Children's home run by New Start 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:

 Behaviour management within the home has significantly improved. There are clear expectations, routines and boundaries in place for young people.  Young people are safe because of the robust safeguarding practices in place. Staff are appropriately trained in safeguarding.  Young people are making progress in education and have good attendance at school. This is due to the support and encouragement that they receive from the registered manager and staff.  The registered manager and staff have developed nurturing, trusting and supportive relationships with young people. Young people know that staff are always there for them and want what is best for them.  Young people are listened to and their views, wishes and feelings are given priority by the manager and staff. Consequently, they are at the very heart of the home, and everything that happens revolves around them. For example, this includes menu choices and preferences about activities.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 The registered manager and staff engage well with partner services to ensure that young people’s needs are fully met and that they get the best possible support.  The therapeutic support in place for young people is exceptionally good.  The leadership and management in the home is good. The home is effectively managed in the best interests of the young people to ensure that they have positive experiences, that their needs are met well and that they make progress in all areas of their lives.  The monitoring systems in place enable the leaders and managers to review the quality of care provided to young people and contribute to the home’s development plan and improvements in the home’s function.  Staff recruitment practice in the home needs to be strengthened. In particular, this is in relation to exploring any gaps in employment for new staff.  Appropriate measures must be in place to ensure that young people do not

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The children's home provision is good because:

have unsupervised access to the office, where confidential information is held.

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that must be taken so that the registered persons meet 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 persons must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children's safety. The registered person may only employ an individual to work at the children's home if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3). The requirements are that the individual is of integrity and good character; the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform; and full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1) (2) (a) (3) (a)(b)(d)) 09/12/16

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendations:

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Recommendations

 Limits on privacy and access may only be put in place to safeguard each child in the home (regulation 21(c)(i). Any decisions to limit a child's access to any area of the home must only be made where this is intended to safeguard the child's welfare. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.10)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that all incidents of control, discipline and restraint are subject to systems of regular scrutiny to ensure that their use is fair. (‘Guide to children homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.36) In particular, improve the recording of physical interventions, room searches and consequences and ensure that young people are spoken to following the use of any such measure.

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Recommendations

 Staff should continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. (‘Guide to children homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5) In particular, ensure that risk assessments provide a true reflection of the level of risk to young people.

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Information about this children's home

The home is one of three owned and managed by a private company. The home is registered to care for four young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties or learning difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 09/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 17/11/2015 Full Good 05/03/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness 22/07/2014 Full Adequate

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Good

Young people benefit from personalised and individualised care. As a result, they make progress in all areas of their lives because the staff have a good understanding of their needs and meet these well. Consequently, they are happy, settled and enjoy their time at the home. A young person said, ‘It is good living here, the staff are all nice, it is relaxing and I don’t have to do much.’

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Good

Relationships between the staff and young people are positive. Young people feel that the staff want what is best for them and will strive to achieve this by ensuring that the most appropriate support is in place for them to meet their individual needs. The two young people in the home are clear on which staff member they wanted as their key-worker. One young person has their chosen identified worker, but the other does not. The other young person finds it quite difficult to talk about any worries or concerns she may have, so it is extremely important for her that her key-worker is someone with whom she feels she has a good relationship. This will enable her to feel more confident to go to her key-worker if she wants to talk about something.

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Good

Young people are making good progress in education. Their attendance and attainment are good. One young person is making excellent progress and in some subjects is exceeding targets. The registered manager and staff fully support young people to attend education and to achieve well. They have worked together with education professionals to formulate a plan for a young person who was not engaging fully in education. This plan has been successful and the young person will be fully integrated back into full-time education next week due to the excellent progress made. An educational professional said: ‘I am extremely happy with the support we get from the home. The registered manager has been thoroughly involved in the support plan to re-integrate the young person into education. Together we have overcome every difficulty. He has fully supported us and the young person. The young person is much happier now and is making good

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Good

progress.’ Young people have been praised by the registered manager and staff for the excellent progress they are making in education.

