Children's Home run by HAVEN CARE GROUP LIMITED in Staffordshire

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 a warm and comfortable home where they have personalised their rooms and can relax and focus on their own needs.  Young people form trusting relationships with the highly committed and child-focused staff.  Staff understand the impact of negative experiences on young people and skilfully work with them to support their emotional needs.  Young people enjoy mealtimes together when they have fun with staff and each other. They have regular, culturally themed meals and activities.  The enthusiastic staff encourage young people to engage in a range of activities, which support their physical and social development.  Young people make sustained and significant progress in their education and their ability to manage their emotions and independence.  Staff listen to young people. Supportive staff ascertain young people’s views, wishes and feelings in a range of ways.  The staff benefit from structured and regular supervision with the

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The children's home provision is good because:

registered manager, who provides a significant element of learning as well as support. Regular team meetings include consultation with the in-service therapeutic team.  The committed registered manager provides the team with clear and easily accessible recording systems, which enable them to understand and meet the needs of each young person.  The registered manager reviews the service on an ongoing basis. She makes changes, which can benefit young people. For example, they now take the minutes for the first half of their young people’s meetings.  The registered manager was newly registered in 2016 and she is keen to learn and to develop her skills and knowledge. She works closely with the highly supportive responsible individual.  An area for improvement is the need for the registered manager to be more vigilant in monitoring whether the less experienced staff adhere strictly to young people’s plans.

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions which must be taken so that the registered person(s) meet(s) 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

13: The leadership and management standard In order to meet the leadership and management standard, (2) the registered person must (c) ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. 30/12/2016

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Requirement Due date

14: The care planning standard In order to meet the care planning standard, (2) the registered person must ensure (c) that each child's relevant plans are followed. 30/12/2016

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation:  The registered person is responsible for ensuring that all staff consistently follow the home’s policies and procedures for the benefit of the children in the home’s care. Everyone working at the home must understand their roles and responsibilities and what they are authorised to decide on their own initiative. There should be clear lines of accountability. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.20 )

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Information about this children's home

This privately owned children’s home is registered to provide care for up to four young people aged between eight and 17 years.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

29/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

29/01/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Good

Young people enjoy a warm and welcoming home, with space for activities together and with staff, as well as by themselves. They have personalised their rooms as they wish and are able to relax and focus on their own needs. The registered manager has skilfully matched the young people to create a family atmosphere, with three of the young people taking on the roles of older siblings to the youngest who is aged eight years. This has benefited all of the young people who enjoy these positive relationships. One young person, who is working towards independence and cooks for himself, enjoys joining the staff and young people for Sunday dinner. He supports other young people if they are upset and he involves them in his activities, like football and his play station. Young people have fun with staff going on holidays, go-karting, swimming and trips out to go bowling and to the cinema. One young person loves to paint and

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Good

make things, and enthusiastic staff sit with him to help. Another young person, who has taken responsibility for the themed food nights, likes to plan the menu and do the shopping. Young people form trusting relationships with the highly committed staff, who support their emotional well-being and enable them to progress in all areas of their development. The staff ensure that they meet young people’s health needs by attending medical and dental appointments. They also support young people to access specialist therapeutic services to address emotional and behavioural issues. Staff have supported one young person to become more comfortable with her own self-image and identity and to enjoy buying clothes. Another young person trusted staff to the extent that he felt able to make a significant disclosure about his past. Highly sensitive staff have helped him to address this difficult and challenging issue.

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Good

This excellent support for young people has led to them making significant progress in education, health, social development and their ability to manage their emotions. All young people attend education, and one young person was very proud to have achieved his level 1 public services diploma and entry-level mathematics and English in the summer. He is now doing a course in art and design at college. This follows his history of poor attendance and engagement in education and in placements prior to coming here. He has a pathway plan in place and is working towards his independence. Staff skilfully supported another young person, who had not attended school prior to his placement, to start at a mainstream school in September. He has become more confident and communicative and has found ways to manage his anxieties by, for example, walking or listening to music or sitting quietly with the registered manager in her

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Good

office. Young people engage in school, and there have been no exclusions since the last inspection. All of the young people are very settled, most after having experienced numerous failed placements. They make progress in reducing aggression, understanding the triggers to their challenging behaviour, and in their social development, maturity and self-care skills. Young people write notes about their nice experiences and store them in a ‘memory jar’, which they can go to when they feel low, to remind themselves of happy days. Young people attend and contribute to the regular young people’s meetings and now write the minutes for the first half. They receive written feedback from the registered manager at the end of the meetings, and she updates them on developments in the home, such as plans for redecoration. This makes young people feel listened to and enables them to contribute positively to the running of

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Good

the home. The staff help young people to express their views, wishes and feelings at their looked-after reviews and understand how best to support each young person to engage with their review. The very youngest child, who has recently been placed here, was keen to say that he is very happy here and liked it from the moment he arrived. He likes all the staff and has fun. He likes the fire alarm tests and feels safe here. He likes his room and holding hands with staff when he goes out, which makes him feel safe. He had just been out with a staff member to buy new trainers and took pride in showing them off. All of the young people express being very happy here and feeling strongly cared for and supported by the staff.

