Children's Home run by Care and Management Services Ltd in Birmingham

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 enjoy being at the home and develop well while they are there, with decreasing challenging behaviours and improvements in their well-being.  Staff consistently encourage education and all young people have full-time school placements.  Young people regularly attend health appointments, enhancing their physical and emotional well-being.  Independence skills are developed, and young people gain knowledge about life after leaving the home.  Effective safeguarding procedures help to support the protection of young people. Levels of restraint and sanctions are low and have decreased since the last inspection.  Staff are well supported through training and supervision. New staff and those requiring additional support are met with regularly to increase their skills.  The management team has a high awareness of the different needs of the young people, and it works well with placing authorities to ensure that

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The children’s home provision is good because:

young people achieve while at the home.  Minor improvements are required relating to recording issues, including missing incidents, key-work and risk-assessment records. These do not affect the outcomes for young people.

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Recommendations

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

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Recommendations

 Ensure that children are consulted regularly on their views about the home’s care, to inform and support continued improvement in the quality of care provided. Due consideration should be given to the child’s cognitive ability in the development and implementation of any consultation processes. Children should be able to see the results of their views being listened to and acted upon. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.11)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that staff continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. Where there are safeguarding concerns for a child, their placement plan, agreed between the home and their placing authority, must include details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risks on a day-to-day basis. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that records are kept 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. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.31)

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Information about this children’s home

The home is part of a small private organisation. It offers care for up to three young people primarily with emotional and behavioural difficulties. It is set within a residential environment.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 08/02/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 24/08/2015 Full Good 03/02/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness 15/07/2014 Full Adequate

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Good

Young people enjoy life at the home and have all progressed in different aspects of their lives since the last inspection. Relationships between them and staff are strong, with staff having a high awareness of their different needs and how best to respond to them. One young person stated that they get on well with staff, ‘They keep on at you but you know it’s just because they are looking after you.’

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Good

Choices of activities are led by young people, with some choosing to be more independent and others enjoying being with staff. All have enjoyed going away over the summer, one with an external organisation, which is a significant move forwards for them. Staff ensure that activities develop young people’s self-esteem and promote a healthy lifestyle whenever possible.

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Good

Young people keep in contact with their families, and for some this has increased over the time that they have been at the home due to staff supporting the relationships. This increases the level of support that they may have when they leave. Staff work well with families and share pertinent information about the young person, ensuring that they feel involved with the care provided.

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Good

Young people’s health needs are responded to well. They attend regular check-ups and some meet with professionals who support their mental health. As young people have become more settled, some health concerns have decreased, improving their overall well-being. Links are in place with drug and alcohol advisory services, and these have helped to increase young people’s awareness of the dangers of such substances.

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Good

All young people have full-time school placements and, through consistent encouragement, they attend on a regular basis, improving their educational ability. When concerns arise at school, staff are diligent in attempting a swift return or look at alternative ways of keeping the young people involved with educational activities.

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Good

Young people enjoy a pleasant and well-maintained environment. They individualise their own rooms, with staff encouraging them to look after their possessions and furniture. Since the last inspection, the level of damage in one young person’s room has decreased dramatically as they have become increasingly involved with the staff team. Young people are continually consulted about their lives, their plans for the future and the way that the home runs. Monthly meetings are not always successful due to young people wanting to be involved with other things. Staff respond to this with regular key working sessions and less formal discussions. These different forums for discussion ensure that young people develop a responsibility for the home and their own planning. Key working records vary in their quality and do not consistently refer to plans or action points that have been made in previous meetings.

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Good

Arrangements that support young people to develop their independence skills are good. For example, young people are involved in learning about areas such as cooking and resuscitation training.

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Good

Good arrangements support the safety of the young people. Staff are regularly updated on child protection procedures and have a good awareness of the different needs of the young people and how to respond to these. Some risk assessments are not always kept up to date within young people’s files. However, staff do have access to other relevant information to help them keep young people safe.

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Good

Although no significant safeguarding concerns have been raised at the home, staff make sure that social workers are kept up to date with allegations or information relating to historic concerns. This sharing of information supports effective planning for future placements.

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Good

Incidents of young people going missing are very rare, with only one during a year. This event highlighted that staff work well to safeguard young people, contact all necessary professionals and family in a timely way, and challenge others to make sure that all is being done to protect the young person. It also showed some confusion in the way that staff recorded such events within different logs. A new format was developed during the inspection to rectify this situation and to support evaluation of the home’s response.

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Good

Staff are aware of the vulnerabilities that young people can face in the community. This includes being aware of risks, such as child sexual exploitation.

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Good

Staff consistently promote positive behaviours. The number of restraints and sanctions has decreased since the last inspection as young people increasingly discuss issues with staff rather than displaying negative behaviours. Behaviour support plans help staff to be aware of previously displayed behaviours and possible strategies to decrease these. No young people raised concerns of being bullied.

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Good

Staff recruitment procedures are robust and ensure that staff employed are safe to work with young people.

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Good

The registered manager is a qualified social worker and is currently completing the level 5 diploma in leadership and management for residential childcare. She has been registered for two years but she has a strong history of previous home management. She has a very high awareness of both the development of the young people and the running of the home.

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Good

Monitoring systems are effective and sufficiently detailed. Monthly independent visits include discussions with young people, families and professionals, allowing them to gain a good insight into the way the home works. The only recommendation at the last inspection related to monthly reports being sent to Ofsted on a regular basis. This has improved and Ofsted now receives them following each visit. Six-monthly monitoring shows the strong awareness that the management team has of the young people’s progress.

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Good

Staff consistently challenge poor practice from others. For example, young people all have school placements because of effective communication with different educational professionals.

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Good

Relationships between staff and professionals working with the young people are consistently positive. Social workers report that the staff keep them up to date and they feel that the young people receive an ‘excellent’ service.

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Good

The home’s statement of purpose give a clear indication of the way that the home works and how it is able to respond to young people’s needs. All young people at the home are appropriately placed, in line with the expectations of the statement.

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Good

Young people are aware of how to raise complaints if they are unhappy, and complaints information is shared with social workers if they wish to raise issues. The one complaint received has been responded to swiftly, regarding the cleanliness of the bathroom, showing how the staff communicate effectively with young people.

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Good

Staff receive regular supervision meetings, with increased support for those either new to the role or requiring additional direction. This helps to further improve staff’s abilities. Appraisals also support staff development as well as recognising their achievements over the previous year.

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Good

Mandatory training courses ensure that staff are regularly updated with current issues.

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Good

Regular staff meetings include discussions relating to house issues and how staff are meeting the needs of the young people. These meetings show a strong commitment to the further improvement of the service provided.

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Good

The staff team is aware of the need to inform a range of professionals if significant incidents occur at the home. No such incidents have required Ofsted to be informed.

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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 that 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 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 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, 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,

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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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