Children's home run by Exceptional Care Limited in Knowsley

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.

p.2

The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 Young people are safe. They are safeguarded by a dedicated team that is effectively trained. Staff understand and manage young people’s vulnerabilities, including child sexual exploitation, substance misuse and going missing from care.  Young people make excellent progress in all areas of their lives. This is due to the high quality of care provided to them by the staff in the home. Staff have high aspirations for the young people they care for.  Young people’s engagement in education has significantly improved since they have moved into the home. This is due to the registered manager’s proactive approach in developing strong relationships with education professionals and ensuring that young people receive education that they will engage in and that will meet their needs.  The registered manager and staff know and understand young people completely. They are warm, nurturing and extremely caring. Young people

p.3

The children's home provision is outstanding because:

have excellent relationships with them.  Young people’s views are central to the care provided. This empowers young people to develop in a way they wish, due to having a lead role in any decisions that are made about their lives.  Young people receive excellent levels of support in transition to and from the home. The registered manager has developed an innovative outreach service to support young people and their families when they leave the home.  Excellent partnership working with a range of professionals, including local authorities, missing from home and child sexual exploitation coordinators, therapeutic services and drug and alcohol services, contributes to the positive experiences and excellent progress of young people.  The registered manager is proactive, strong and dedicated and fully supports young people and staff. He leads by example and ensures that the staff team is stable and appropriately trained. He has a clear vision for the

p.3

Information about this children's home

This is a privately run children’s home that is registered for four young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home caters for three young people in the main part of the house and one young person in the basement annex, which is designed to support young people who are preparing for independent living.

p.4

Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 23/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 08/10/2015 Full Good

p.4

Outstanding

Young people make exceptional progress across all areas of their lives. They are happy in their home and have excellent relationships with the registered manager and the staff team. They view their home as an outstanding place to live. One young person said, ‘I love it here. Are you going to make us outstanding because that is what we should be.’ Another young person said, ‘I have lived in lots of different children’s homes and this is by far the best.’ Young people who have previously disengaged with education have excellent attendance and have made significant progress with their education. This is due to the registered manager identifying their particular areas of strength and their views in relation to what form of education they will engage in. The registered manager has effectively challenged education professionals to ensure that the appropriate education provision is in place to meet young people’s educational needs. Excellent

p.5

Outstanding

routines, along with support and encouragement from staff, ensure their full attendance and continued progress. Staff promote their success. One young person said, ‘The registered manager helped to get me on my college course as I was not attending school. He knew I would do well on this course and enjoy it.’ Another young person spoke about how proud she was of her excellent GCSE results. She said, ‘Being in this home helped me to do so well.’ Young people benefit from effective and detailed individual healthcare plans. These provide clear information on their individual health needs and how they will be met. The registered manager and staff are extremely skilled and proactive at engaging young people in direct work about sensitive issues, such as child sexual exploitation, sexual health, emotional well-being and substance misuse. Furthermore, they ensure that young people get expert advice and guidance from

p.5

Outstanding

specialist services, including substance misuse services, therapeutic services, child sexual exploitation and sexual health professionals. This has increased young people’s understanding of the risks and contributed to their being safeguarded. Young people have strong, trusting relationships with the registered manager and staff. They respond positively to their open and honest approach. They know that the staff will strive to ensure that they have excellent levels of support and that outcomes are improved for them. Young people, professionals and parents consistently praise the quality of care provided in the home. A professional said, ‘Young people tell me they are happy at the home and enjoy being there because it is nurturing and they have good relationships with the staff.’ Such supportive relationships help young people to develop confidence, emotional resilience and trust, which in turn lead to improved outcomes for them.

p.5

Outstanding

Young people’s wishes and feelings are extremely important in the home. They are sought regularly on all aspects of their care. They have regular individual and group young people’s meetings, key-work sessions, placement plan review meetings and resolution meetings, when an incident has occurred, and they prepare a report for the looked after children reviews. Young people know who to talk to if they have a worry or concern or if they want to make a complaint. The registered manager is also keen to involve young people in the recruitment and selection of any new staff being employed at the home. This demonstrates the commitment to promoting young people’s views and making sure that they are taken seriously. The registered manager and staff ensure that young people’s experiences of moving into and out of the home are positive. All recent moves to and from the home have been planned and involve young people fully at every stage of the

p.5

Outstanding

process. The registered manager has travelled long distances to meet with young people and their families, prior to their moving into or out of the home. He has a detailed understanding of the young people, their individual needs, the risks they face and how best to help them. The home has introduced an innovative outreach service that has successfully supported two young people to be return home. Prior to young people returning home, the registered manager is influential in ensuring that the local authority has the correct package of care in place. The registered manager plans to develop this service further across the company, so that all young people who leave any of the company homes have an excellent care package and outreach service to make their transition smooth and successful. A social worker commented, ‘I feel that all professionals worked closely together in devising the best plan possible to ensure

