Children's home run by Peterborough City Council

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 staff work in close partnership with families and other professionals to meet the children’s complex needs well.  Good-quality initial assessments are completed during home visits. This means that the children and their parents are involved in the planning of the care that the children receive.  Staff use a range of tools to assist positive communication. This helps staff to provide good-quality and consistent care for the children.  Children are helped to develop good relationships with staff.  Staff employ a restorative approach, which has led to children’s behaviour stabilising.  There are positive working relationships between the home and the special needs school that the children attend.  There is excellent communication between the service and the children’s families and carers.  Interesting activities are planned but staff do not always record the children’s views about these events.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Some staff have not completed their in-house training for administering medication.  Not all staff have completed the diploma level training within the required time scale.  There are no impact risk assessments. Staff are therefore not able to identify the risks for each child attending a short break and the actions required to reduce the risks.  Staff work skilfully with the children to prevent incidents from escalating. However, there is a lack of clarity in the recording of the methods used to manage each occurrence.

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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 an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification by the relevant date. The individual must attain the level 3 diploma for residential childcare (England) (‘the level 3 diploma’) or a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the level 3 diploma. The relevant date is, in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1 April 2014, the date which falls two years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home, or in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1 April 2014, 1 April 2016. (Regulation 32 (4)(a)(b)(5)(a)(b)) 07/12/2016

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendations:  Ensure that children are offered a wide range of activities both inside and outside of the home and are encouraged to participate in those activities. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 31, paragraph 6.5)  Ensure that medicines are administered in line with a medically approved protocol and make suitable arrangements to manage and administer medication. This is in particular reference to trained staff being on-site to administer medication. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.15)  Ensure that the behaviour management strategy is understood and applied at all times by staff and is kept under review. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.34)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that placements for children are only accepted where managers are satisfied that the home can respond effectively to the child's assessed needs as recorded in the child's relevant plan and where they have fully considered the impact that the placement will have on the existing group of children. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.4)

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Information about this children's home

A local authority owns and operates this provision. The home primarily provides short breaks and day care for children and young people aged six to 18 years. Specialist care is provided for children and young people who have physical disabilities, learning disabilities and sensory impairments. Up to seven children and young people stay overnight in the home at one time.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 29/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 07/12/2015 Full Good 19/02/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness 03/07/2014 Full Good

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Good

This home provides a good-quality short-break and specialist care service for children who have physical disabilities, learning disabilities and sensory impairments. The staff work in partnership with families and other professionals to meet the children’s complex needs. Many of the children who use the service are non-verbal. The staff use a range of tools to assist with positive communication. This supports the staff to provide good-quality and consistent care in a way that enables each child to communicate their needs and wishes. Consequently, children are making progress in line with their plans. A teacher commented, ‘The home provides a safe environment where children can have fun with peers while being looked after by adults who genuinely care about them and their well-being.’ The priority of this short-break service is to enable children to safely socialise and have fun. The children enjoy spending positive time with peers outside of school.

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Good

Children develop good relationships with staff because of the one-to-one key work that staff complete with children. A placing social worker said, ‘My child has a great relationship with their key worker who is clearly very knowledgeable about their needs.’ Staff have close working relationships with the special needs school that the children attend and this helps with the sharing of important information about the children. There is close liaison between staff, parents and health professionals to ensure that the children’s well-being is managed effectively. However, some staff have not completed their in-house training on administering medication. This resulted in an occasion where there was a lack of suitably trained staff on shift who could manage this task. An on-call manager needed to come in to make up for this shortfall. Parents describe the contact with the home as excellent. There is ongoing

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Good

communication between the service and the children’s carers, particularly if the child’s background or culture is a significant part of their care plan. Staff always check with parents if certain food types are suitable. Staff have developed a good knowledge of culturally appropriate care. A parent said, ‘The staff are lovely and caring and the standard of care is excellent.’ Planned activities are linked to the children’s abilities and interests. However, the recording of these experiences is inconsistent and does not help the staff to reflect on the impact of the activity or the children’s enjoyment. Staff do not have records to show how the children are encouraged to try new events. Staff are developing new ways to record the choices that the children make. Staff use communication tools and skills to help them to listen to and understand what the children think about their short breaks. For example, one child wanted to reduce their attendance

