Children's home run by Carehome Limited in Liverpool

Outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the home contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

p.2

The children’s home provision is outstanding because:

 The children live in a loving, nurturing and supportive home where they enjoy extremely positive and rewarding experiences. They receive an exceptionally high quality of care that is meeting their individual needs and making an important difference to all of their lives. They have made very significant progress across all aspects of their development. The manager and staff take decisive action when they are worried that children are struggling, so they can identify the best possible support to help them.  The children have trusting and meaningful relationships with the staff. They feel loved and are always treated with dignity and respect. They know that staff always tell them the truth and fight for them to get the best possible support and opportunities.  The manager and staff have built an exceptionally strong safeguarding culture in the home. The children are always listened to and taken seriously,

p.3

The children’s home provision is outstanding because:

feel extremely safe and have a strong sense of belonging. The staff’s exceptional safeguarding practice ensures that they are protected from bullying, aggression, abuse and exploitation.  The manager’s and staff’s consistent and well-informed approach to helping children to manage their feelings is making a positive difference to their emotional well-being and helping them to build positive relationships. They know the children extremely well and are skilled at seeing beyond children’s behaviour to try to understand the underlying problems.  Highly effective managers lead a strong, stable, skilled, experienced and cohesive staff team. The managers and staff have created a culture that provides children with a high quality of care in a positive and exceptionally supportive environment. They have high aspirations for every child, regardless of their challenges, to enjoy the same opportunities and experiences as other children.

p.3

The children’s home provision is outstanding because:

 The leaders and managers have an extremely detailed and well-informed understanding of the strengths of the home and the areas for development. They accurately measure the effectiveness of the home’s impact on children’s lives and use this information to improve the quality of care. An independent visitor provides a rigorous and impartial scrutiny of the running of the home and how effectively children’s welfare is promoted and safeguarded.

p.3

Information about this children’s home

This private children’s home provides care for children with emotional behavioural difficulties, learning disabilities, physical disabilities and sensory impairments. It accommodates up to four children in the main house. In addition, a satellite house provides accommodation for up to two older children who are preparing for independence.

p.4

Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 29/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 25/01/2016 Full Outstanding 29/01/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness 28/07/2014 Full Outstanding

p.4

Outstanding

Children enjoy extremely positive experiences while living in this safe, nurturing and comfortable home. They receive an exceptional quality of care that is helping the children to make excellent progress and achieve significantly better outcomes. The managers and staff are ambitious for every child, regardless of the complexity of their needs or experiences, to be happy, do well and enjoy life to their full potential. They understand the children extremely well and, as a result, provide them with an outstanding standard of care that is skilfully tailored to meet children’s personal needs. The children are making significant and continuous improvements in all aspects of their development.

p.5

Outstanding

The quality of the relationships between the children and staff is actively contributing to children’s progress. All of the children are extremely positive about the staff and living at this home. They have strong and trusting relationships with the staff, and feel loved and valued. A child said, ‘I have a close relationship with the staff’ and ‘I trust all of the staff’. The staff know the children really well and unquestionably care about them, enjoy spending time with them and are interested in their lives. A social worker said, ‘He has settled well and has developed a positive relationship with all members of staff from day one. They made the effort to familiarise themselves with his background and come to know him, in order to find the way of best caring for him. He has had security and stability during the past two and half years while at the home, and he has progressed emotionally.’

p.5

Outstanding

The children know that staff always tell them the truth, stand by their word, and fight for them to get the best possible support and opportunities. A social worker said, ‘The child went to the home after several placement breakdowns in short succession, and the difference between then and now is astonishing. The manager and the team are extremely nurturing, but have very clear and firm boundaries which he has responded well to.’

p.5

Outstanding

The managers and staff always take the children’s wishes and feelings into account in all the decisions about their lives and every aspect of the running of the home. The children feel that they have a voice, and their wishes and worries are taken seriously, including about how often they see their family, wanting to find out more about their lives and the reasons why they do not live with their family. Staff carefully balance the child’s wishes against what they judge to be the best interests of the child. They understand the importance for a child of finding out about their background, but sensitively work out how best to share this information with them and support them through the process. They encourage and support children to express their views assertively. Children are becoming confident in sharing their opinions and raising issues with adults, including making a complaint to the placing authority about too many changes of social worker and playing an active part in

p.5

Outstanding

The manager and staff have created an extremely stimulating environment that actively promotes children’s learning and development. Children’s daily routines support their participation in education effectively. They have plenty of books, computers, art materials, toys, games and other educational resources. They enjoy learning, work hard, have excellent attendance at school, take part in school sporting events, and are achieving and making very good progress. The staff have an excellent understanding of children’s educational needs, plans, progress and achievements. They keep in regular contact with teachers and learning mentors, attend parents evenings and take part in school events. They work very closely with the schools to support children’s education and tackle any barriers to their learning and progress, including helping children to settle into new schools.