p.6

Outstanding

the young person had the best chance of a successful transition home.’ The registered manager and staff work flexibly to promote, support and facilitate contact between young people and their families. Contact arrangements are complex but well managed by the home. The registered manager has responded appropriately to safeguarding issues by suspending or supervising contact between young people and their parents. All young people have appropriate arrangements in place, ensuring that they maintain links with people who are important to them. The home is a lovely environment where friends and family members are welcome. One young person said, ‘It is really good that my mum can come here and spend the day with me. No other children’s home I have been in has allowed that.’ The contact arrangements result in young people sustaining and nurturing those attachments that are crucial to their overall well-being.

p.6

Outstanding

Young people say that they feel safe and protected in the home. This is due to the efforts by the registered manager and the staff to identify the individual risks that young people face. They manage these risks by engaging with a range of professionals to ensure that the appropriate safeguards are in place. These include missing-from-home coordinators, child sexual exploitation coordinators, substance misuse workers, police and local authorities. This multi-agency approach to safeguarding means that specialist support services are in place to raise young people’s awareness of the risks they face and how they can be kept safe. Comprehensive risk assessments are in place for young people. They are updated regularly, following rigorous assessment, and read and signed by all staff. This ensures that staff fully understand each young person’s changing needs, risks and vulnerabilities. Young people are consulted, and their views are recorded in risk

p.7

Outstanding

assessments. Young people trust the staff and, therefore, listen to them and take on board their advice and support. They are learning to reflect on their past behaviours and are better equipped to keep themselves safe. A young person said, ‘Staff have supported me to stay safe. They have done work with me on healthy relationships as boys I have had relationships with do not treat me well.’ Another comment was, ‘Due to the support I have had since moving into the home I have stopped smoking and using drugs.’ The home has developed extremely effective missing-from-home procedures and has excellent links with missing-from-home coordinators. They respond quickly and proactively to young people who go missing. Staff act appropriately in a timely manner to ensure their quick, safe return to the home. They inform relevant professionals, try to contact the young people and their friends and family, and go out to look for them. Missing-from-home coordinators are fully updated on

p.7

Outstanding

progress. When young people return, staff offer them a warm welcome home, check on their welfare and arrange an independent return interview. The efforts of the staff team have resulted in young people being safeguarded effectively. A missing-from-home coordinator said, ‘The registered manager is proactive in contacting me as soon as young people go missing and keeps me up to date on young people who are missing. He attends strategy meetings and safeguarding meetings regularly with relevant information and is central to decision-making at these meetings.’ Missing-from-home records clearly evidence that incidents of young people going missing from the home have significantly reduced from when they moved in. Some young people have previously experienced significant child sexual exploitation. The registered manager and staff are confident that they can safeguard young people from this. They have worked effectively with young

p.7

Outstanding

people, child sexual exploitation professionals, safeguarding professionals and the police to safeguard young people, gather evidence and support police operations. This has resulted in perpetrators being arrested and charged for these offences. Tus, they no longer pose a risk, and young people are safeguarded. Staff are adequately trained in recognising and responding to issues regarding child sexual exploitation and, the registered manager has actively sought awareness-raising sessions with local child sexual exploitation professionals to build on this. Staff have strategies in place to ensure that risks of child sexual exploitation are significantly reduced and are well managed. This includes no free time, supervised contact, supervised internet access and telephone calls. This level of monitoring is reduced when staff are confident that it is safe to do so. This means that young people are effectively safeguarded.

p.7

Outstanding

Behaviour management in the home is clear and well understood by the staff and young people. Young people’s behaviour is generally good, due to the good routines, boundaries and structure in place. This is enhanced by the good reward system in place. Young people respond well to the reward system by which they can earn up to £15 a week in addition to other monies they receive. This system has resulted in increased positive behaviours and excellent achievements meaning, sanctions are rarely used in the home. All staff have attended training programmes on the use of physical intervention and have developed techniques of de-escalation. Physical intervention is used in the home as a last resort. The reasons for physical interventions are to ensure that young people do not pose a risk to themselves and others. Incidents of physical restraint have significantly reduced for young people, since they came to live in the