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Good

midweek in exchange for an alternative weekend day. The changes were made following consultation with the child. Staff complete good-quality assessments with input from parents and children during the home visits made prior to admission. The children’s care plans are drawn up from these assessments and in partnership with other agencies. This information supports staff to meet each of the children’s highly individual needs effectively. There is a lack of individual impact risk assessments. As a result, staff are not clear about the potential risks for individual children during their short break or how the risks can be reduced.

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Good

Children do not go missing from this home. Due to the nature of their disabilities, these children require constant supervision and care. The staff are alert to the risks in the community for the children should they be out unaccompanied. Each child has a missing from care protocol and staff understand the process to be followed if a child goes missing. Location and general risk assessments have been developed using the key work skills of staff. Staff have worked with the children to identify hazards in the area and opportunities for positive experiences which are included in these assessments. The assessments identify changes in behaviour that may heighten or reduce the risks and affect the measures needed to manage these risks. However, there are no individual children’s impact risk assessments. Staff are not clear about the potential risks for each child during their short break or how they can be reduced

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Good

and managed. The lack of impact risk assessments detailing these vulnerabilities may compromise children’s safety and does not help staff to understand the risk that children pose to each other or the opportunties created by placing certain children together. However, this shortfall is minimised by the positive working knowledge of the staff and well-planned handovers between staff. Placing social workers have no concerns regarding the safe care planning for the children. Behaviour plans are positive and the staff employ a restorative approach where this is suitable. Positive short-term rewards and a calm, consistent approach have led to children’s behaviour stabilising. The children’s behaviour plans detail the triggers that staff need to be aware of for each child. They also describe strategies for staff to use to prevent an escalation of unwanted behaviours. Skilled staff intervene to prevent children from hurting themselves or others. There

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Good

is a lack of clarity regarding when and how to record the interventions and the avoidance techniques. Consequently, staff are not able to reflect on these incidents or to measure the effectiveness of their responses. The manager has highlighted this through her own monitoring and is exploring the most suitable way to overcome this shortfall. Judgement grade

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Good

This experienced registered manager has been in post for three months. She holds a level 4 qualification and she has worked in residential childcare for 14 years. The manager and her assistant jointly provide good-quality formal supervision that addresses a range of issues, including meeting the children’s complex needs and ensuring that safe care practices are followed. The staff have worked hard to meet the requirements and recommendations set at the previous inspection. However, not all staff have completed the required diploma-level qualification within the agreed timescale. This does not provide a suitably qualified team to work with the children. Staff have completed induction and ongoing training. However, some staff have not completed the training to administer medication, which meant that on one occasion a manager had to attend to ensure that the correct procedure was followed. The manager, working with the independent visitor, had recognised this

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Good

issue. Consequently, the manager has arranged for these staff to complete the relevant training. The working relationship between the independent visitor and the manager is positive and supports the monitoring and review of the service to ensure that it is in accordance with the home’s statement of purpose. The manager monitors the progress that the children are making. For some of the children, small but significant improvements in behaviour and skills occur gradually, over time. The manager ensures that staff record changes and progress by routinely reviewing the case records and incident reports. Staff share updates with families and add updated information to the care plans to support the staff in their day-to-day work with the children. The recently appointed manager has begun to develop good relationships with external professionals in the local authority. She is confident about escalating any

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Good

concerns or issues to senior managers to ensure that the children receive a high- quality service. The manager understands the strengths and areas for development in the home. One of the strengths is the stability of the staff group and their ability to communicate effectively with the children. Areas of development have been identified to improve the recording of how direct or key work is being completed. The manager has implemented a review of how the key work records are written. The key work sessions and direct work that the staff complete are added to photographs and information, which helps to build a memory box of each child’s short break. These records emphasise that staff listen to the children’s wishes, views and choices.

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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

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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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