Children's Home run by Lancashire County Council in Lancashire

The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

children and young people since the most recent full inspection.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

This home was judged good at the full inspection. At this interim inspection, Ofsted judges that it has sustained effectiveness .

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

There were no requirements or recommendations made at the last inspection on 21 September 2016.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

Young people continue to be well cared for by an experienced, stable and resilient staff team who always place the well-being of all the young people at the centre of their practice, irrespective of the significant challenges they present.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

Although this home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to six young people at any given time, it has consistently only had three young people living there since the last inspection. This is in recognition of their highly complex and often conflicting needs and means the staff can spend quality time with young people and provide highly individualised care.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

All the young people say they feel safe and happy at this home and enjoy sound relationships with the staff. Two young people in particular enjoy each other’s company and take part together in a wide range of constructive activities and trips out with staff.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

A key strength of this home is the staff’s proven ability to help young people re- establish and maintain constructive contact with family and friends in line with any legal directions and personal preferences. This strengthens young people’s understanding of their past, sustains their unique identities and builds emotional resilience. Also, this team always offers ongoing support to young people who have left the home to ensure that they continue to successfully live independently or with their families.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

There have been two positive recent discharges. One young person, admitted in an emergency, successfully returned closer to her family, which was her wish. This positive outcome was due to excellent partnership working with a team of other professionals including health, youth justice and substance misuse specialists. Staff at the home transported the young person some distance to her educational provision every day and she then enjoyed free time in the locality each evening. This secured 100% attendance, completion of her examinations and maintained her friendships. This shows that the staff at this home have the confidence to enable young people to take age-appropriate risks as part of their development into adulthood. Moreover, this positive approach resulted in a marked reduction of missing incidents from 14 in June 2016 to one in October 2016. This young person has since sent a thank you card to her key worker, writing, ‘Thanks for helping me

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

through thick and thin. You were always there for me and when I needed someone the most you were there. You taught me to believe in myself.’

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

Another young person is now successfully living independently, having been supported in this home to rebuild positive relationships with family. The young person’s 100% school attendance and the successful completion of her GCSEs were highly positive outcomes. Her school were highly complementary of the staff support from this home and the consequent improved educational progress made by the young person.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

The home was instructed to admit one young person in an emergency, but this placement became disrupted due to challenging behaviours with another young person. This culminated in considerable criminal damage and assaults on staff. Required repairs and re-decoration were efficiently addressed and the home is now maintained at a good standard throughout. The staff take great pride in ensuring that the communal rooms all have a particularly homely ambience and young people’s bedrooms are highly personalised.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

One young person was placed here from home in an emergency to keep her safe. She is purposely kept occupied by taking part in a range of constructive activities after school. She said, ‘I am loving taekwondo and I enjoy horse-riding and gymnastics too.’ Her last school report highlights: ‘Improved attendance since moving to this home from 70% to 100%; and, an improved attitude to learning.’ Extracts include: ‘She is now focussed and determined. Her behaviour has been excellent and she has made good progress.’

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

This home ensures that young people benefit from timely and appropriate specialist services to meet their specific assessed needs. Notable examples of particularly good collaborative working include emotional and mental health workers, the virtual school and the child sexual exploitation team. Moreover, there is recognition by the local police that this home effectively manages some highly challenging behaviours and rarely requests their assistance; whenever the home does call the police, it is given high priority. The home recently received a compliment from the police for its multi-agency work.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

Feedback from stakeholders consistently highlights the excellent systems and practices in place at this home to try and safeguard all the young people, not only in the home, but in the local community. Staff do not hesitate to act on any information that might locate young people, and frequently pick up one young person in the early hours to prevent him from going missing and to ensure his safe return. An independent advocate confirmed, ‘Overall, this is a good provision with an excellent ability to safeguard children.’ One tutor wrote, ‘This is an excellent provision and, from my perspective, everything that can be in place to safeguard young people, is in place. Communication is excellent.’

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

This home is particularly pro-active in sharing any local intelligence with other relevant safeguarding agencies and has been consistently highly influential in the successful serving of harbouring notices. Risk assessments are frequently updated with any new concerns to ensure that all the staff remain vigilant.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

One young person has continued to maintain 100% educational attendance and he was also fostered in line with his care plan. Despite a gradual process of introductions and continued staff support, unfortunately the placement disrupted very quickly and the young person returned to the children’s home. He was understandably very upset; however, due to the excellent relationships he enjoys with the staff, he soon settled back into his routine and is working through his feelings. This demonstrates the resilience he has built up since living at this home. He also now enjoys unsupervised contact with a sibling, which is significant progress. The young person said, 'I am in year 11 now and doing better in my education. I realised that I need to grow up so I am better behaved. I handle things differently and deal better with my feelings.' His sister said, 'The staff keep me informed and support my contact with my brother who is happy there. The

