Children's home run by Cornerways Children’s Services Limited

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 like living in this home. They develop strong relationships with staff who help them to progress well. Young people‟s individual needs, wishes and feelings are carefully considered, consistently reviewed, and met effectively.  Safeguarding practice is thorough. Staff help young people to protect themselves from harm. They thoughtfully pre-empt young people‟s negative responses to situations. This reduces the need for physical interventions and the use of sanctions.  Well-written, regularly updated and clear risk assessments are available for staff to follow.  Comprehensive compatibility assessments help young people to move into the home successfully. The registered manager knows the young people well. She ensures that staff practice focuses on improving outcomes for young people. There is a comprehensive training plan which supports staff to meet the needs of young people.  The registered manager builds productive relationships with other agencies. She

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The children's home provision is good because:

challenges effectively other agency‟s practice in order to ensure that young people‟s needs are met in a timely manner.  A good development plan supports the home‟s progress, and managers use the reports provided by the monthly visitor to good effect.  There are some minor shortfalls. There is a lack of emphasis on how to support young people to eat healthily and to lead healthy lifestyles.  Food is not always safely stored so that it presents no risk to health.  Staff do not all have an assured understanding of e-safety to enable them to support young people appropriately.  The home‟s statement of purpose does not sufficiently explain how it provides positive role models for both sexes when it has a mainly female staff team. The six-monthly review of care, undertaken by the manager, lacks analysis and evaluation to support its conclusions.

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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

The registered person must compile in relation to the children‟s home a statement (“the statement of purpose”) which covers the matters listed in Schedule 1. (Regulation 16 (1) 28/02/2017

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Requirement Due date

(1) The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

(2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure:

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Requirement Due date

(d) that 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. In particular, the registered person must ensure that food is stored appropriately at all times. 28/02/17

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendations:

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that, children are offered advice, support and guidance on health and well-being. In particular staff help young people to understand and, where possible, change any negative behaviours and attitudes which impact on them eating healthy diets and undertaking regular exercise. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 35, paragraph 7.18)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should support staff to be ambitious for every child in the home and to skills and experiences that enable them to actively support each child to achieve their potential. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 52, paragraph 10.5)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should actively … make best use of information form independent and internal monitoring to ensure continuous improvement. In particular ensure that the six-monthly review of care (Regulation 45 reports) are supported by analysis and evaluation to allow proactive implementation of lessons learned and to sustain good practice. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 55, paragraph 10.24)

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Information about this children's home

The home is one of two children‟s homes owned and run by a private company that also operates a fostering agency and a school. It has accommodation for up to five young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The service also provides support from therapists to individual young people.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 21/03/16 Interim Declined effectiveness 30/09/2015 Full Good 05/02/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness 25/04/2014 Full Adequate 17/12/2013 Interim Inadequate Progress

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Good

Young people say that the home is a good place to live, that there are a lot of things to do and that staff are kind. They develop good attachments to staff and want to spend time with them. One young person became upset when some young people‟s behaviour became challenging during the inspection, as she worried that this reflected badly on staff and would affect the judgement given.

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Good

The individuality of each young person is central to the care and support that staff provide. Staff know about young people‟s needs, strengths, likes and dislikes. They are skilled at interacting with young people, helping them to develop and progress from their starting points. One social worker noted how staff had enabled a young person to express her views more effectively and to improve her behaviour. Staff support young people to achieve good educational results. Young people all attend school 100% of the time. They are predicted to do well in their exams and are interested and motivated to do so. Staff tenaciously champion young people‟s rights to a good education. They ensure that young people attend the best possible school for their needs and abilities and use professionals, such as the virtual head, to challenge local authorities if they do not act swiftly to meet young people‟s educational needs.

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Good

Young people‟s health needs are supported well. They receive consistent messages about health issues such as smoking and drug misuse. Any medical condition is well understood and acted on appropriately, and medication is administered and managed appropriately. Well-established support for young people‟s emotional well-being is provided by trained therapists and commences from the time that young people arrive. Therapists also assist staff to develop their understanding of young people‟s histories and current needs. Staff use this knowledge effectively to support young people to deal with trauma from the past, to provide good care and to decide how to manage risks associated with their challenging behaviours.

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Good

Meals and menus are developed with young people and provide a variety of foods; they cater well for specialised diets. Staff do not provide sufficient guidance regarding healthy eating and leading a healthy lifestyle. Young people are not all regularly engaged in physical activity, and although they learn cookery skills, staff do not use this as an opportunity to improve young people‟s understanding of what constitutes a healthy meal.

p.7

Good

There is an array of games and materials and opportunities available for young people to develop their interests and hobbies. They confirmed that they enjoy going out for meals and attending events such as fright nights at theme parks and social gatherings with the company‟s other home. One young person attends regular physical activity but most do not. Staff are discussing what activities young people would like to attend. For example, they are exploring how young people can become involved in a local youth club.

p.7

Good

Young people are involved in the daily running of the home and have appropriate opportunities to develop their independence. Their views are valued and sought by staff. Young people‟s meetings occur regularly and young people can call additional meetings if they want to. In addition, staff seek out opportunities to discuss issues with young people and skilfully decide how best to approach them. For some young people, this means that staff arrange to talk away from the home, for example in the car; for others, staff ensure that they make time to talk when the young person asks.