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Good

Highly trained and skilled staff keep young people safe. One young person, who has learning difficulties, has now progressed to unsupervised trips to the shops, enabled by staff undertaking work on road safety and stranger danger with him. External agencies, including therapists and specialists in child sexual exploitation, engage young people in group discussions to teach them about internet safety, child sexual exploitation and healthy relationships. None of the young people has been subject to child sexual exploitation or going missing since the last inspection. Staff understand the impact of past negative experiences on young people’s ability to manage their emotions and behaviour. Key work with young people to support them to understand the links between their emotions and behaviour helps to reduce risks of, for example, self-harm. Staff liaise with other agencies to ensure that young people are safe when they are

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Good

away from the home and recently challenged a school when one young person had an electric shock due to a faulty electric socket. The registered manager immediately complained to the school, resulting in the school rapidly changing the sockets. Liaison with police, education and health all support young people’s safety along with adherence to procedures for safeguarding. Staff write effective individual risk assessments, which are detailed and relevant, and which the registered manager regularly reviews and signs. Staff also write risk assessments for a wide range of risks, both in and outside the home, including road safety, travel by car and internet usage. Staff placed particular emphasis on the risks caused by heavy fire doors to the recently admitted eight-year old. All staff read and sign risk assessments. Staff are highly trained in safeguarding and physical intervention, and the registered manager reviews and updates their training needs. The team meetings

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Good

are a key element in training for staff on safeguarding, requiring them to be interactive and to demonstrate knowledge and skills. Parents, social workers, young people and staff consider that staff keep young people safe.

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Good

The registered manager has over nine years’ experience of working with young people on the autistic spectrum in residential settings. She holds a level 3 diploma in health and social care working with children and young people and is currently completing the level 5 leadership and management award. All staff are either level 3 qualified or are undertaking the qualification. All staff are first aid trained. The registered manager is highly child focused and is constantly innovating to improve their experiences. Since the last inspection, she has introduced ‘memory jars’ for young people and has engaged them in writing the minutes for part of their meetings. She has introduced a de-brief book, which staff complete at the end of each shift, and which is a valuable reflective tool. She is developing a monitoring tool to record the young people’s experiences and progress, in placement in a format that is easy to understand and quick to update. This is to be

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Good

reviewed three-monthly, is colour coded and will provide staff with a valuable planning and assessment tool to share with young people, professionals and family members. The registered manager’s significant experience of working with young people who are on the autistic spectrum enhances her ability to manage anxiety in young people, and her quiet manner with both staff and young people creates a calm environment where young people feel safe. She skilfully utilises supervision and team meeting to enhance staff awareness of all practice issues and to encourage reflection. She ensures that staff training and development are ongoing and that supervision is regular and supportive as well as informative and challenging. The registered manager expects all of the staff to read and understand the quality standards and to strive to improve their practice accordingly. In recognition of the importance of high staff morale, she has

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Good

instigated a ‘team member of the month’ award. Staff appreciate this. The registered manager works hard to ensure that the paperwork systems support staff practice and that information is accessible and relevant. She has recently created a key-working matrix, to ensure that staff are always clear about the areas that they need to address with each young person in key-work sessions. Staff effectively and enthusiastically work with the wider system, including a wide range of professionals and the local community. They have supported young people to develop good relationships with the neighbours who bring apples round from their gardens, which the young people use to bake cakes. These positive relationships with the neighbours have led to young people being increasingly considerate towards them and, for example, willingly turning loud music down if asked. Family and professionals are very pleased with the level and quality of care

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Good

provided to young people and the communication that they receive from staff. One social worker said that she was impressed with the way in which her young person had settled here after many moves and that her challenging behaviours had greatly reduced. She said of the staff, ‘They are doing amazingly well.’ A parent commented, ‘I have peace of mind knowing she is safe and well looked after’, and, ‘She has made a lot of progress. She was low and withdrawn and is now a different person and is bubbly and chatty on contact.’ The registered manager is highly receptive to learning and is keen to address her own professional development. She accepts that she is new to the management role and that she has made some errors. The registered manager allowed a new staff member to take a young person to contact within his first month. He had not made himself fully aware of the contact details. This resulted in his making an

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Good

independent decision about contact, which was not included in the young person’s plan. The registered manager accepts that her monitoring of new staff, and ensuring that they have the necessary skills to undertake certain tasks in keeping with the young people’s plans, is an area for improvement.

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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 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

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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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