Children's home run by Witherslack Group Limited in Westmorland and Furness

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.

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The children’s home provision is outstanding because:

 All young people make outstanding progress. Young people feel a strong sense of safety, due to the consistency of care and the trusting relationships that they have formed with the staff.

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The children’s home provision is outstanding because:

 The managers and staff are innovative in how they look after the young people. They understand young people and how their own practice has made a positive impact on their lives.

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The children’s home provision is outstanding because:

 Young people do remarkably well in education, considering their starting points. The staff work very closely with teaching staff to understand how best to support young people and help them with their schoolwork.

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The children’s home provision is outstanding because:

 Young people enjoy living at the home and are making exceptional progress in all aspects of their lives.

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The children’s home provision is outstanding because:

 The staff team works extremely effectively with all other professionals to ensure consistency of care and improved outcomes for young people.

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  Staff should continually and actively assess the risk to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides accommodation for up to seven children with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. It is operated by a private company.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 23/02/2016 Full Good 21/07/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness 19/01/2015 Full Adequate

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Outstanding

Staff provide young people with an exceptional standard of care that has added immensely to their progress, experiences and development. One young person said: ‘I love being here. The staff are great. I used to run off all the time before I came here. Now I don’t run away at all.’

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Outstanding

The home is meticulously maintained and has a homely feel. It is safe and secure, and communal areas are accessible to young people at all times. Young people enjoy living there. They like their bedrooms and clearly take pride in them. Some young people have pets and they take their responsibilities for looking after them seriously. Staff make efforts to ensure that the home is as attractive and welcoming as any family home, and it does not have any institutional features.

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Outstanding

Social workers report that the quality of life for young people has greatly improved as a result of the high consistency of care, commitment, competency and vision of the staff team. A social worker stated: ‘The staff team are great. In-house support is really effective and has resulted in massive progress being made.’

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Outstanding

Care planning is outstanding and has resulted in young people making sustained progress in their lives. The home has achieved this by working collaboratively with specialist professionals and family members. A parent noted that she is very happy with the quality of care, saying, ‘My daughter is making lots of progress and the staff are really nice. I can’t fault the home at all.’ The staff come to know the young people extremely well. For instance, one young person likes to be tucked in at night, while others like a hot drink before settling for bed.

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Outstanding

Contact is carefully planned and considered, with regular input from social workers and family members. Staff help those young people who are placed a long way from home by supporting and accompanying them to ensure that they arrive safely. When contact needs to supervised, the staff are sensitive to the young people’s views, feelings and wishes.

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Outstanding

Most young people have a history of severe disruptions to their education prior to coming here. They have now re-engaged in their learning, with notable milestones being attained. All young people are achieving, or are very close to achieving, 100% school attendance. One young person has won a ‘pupil of the year’ award, another won an award from the local authority for her continued commitment to the arts, while another has had a poem that he wrote published in a book. Considering their very poor start, young people have made exceptional progress since living in the home. There is a culture of learning that extends from the school to the home. Staff have high aspirations for young people and they motivate them to do well. Regular homework sessions take place and staff are always available to give their support and praise young people’s efforts for good work, when necessary. Young people who have completed their homework will often give up their own free time to help

p.6

Outstanding

The registered manager is constantly seeking ways to improve the young people’s lives. Some of his methods of intervention are based on sound, researched practice that has been shared with his staff team. For instance, a member staff stated: ‘We work a lot around reactive attachment disorder. This is primarily based on how we work with and help young people to increase their resilience, confidence and self- esteem.’

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Outstanding

An outstanding level of support is given to young people as they move towards adulthood. Young people are encouraged with daily living skills from the outset of their placement. When ready, young people buy their own shopping, learn to cook, help to decorate and learn how to manage on a budget. One young person is growing his own vegetables and, with support, has built a greenhouse in the grounds. The home is fully involved in the process of helping young people when they eventually move on, and staff maintain contact with them after they have left.

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Outstanding

Young people report a very strong sense of feeling safe and well cared for. They live in a homely environment that is maintained to an exceptionally high standard. Robust health and safety checks are undertaken frequently, and any identified shortfalls are dealt with very quickly.

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Outstanding

The young people know how to raise concerns or ask for help. They have built exceptionally warm and nurturing relationships with the whole staff team, as well as forming special relationships with their key workers. One young person, discussing their relationships with staff, said: ‘I can talk to all the staff, they are all nice. I really like my key worker though, he is really very kind and, if you need someone, he’s always there.’ Young people are increasingly safe, because of the quality of these relationships.