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Good

Health care plans are incorporated in young people’s placement plans. Their health needs are identified along with how these will be met. One young person has an immunisation that is outstanding, and records did not clearly outline what arrangements are in place to ensure that this is given. Young people regularly attend for routine health checks, including opticians and dental appointments, and they are up to date with their children looked after health assessments. Young people are provided with a varied, well-balanced diet. They have a say in what meals they will have, and their individual needs are well catered for. For example, one young person is vegetarian, so meals are adapted to ensure that the individual need is met. Staff provide a variety of meat substitutes to ensure that a variety of nutritious meals are offered.

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Good

The therapeutic support available for young people is exceptionally good. The home benefits from the services of the company psychotherapist who provides individual support to staff and young people. Each young person has a therapeutic support plan in place, which is formulated following an assessment by the psychotherapist. Staff have regular consultations with the psychotherapist to review the aims and objectives set for each young person. These are in line with young people’s identified areas of need so young people receive regular therapeutic support during key-work sessions even when they will not engage directly with the psychotherapist.

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Good

The views, wishes and feelings of young people are central to the functioning of the home. Regular young people’s meetings take place and the registered manager gives feedback to young people on any issues raised. Where possible, action will be taken in response to young people’s views, and if not, then an explanation is given as to why it is not possible. For example, a young person wanted to keep a goldfish, and this was agreed on the understanding that the young person would look after the goldfish. Another young person wanted an e-cigarette, and the registered manager responded by advising that this was not possible as it was against the law for anyone under the age of 18 years.

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Good

There have been recent changes to the behaviour management in the home. This has resulted in a significant improvement in the behaviour of young people. Staff and young people have fully engaged in the changes and there is now an excellent incentive and rewards system in place. Young people said, ‘It is great that we can earn so much now, and we get a lot more free time and money.’ The behaviour management within the home means that the rewards far outweigh the consequences. The improvements are as a result of the registered manager, staff and young people successfully working together to make the home a much happier environment.

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Good

The home has good systems in place to plan for new admissions and prepare young people when moving on. They consider applications carefully to ensure that they are able to meet the needs of the young person and to assess what the impact will be on young people already living in the home. However, this is not supported by impact risk assessments being completed. The home will adapt to meet the needs of young people moving into the home. For example, they are currently providing an outreach service to a young person and her family due to some difficulties in getting her to move into the home. It is anticipated that this outreach will support her to move into the home as soon as possible in a planned and supportive way. Young people have regular contact with their family and friends, which is supported by the home. The registered manager and staff have developed good relationships with young people’s families and are proactive in ensuring that appropriate safe

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Good

contact takes place. The registered manager has been instrumental in progressing contact for a young person and his parents from being supervised in a family centre to being unsupervised in the community. This has resulted in contact being more productive and enjoyable for the young person. Likewise, measures have been put in place in relation to concerns about contact to ensure that the young person is safeguarded. A social worker said, ‘The home have developed good relationships with the families of young people and arrange contact which is quite informal now.’

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Good

The home prepares weekly and monthly progress reports on each young person that provide a summary of their progress and any concerns relating to them. These are shared with social workers to ensure that they are fully up to date on the current circumstances for the young person. It also allows staff to measure progress that has been made on a weekly and monthly basis. This contributes to the planning for the young person, particularly in relation to the issues to be addressed at key-work and direct-work sessions.

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Good

The home is very welcoming and offers a homely atmosphere. It is set in its own grounds, has a welcoming entrance hall with fresh flowers on display. Decorating work was taking place during the inspection. The upstairs hall area and young people’s bedrooms appear a little tired and worn, so would benefit from being painted. However, planned refurbishment is in place for these areas. The rest of the home was well decorated and furnished. The registered manager has recently bought some new items for the home including new lamps, a globe and bar stools for the kitchen. He is keen to keep the home clean, tidy and well maintained to ensure that young people are provided with a nurturing and supportive homely environment.

