Children's home run by Doncaster Children‟s Services Trust Limited in Doncaster

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 like living in this welcoming and nurturing home. They enjoy stable placements, understand their plans and progress steadily. Young people with moving on plans are reluctant to leave, but they have good support and guidance to ensure a sensitive and safe transition into independence.  Good-quality, individualised care planning supports young people’s health, education, behaviour and future plans.  Young people are safe, and their propensity to take risks has reduced. Good safeguarding measures and working together practices with other professionals support young people’s challenging behaviours, and curtail opportunities to criminalise those who are on the edge of such activities.  Young people develop secure and trusting relationships with the consistent and caring staff, who support, protect and promote their welfare. Positive relationships derive from this point of strength, which helps young people to

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The children's home provision is good because:

aspire and improve their life chances.  Young people’s wishes and feelings are taken seriously and acted on appropriately, which respects the voice of the child.  The harmful behaviours presented by some young people have rendered their placements unsafe, and consequently they have ended for safeguarding reasons.  Strong leadership and management promote young people’s progress, and oversee the current and future operation of the home competently. The registered manager and staff team’s high levels of diligence and resilience during a very challenging period are testament to the good support and teamwork within the home.  External monitoring of the home’s performance provides good scrutiny and challenge, which helps the manager to drive forward continuous improvements in the home.

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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

(2) In order to meet the care planning standard, with particular reference to fully considering the impact that new placements will have on the existing group of children by producing written impact risk assessments, the registered person is required to ensure: (a) that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose. 06/01/2017

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  Regulation 40(4) requires the registered person to notify Ofsted and other relevant persons if one of the situations specified in regulation 40(4)(a)–(d) occurs, or if there is an incident relating to the protection, safeguarding or welfare of a child living in the home, which the registered person considers to be serious. ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 63, paragraphs 14.10 and 14.11)

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Recommendations

 Usually, rooms should only be searched if the child has been informed or asked for their permission. Immediate searching may be necessary when there are reasonable grounds for believing that there is a risk to the child's or another person's safety or well-being. ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 16 paragraph 3.20). This specifically relates to reviewing the room search protocol to check that the arrangements remain current.

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Information about this children's home

The children's home is operated by an independent trust for up to five young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 03/11/2015 Full Good 22/09/2015 Full Inadequate 11/06/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness 11/02/2015 Full Adequate

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Good

Young people live in a welcoming and nurturing home that provides them with good opportunities to prosper. Consequently, they are making steady progress and they are responsive to the realistic targets and goals that the staff have agreed with them. Young people are now attending school. They have improved their engagement with staff and peers, and are causing less damage around the house.

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Good

New young people admitted to the home recount a good transition. One young person said that staff welcomed them into the home, that they slept well on their first night, and there was nothing about the experience that worried them. The current relatively cordial atmosphere in the home is in massive contrast to previous months, when a placement was made that presented challenging and risky behaviours. In the absence of an impact risk assessment, it is unclear how the registered manager took into account all of the young people’s needs and the likely impact of a new young person joining the existing group. The negative impact on the other young people and increased demands on the staff team were resolved when the placement was ended for safeguarding reasons. The lessons learned intend to prevent a similar predicament. The staff consider themselves to be in an improved position, caring for a group of young people whose needs they can now

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Good

Young people express satisfaction with living at the home. The clear routines and boundaries afford them a good sense of safety and security. Borne out of the developing and existing attachments are some positive and engaging relationships between the current group of young people and staff. A young person consulted by the independent visitor said, ‘I like living here and the staff are good. I get on with them well.’ A member of staff said, ‘You are potentially building a lifelong friendship. They deserve the respect as much as you do. I would never turn my back on them at any point in time.’

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Good

Good-quality, individualised care planning supports young people’s daily lives and aspirations. This includes their good access to a range of health services that meet their holistic health needs. For example, follow-up appointments pursued by the staff have supported a young person recuperating from an operation. Young people are taking more pride in their self-care, which improves their self-esteem. Healthy eating options, increased physical activities, and support and advice from the specialist nurse are resulting in healthier and fitter young people, some of whom have lost weight. This boosts their confidence and well-being, and could extend their life expectancy. Similarly, the young people’s education is highly valued by the staff team, and the accommodation in the home provides ample space for home study. Those young people who refused to attend their education prior to moving to the home are now

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Good

back on track, and engaged in bespoke educational packages. Young people post- 16 are achieving specialist qualifications that can springboard them into specific employment opportunities, and showcase their talents. Good liaison between the staff and education providers helps to overcome any identified barriers to young people’s educational progress and success.

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Good

Fun and engaging leisure activities provide young people with an appropriate distraction, and include boxing, swimming, attending the local youth club, socialising with friends, making music and enjoying trips and holidays away. As well as helping young people to make productive use of their spare time, their individual and group activities provide valuable learning opportunities for them to enhance their outlook on life.