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Outstanding

Safeguarding practice is professional. Staff training is of a very high standard and takes place regularly for all the staff team. Training covers a wide range of issues, such as child sexual exploitation, responding to self-harming behaviours and the foundations of child protection. A number of staff have undertaken higher level training and some have been given designated lead responsibilities for the safeguarding of young people. The registered manager is continually looking for current training in topical areas, for example e-safety and countering radicalisation. This has enabled the staff to explore these issues with young people in key-work sessions, as well as taking impromptu opportunities throughout the day.

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Outstanding

The staff have an excellent understanding of the safety and welfare of the young people, and behaviour management is well understood throughout the staff team. Staff work extremely closely with, and are supported by, other professionals such as child and adolescent mental health service staff, as well as clinicians employed by the registered provider.

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Outstanding

Staff are knowledgeable of the young people’s needs and can identify the potential triggers of challenging behaviour effectively for each young person. Because of this, they have learned how to use effective strategies to manage and decrease challenging behaviours. The staff team uses a calm and skilled approach and this, combined with clear consistent boundaries, has led to a significant decrease in the use of physical restraint since the last inspection. Incidents of challenging behaviour are managed carefully and scrutinised for any patterns or trends. All staff are trained in physical intervention techniques which have a high emphasis on de-escalation.

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Outstanding

Staff are consistent in putting in place boundaries and strategies that have significantly decreased unsafe behaviours. For example, the number of incidents when young people have gone missing has been limited to just one episode since the last inspection. The number of restraints has also decreased, as young people respond to positive intervention and de-escalation techniques. Young people are reassured by a dependable and stable team of staff with whom they have formed trusting relationships.

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Outstanding

The registered manager and deputy manager lead on child protection matters and safeguarding. They have developed effective working relationships with the local authority designated officer for safeguarding. Monthly consultations highlight any safeguarding concerns that the home may need to be aware of.

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Outstanding

The registered manager also attends monthly meetings with private providers in the area and child protection officers from the local constabulary to discuss any safeguarding concerns, issues and trends. These meetings have had a direct impact and have been a great benefit to some of the young people in the home. For instance, they have led to access to experts who are innovative in safeguarding matters. This has led to direct one-to-one work with young people in the home, increasing their self-esteem, confidence and safety immensely.

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Outstanding

Assessments of young people’s needs are clear and they are supported to take age-appropriate risks that are regularly discussed through individual work sessions. Staff advocate and endeavour to ensure that the young people have a say in the running of the home. This helps them to feel that they have control over how they are looked after and that they are valued as individuals. Judgement grade

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Outstanding

The registered manager is highly experienced and holds the appropriate qualification. He is proactive in continually seeking ways to develop the home, his staff team and his own continuing professional development.

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Outstanding

Managers know both the strengths and weaknesses of the home. They lead a stable and effective team, ensuring that young people’s needs are met and progress is continually being made. The home works in partnership with placing authorities, parents and family members, when this is appropriate in view of the young people’s individual needs.

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Outstanding

Planning has improved since the last inspection, and a requirement that was raised at the last inspection has been met. All young people now have a plan in place provided by their local authority. This means that care provided by the home is consistent with relevant plans. The registered manager is now challenging the authorities more robustly and has learned to escalate concerns to higher management when young people are not receiving the service that they deserve.

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Outstanding

Staff members feel well supported through regular and effective supervision. Supervision is child focused and identifies good practice and the strengths of the individual members of the team. Appraisals are completed that clearly identify areas for future development, and staff attend regular team meetings. The managers have an ‘open door’ policy, meaning that staff can approach managers at any time, should they require additional support. A member of staff stated, ‘I can’t say enough about the support that I have been given by my manager.’

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Outstanding

The home is well resourced. The well-trained and stable staff team delivers high- quality care to the young people living there. Staff are suitably vetted and there is a robust recruitment procedure in place. This means that only the highest calibre of staff is recruited, and thorough checks are made to ensure that only those adults deemed suitable to work with children and young people are employed.

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Outstanding

The registered manager actively monitors the quality of care being provided and seeks the opinions of the children and young people living in the home when doing so. External monitoring from an independent person reports on the quality of care provided, and these arrangements allow for robust scrutiny of the home. When requirements or recommendations are identified in the report, these are promptly addressed by the manager.

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Outstanding

Clear assessments are made of the young people’s needs, and risk assessments are discussed in care team meetings, as well as staff meetings and handovers. However, when risks are increasing or decreasing, the system of reviewing them is not sufficiently evident. Neither is it clear if staff are aware of these changes in risk to young people. This means that there is a degree of uncertainty in whether all the staff know and understand the risks to young people.

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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 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 whom 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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