Children's home run by Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council

Good

The children's home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Young people are making progress in their development. They receive highly personalised care from staff, who demonstrate sensitivity and humour, and a commitment to developing supportive relationships with them.  Staff show a real passion for their role and are committed to encouraging positive outcomes for young people. They work hard at maintaining positive relationships, showing patience and resilience even when young people’s behaviour is problematic.  Education is supported well through partnership working with schools, colleges and the head of the virtual team of the local authority. While some young people’s attendance is variable, others are maintaining a good level of attendance with their education. The manager and staff are committed to education and encourage young people’s learning and attainment.  Staff demonstrate a very good understanding of each young person, and health records show how young people’s emotional, psychological and physical needs

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The children's home provision is good because:

are being met.  Staff encourage young people to express their views and opinions on their care. This ensures that young people are involved in these important decisions.  The registered manager works effectively with other safeguarding professionals and the police. She discusses and manages risk, for example by calling for high- risk strategy meetings. This is securing a positive change to safeguard young people further on a daily basis.  Specific work has taken place with young people on issues such as child sexual exploitation, bullying and missing-from-home incidents. This keeps young people safe and enables staff to assess and act on young people’s vulnerabilities.  The home’s response to young people going missing from care is proactive. The registered manager has forged good relationships with professional networks to help keep young people as safe as possible.  The home is in a poor condition and is in need of refurbishment.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 The management team demonstrates exceptional leadership. It has quickly assessed the strengths and weaknesses of the home, and drawn up a comprehensive development plan. Staff welcome the support and training they receive. As a result, significant improvements have been made following the home’s previous inspections.

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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

6. The quality and purpose of care standard

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard the registered person is required to:

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Requirement Due date

(c) ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home, in particular the kitchen area, are designed and furnished so as to– (i) meet the needs of each child; and (ii) enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home. 30/12/2016

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the education standard, with particular reference to engaging young people in their education, training or employment, the registered person must:

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Requirement Due date

(2)(x) help each child to attend education or training in accordance with the expectations in the child’s relevant plans. 30/12/2016

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Requirement Due date

(2) The registered person must ensure that–

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Requirement Due date

(a) at all times, at least one person on duty at the home has a suitable first aid qualification. 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:  Children in residential care may be worried about being stigmatised or bullied by their peers for being ‘different’ because of where they live. The home's environment should be designed to take account of this and staff should support children to talk about and help them address any concerns they have. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 16, paragraph 3.13)

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Information about this children's home

The home is operated by a local authority and is registered to provide care and accommodation for three young people with emotional and/or learning difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 03/03/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness 14/12/2015 Full Requires improvement 17/03/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness 29/09/2014 Full Outstanding

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Good

Young people make good progress. They receive personalised care and support that reflects their individual needs, complex behaviours and vulnerabilities. Relationships between young people and staff are positive, friendly and fun. Young people engage with staff in regular key-work sessions. These review individual risks and internal care plans, discuss behaviours and incidents, and celebrate achievements. Young people’s experiences are enhanced from their starting point in the home. A placing social worker and a youth offending worker confirmed that young people are happy and are definitely making progress in the home.

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Good

Activities that are available for the young people are positive and give them opportunities to have fun and celebrate festivities. For example, preparation for Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night is underway, with young people planning and participating in these events with the staff. Staff encourage young people to enjoy trips out, including the cinema, meals out and day trips to the beach. Discussions focus on young people’s individual interests as well as considering the enjoyment of the group. The home is decorated with photographs celebrating a number of recent group activities and art and craft work completed by young people. One young person enjoyed a three-week course with the art project during the summer holidays.

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Good

Staff work hard at maintaining positive relationships with young people, showing patience and resilience even when behaviour is problematic. Young people make good progress, such as asking staff for help to manage their anger. Staff adopt a thoughtful and sensitive approach during times when young people are in crisis. They support young people who have difficult and confusing feelings as they come to terms with their situation. As a result, young people are not criminalised and are supported to express their feelings well. One young person said, ‘This is my home and I never want to leave.’ Another says, ‘I know staff care for me, even when I’m angry or breaking things, they support me to calm down.’

