Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Birmingham

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:

 Young people are welcomed into an exceptionally warm and caring environment, where highly committed, trained and skilled staff meet all of the young people’s needs.  Skilled staff communicate effectively with each young person in order to ascertain their views, wishes and feelings. This includes the use of both verbal and non-verbal communication, symbols and an astute awareness of body language.  Young people engage enthusiastically in young people’s meetings.  Staff celebrate all the progress made by young people and encourage them to strive to achieve beyond expectations.  Staff effectively challenge barriers that affect young people’s learning and champion young people’s success, never mind how small.  Young people have a wide range of stimulating and fun activities that support their development.  Every young person is provided with a safe, caring and stimulating environment where they have opportunity to develop life skills that enable

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

them reach their potentials.  Young people's contact with family and friends is positively encouraged.  All staff have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities; they are vigilant about young people’s health and safety and are fully aware of child protection issues.  The registered manager is highly regarded by the staff team. She is a strong and significant driving force behind the ongoing development of the service. This includes using research to inform practice.  There is one minor shortfall. This relates to a young person’s bedroom, which is not achieving the same high standards seen throughout the home.

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation:  To ensure that children's homes are nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. Children's homes must comply with the relevant health and safety legislations. However, in doing so, homes should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather that 'institutional' impression. ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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Information about this children's home

The home provides care and accommodation for up to three young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties, aged between 10 and 18 years. The home provides emergency placements as well as planned admissions. The home is privately owned.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 31/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 14/09/2015 Full Good 19/03/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness 01/12/2014 Full Good

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Outstanding

Young people experience genuine care from a stable and committed staff team. Every young person’s admission is well planned so that on their arrival the staff can immediately start meeting their needs. One young person told the inspector, ‘This place is fabulous: I wouldn’t change anything about this place except having jelly bean machines in the house.’

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Outstanding

Young people are afforded wonderful opportunities to develop a sense of self- worth and to make informed choices about everyday life. For example, young people are able to participate in house meetings, key work sessions to more informal conversations. The staff will use a range of creative communication aids, specific to a young person’s assessed needs to enable this engagement to be meaningful. This includes information being presented pictorially to young people and being encouraged to use a reflective journal to capture their emotions.

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Outstanding

Staff support young people enthusiastically to engage in a range of positive social and recreational activities. These include attending girl guides, swimming and horse riding. One young person has recently been supported to obtain a part-time job. One young person told the inspector, ‘I wouldn’t change anything. I enjoy spending time with the staff playing games or just hanging out.’ Because of these varied opportunities, young people are able to broaden their skills, strengthen their talents and achieve fulfilling lives.

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Outstanding

Staff maximise every opportunity to help young people engage in education to help them make measurable progress. This supportive approach not only enables young people to build up their knowledge and skills, but also helps them to develop values and attitudes they will need to enable them to achieve qualifications in readiness for adult life. With every success comes unconditional praise, which gives young people a real sense of achievement.

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Outstanding

Young people receive help to take responsibility for maintaining their well-being. This includes the staff ensuring that young people are able to access therapeutic services to support their emotional health. Young people are also encouraged to learn about healthy eating including having the opportunity to prepare their own meals.

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Outstanding

Young people's contact with family is positively encouraged with staff ensuring that young people have the right support at the right time. Judgement grade

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Outstanding

Young people are accomplishing significant personal milestones in keeping themselves safe. This is made possible by their own self-motivation and the reinforcement of praise and respect from enthusiastic staff that put the young people first. One young person told the inspector, ‘I feel safe and I am not worried about anything. I think [the home] is a very caring home. The staff keep me out of trouble and if I do have any concerns, I know I can talk to staff and it will be resolved.’ Another young person also commented, ‘The staff really care. When I moved in, they took time to get to know me. I now think twice about being missing from care. Staff have helped me get a job and stop stressing about life.’

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Outstanding

Protecting young people is given high priority. For example, all staff have received up to date training in understanding the trigger signs of child sexual exploitation. The staff have used this acquired knowledge to help young people to understand the dangers associated with social media and the wider community.

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Outstanding

Young people’s welfare is protected through staff implementing clear and robust safeguarding policies and procedures. Staff are aware of the appropriate procedures to be followed when young people go missing from care. This includes a close link with the local police community support officers. One police officer told the inspector, ‘The home has kept in regular contact with myself, always acted professionally and efficiently and followed procedures. They have kept to all appointments that have been made and I have no concerns.’

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Outstanding

Risk assessments are in place for assessing all possible risks faced by young people, especially activities that can involve time spent away from the home. These are comprehensive in their levels of detail and demonstrate how the staff take all reasonable steps to manage the risk without compromising a young person’s growth or development.

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Outstanding

High-quality relationships mean that young people receive acknowledgement for their good behaviour. Levels of physical intervention are low. When situations of conflict arise, staff are effective in defusing situations and use distraction techniques to good effect.

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Outstanding

The manager ensures that the home stays a safe environment for young people to live in. There has been some recent redecoration within the home. However, the flooring in one young person’s bedroom is in need of repair. This detracts from the overall homely environment.

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Outstanding

The manager ensures that safe recruitment of staff is well established. This means young people only assess suitable staff who they trust and respect working alongside them.

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Outstanding

The manager ensures that staff undertake regular health and safety checks and follow a range of safety procedures to protect young people from potential hazards. These include fire drills, to ensure that young people know what to do in case of an emergency.

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Outstanding

The registered manager has been in post since October 2014. She has completed the level 5 diploma in leadership and management. The registered manager is innovative in her approach and understands the home’s strengths well, and is equally receptive to new ideas and different ways of working. This ensures that the team always meets the needs of young people to a high standard. All staff have or are working towards the level 3 diploma in residential childcare within the expected timescales.

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Outstanding

The registered manager and staff model excellent professional standards in all of their work, and demonstrate a high level of courtesy and respect towards the young people in their care. As a result, this service is not only caring, but also takes responsibility for improving young people’s lives as its priority.

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Outstanding

Regular reflective supervision ensures that staff feel well supported. The registered manager is considerate to the individual learning styles of each staff member and presents new material on an individual basis when necessary. Staff use team meetings to great effect, using this forum to assess and promote staff and share research, enabling practice to develop. As a result, the staff who support young people are dynamic and driven.

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Outstanding

The aims and objectives of the statement of purpose are met. Staff understand the ethos and values of the home and deliver them in practice. They have a true sense of care and go above and beyond expectations. Practice is based on a strength- based nurturing approach to care for the young people, which is solution-focused and reflective and can draw on a range of therapeutic models including social learning theory. These approaches to care help young people to build up the confidence, self-esteem and resilience that they need to overcome difficult past experiences.

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Outstanding

Staff actively promote joint working and engage well with the community and partnership agencies such as education, police and placing authorities. A social worker told the inspector, ‘Communication is excellent.’

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Outstanding

The registered manager is confident and assertive in challenging partner agencies when they do not fulfil their responsibilities. This challenge helps to protect young people from risk and supports them to make meaningful progress. The registered manager’s use of self-evaluation is well considered, regular and attention to detail is very good. This routine programme of self-assessment and review enables her to promote outstanding practice in which young people’s needs are at the heart of the process.

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Outstanding

Continuous monitoring enables the registered manager to understand and to evidence the changing needs of young people, both in the short- and long-term. The registered manager has devised an impressive analytical system to examine incidents and the effectiveness of reflective interventions. This ensures that staff understand how best to work with a young person in order to keep them safe and to help them to make outstanding 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’.

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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 looked after children 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 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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