Children's Home run by Keys Direct Care Limited in Lincolnshire

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 good progress from their starting points.  The home is welcoming and provides a safe environment.  Young people are encouraged to develop positive and trusting relationships with staff. These relationships support young people to feel safe and make safer choices. Young people speak positively about their experiences of living at the home.  Young people are encouraged to engage fully in their education and they make good progress from their starting points. Staff support young people to achieve their potential. Staff advocate on their behalf when education is not going well and work in partnership with others to bring about positive change.  Health needs are met, with staff accessing specialist support for young people, when needed.  Risk to young people is reduced as a result of living at this home. Staff safeguard young people well, and respond effectively when incidents occur.

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The children’s home provision is good because:

 Staff manage challenging behaviour well and support young people to develop strategies to regulate their own behaviour. Staff manage behaviour positively, with praise and encouragement alongside structure, routine and consistent boundaries.  Three requirements and one area for improvement are identified as a result of this inspection.  The requirements are made in relation to delays in some young people accessing full-time education, and the need to improve recording in relation to fire evacuation drills and supervision.  One recommendation is made to ensure that new staff are fully supported during their probationary period with access to appropriate training and development opportunities.

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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

In order to meet the education standard, the registered person must ensure: (2)(a) that staff: (i) help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans; (viii) help a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the time that he or she is so excluded or otherwise not attending school and to return to school as soon as possible. 12/12/2016

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard

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Requirement Due date

(2) In order to meet the leadership and management standard, the registered person is required to: (h) use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. This is with reference to ensuring that the recording of fire drills is maintained appropriately. 12/12/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees undertake appropriate continuing professional development and receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience, and have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33(4)(a)(b)(c)) 12/12/2016

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):

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Recommendations

 As set out in regulations 31–33, the registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management of staff safeguard children and minimise potential risks to them. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including quality standards’, page 60, paragraph 13.1) This is in relation to ensuring that new staff receive a full induction and have access to relevant training, particularly during their probationary period.

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned children’s home provides care and accommodation for up to four girls with emotional and behavioural difficulties. The young people are aged between 10 and 18 years. The home will work with young people who display challenging behaviours that are often associated with traumatised past life experiences, including child sexual exploitation.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

p.5

Recent inspection history

16/02/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

02/12/2014 Interim Improved effectiveness

p.5

Good

Young people achieve good outcomes from their starting points. The home environment is welcoming and homely, and this helps young people to settle in quickly. There is a core of experienced staff who have a good understanding of young people’s individual needs. Staff provide nurturing care and support young people to develop positive and trusting relationships with them. This provides young people with a secure and supportive base from which they can make progress across all areas of their lives.

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Good

Young people make positive comments about the home, with one young person saying that she had always felt happy living there.

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Good

The home has experienced a change of registered manager recently and there have been changes in the staff team. This has had an impact on young people living there, but the transition to a new manager was organised well, and core staff maintain the consistency of care.

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Good

Staff are working with young people to support their engagement in education. There has been some success, but staff have not been able to motivate all young people to attend education full time. A requirement has been made to ensure that staff set high expectations around education and progress education plans robustly.

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Good

Young people get together weekly to discuss issues affecting the home. These meetings enable young people to have a voice in the home and help to shape the care provided. The manager responds promptly to any issues raised at these meetings, demonstrating that young people are listened to.

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Good

Young people have opportunities to take part in a range of activities and hobbies. Staff encourage young people to try new things and develop social relationships outside the home. Staff support young people to manage relationships inside the home, too, and provide them with strategies to work through difficult relationships and feelings.

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Good

Contact with family members is promoted when it is safe to do so and is in line with the young person’s care plan. Family members are welcome to visit the home, and contact is made as informal as possible. One family member said, ‘I always feel welcome there,’ and she regularly bakes cakes as an activity in the kitchen.

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Good

Health needs are met, and staff access specialist support when needed. There have been changes to the therapeutic support and this is reflected in the home’s statement of purpose.

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Good

A recommendation made at the last inspection referred to the need to include young people’s health needs in their care plans. Each young person has a healthcare plan that comprehensively outlines the young person’s health needs. Care plans devised by the home are detailed and provide information to support individualised care. Plans are reviewed and updated to reflect changing needs.

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Good

Staff support young people to become independent and encourage them to take responsibility for small tasks in the home. As young people mature, a more formal process is used to develop independence skills. This helps to prepare young people practically and emotionally for leaving care.

