Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in East Riding of Yorkshire

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 at the home are seen as individuals by the registered manager and staff team. Their care is individually tailored to meet their complex needs and is based on thorough and robust assessments supported by the clinical team.  Placements are appropriately assessed and planned to ensure young people who live in the home have minimum conflict and stress.  There is excellent liaison between all those working around the young people including education staff, clinical staff and external agencies.  Staff are quick to build a relationship with the young people to allow them to feel safer and to be able to discuss sensitive issues.  The leadership and management of the home is excellent, with the registered manager being highly regarded by her staff team and external agencies.  The shortfalls in practice identified at inspection have had little impact on the young people.

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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

 Where the placing authority or another relevant person does not provide the input and services needed to meet a child's needs during their time in the home, or in preparation for leaving the home, the home must challenge them to meet the child's needs. Staff should act as champions for their children, expecting nothing less than a good parent would. In particular, ensuring the local authority provides a full chronology of the young person before the placement begins. ('Guide to the children's home regulations including the quality standards', page 12, paragraph 2.8)

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Recommendations

 Just as in a family home, children should be able to access all shared areas of their home unless there are specific reasons why this would not meet a child's needs. Limits on privacy and access may only be put in place to safeguard each child in the home (Regulation 21(c)(i)). Any decisions to limit a child's access to any area of the home, or any modifications to the environment of the home, must only be made where this is intended to safeguard the child's welfare. All decisions should be informed by a rigorous assessment of that individual child's needs, be properly recorded and be kept under regular review. ('Guide to the children's home regulations including the quality standards', page 15, paragraph 3.10)

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Recommendations

 The home's records on each child represent a significant contribution to their life history. Children and their parents should be supported to understand the nature of records kept by the home and how to access them. Staff should understand their important role in encouraging the child to reflect on and understand their history, according to their age and understanding. ('Guide to the children's home regulations including the quality standards', page 62, paragraph 14.5)

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Recommendations

 The review should enable the registered person to identify areas of strength and possible weakness in the home's care, which will be captured in the written report. The report should clearly identify any actions required for the next six months of delivery within the home and how those actions will be addressed. The whole review process and the resulting report should be used as a tool for continuous improvement in the home. ('Guide to the children's home regulations including the quality standards', page 65, paragraph 15.4)

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Information about this children's home

The home is operated by a large private company registered to provide care for up to five children and young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. There is also a school on-site.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 29/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 22/06/2015 Full Good 18/03/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness 05/11/2014 Full Good

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Good

Young people who live at this home often have complex and challenging behaviour. They have often faced abuse and trauma in their childhood and find it difficult to trust any adults. Staff and the clinical team work hard to build secure relationships with these young people to allow them to feel safe. These relationships help the young people to begin to understand what has happened to them and accept that there are some adults who can be trusted. One young person spoke of ‘it being ok here, staff are ok and they treat me well’.

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Good

Education is on-site and young people are attending on a regular basis. There is close liaison between the staff in education and the home. There is a clear understanding of the impact of previous trauma on young people’s ability to progress in education. A collaborative approach between education and the home ensures achievements are acknowledged and celebrated. Regular meetings involving all those working with the young people allow for a consistent approach across education, behaviour management and future targets.

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Good

Young people take part in a wide variety of activities, which allow them to have fun and experience new things. The young people are not keen to have their pictures displayed, so photographs and other memorabilia are kept safe for them until they want to see them. Key worker sessions regularly allow young people to reflect on what they like doing. Both of the young people are involved in activities within the home; cooking is a favourite activity, with very pleasant results. A member of staff said, ‘He (young person) is a really good cook. He cooks lots of different dishes, but just needs to put a bit more thought into cleaning up.’ These sessions promote independence skills and help build self-esteem and confidence.

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Good

Staff recognise contact with families is extremely important for the young people. For those young people that require supervision, staff manage these contacts well and make a positive difference to the young person’s behaviour. A social care professional said, ‘The manager and staff team do all they can to make difficult situations safer and it’s always about what’s in the best interest of the young person. It’s good they plan for pre- and post-contact behaviour as this can often be very challenging.’ For some young people, contact has resulted in a return to living with their family. A parent said, ‘I just can’t believe the difference in our lives.’ Judgement grade

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Good

The home promotes a very nurturing and safe environment. Staff have experience of de-escalation techniques and try to prevent challenging behaviour from becoming a crisis. They assist young people in learning to self-regulate their feelings and emotions and emphasise praising positive behaviours and building on likes and strengths.