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Good

The barriers to educational progress for young people are understood, and the staff are committed to overcoming these. There is a commitment to recognising and having strategies in place to support young people’s emotional issues. This has meant that attendance and attainment for some young people has been challenging at times, with young people refusing to engage in education or employment. Other young people have made significant improvements in their attendance and are developing educationally. Staff work with education professionals, the virtual school team and the young people’s social workers to ensure that additional support is provided. Staff are dedicated to supporting young people’s learning experiences and ensuring that they do not fall behind academically.

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Good

The development and introduction of child-friendly care plans means that young people know their day-to-day plans and expectations. They confirm that they understand the content of these and say that they are involved in decisions about their current and future care needs. However, some information, such as the young people’s educational goals and academic levels, is missing. As a result, a requirement is made. This is to ensure that staff are aware of how they can best support each young person to reach their academic potential, or measure how well each young person is progressing academically and whether they are reaching their expected levels in line with the agreed plan for them.

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Good

Staff ensure that the healthcare needs of young people are met. They are encouraged and supported to attend routine appointments with dentists, doctors and opticians. Specialist support is readily available to meet the emotional and psychological needs of young people through individual therapy sessions. A good medication management system ensures the safe administration of medication. Clear records are maintained by the home, and medication is securely stored.

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Good

Staff work with social workers and young people’s families to facilitate regular contact visits. Young people receive practical and emotional support to help them to understand their backgrounds and to further progress suitable relationships with their friends and families. This means that young people are not isolated, and are provided with practical assistance to support and understand their friends and family relationships.

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Good

Some young people have lived in the home for a considerable time and are not of an age where they require practical independence plans. They do daily tasks, such as cooking, baking, washing and cleaning, and take care of their own personal hygiene and appearance. Young people who have moved on from the home have done so with practical support and skills to manage a return to their family.

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Good

Young people know how and whom to make a complaint to. They have information of relevant independent services and people. Young people are regularly consulted about their care in the home and before, during and after their review meetings. This gives them a sense of belonging, knowing that their views are listened to and acted upon.

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Good

Most areas in the home do not look well maintained or cared for. There are areas in the kitchen, in particular, that are damaged and appear run-down and neglected. As a result, a requirement is made. Although staff try to manage the upkeep and maintenance of the home, some fixtures and fittings look old and worn, and some rooms require upgrade and redecoration. The requirement and the recommendation made is to ensure that the home’s environment is of a standard that would allow young people to be confident to bring their friends into the home. Judgement grade

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Good

Young people say that they feel safe. Staff work with young people, allocated social workers and other professionals to identify risk-taking behaviours, and develop strategies to reduce these risks. This integrated and comprehensive approach to risk management means that young people become increasingly safe, and begin to take some responsibility for their own safety.

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Good

Such strategies have significantly reduced a young person’s vulnerability and missing-from-home incidents which were high prior to and at the point of placement in the home. This has been achieved by staff engaging with the local community to support safeguarding measures. Local police provide extra information on known associates of young people, to support more thorough and effective risk assessments. These measures have protected a young person while allowing them to take age-appropriate risks.

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Good

The home provides a safe environment for young people who have experienced unpredictable and unsafe situations in their past. Through close supervision from thoughtful staff, young people develop a sense of safety, protection and trust in the staff who care for them. Staff receive refresher training on child sexual exploitation, grooming, bullying and online safety. They are confident in their understanding of safeguarding and their knowledge of safeguarding procedures. Safeguarding issues receive a prompt response, confidential recording of such matters evidences the action taken and the outcome of any safeguarding concerns.

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Good

The home has strong links with other professionals, including other children’s homes’ staff, the local youth service, the police and voluntary organisations. These links are used to good effect to increase the opportunities for young people to overcome previous experiences, to widen the range of activities available to them and to manage, and sometimes reduce, risks. Police visiting the home say that they have no concerns about the young people placed there and are confident in the support the staff provide to the young people.