p.7

Good

Young people become safer as a result of living at the home. This is due in part to the rural location of the home, but also due to the secure relationships with staff and the skill of core, experienced staff in managing behaviour. Young people are encouraged to develop positive and trusting relationships with staff. These relationships support young people to feel safe and make safer choices. Staff have a clear understanding of each young person’s individual risks and vulnerabilities. Staff implement risk assessments and behaviour management plans consistently. These plans direct staff in their response to known triggers, and reduce the risk to young people. In relation to a young person deemed to be at high risk, one social worker said: ‘Staff check everything out with me. We make decisions together.’ Staff have a good understanding of the home’s safeguarding policies and they have all received training in this area. The manager responds to allegations made

p.7

Good

against staff appropriately and has a clear understanding of the role of the local authority’s designated officer. Appropriate and sufficient staffing on each shift ensures that young people are helped and protected. This includes staff who know the young people well, and who are appropriately trained and experienced. Maintaining appropriate staffing has been a challenge in recent weeks, but is being carefully monitored by the registered manager and senior management. Staff understand the risks associated with children and young people going missing. On the occasions when young people go missing from the home, the response from staff is effective. Staff work in partnership with the police and social workers, and do everything that they can to ensure the young person’s safe return. Not all young people are provided with an independent return interview, despite staff requesting this. The manager is aware that staff need to have higher

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Good

expectations of young people and of placing local authorities to ensure that young people have the opportunity to speak to someone independent of the home following a ‘missing’ episode. Challenging and complex behaviours are well managed. Staff use positive behaviour management and young people respond well to this. Sanctions and rewards are effective in managing most behaviour. Generally, physical intervention is rarely used, but there has been a recent increase in response to some challenging behaviour. This situation was managed through good communication with the social worker, and staff worked alongside the placing authority to find a solution. The use of physical intervention is proportionate and fully documented, with young people having the opportunity to talk about the event afterwards. Staff are safely recruited to ensure that unsuitable people do not have the opportunity to work with children and young people. Pre-employment checks are

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Good

completed before staff begin working with young people. Due to the high number of new staff joining the home, a recommendation has been made asking the manager to ensure that all new staff have the space to attend appropriate training as part of their induction. New staff have not always felt fully supported when working with complex young people. The manager is aware that well-trained and experienced staff need to be accessible to young people and to new staff. Bullying is not tolerated. Staff are skilled in recognising bullying behaviour and when young people might be vulnerable. Bullying incidents are rare, but several months ago a bullying situation was identified and staff managed it very well. Staff investigated the situation robustly. This enabled all the young people to move on from this incident quickly. Young people have plenty of opportunities to talk about how they feel and to raise any concerns that they may have about bullying.

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Good

There are safeguards in place regarding internet use, and young people are educated about keeping safe online through key-work sessions.

p.8

Good

The registered manager is relatively new in post. He is an experienced practitioner who is in the process of studying for the requisite management qualification. The manager is committed, aspirational and child focused. The home is going through a period of transition, with a number of new staff coming into post. This transitional period has meant that some of the development plans that the manager has cannot be realised until the staffing situation becomes more settled. A core of experienced staff remains, and this has enabled consistent care to be provided to young people amid all the changes.

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Good

Staff undertake a programme of mandatory training, the majority of which is in- house. As a result, staff are equipped with sufficient awareness, knowledge and skill to meet the complex needs of the young people living in the home. Due to a large number of new staff joining the home, trained and experienced staff are thinly stretched, at times. The manager is aware of this being a vulnerability and plans are in place to ensure that new staff are supported sufficiently during their induction and early months in post. This is essential to ensure that staff can meet young people’s needs as outlined in the home’s statement of purpose.

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Good

The home does fulfil its commitment to young people as outlined in its statement of purpose. It provides clear information about how they will be helped and supported. Young people are also provided with helpful and age-appropriate information about the home via the young people’s guide.

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Good

The manager monitors the progress that young people make. Communication with family members, social workers and other professionals is good, and staff can readily talk about the progress that young people are making. The manager intends to develop more formal systems for tracking progress, and to improve the quality of analysis and management oversight. Progress is currently tracked through statutory reviews and through analysis of sanctions, rewards and other indicators, such as engagement with education and a reduction in harmful or risk- taking behaviours.

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Good

Quality assurance monitoring, both internally and externally, is effective in identifying the strengths of the home as well as the shortfalls. The requirement made at the last inspection, in relation to the need for broader consultation when conducting internal monitoring, has been met.

p.9

Good

Supervision is taking place regularly. On the whole, this is recorded well and some supervision recording enables reflection and the opportunity to build good practice. The inspection identified gaps in recording supervision, even though it was evident that a supervision session had taken place. A requirement has been made to address this.

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Good

There have been very few complaints about the care provided. Complaints have been managed appropriately and respectfully, with young people’s complaints being acknowledged in a timely manner and resolved successfully.

p.9

Good

The home environment is safe, and staff undertake a series of daily, weekly and monthly health and safety checks. Fire evacuation drills are taking place regularly and when a new young person or member of staff joins the home. The inspection noted one or two gaps in the recording of these drills, although the evidence elsewhere suggested that they had taken place. A requirement has been made to address the recording system, as it is seen as a recording error rather than a breach of fire regulations.

p.9

Good

Staff, and particularly the manager, have advocated on behalf of young people, expressing concerns when a situation required challenge. There was a lack of robust challenge when a placing authority provided insufficient information about a young person, but in most cases challenge is evident. Staff work in partnership with a range of agencies, and seek specialist support for young people when needed.

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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 looked after children 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 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 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 0300 123 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, 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,

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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

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

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