p.6

Outstanding

The children take part in a wide range of fun and exciting activities, both in the home and in the community. They enjoy the same opportunities and social experiences as other children, including seeing the latest films at the cinema, going out for meals, seeing friends, going to youth club and scouts, playing computer games, trampolining and climbing. They are actively supported to develop their talents and interests, including football training and playing for a local team, dance and learning to swim. The staff ensure that children have all the clothing and equipment that they need to take part in their interests.

p.6

Outstanding

Children live in a healthy environment that actively promotes their physical health and emotional well-being. They enjoy very healthy and varied diets, and take plenty of physical exercise. Staff have an excellent understanding of children’s specific health needs, and manage their health with sensitivity and confidence. They closely monitor children to make sure that they are healthy, supporting them to attend routine health checks. Staff also ensure that the children always have suitable medical advice and treatment when they are feeling unwell or if children are concerned about their health. They make sure that treatment plans are consistently followed and that the arrangements for dealing with medication are safe.

p.6

Outstanding

Children get the right support and guidance to help them to develop their life skills. The managers and staff are making excellent use of the satellite house to enhance the opportunities for older children to prepare for adult life and become more independent. They have helped a young person to move successfully into her own accommodation. During her time living at the satellite house, she became more confident in her practical skills, including shopping, cooking and managing money. Staff understand that becoming an adult is both an exciting and a worrying time. They supported her with plenty of reassurance, guidance and emotional support to help her to negotiate this significant change. In addition, her pathway plans and the effectiveness of the support were routinely reviewed and adapted to ensure that she was having the right help. This meant that the expectations placed on her were not overwhelming and helped her to build up her confidence over time. The

p.6

Outstanding

managers and staff are using the lessons that they have learned in supporting her to inform their practice to support other children to prepare for independence.

p.7

Outstanding

The manager and staff have played an active role in making sure that children who live a long way from their home have easy access to health, education and therapeutic services. They also enable them to maintain important links with their families and home areas. They make sure that they are able to continue with activities that they did before moving to the home.

p.7

Outstanding

Children see and speak regularly to their family, and some children routinely stay overnight with their families. This is helping children to maintain and improve important relationships. Their friends and family receive a warm welcome when they visit the home. They provide children with a great deal of excellent emotional support around seeing their families. They understand that it can be a difficult time for children, and take every effort to make sure that it is a safe and positive experience for everyone.

p.7

Outstanding

The managers and staff have created an exceptionally strong safeguarding culture in which children are protected from harm, feel safe and cared for, and have a strong sense of belonging. They always listen to the children’s views, take their worries and concerns seriously, and treat them with dignity and respect. A child said, ‘Staff listen to what I say, help me if I’m upset and sort things out.’ Staff’s exceptional safeguarding practice ensures that children are protected from bullying, abuse, neglect and exploitation. The children have become increasingly safe since they came to live here. They do not go missing from home, and the risk of abuse and sexual exploitation has been significantly reduced.

p.7

Outstanding

The managers and staff give children’s safety the highest priority. They are skilled in recognising the signs and symptoms of abuse and neglect, and children’s vulnerability to sexual exploitation. They work extremely well with the children to help them to understand about personal safety, identify dangers and risky situations, and to recognise healthy relationships. The managers and staff always take decisive action to protect children and promptly report any concerns about their welfare to the appropriate safeguarding agencies. They work collaboratively with families, social workers, the police and support services, such as ‘Catch 22’, to understand, manage and reduce the risk of harm. Their effective use of written risk assessments as organic documents means that they understand and manage the current level of risk for each child exceptionally well. They adapt protective measures to the level of risk, and ensure that they measure how effective the

p.7

Outstanding

strategies are in reducing risks. They carefully balance risk and the need for protection with enabling children to take risks as part of their development, so that they can make their own choices, and become resilient and more independent.

p.8

Outstanding

The managers and staff have created a warm and positive environment with clear and consistent boundaries that promote children’s feelings of security and emotional well-being. Staff’s nurturing and authentic approach helps children to understand how to build positive relationships and develop socially aware behaviour. Staff help children to understand when other children are upset or having a hard time and to develop empathy towards each other. They promote positive interactions between children through encouraging fun activities, for example playing board games or sharing footballing skills. The children usually get on well, but they do fall out. Staff quickly pick up when there is something wrong and are very aware of the risk of bullying. They deal with disagreements and bullying behaviour effectively. Their restorative approach encourages children to talk about what is upsetting and to work through the problem together.

p.8

Outstanding

Consequently, children are helped to make significant progress in their personal care, managing their feelings and behaviour, and getting along with other people. A social worker said, ‘The staff are extremely nurturing, but have very clear and firm boundaries which the young person has responded well to. When he was first placed, he would have frequent and long outbursts which have resulted in restraints, at times, to keep him safe. There is clear evidence that the number of restraints have been reduced dramatically, as have the frequency and length of time of the outbursts.’