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Good

Staff encourage young people to behave appropriately. Individual behaviour management plans identify triggers for negative behaviour and the strategies for managing these behaviours. Positive behaviour is promoted through applying clear and consistent boundaries. Individual key-worker sessions, incentives and rewards are all used to good effect to help young people to develop socially acceptable behaviour. As a result of this, the use of restraint is rare and consequences, when imposed, are fair. For one young person, the home is the only place where he feels safe enough to explore his difficult feelings. These feelings, at times, result in challenging and damaging behaviours. His social worker feels that this home is a very supportive environment for him. Staff work in close partnership with local support services to make sure that they understand young people’s emotional needs, respond appropriately and promote young people’s well-being effectively.

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Good

Records maintained for staff show that they are carefully selected and vetted. Ongoing routine checks ensure that unsuitable people are not given the opportunity to harm young people, or to put them at risk. All visitors to the home are required to show their identity, sign in and are given instructions about the fire evacuation procedure and fire assembly point. Young people confirm that they know how to evacuate the home in the event of a fire or an emergency. These measures keep young people, staff and visitors safe.

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Good

In addition, regular health and safety checks are carried out and recorded to ensure that the environment is safe and free from hazards.

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Good

The registered manager is new to the home. She has the relevant management experience and is qualified. Having previously been a registered manager, she joined the home in April 2016. Since this time, she has provided strong leadership in a period of challenge and change. She has established a learning culture, where there is reflection on incidents and enormous effort to prevent recurrence. She has looked at and taken into account previous Ofsted and independent person reports and has identified strengths and acted upon weaknesses in the home.

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Good

The registered manager has drawn up a comprehensive development plan with clear responsibilities and timescales. This is a manager who empowers her staff and puts the young people’s needs, through positive parenting, at the centre of her practice. She is assisted by a capable deputy manager, and they are energetic and involved in the day-to-day running of the home.

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Good

The registered manager and deputy manager lead the staff team by example, and are passionate about, and committed to, providing young people with an enjoyable and positive experience in the home. Together they encourage staff to develop new and innovative ways to work with the young people and are proactive in developing practice. Collectively, staff say that their confidence has increased and that they feel supported. Staff confirm that they receive supervision at least monthly. Team meetings are held regularly, and there are monthly audits of the paperwork that they complete. This reviews each young person’s progress in relation to their care plan. New systems are embedded and fully understood by staff. This significantly benefits the young people living in the home.

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Good

The home’s statement of purpose document has been updated and is a good working document. Staff are familiar with the aims and objectives that the home endeavours to promote. Recent updates to the statement of purpose document include staffing and staff qualifications. Staff are sufficient in number to meet the needs of the young people, and all but one are qualified to level 3 or above.

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Good

Staff benefit from a range of appropriate training to develop their knowledge, skills and professional practice. A training plan shows upcoming dates. Most staff training is up to date. However, some training has expired, for example first aid training. As a result, a requirement is made. This is to ensure that at all times at least one person on duty at the home has a suitable first aid qualification.

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Good

The registered manager models excellent social-work practice through her direct- support work with young people. She closely monitors the quality of care and its impact on the young people’s progress and outcomes. An independent person adds external scrutiny and insightful evaluation of the service to the home’s quality assurance processes.

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Good

Young people make good progress in all aspects of their development and personal growth because the registered manager prioritises their needs. They are the focus of day-to-day routines in the home and they respond well to this structure. The registered manager retains a close overview of the progress that young people make, in line with the aims and objectives defined in their statutory and internal care plans. When barriers to progress are identified, the registered manager takes suitable action to address these issues. This means that young people make continual progress in this placement.

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Good

The registered manager recognises the importance of partnership working with external agencies as an essential link to young people’s progress. Relationships with other services are strong. When the practice of other professionals falls short of acceptable standards, the registered manager challenges these agencies to ensure that young people have access to the help and support that they need. This collaborative approach is embedded in the ethos of the home and fully supports young people’s progress.

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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 children looked after 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 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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