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Good

Young people say that they feel safe and protected in the home because staff have a clear understanding of the risks to them, such as going missing from care, substance misuse and self-harm. Safeguarding practices in the home are good due to the knowledge, skills and experience that staff have in relation to safeguarding. They are all adequately trained in safeguarding. This enables them to recognise and respond appropriately to any safeguarding issues that arise.

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Good

Robust procedures are in place for when young people go missing from the home. There are effective links with the police, missing-from-care professionals, social workers and families to ensure the safe return of young people as soon as possible. When young people return they are offered a warm welcome home by staff and always have an independent return interview. The aim of the independent return interview is to gather information from the young person into the reasons why they were missing, the risks they faced and how further missing-from-home episodes can be avoided. The number of missing-from-home episodes has significantly reduced recently due to the incentive scheme in place and the change to when young people are reported missing. For example, a high number of the missing- from-home episodes relate to young people coming in late. They were previously reported missing as soon as they were not in at the agreed time, but now they are

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Good

reported missing after one hour, unless there is a specific safeguarding issue. Young people will lose some of their incentive if they abuse this new system and come in later than their agreed time. The new missing-from-home procedures appear to be keeping young people safer and have reduced the number of missing- from-home episodes for them.

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Good

The home takes swift action to safeguard young people at risk of self-harm. The manager and staff at the home were able to identify when this was an issue for a young person and took appropriate action to address this and manage the risk. This included undertaking a room search, speaking with the young person and involving the psychotherapist to address the issues. The young person’s risk assessment was updated to reflect the level of risk. This appropriate action meant that the young person was safeguarded, received the appropriate support and her welfare was promoted.

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Good

The procedures in the home in relation to managing the substance misuse of young people need to be strengthened. Following a young person being involved in substance misuse while at contact the home took appropriate action in that they informed the social worker and suspended contact until appropriate safeguards were in place. However, they assumed that the social worker would refer the young person to the substance misuse service to address the substance misuse. This did not happen, and there have been a number of occasions when the young person has been under the influence of substances or alcohol. Although the home dealt appropriately with the immediate safeguarding issues by monitoring the young person and suspending contact, they did not access the appropriate support for the young person to deal with the longer-term issues and impact of substance misuse. This could potentially place the young person at risk in the future.

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Good

Young people benefit from clear, consistent routines and boundaries in the home. They are clear as to what is expected from them and have responded well to the recent changes in relation to behaviour management. This has resulted in them having much more positive relationships with staff and each other. The home is now a safe, secure, stable environment for the young people because of the changes in behaviour management and the incentive and reward schemes that are proving to be extremely effective. Young people and staff appear to be much more settled and happy.

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Good

There have been a number of physical interventions, room searches and consequences. The recording of these is variable and there is limited evidence that the registered manager or staff have spoken to young people following these incidents to reflect on why the measure was necessary. Therefore, more emphasis needs to be given to the quality of recording systems in the home and ensuring that young people are given the opportunity to discuss incidents fully.

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Good

The individual risk assessments for young people clearly outline the individual risks to them and how these will be managed. They are regularly reviewed, and identify whether the risk is high, medium or low. There was some discrepancy in the risk levels in that the risk to one young person was recorded as high and for another person with the same risk and additional risks was medium. The registered manager accepted this discrepancy and said that he felt that it was due to a recording error rather than staff’s understanding of the thresholds. Therefore, the review and recording of risk levels needs to be tightened to ensure that risk assessments provide a true reflection of the level of risk to young people, which will ensure that appropriate support and intervention is in place to safeguard them effectively.

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Good

The home’s location risk assessment is very detailed and incorporates the views of key partner agencies, such as the police and the local authority. Information is shared regarding concerns in the local area and potential risk to young people. This supports staff and other professionals to keep young people safe.