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Good

The manager and staff are very responsive to listening to and acting on the young people’s wishes and feelings. Individual key-work sessions, regular access to the manager, talking to independent advocates and attending meetings are exemplars of how young people can speak up about their plans, and raise any concerns. The respect shown to young people – for example, in accommodating their religious persuasions, and helping them to personalise their bedrooms – is a strength that indicates how well young people are listened to, and how they can influence their own lives and the operation of their home.

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Good

Staff have taken the time to understand the complex dynamics that exist between the young people and their families. They maintain relationships with family members, and promote and facilitate contact to ensure that young people maintain safe family bonds, which reinforce their identity needs.

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Good

Good help is available for young people on the cusp of their transition into adulthood. Although concerns remain in relation to those young people who are not as responsive to moving on due to their own anxieties about living alone, close links with other professionals ensure good support mechanisms to help counter such feelings. An independent reviewing officer said, ‘Staff are trying’ with respect to their current interventions. Young people are taught basic independence skills, taking into account their chronological age and level of understanding. This ensures that realistic goals are in hand, which do not set up young people to fail. Judgement grade

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Good

Young people confirm that they feel safe. They have felt sufficiently confident to raise concerns with proactive staff when other young people’s inappropriate behaviours have threatened their sense of safety. Staff understand the young people’s vulnerabilities and risk-taking behaviours, and take their duty to protect them seriously. Positively, these behaviours have reduced somewhat since young people were discharged for safeguarding purposes. Professionals consider young people to be safe at the home. An independent reviewing officer said, ‘I think they are doing the best they can do.’

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Good

Good, research-informed risk-management documentation supports staff practice. Bullying behaviour is not an issue that young people raise concerns about, and there are no issues that currently relate to child sexual exploitation. Discussion with young people about radicalisation raises their awareness in a bid to build their resilience to this harmful ideology. Although missing from home and absences are a rare occurrence, staff are conversant with the procedure to follow should this happen. Safe and well checks, return home interviews and strategy meetings held when young people have gone missing, ensure a robust approach to this risky behaviour.

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Good

Staff are adept at managing young people’s challenging behaviours, and they also recognise and reward good behaviour. Their close engagement with the young people, and implementation of effective behaviour-management strategies, help the young people to self-regulate any negative behaviours. This has resulted in a lower number of incidents than previously noted, which is a positive reflection of the current group dynamics and the young people’s respect for the boundaries. Access to an external and eclectic youth crime prevention agency seeks to divert young people from involving themselves in anti-social and criminal behaviours. The impact of this intervention is yet to be determined.

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Good

Close scrutiny of physical interventions and sanctions by the registered manager and independent visitor ensures safe and transparent practice. However, not all room searches have been carried out in line with the agreed protocol. A review of this practice to ensure that the arrangements remain current is recommended.

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Good

Health and safety checks, including fire and appliance tests and checks on visitors, ensure the protection of young people, staff and visitors to the home. Judgement grade

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Good

A suitably experienced and motivated manager has been registered with Ofsted since April 2016. She has a social work degree and a Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare, which renders her qualified and competent to manage the home. The registered manager continues to show strong leadership. Her intensive support of the staff team during a very challenging period promotes a child-focused service. Typical comments about the registered manager included, ‘I think [Name of the registered manager] is a clear-headed manager.’ Good deputising arrangements ensure the smooth running of the home in the registered manager’s absence.

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Good

The registered manager’s coherent understanding of the young people’s diverse needs and vulnerabilities ensures that she can maintain a good oversight of their progress, and assures compliance with the home’s statement of purpose. This enables her to build on strengths, act on weaknesses and respond to the actions raised in the independent visitor reports. These provide good analysis, scrutiny and challenge, as you would expect from a ‘critical friend’. A recommendation raised at the last inspection to help improve the recording of young people's views in documentation has been addressed.

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Good

The staff team is consistent, conscientious, qualified and experienced. Staff are confident and take pride in their role. A staff member said, ‘I love my job. It’s a job that I want for the rest of my life. I want to make a difference.’ They show a genuine interest and commitment towards the young people, which is evident in their positive engagement with them. Regular communication helps to update and inform staff practice. Staff supervision, daily handovers, team meetings and specific training, such as refresher behaviour-management training and radicalisation, inform and enlighten the team. Delegated duties develop staff confidence, and allow for information-sharing within the team on different childcare issues.

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Good

The current statement of purpose incorporates the home’s aims and objectives, and informs about the services that young people can expect to receive. A refurbishment and redecoration programme has been completed. This has been done ahead of the proposed changes to accommodate an emergency provision. This has transformed the premises into a home that young people should feel proud to bring friends back to. A separate annexe to accommodate single emergency placements is under construction, with restricted access that keeps everyone safe.

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Good

The manager’s proactive contact with other professionals and agencies, such as social care, education, health and the police, helps to progress the young people’s plans and promote their welfare. Not all significant events have been notified to Ofsted, which impedes Ofsted from carrying out its regulatory duties. However, the appropriate action has been taken in response to this specific incident and there has been no negative impact on young people’s safety and welfare.

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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

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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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