Children's home run by After Care (NW) Limited in Sefton

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 make measurable progress in all aspects of their lives. This is down to consistent care, effective routines and clear boundaries.  Effective collaborative working between the home and other professionals ensures that young people continue to develop and benefit from improved outcomes in education and health.  Staff listen to young people and work hard to nurture warm, trusting relationships within the home. As a result, young people feel valued, respected and safe.  Safeguarding practice is a strength of this home. Young people‘s risk-taking behaviour decreases as they settle into their home and accept staff‘s consistent support and guidance.  A caring and competent registered manager leads the home effectively. Young people are her priority and she is ambitious for their future. This is reflected in young people‘s measurable progress.  The areas for improvement include the home‘s records, internal monitoring,

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The children’s home provision is good because:

the statement of purpose and staff‘s ongoing development.

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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

13: The leadership and management standard In order to meet the leadership and management standard, the registered person must— (2)(h) use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. 25/11/2016

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Requirement Due date

16: Statement of purpose (3) The registered person must— (b) notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16(3)(b)) 25/11/2016

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Requirement Due date

35: Behaviour management policies and records (3) The registered person must ensure that— (a) within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes— (iv) a description of the measure and its duration; (vii) the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and (b) within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (‗the authorised person‘)— (i) has spoken to the user about the measure; and (ii) has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and (c) within five days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35(3)(a)(iv)(vii)(b)(i)(ii)(c)) 25/11/2016

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Requirement Due date

36: Children‘s case records (1) Maintain records (‗case records‘) for each child which— (b) are kept up to date; and (c) are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36(1)(b)(c)) This is specifically in relation to the home's risk assessments and placement plans. 25/11/2016

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):

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Recommendations

 The registered person should have a workforce plan which can fulfil the workforce-related requirements of regulation 16, schedule 1 (paragraphs 19 and 20). The plan should be updated to include any new training and qualifications completed by staff while working at the home, and used to record the ongoing training and continuing professional development needs of staff – including the home‘s manager. (‗Guide to the children‘s homes regulations including the quality standards‘, page 53, paragraph 10.8)

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned home provides care and accommodation for two young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 16/03/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness 18/11/2015 Full Good 27/01/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness 17/06/2014 Full Adequate

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Good

Young people make good progress with all aspects of their development. They benefit from good routines and consistent care and support, provided by a dedicated staff team. Staff nurture warm and trusting relationships with young people, and this is helping them to take on board staff‘s guidance and support.

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Good

Staff value young people‘s views and opinions, and ensure that they are actively involved in decision making within the home. A young person said, ‗I can speak to staff and I always have someone I can talk to who listens. We have weekly house meetings and I also like speaking to staff on my own.‘ The young people benefit from individualised care and they can choose their meals, design their bedrooms and plan their own activities. All of this is helping young people to feel valued, respected and unique.

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Good

Young people make measurable progress in their education. This is down to staff‘s high aspirations, consistent routines and effective partnership working with schools and social workers. Both young people‘s attendance at school has significantly increased since moving to the home. Furthermore, their attitude toward their learning has noticeably improved. One young person did not attend school prior to moving to the home, which affected her learning outcomes. With staff‘s consistent support, she re-engaged with her education and is now on target to achieve GCSEs at A*. This is a tremendous achievement for this young person and clearly demonstrates the good progress.

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Good

Detailed health plans ensure that young people‘s full range of health needs are effectively met. Staff successfully promote healthier lifestyles in young people‘s individual key-work sessions. These sessions address important issues such as sexual health, diet and nutrition, keeping fit and the impact of smoking. Additionally, the home has forged strong links with specialist health services, including the sexual health clinic, drug and alcohol services and the in-house therapy service. Consequently, young people are fully encouraged and supported to make healthier choices that improve their physical and emotional health.

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Good

Staff fully understand the importance and benefits of young people maintaining positive contact with their family and friends, particularly when they live at a distance from their family home. Staff work collaboratively with young people‘s social workers and parents to arrange safe contact for young people, which they organise and, when necessary, supervise. Young people benefit from sustaining attachments with people who are important to them, and this supports their individual identity. A social worker said: ‗I have no concerns about this home. Staff have ―gone above and beyond‖ when arranging contact and are always flexible.‘

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Good

Young people enjoy a range of activities, and this helps them to develop life skills and greater confidence. Their hobbies and activities include awareness raising for a breast cancer charity, horse riding, trips to the home‘s caravan and cinema nights. This provides young people with the opportunity to get involved in and make a difference to the local community.

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Good

Although the home‘s placement plans and risk assessments are detailed, and reflect young people‘s journey and experiences, some records do not include the date that they were prepared or the name of the person who made the record. This does not directly affect young people‘s care and safety. However, it weakens how progress is demonstrated and monitored.