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Good

The registered manager acknowledges the need for safe recruitment procedures. They use an agency, which undertakes relevant checks to recruit their permanent staff. However, there has been a shortfall in this area in that the gaps in the employment history for a new member of staff were not fully explored. This means that appropriate vetting did not take place prior to a member of staff working in the home, which could potentially place young people at risk.

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Good

There has been an incident when a young person was able to access the office within the home and take some money, keys and possibly some confidential information from team meetings. The registered manager recognises that this poses a safeguarding issue and data breach so has taken appropriate action to ensure that this does not happen again. This includes discussions with staff, young people, locks being changed, plans for CCTV to be fitted and clear procedures in place to ensure that the office is secure at all times.

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Good

There has been a change to the registered manager of the home since the last inspection. The new manager has moved from another home within the company and has worked in residential childcare for many years. He has been a registered manager for a number of years. He is suitably qualified, and his application to be the registered manager at this home with Ofsted is well underway.

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Good

The registered manager is enthusiastic, committed and motivated. He is very supportive to the members of the staff team, who are as equally committed to the home and young people. The registered manager and staff clearly enjoy their work and are proud of young people’s progress. They show a strong commitment to ensure that each young person, regardless of the difficulties they are experiencing, is safe, valued and gets the best possible opportunities to promote their life chances. A new member of staff said: ‘The home is fantastic, I love the ambience and relaxed atmosphere. The registered manager is extremely supportive and I can’t fault him.’

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Good

The registered manager has brought about some extremely positive and effective improvements in the short time he has been at the home. In particular, relating to behaviour management. The home went through a particularly difficult few months prior to his arrival in relation to the behaviour of the young people and how this was managed. This resulted in complaints from neighbours, police intervention and young people’s placements being at risk. However, resolution meetings have taken place and relationships with the neighbours have been repaired. The home now has robust behaviour management practices in place and incentives and rewards for young people, which have significantly improved the behaviour of young people.

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Good

Staff receive regular supervision that is reflective in nature, which allows them to identify any areas for personal development and the impact that their practice has on young people. There has also been a group supervision session recently to reflect on the behaviour management in the home and how they can work together to implement the changes, which have resulted in significant improvement. In addition to this, staff benefit from regular consultation with the company psychotherapist. This enables staff to receive therapeutic support for themselves and guidance in therapeutically supporting the young people they care for. This makes a positive contribution to the staff and young people in the home.

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Good

The home prioritises staff training and ensures that staff are well trained to meet the needs of young people and the aims of the home. They discuss training and practice issues in team meetings to ensure that consistent practice is in place and to share knowledge, skills and experience. This provides young people with a consistent level of care in the home from staff who are skilled and suitably trained. The home is functioning in line with its statement of purpose. This document clearly sets out the ethos, aims and objectives of the home, which are clearly embedded in practice. The statement of purpose says: ‘Through pursuing individual targets whilst living in a stable and safe environment, the young people in our care are afforded the best possible chance to achieve their full potential.’

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Good

Professional relationships between the home, social workers, independent reviewing officers, the police, missing-from-care professionals, safeguarding, health and education professionals are good. Professionals share information regularly about young people to ensure that the appropriate support is in place to meet their identified needs. Furthermore, this results in a consistent approach in supporting young people in all areas of their development. A social worker said: ‘There are really good levels of communication between the home and professionals, they keep everyone informed on progress and are proactive in arranging meetings when they are necessary. They will run things past me but use their own initiative to manage things and make decisions.’

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Good

The registered manager has effective monitoring systems in place to regularly review the quality of care provided to young people. He recognises that this helps him to drive up standards for young people and provides him with a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the home. This supports the manager to ensure continuous improvement by making use of the information available to him. There are plans in place to develop the monitoring systems further by senior management undertaking quarterly quality assurance visits to the home.

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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 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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