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Good

Risk assessments are thorough and look at the young person holistically. This is helped by on-site clinicians who work closely with the staff team to develop ways of dealing with the presenting behaviours. There is an emphasis on assessing behaviour and not ‘blaming’ the young person. This way of working helps young people to gain an insight and understanding of their behaviour. This, in turn, enables opportunities for young people to access tailor-made interventions. In some instances, the placing authority does not provide information about a young person’s history and the process to challenge this is not robust.

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Good

The registered manager and staff team have a very clear understanding of the impact of exploitative and abusive behaviours on young people. The staff are confident in their ability to respond appropriately and are consistent in how they help young people to identify these. The staff also accept that it can take time for young people to have the confidence to address these very sensitive issues. One staff member said, ‘Sometimes it’s really hard to hear what young people have experienced, but it’s not up to me to judge them. I listen and try and give them a chance.’

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Good

The number of missing from home episodes has reduced significantly. When young people do go missing, staff follow the home’s missing policy and work closely with the police and the local youth groups in the community to ensure young people return as quickly and safely as possible. On their return, young people are welcomed and given an opportunity to talk privately with staff and an independent advocate. Information from these discussions helps to enhance the existing risk assessments and identify new prevention strategies.

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Good

The complex needs of the young people and experiences can mean that they use aggressive and challenging behaviour inside and outside of the home. This has resulted in occasions when staff have to use physical interventions. Such incidents of this nature are recorded appropriately and young people and staff speak openly about what happened and why. There is a transparency in the way these incidents are discussed.

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Good

The home is very child-centred and tries to assist young people to gain the confidence and skills for when they leave the home. However, there is an over- reliance on locking doors and restricting young people’s access to parts of the home. In some instances, there are clear safeguarding issues that mean that areas need to be secured; however, in others it has become a habit. These restrictions are not always detailed in care plans or risk assessments and do not have a formal review date. Such restrictions do not promote young people’s ability to self- regulate.

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Good

The registered manager has excellent links with professionals in the local community, including the local safeguarding board and the designated officer for the local authority. Social care professionals speak of the very positive communication with the home and one spoke about ‘the robust manager’s investigation following allegations’.

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Good

The home has an excellent leader and manager who is supported by a senior management team and a very loyal staff team. She is suitably qualified and experienced to manage this home. ‘She’s our support and inspiration,’ commented one member of staff.

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Good

Supervision notes are detailed and demonstrate that the manager is keen to support and praise staff but is also confident to challenge poor practice. Reflective supervision allows staff to develop and grow and to share some of the emotional experiences of working with young people, who find it so difficult to trust any adults. This means the staff are resilient, confident and creative.

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Good

The home has sufficient staff to provide good care for the young people. The staff group have a variety of backgrounds and experience, which all add to the diversity and vibrancy of this home. Staff complete mandatory training within the required timescales and have the added opportunity of working closely with the clinical team, who provide additional training when required.

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Good

Young people’s case records are up to date and presented in an orderly way. There is a great deal of duplication of information recorded, which takes staff away from working directly with the young people. The way information is recorded does not allow for the young person to access information that is recorded about them. Young people do not have an opportunity to ensure records accurately reflect why things are happening. Important documents, for example placement plans and risk assessments, have lost their identity and have become a chronology. They do not inform staff about how to look after that young person, or easily identify the things that are worrying about the young person’s behaviour. The statement of purpose is kept under review and the staff and registered manager are clear about the ethos of the home. There are good development plans and a safe area assessment, which details the risks in the community that

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Good

The registered manager has demonstrated a thorough and in-depth understanding of the regulations and quality standards. She notifies Ofsted appropriately and has ensured that requirements and recommendations from previous reports are met and embedded into the practice. There were no breaches of regulation identified in this inspection.

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Good

The registered manager has a robust system for monitoring and reviewing the effectiveness of the home. She has recently challenged the effectiveness of the independent visitor’s reports and has appointed a new independent visitor to provide a more evaluative audit. Internal audits occur on a regular basis and there is management oversight within case files and other recording. The registered manager’s review of the quality of care is thorough but lacks evaluation and analysis, which would provide a more robust view of the progress of the young people and the effectiveness of the home.

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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 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 at 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 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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