Children's home run by Educare Adolescent Services Limited in Cannock Chase

Good

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

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The children’s home’s provision is good because:

 Young people enjoy a welcoming and comfortable home where they can personalise their rooms, relax and focus on their own needs.  Young people are settled and have trusting relationships with the supportive and child-focused staff.  Young people have fun with staff and each other, exchanging banter in the dining kitchen, going on outings, walks and playing games in the large spacious garden.  Dedicated staff help young people to make progress in all areas of their development, including independence, education and ability to manage their emotions and behaviour.  Staff listen to young people, who fully engage in the weekly young people’s meetings, and are confident to express their views, wishes and feelings. Young people know how to make a complaint.  The highly trained staff keep young people safe and help them learn how to keep themselves safe. Risk assessments are thorough and effective.  The registered manager is passionate about the service she provides and

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The children’s home’s provision is good because:

maintains a strong therapeutic focus to her work. She and her staff are constantly alert to young people’s changing needs.  Staff benefit from regular supervision, which is supportive, but also demands that they reflect upon their practice and roles.  Staff work closely with family members and a range of professionals to ensure that they work together for the benefit of young people.  The home has recently had a new kitchen installed. A further area for improvement is the young people’s bathroom. In addition, the filing cabinet in the office is a potential hazard, as it requires securing to the wall.  Young people could benefit from more detail in the young people’s guide regarding the use of sanctions 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

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, and with regard to the children’s bathroom, the registered person must: (c) ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home 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. 27/01/2017

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the protection of children standard, and with regard to the filing cabinet in the office, the registered person must ensure that: (d) the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. 27/01/2017

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation:  The children’s guide should to help children to understand: what the day-to-day routines of the home are (‘what happens in the home’) (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 4.22)

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned children’s home is registered to care for up to two children and young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home currently offers crisis intervention and short-, medium- and long-term placements for children and young people aged 10 to 17 on admission.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 01/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 14/10/2015 Full Good 12/03/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness 23/10/2014 Full Good

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Good

Young people enjoy a warm and welcoming home in a quiet rural setting, where they can relax, personalise their rooms and prioritise their own needs. The newly refurbished kitchen is a focal point where they sit and eat and chat with staff and each other. There are photographs of young people and staff, which provide a homely feel to the living rooms. The large, well-maintained garden provides space to play games and to sit, together or alone.

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Good

Young people have fun with staff, exchanging banter and engaging in a range of enjoyable activities including walking in the countryside, fishing and going out for meals and outings. Staff are supporting one young person to continue her outstanding success in boxing, which is a great source of self-esteem and pride for her. Enthusiastic staff throw parties to celebrate important occasions for young people, such as birthdays. Staff positively acknowledge young people’s achievements with rewards of their choice. One young person has had her first driving lesson.

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Good

Clear routines and boundaries help young people to feel secure and to make progress in all areas of their development. They attend school regularly and one young person, who recently left her placement for independence, gained entry levels in English and mathematics. She fully engaged with her education and achieved beyond expectations. Another young person, who struggles with managing emotions and behaviour, achieved a period of stability, which led to a significant decrease in challenging behaviour and the need for physical interventions. Young people have also made progress in personal hygiene, independence skills, and in establishing and maintaining healthy relationships. Staff actively helped one young person to improve her attachment style and to re- establish family contact, as an important part of her independence plans and future support needs.

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Good

A young person, who has very recently been placed here, said that this is a ‘fresh start’ for her and that she feels well cared-for and supported. Staff meet her cultural needs by taking her shopping to a town where there is more diversity and where she enjoys going for meals that reflect her ethnic origins. She enjoys shopping there for appropriate skin and haircare products. Staff encourage all young people to think about diversity by involving them in activities which highlight, for example, homophobia, Ramadan and international children’s day.

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Good

Young people are enthusiastic about the regular young people’s meetings, which are productive and enable them to address a range of issues. They particularly like the registered manager joining the meetings to update them about things that are happening and the things she is planning.