p.8

Outstanding

When children struggle to manage their feelings and control their behaviour, staff take appropriate action to reduce the likelihood of aggressive or dangerous behaviour and its impact on other children. The behaviour management records provide a detailed and reflective account of each incident, including what happened, the action that staff took to try to avoid the use of restraint, the child’s behaviour and mood following the restraint, and an in-depth analysis of the effectiveness of the whole incident. The manager and staff use this information to reflect on what happened, understand the behaviour and work out how best to support children in the future. For example, they have introduced a self-soothing approach to support children. This is helping children to talk and deal with their worries and frustrations, to feel more settled afterwards and less likely to express their feelings through negative behaviour. A psychologist said that staff ‘have

p.8

Outstanding

successfully been implementing self-soothing strategies and disseminating knowledge to other staff members to assist the child. His needs are very complex, however they have been able to adapt strategies, such as breathing techniques, to suit him.’ Judgement grade

p.8

Outstanding

The registered manager has been in charge of the home since April 2013. She has extensive experience and knowledge of children’s residential care, and is suitably qualified to manage a children’s home. She is a confident and inspirational manager who provides extremely effective leadership that unmistakably prioritises children’s welfare.

p.9

Outstanding

The registered manager and deputy manager form a highly efficient and supportive leadership team. Together, they give staff a clear direction that promotes a culture that focuses on systematically improving children’s lives and delivering an exceedingly high quality of care in a positive and safe environment. The managers and staff have high aspirations for every child to enjoy the same opportunities and experiences as other children. They fight for the children to have their voice heard, influence the decisions affecting their lives, and have the help that they need to achieve improved social, economic, emotional, health and education outcomes.

p.9

Outstanding

The managers and staff have excellent communication and professional relationships with children’s families, placing and host authorities, independent reviewing officers, police, schools and health and support services. Their collaborative partnerships ensure that the children receive the best possible support in all areas of their development. The managers and staff played an active and significant part in writing one child’s education, health and care plan, based on their knowledge of his needs and experiences. This helped to identify the most appropriate school to meet his education and social needs. They challenge assertively and successfully when the responses from other services are not effective or are not meeting children’s assessed needs. A social worker said, ‘I feel that the team has such a clear understanding of his needs and what support he requires. They have been influential in progressing referrals to the child and

p.9

Outstanding

adolescent mental health services for him.’

p.9

Outstanding

The extremely high quality of care practice enables children to make continuous and sustained progress across all aspects of their development. The managers and staff have a detailed understanding of the progress that each child has made since they first moved in. Comprehensive and reflective records build a detailed understanding of child’s life, identify the help and support that they need and inform the plans for their future. The information also enables the managers and staff to see how their work makes a meaningful difference to children’s lives. They recognise when children are struggling to make progress and always take steps to ensure that the child’s plan and needs are reviewed and the most appropriate course of action is taken, for example pursuing assessment to understand the child better and inform the plan. The managers have high expectations for the staff’s professional conduct and practice. The staff are extremely well supported by effective professional

p.9

Outstanding

supervision by both managers. It provides them with plenty of opportunities to reflect on their practice and the children’s progress, to discuss the emotional impact of their work and have their performance thoroughly assessed. The managers provide staff with excellent advice, guidance and support that promote strongly child-focused practice and staff’s confidence and professional development. Consequently, they have built a strong, stable and cohesive team. Staff show a strong commitment to each child, compassion, perseverance and resilience. They are very experienced and suitably qualified. A number of them have achieved the level 5 diploma in residential childcare or are working towards it. The managers actively encourage staff to continue to develop their skills and knowledge through excellent training programmes tailored to the specific needs of the children, including in behaviour management, attachment theory, self-soothing,

p.10

Outstanding

sexual health and healthy relationships. The staff apply their learning to their practice and understand its impact on the children with whom they are working. For example, breathing techniques are helping one child to manage his feelings and control his behaviour.

p.10

Outstanding

The managers ensure that people working at the home have the right experience, skills, values, personal qualities and motivation to work with vulnerable children. New staff go through a rigorous selection procedure and are carefully vetted before they start work. Children play a central role in the recruitment of staff. They routinely interview people wishing to work at the home, devise questions and have a clear view about what they are looking for in people who support them. The children confirmed that their opinions are always taken into account when making a decision to offer a person the job.

p.10

Outstanding

The managers have a detailed understanding of the strengths of the home and the areas for development. An independent visitor provides rigorous and impartial scrutiny of the running of the home and how effectively children’s welfare is promoted and safeguarded. He talks to the children, their families and social workers to help him to make judgements. The managers’ detailed and informative reviews of the quality of care evaluate how effectively they are applying the quality standards and the children’s progress, and reflect on the success of the strategies that staff are using to support children. They take decisive action, based on their findings, to improve and maintain an exceedingly high standard of support that invariably meets children’s assessed needs and plans.

p.10

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

p.11

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.

p.11

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

p.12

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 .

p.12

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,

p.13

Information about this inspection

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.13

Information about this inspection

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.13

Information about this inspection

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

p.13