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Good

Young people benefit from comprehensive and regularly monitored risk and behaviour management plans. These plans define potential triggers for harmful behaviour clearly and provide staff with effective safeguarding strategies. Consequently, staff have up-to-date knowledge of young people‘s risks and their vulnerabilities, and thus are appropriately equipped to manage risk and minimise harm.

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Good

When young people go missing, staff respond quickly to ensure a swift and safe return home. As a result, incidents of missing have been significantly reduced for the young people living at the home. Staff are fully alert to other potential risks when young people go missing, for instance child sexual exploitation. Such serious safeguarding concerns are escalated to multi-agency strategy discussions, which ensures that all relevant safeguarding professionals are working together to tackle risk and minimise harm.

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Good

Staff are vigilant and understand the dangers linked to social media and mobile technology. The home has strategies in place to monitor young people‘s internet use and, when necessary, they restrict their access to protect them from sexual exploitation. Although young people dislike this high level of supervision and protection, they fully understand staff‘s reasons. This is reflected in a young person‘s comments: ‗I can‘t go on Facebook, because staff watch me. I understand why they monitor me, but I don‘t like it. I am safe.‘

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Good

All child protection matters and allegations against staff are referred to the appropriate safeguarding professionals, including the police, the local designated safeguarding officer and, when necessary, Ofsted. Furthermore, young people have regular access to adults whom they trust and can talk to about their concerns, including independent visitors. Effective communication and partnership working with external safeguarding professionals promote independent scrutiny of the home‘s safeguarding practice.

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Good

Staff encourage positive behaviour in the home through an effective reward and praise scheme. Young people benefit from constant praise and incentives. For example, rewards for attending school and appointments with the youth offending team have improved young people‘s engagement with these services which, in turn, has improved their outcomes. Many professionals spoke highly of staff‘s efforts and support. A youth offending officer said, ‗Staff have helped (young person) to attend all of her appointments and they have supervised her community reparation. She has not committed any offences since living at the home. Communication from the home is good. The home is always very clean, welcoming and cosy.‘

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Good

Staff‘s personnel files demonstrate a robust approach to staff recruitment. Additionally, regular health and safety cheeks, frequent fire drills and equipment testing ensure that the home remains a safe and welcoming environment.

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Good

There are shortfalls in the home‘s behaviour management records. Some sanction and restraint records lack detail, for example the length of time that a measure has been imposed, the manager‘s evaluation of the measure used and confirmation that the young person was spoken to after each physical restraint. This recording oversight affects the auditing of behaviour management strategies rather than the welfare and safety of the young people.

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Good

Young people benefit from living in a well-managed home run by a suitably qualified, experienced and committed registered manager. The manager and staff foster trusting relationships with young people through consistent, nurturing care and support.

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Good

The manager is very ‗hands on‘ in the day-to-day care of the young people, which promotes positive role modelling in both young people and staff. Staff are enthusiastic about their development and willingly engage in ongoing training, supervision and appraisals. They share their knowledge with each other and with the young people during individual and group sessions. This helps the home to promote a culture of mutual respect and equality.

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Good

The manager and staff receive regular professional supervision. This focuses on young people‘s needs and areas of development, and support for staff. Supervision records demonstrate effective support and sufficient challenge, and this promotes continued development and an environment where good practice can thrive. Staff said, ‗we get many opportunities to reflect on practice and have the chance to talk about any training that we need. The manager is always willing to listen and support us if we are struggling.‘ However, the manager does not have a workforce development plan in place to support how she identifies and plans staff‘s ongoing development. Further improvements can be made to the manager‘s appraisal and planning of staff‘s learning, training and continued development.

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Good

The service has established good networks and relationships with a range of agencies and professionals who are responsible for meeting the needs of the young people. Staff work closely with teachers, social workers and health professionals, as well as maintaining links with leading safeguarding agencies. This effective joint working is ensuring that young people make continued progress and are safe.

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Good

The manager ensures that staff are involved in monitoring the service. Regular team meetings provide staff with further opportunities to influence service development, share learning and reflect on their practice. Consequently, the team feels valued, respected and well supported. This is reflected in the good standard of care provided by the team.

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Good

The home‘s statement of purpose clearly states the service aims and objectives, and details the help and support provided to young people. Although the manager has ensured that she keeps this document regularly updated to reflect changes in the service, such as new staff, she has not provided a copy to Ofsted as required. This has prevented the service regulator from monitoring and evaluating the changes made at the home.

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Good

The company has recently commissioned a new person to undertake the home‘s independent monitoring. This monitoring is supporting the manager to identify areas of improvement by raising actions at each visit which the manager swiftly addresses. However, the manager‘s own monitoring system is not sufficiently robust. For example, it does not identify all shortfalls in the home‘s records.

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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‘. 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

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What the inspection judgements mean

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 harmed or at risk of harm or 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 0300 123 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, work- based 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

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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