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Good

Key work is relevant and staff skilfully engage young people in stimulating discussions about, for example, school, anxiety, behaviour and the meanings of abusive words when they have used them. They also engage in ‘what makes me, me?’ This encourages young people to describe ten positive things about themselves and supports their identity and self-esteem.

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Good

Having refurbished the kitchen, the home would now benefit from refurbishment of the young people’s bathroom.

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Good

Highly trained and skilled staff keep young people safe. They demonstrate an in- depth understanding of the triggers, behaviour patterns and moods which lead to young people requiring, for example, physical intervention. Staff use de-escalation techniques and only restrain young people as a last resort to prevent injury. The staff work closely with education, psychologists, police and social workers to identify risk and to provide appropriate responses, in order to protect young people. Incidents of young people going missing and self-harm have decreased significantly, due to the direct work undertaken by staff with young people and effective safeguarding practice.

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Good

Staff regularly review and update risk assessments and behaviour management plans. Initial impact assessments are thorough and form the basis for careful and appropriate matching of young people, thereby reducing behavioural issues. Staff are confident in their knowledge and understanding of a wide range of safeguarding issues including child sexual exploitation. Incident records are detailed and form valuable working documents for the registered manager and staff. Physical interventions are followed by a debrief with the young person to identify triggers and to engage them in solutions. The registered manager reviews and signs all incident records, ensuring the safety and appropriateness of the intervention.

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Good

Staff skilfully undertake key work sessions with young people, which helps them to learn how to keep themselves safe. These cover a wide range of issues, including behaviour towards staff, sexual health, smoking, absconding and bullying. Young people engage positively with staff with whom they have formed trusting relationships. When young people are moving towards independence, staff successfully help them to increase their unsupervised time so that they are safe and confident.

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Good

The property is well-maintained, staff recruitment is safe and stringent medication procedures are in place. One area for improvement is that a tall filing cabinet in the office needs to be secured to the wall or re-sited, as young person could push it over.

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Good

The registered manager has been in post for six years. She holds a level 5 qualification in leadership in health and social care and children’s and young people’s services. Staff either hold a level 3 qualification or are undertaking the award. All staff hold a first aid qualification.

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Good

The registered manager is very ‘hands on’ with young people and takes a strong therapeutic approach to their care. She is perceptive and highly child-focused and provides staff and young people with consistency and reliability.

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Good

Staff receive regular supervision, which requires them to reflect carefully on their interactions with young people and the impact of their roles. Staff training is relevant and up to date and attendance at the regular team meetings enables staff to develop as a team and to contribute ideas regarding the service

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Good

Staff speak highly of the registered manager and of each other as a team. They feel strongly supported and they enjoy their work. One staff member said, ‘She is very good at making you feel positive again about something that has upset you’, and, ‘She is very good at making you look at the positives about yourself and she is a very fair manager.’

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Good

Staff attend young people’s reviews and personal education plan meetings, and provide professionals with relevant information, which includes the young people’s views, wishes and feelings. The social worker for one young person said, ‘The reports provided are always of a high standard and very detailed to inform the reviews.’

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Good

The registered manager constantly works to drive up standards in the service and consults with family members and professionals in order to prepare her review of the service and development plan. She uses her independent visitor reports to inform developments and responds in a timely fashion to any recommendations. The registered manager leads by example, and challenges other professionals whom she considers are not prioritising the needs of the young people. She has successfully challenged a placing authority and obtained psychological assessments for one young person whose behaviour has become increasingly challenging. In addition, she has advocated on young people’s behalf to prevent school exclusions and to seek one-to-one tuition at school in order to reduce the social pressures on him.

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Good

Staff work closely with other professionals, including the in-house clinical team. They were delighted to receive a report confirming that one young person now has a much healthier attachment style because of the work undertaken by the staff.

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Good

The social worker for one young person, who has left to become independent, said, ‘They provided a high quality and level of care to her and have gone above and beyond in their care of her and in trying to keep her safe. The professional relationship and caring for her has been exceptional.’

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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 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, work- based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It inspects services for children looked after 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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