p.8

Outstanding

home. This is as a result of the therapeutic support, behaviour management and de-escalation strategies in place. Physical intervention records are sufficiently detailed and provide a clear account of the reason for the physical intervention, with comments from all staff present. Young people are encouraged to comment and reflect on what happened, to see what could be learned from the incident. The reflection and learning from incidents of physical intervention have contributed to a reduction in physical intervention being used. The health and safety practices in the home ensure that young people’s safety and well-being are paramount. All young people’s bedroom doors have alarms that are set at night to ensure that young people are unable to leave their bedrooms without the staff being aware, on account of the risks this would pose. Staff carry out regular health and safety checks, including fire drills, to ensure that the

p.8

Outstanding

premises are safe and that young people are able to respond in an emergency. Medication is stored securely, and records are clear and accurate. The very good health and safety practices ensure that young people are not at risk in the home. Safer recruitment practices in the home are robust. There have been three new members of staff since the last inspection. Records show that a robust system is in place whereby staff working with young people are carefully selected and vetted. The registered manager has taken measures to ensure that staff from other countries have had the relevant overseas checks to ensure that they are suitable to work at the home.

p.8

Outstanding

The home is effectively led by a motivated and committed manager who has high expectations of staff and young people. He has high aspirations for young people and strives to ensure that they have positive experiences and improved outcomes. He has in excess of 10 years’ experience of working with children and young people and has managed other children’s homes. He is suitably qualified to national vocational qualification (NVQ) level 4 in the care of children and young people and the management of a children’s home. He intends to complete his level 5 diploma in the management of a children’s social care provision to add to his qualifications and enhance his knowledge and skills. The registered manager has a clear understanding of the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 quality standards and the framework for inspection and has demonstrated that he is able to meet these to a high standard. The registered manager knows the young people exceptionally well and takes a

p.9

Outstanding

very active role in their daily care. Young people have excellent relationships with him and will approach him without any hesitation. The registered manager regularly meets with young people to ascertain their views, wishes and feelings. He has excellent links with professionals to ensure that young people receive the best possible support to meet their needs. A social worker said, ‘The registered manager is doing my job for me.’ The registered manager regularly challenges professionals appropriately, when he feels that they are not doing all they should for young people in the home. Young people know he will go out of his way to get what is best for them. All staff working at the home are permanent employees. The registered manager will not use agency or bank staff at the home, as he wants to ensure that young people and staff know each other well. Handover meetings are thorough, and the records from them are detailed, which ensures a good transition from one staff

p.9

Outstanding

team to another and provides young people with consistency in working practices. Staff rotas are clear, and the registered manager has developed a system in which each young person has their own staff team. This means that each young person has their own specific staff on duty so they know who is there specifically for them. This appears to be working really well for both the young people and staff. A young person said, ‘It is good that we know which staff to go to, that they will listen and respond well to us. I love my key worker and know she is always there for me.’ This has resulted in the staff and young people building positive, trusting relationships and young people’s needs being met effectively. Staff working at the home are well supported by the registered manager and each other. They receive regular good-quality supervision that develops their professional practice. Supervision allows staff to reflect on their practice and the

p.9

Outstanding

overall experiences and progress of young people. Supervision records are detailed and signed. Team meetings take place regularly, and detailed records evidence the discussions held. Staff morale is high, and they work well together. They share the same level of motivation, care and passion as the registered manager. A member of staff said, ‘We all work together and support each other. The registered manager has clear strategies, rules and boundaries, and these remain in place when he is not here.’ All staff members either have their level 3 NVQ in childcare or are currently enrolled on this. They are encouraged and supported in their continued professional development by the registered manager. Training is important to them, and they are all keen to undertake any training that will further enhance their knowledge and skills, so that they can continually improve their practice. New staff members are given a comprehensive induction to ensure that they are

p.10

Outstanding

confident in fulfilling their roles. This was evidenced in their recruitment files and supervision records. This benefits young people, as they are provided with a consistently high level of care due to the high level of knowledge and skills that the staff team has. Robust monitoring for the home is carried out on a regular basis, internally by the registered manager and externally by an independent person. The registered manager is able to identify strengths and weaknesses in the home and is highly driven in ensuring that any shortfalls or weaknesses are minimal and rectified at the earliest opportunity. This high level of monitoring has enabled the registered manager to identify areas for development and to ensure that practice is strengthened and young people’s continuing progress is central to the home’s practice. The home’s statement of purpose is up to date and reflects the aims and objectives, purpose and ethos of the home clearly. The registered manager and

p.10

Outstanding

staff clearly understand this and how they will achieve it through the care they provide. This ensures that the care provided to young people is of a very high standard, and the statement of purpose is a true reflection of this. The registered manager provides extremely strong leadership and has a clear commitment to continued development and sustained improvement in the home. This is regularly monitored, reviewed and detailed in the home’s development plan.

p.10

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