Children's Home run by Social Care Services Limited in Manchester

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:

 The registered manager has ensured that the compliance notices and requirements set at the last inspection have been fully met. This has meant that that quality of care that the young people receive in the home has improved and made it a safer place for young people to live in.  Most young people are engaged with school or further education. When they are not, the registered manager is proactive in liaising with educational professionals to ensure that educational provision is obtained for them.  Young people have positive relationships with staff, and these relationships are used effectively to support young people to manage their behaviour.  Young people’s views are sought regularly through key-work sessions and ‘teen meetings’, which means that their views are central to the running of the home.  Young people like living in the home, they feel safe and can identify someone to talk to if they are worried or concerned.

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The children’s home provision is good because:

 Young people are becoming increasingly safe due to the care and support that they receive from staff. There has been a decrease in self-harming and missing behaviour in young people since the last inspection.  One good practice recommendation has been made at this inspection. This is in relation to staff taking action to ensure that young people do not smoke in their bedrooms.

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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 risks 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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Recommendations

This is specifically in relation to young people smoking in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is registered to provide care for six children who have learning disabilities and/or physical disabilities. The home is part of a social care company.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 11/10/2016 Full Inadequate 20/01/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 19/05/2015 Full Good 20/03/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness

p.4

Good

The majority of young people are engaged in school or further education. Staff have worked effectively with education professionals to support one young person to secure a place on an access course at college. This young person reports that this has been a turning point for him in his life, as it has opened up social opportunities for him which, have an impact on his self-confidence and self-esteem, as well as supporting him to achieve his educational potential.

p.5

Good

When young people are not in school, staff are proactive in working with education professionals to obtain an educational placement for them. For example, personal tutoring has been obtained for one young person who is not in formal education. This means that he will be supported and prepared for a formal educational place in the future.

p.5

Good

Staff help young people to improve their health and manage individual lifelong conditions by working effectively with health and specialist services to ensure that they attend appointments and access specialist help when required. This work is underpinned by a clear health assessment on file for each young person, and ensures that young people’s health needs are understood and met by all staff.

p.5

Good

Staff spend time with young people on a daily basis, encouraging them to undertake tasks such as cooking and budgeting. This helps young people to develop the confidence and independent living skills that they require as they move towards adulthood.

p.5

Good

Young people have positive relationships with the staff in the home, and this supports young people to develop skills to manage their own feelings and conflicts. Staff spend time with young people, working on individual areas of need. For example, for one young person there has been a significant amount of meaningful direct work regarding relationships, given that this is currently a significant area for him. One young person commented: ‘Staff are doing all that they can to help me. They help me with everything. If I have a problem, they help me and talk about it.’

p.5

Good

The registered manager and staff have made changes to how they record the direct work that they do with young people. For example, the one-to-one records are now more reflective of young people’s views. Staff have fitted a suggestions box at the home for young people to put their suggestions in. These measures ensure that young people feel listened to and that their views are central to the running of the home. Staff promote and are proactive in promoting contact with family, in line with young people’s care plans, to ensure that they can maintain this contact in a safe way. This assists young people to develop a strong sense of identity.

p.5

Good

Young people’s individual risk and vulnerabilities, including self-harm, are assessed when young people come to the home. Staff ensure that there are robust and clear risk assessments in place for each young person, addressing any individual risks and triggers, and detailing the action to take to minimise risk-taking behaviour.

p.6

Good

When young people self-harm, staff demonstrate good support and work proactively with specialist agencies, such as the early intervention team, to ensure that young people receive coordinated support, which reduces the risk of harm. One worker from the early intervention team reported: ‘X’s self-harming is reducing. He has a specific care and risk plan that I have shared with the home, and staff have been very proactive about this, making sure things are in place to try to distract X, get him out and about.’

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Good

Staff have a detailed knowledge of young people’s individual needs, behaviour, risks and vulnerabilities. They spend time talking to young people about risk-taking behaviour and undertaking meaningful work with them on areas such as alcohol misuse Young people understand the risks associated with the behaviour. This helps them to make better choices to keep themselves safe.

p.6

Good

Staff ensure that there are clear behaviour management strategies in place for young people, to support them to learn positive behaviour. These strategies include the use of incentives and rewards, which are clearly set out for young people in reward charts and behaviour contracts, which they have signed in their case files. This clear and consistent approach means that young people learn behaviour that is more acceptable. There has been a reduction in incidents, police call-outs and destructive behaviour since the last inspection, suggesting that the behaviour management strategies used by staff are effective.

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Good

There have been no restraints since the last inspection, reflecting staff skill in de- escalation and that the behaviour management strategies in place are effective. There is now a system in place for the registered manager’s actions to be reviewed if she is involved in a restraint, and this is recorded in the updated behaviour management policy.

p.6

Good

The registered manager has taken steps to ensure that the physical environment for young people is safe and protects them from the risk of harm. For example, windows now have safety film to reduce the risk of them being broken and the glass used to self-harm and, likewise, crockery has been replaced by melamine tableware to reduce this risk. This means that the risk of harm to young people in the home is reduced.

p.6

Good

The registered manager has taken steps to reduce the risk of young people smoking in their rooms by asking young people to sign written agreements undertaking not to engage in this behaviour, educative work with young people on smoking and liaison with the fire service. The registered manager agreed during the inspection that she would implement a system of young people handing in cigarettes and lighters overnight to reduce any fire risk to young people.

p.7

Good

The home is managed by a suitably experienced and registered manager, who has been in post since 2013. The registered manager is no longer working on shift. This has meant that she has been able to focus on addressing the shortfalls of the last inspection. The manager and staff are child focused and highly motivated to improve the quality of the service for young people in their care and, in the short period since the last inspection, there has been significant progress with the quality of the service.

p.7

Good

Since the last inspection, the registered manager has taken steps to ensure that there is one-to-one staffing for each of the young people in the home. This has had a significant impact of the stability of the home for the young people, as there are sufficient staff to ensure that young people’s needs are met. The manager has devised systems to evaluate the progress that young people are making and has shown that she can utilise feedback effectively to improve the quality of care that young people receive.

p.7

Good

The staff are a stable team that is child focused and motivated to support young people to make progress. Staff like working at the home and feel well supported in their role, which allows them to continue with the emotionally challenging work. One staff member commented that the ‘manager is very approachable, it’s a nice team, and everyone works well together and brings different things to team’.

p.7

Good

The manager has ensured that there is a relevant programme of training in place for staff. At the time of the inspection, staff had completed ligature training and therapeutic crisis intervention, as well as medication and psychosis training. The registered manager has devised a full schedule of training over coming months to include training on the issues of self-harm and autism, to ensure that all staff have the relevant knowledge and skills to meet the needs of the complex young people whom they work with. Young people’s case records now reflect children’s everyday lives, and there is evidence that records and plans are shared with the young people, who have signed these documents on their files. This helps young people to understand their plans and the progress that they are making.

p.7

Good

Staff ensure that case files reflect the direct work that has been undertaken with young people regarding risk-taking behaviour. Staff are completing a three-month preventative plan of direct work with each young person to ensure that all relevant areas of individual risk are addressed in a planned way in key-work sessions.

p.8

Good

There have been no new admissions to the home since the last inspection. The registered manager has devised a new impact assessment for new admissions in the future to ensure that the required level of staffing is in place prior to admission and that the needs of the young people living in the home are prioritised.

p.8

Good

The manager has updated the location risk assessment to include local risks in the area relevant to the young people in the home, including the locations of bridges and child sexual exploitation hotspots. This means that staff know where to look for young people and the specific areas of risk, which will help to protect young people from harm.

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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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