Children's Home run by The Partnership of Care Today in Stoke-on-Trent

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 are positive about the care and support that they receive and feel safe and comfortable in the home.  Staff work hard to form positive, trusting relationships with young people. This helps young people to settle in the home and to grow in confidence.  The manager ensures that care planning is individualised and enables staff to focus on each young person’s areas of need.  Young people regularly attend school and college and make good progress.  The manager ensures that young people are able to maintain contact with family and friends.  The manager ensures that young people are well supported to attend their care planning reviews and regular house meetings.  The manager ensures that young people are involved in a wide range of activities in the community.  The staff ensure that young people are consistently encouraged and supported to increase their semi-independence skills in line with their age,

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The children's home provision is good because:

ability and level of understanding.  There are a few shortfalls in practice. These include the supervision of the staff and the manager, notifications and the children’s guide.

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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 the ‘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

The registered person must ensure that all employees, including the registered manager, receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)) 30/10/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious and any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(b)(e)) 30/10/2016

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation:  Ensure that the children's home produces a children's guide that is pertinent to where the child is to live. The children's guide must be made available to all children when their placement in the home is agreed (or on arrival at the home if the placement is made in an emergency) and must be age appropriate, provided in an accessible format and explained to each child to make sure that they understand it. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 4.22)

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Information about this children's home

The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for three 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 24/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 21/12/2015 Full Good 27/02/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness 20/11/2014 Full Good

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Good

Social workers confirm that they have observed supportive and nurturing interactions between the staff and young people. This supportive approach ensures that young people develop positive and trusting relationships with staff. The manager ensures that young people's placement plans take account of their assessed and individual needs. Young people are involved in the development of their care plans and are clear about their individual goals and incentives. Young people are also supported to ensure that their views are heard at their case reviews and planning meetings with their social workers and other agencies. Staff ensure that young people have clear health plans and are registered with the relevant primary healthcare services. The staff team understands the importance of good health and supports young people to attend both physical and psychological health appointments. The manager ensures that young people attend a variety of educational settings,

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Good

according to their learning needs and abilities. Young people maintain good attendance at their place of education. This is further helped by good communication and collaboration between the home and all education providers. This ensures that young people are able to maximise their progress across all their subjects. Staff encourage young people to express their views through formal house meetings, informal conversations at mealtimes and during key worker meetings. Young people confirm that they know how to make a complaint if they are unhappy or have any concerns about their care. The manager works closely with placing authorities to promote contact with family and friends that is positive and safe. This ensures that young people continue to build relationships and attachments with those significant to them. Young people are learning a number of skills to help them understand what it is like to live independently. These include skills in managing a small budget, laundry,

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Good

cleaning and cooking. Young people are involved in a range of activities, such as football, fishing and trips to the cinema, and they enjoy holidays. This helps them to make new friendships within the community and gives them a chance to try different experiences and to develop new skills. Judgement grade

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Good

Young people told the inspector that they feel safe in the home and are confident that they live in a safe environment. One young person said, ‘I feel safe because I have people in the house I can go to.’ A social worker validated this, saying, ‘Staff are keeping my young person safe.’ The manager ensures that there are comprehensive risk assessments in place for each young person. The staff safeguard young people by using these assessments to help them to identify risks and vulnerabilities and by having strategies that minimise these risks. Individual behaviour management plans help staff to identify triggers for negative behaviour and the strategies for managing these behaviours. Staff use incentive reward systems and regular key worker sessions to enable young people to manage their own behaviour more effectively. Consequently, there is a consistent approach to behaviour management throughout the whole staff team, which helps

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Good

young people to behave appropriately. Most young people rarely go missing from the home. However, the staff have a clear protocol for responding to these incidents in order to secure the safe return of young people. Partnership working with the police and safeguarding agencies is effective in ensuring that young people are safe. Staff go looking for young people, and in line with protocols, share information with the police at the earliest opportunity. The manager ensures that young people live in a safe and secure environment. This includes having effective health and safety systems in place. Staff regularly practise evacuations with young people to ensure that everyone knows how to leave the building safely and quickly in case of an emergency. The manager ensures that young people are protected by the organisation's recruitment practices. Staff are vetted and assessed as suitable before any appointment is confirmed. These procedures promote the safety of the young

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Good

people by preventing unsuitable adults from working with them. The manager ensures that young people live in a comfortable, well-maintained home. There is sufficient space for both communal activity and privacy. One social worker told the inspector, ‘[Young person] bedroom is lovely and has been personalised really nicely and in line with what I would expect of a young woman.’ The home is situated in a community location that is convenient to public transport, which means that young people can exercise their independence more easily by travelling on their own to see family and friends. Judgement grade

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Good

The home has a registered manager in place. The manager has been in post since July 2015 and is currently undertaking his level 5 diploma in leadership for health and social care. The manager is also registered at another children’s home within the organisation. The manager ensures that good working relationships exist with other professionals such as the police, education providers and social workers. As a result, there is a coordinated approach to meeting young people’s needs and communication is shared quickly, which helps to keep young people safe. The independent visitor provides an oversight of the running of the home, making clear reference to areas of practice that need to improve for the benefit and safety of young people. The independent visitor consults with young people and social workers to ensure that their views are considered in any service development. The manager ensures that the home operates in line with the aims and objectives

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Good

as set out in the statement of purpose. The statement of purpose is made available to professionals and relatives so that they can understand how young people are to be cared for in the home. The home’s children’s guide is a generic document that does not provide unique information about the home. This means that young people are not accessing specific information about the home or area that they are to live in. The manager ensures that staff receive regular training so that they have the skills and competencies necessary to meet the diverse needs of the young people that they look after. There are systems in place to ensure that training is regularly updated or refreshed. Most staff hold a recognised qualification in childcare. Those members of staff who are unqualified are within regulatory timescales at present to obtain their qualification. The supervision of the manager and staff requires improvement. Staff supervision

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Good

lacks a focus on professional practice. This leaves staff with a missed opportunity to receive support that focuses on their professional development. The manager fails to ensure that notifications are sent to HMCI for specific events. This, in turn, hinders the regulator to effectively carry out its responsibility to ensure that young people are protected from harm. There were no requirements or recommendations raised at the last inspection.

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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 looked after children 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 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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