewed the home’s statement of purpose and it accurately reflects the aims and objectives of the service. He has also taken action to follow up the requirement made at the last inspection. This work is ongoing.

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Good

Staff are provided with good, practical support and guidance which help them to structure the daily routines and activities for young people. Although there have been some recent changes in the composition of the team, a core group of staff remain who continue to provide continuity within the home. They are supervised and supported by managers, and have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities. Staff feel well supported and meet with their supervisors regularly to discuss their work and the contribution that they are making to young people’s progress and placement aims.

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Good

Most staff are qualified. Those who are unqualified are within regulatory timescales to obtain their qualifications within two years of starting work. Staff are supported to develop their practice through training, clinician-facilitated meetings and structured team meetings. All of this enables them to reflect on their practice, discuss how well the young people are progressing and provide challenge.

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Good

The registered manager operates a quality assurance process. It takes into account the views of the independent visitor, staff, local authorities and young people. It identifies the strengths of the service and feeds into the home’s development plan.

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Good

Partnership work is well established and benefits young people’s opportunities and outcomes. The staff team actively engages with families, professionals and a range of agencies to ensure that young people are provided with the support necessary to meet their individual needs. The staff team recognises that this work strengthens and enhances the effective work that it achieves. Where necessary, the registered manager will challenge other professionals to ensure the continuing safety and progress of young people.

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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

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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