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Good

How young people move into and leave the home is managed well. In one instance this has resulted in a young person returning to live at the home at her request. Staff work hard to ensure that they understand as much about a young person as possible before they move in. There are excellent assessments of how the arrival of a new young person may affect those who already live there. This supports young people to settle well and helps those already in living at the home to remain settled.

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Good

Young people are safeguarded well. Staff understand how to protect them and help them to understand how to protect themselves. Each young person‟s particular safeguarding needs are identified well and met effectively. Good behaviour is promoted and rewarded. Young people know their specific objectives and what they need to do to achieve these goals.

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Good

Young people have helpful relationships with staff, which enable them to discuss difficulties and gain insight into how they can manage their behaviours better. For instance, they can discuss how group dynamics affect them and how to remain outside of other young people‟s arguments. This has assisted young people to reduce instances of bullying and develop confidence in managing any bullying behaviours that they encounter.

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Good

Staff use their understanding of young people to plan for and pre-empt difficulties. For example, staff knew that a particular time of year might affect a young person‟s behaviour. They planned with the young person how to support them during this period and kept to the plan. This resulted in the young person feeling less anxious and a reduction in difficult behaviours. Staff ensure that young people are not unnecessarily criminalised but they do hold them to account for unacceptable behaviours. They ensure that reparation is appropriately made and they support young people to learn from their mistakes.

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Good

Risks are identified, acted on appropriately and assessments regularly updated. This has resulted in fewer episodes of young people going missing, no restraints occurring in the last month and improved behaviour from young people.

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Good

Appropriately recruited staff understand child protection practice and take the necessary actions when there is a concern. The staff team has varying levels of knowledge about internet safety. Staff said that they did not feel confident about the various types of online applications and internet access currently available.

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Good

Staff members‟ understanding of what constitutes restraint has improved. The restraint policy is under review to ensure that it accurately reflects that physical presence without physical touch can constitute restraint. Nonetheless, use of restraint is minimal. Records appropriately reflect the actions taken and are reviewed.

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Good

The home is well organised and homely. One of the upstairs bathrooms and the kitchen are in need of redecoration. This is planned for the new year. Health and safety concerns, such as premises repairs, are identified and dealt with quickly. Food storage is not always monitored appropriately, which may result in foodstuffs becoming contaminated.

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Good

The manager is appropriately qualified and experienced. She continues to develop her own practice by developing her knowledge of the therapeutic theories which underpin the service. She tenaciously focuses her attention, and that of her team, on meeting young people‟s needs and helping them to progress.

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Good

Sufficient numbers of staff are on duty each day to meet young people‟s needs. Although the total number of permanent staff has recently decreased, managers have responded appropriately by using bank staff to fill gaps in the short term and swiftly employing new permanent staff. The reduction in staffing has not adversely affected young people‟s care and support.

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Good

Staff supervision and appraisal are appropriately conducted and appreciated by staff, and a thorough training plan effectively supports their development. The plan takes staff through a range of online and face-to-face training sessions over a two- and-a-half-year period. Staff were complimentary about their training and considered that it met their needs. They were able to demonstrate how training is used in practice. One member of staff said, „There is always something to learn and usually the provider has a course to meet it.‟

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Good

Seventy-five percent of the staff team have completed the level 3 diploma for residential childcare and the other 25% are undertaking this qualification. Staff are currently all undertaking a 10-week course regarding the therapeutic theories that underpin the service to further strengthen their understanding of this aspect of practice. Some staff were less conversant with e-safety than others, which means that they may not understand the risks posed to young people from internet- enabled devices.

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Good

Files are well kept and provide a good picture of how young people are progressing. When there are gaps in the information about young people which other bodies must provide, this information is actively sought. This means that it is easy to quickly find information about young people, and there is a good record of the time that they spend at the home.

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Good

The statement of purpose is up to date and reflects the aims of the home. However, some information is omitted. For instance, a statement about the actions that managers will take to ensure that young people have positive images of both sexes. This is necessary because the staff team is mainly female. The statement also indicates that the provider uses treatment plans. Although treatment plans are in use by the service‟s therapists, these do not form part of the home‟s documentation for young people. This distinction is not clear in the statement of purpose.

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Good

Monitoring and development is undertaken well. The monthly reports that the independent visitor completes are clear and helpful in supporting good practice. The manager responds to any recommendation made.

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Good

A well-written, appropriate development plan provides a clear picture of how the home is progressing. The quality of care is reviewed every six months. These reports contain a lot of detail but little analysis and evaluation. Greater analysis and evaluation would assist managers in further understanding what practice is functioning well and further inform the home‟s development plan.

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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 that 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

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

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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