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

A full forensic assessment has recently been completed on one young person. He engaged extremely well, but the report shows that his mental health needs and, consequently the risks he poses, are significant, requiring a specialist unit. In sharp contrast, education specialists are not supporting a move due to the outstanding educational progress he has made from his starting point since moving to this home. Family relationships have also demonstrably improved to the extent that professionals are now exploring regular overnight stays. Moreover, although the young person frequently continues not to return at the agreed time and is often reported missing due to his vulnerabilities, he has made a conscious decision to disassociate himself from previous negative influences. Rather, he is actively choosing to spend his free time in another area, which is, in itself, good progress. He said, ‘I had been hanging around with a big gang of youths who have been

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

causing trouble in the community, so I not part of them anymore. They are just idiots and they get in trouble.’ To his credit, he has lived at this home for 16 months and has no offending history. His social worker said, ‘This home is excellent in responding to my young person's complex needs. The staff have always gone above and beyond.’

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

The staff always have a direct work session with each young person on their return from going missing, often using creative ways to stimulate discussion and explore safety issues. However, mainly due to the absence of a social worker, and despite escalation to the team manager, independent return interviews have not been completed for one young person since 1 December 2016. The home has also raised its dissatisfaction with the timeliness and quality of the records of some interviews that have taken place. In particular, when social workers are discussing a number of incidents together, it is not always a meaningful process.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

Young people continue to benefit from consistent and effective de-escalation of their significant challenging behaviours without being restrained. Consequently, the use of physical intervention remains relatively rare and, when deemed necessary, the least restrictive hold is always used for the shortest possible duration. There is also tighter monitoring of any patterns and trends and young people are always given the opportunity to reflect on each incident. As an example, one young person said, ‘I don’t think before acting, but I feel bad afterwards so I understand why staff moved me away. They really care about my well-being.’

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

To ensure continuity and consistent care, the permanent staff team has willingly taken on additional shifts rather than use agency staff. This is to ensure high staffing levels during known vulnerable times. For example, one young person struggles to sleep at night and his response is to go missing. To break this cycle, staff frequently stay up with him until he feels safe and calm. They have also found that these are the times when he will open up more about his traumatic past and future anxieties.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

Staff continue to benefit from regular supervision, timely annual appraisals and a good range of training opportunities. These are designed to effectively meet the assessed needs of the young people, wider organisational needs, and their own personal interests and identified development needs. In particular, staff have gained the confidence and competencies to appropriately and successfully challenge educational providers in respect to exclusions and in escalating any drift. They were also influential in changing a tutor for one young person, which has improved his ability to learn.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

The robust monitoring of individual educational targets is now firmly established, and the recording of educational outcomes and progress has much improved. Staff also actively encourage and support young people to contribute to their own personal educational planning meetings, as well as help them to identify areas they want additional support with. Examples include, ‘I like the school I am at now, and there is someone I can talk to there. I am enjoying working alone, but would now like to get better at working in a group and then go back to mainstream,’ and ‘I like maths, science and fixing things. I would now like to be able to concentrate better.’

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

Young people continue to influence the day-to-day running of the home and the continued development of the service through their involvement in the recruitment of staff and their annual appraisals. Young people’s feedback confirms the excellent relationships established. Examples include, ‘I am happy here and the staff are kind and caring and help with my family contact. I feel listened to here. I have asked to change my key worker once and now I am happy with mine. I am always invited to my meetings,’ and ‘I rate this home as excellent. All the staff treat me with dignity and respect. They spend time with me and listen to my thoughts and feelings. I trust them all. They help me to take part in activities I enjoy and with my college work.’ One young person in particular likes to regularly attend staff meetings and offer suggestions to improve the service. This demonstrates the confidence and social skills gained at this home.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

Families feel genuinely welcomed whenever they visit this home, and are regularly invited for meals, special events and trips. The staff have also effectively encouraged previously disengaged and resilient families to be actively involved in care planning and to attend significant appointments. This had the positive outcome of one young person re-engaging with the emotional and mental health service. Another parent was very positive about the staff’s commitment to her daughter and their ability to work with challenging behaviours, and to be inventive in managing different situations. She took the time to personally thank the staff for all their hard work and support and said, ‘They are doing a wonderful job.’ Another relative wrote, ‘It is so comfortable coming to this home and I cannot fault the care provided.’

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

Following the last internal six-monthly review of the home, the registered manager has identified an area for development. This is to increase formal consultations with families. To this end, a short questionnaire was immediately devised and sent out to all relevant family members. This will then inform and enrich the next review report on the quality of care provided in the home.

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The effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of

Since the last inspection, the home has introduced daily and weekly quality checks. These are in addition to the internal and external monthly monitoring systems and the six-monthly review report processes that are all firmly established. Another new development is the introduction of life story books. This means that when young people leave, they will be able to take with them lots of photographic evidence of happy memories enjoyed at this home.

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Information about this children's home

This is a local authority children’s home. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to six children and young people who may be experiencing emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

13/01/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

20/03/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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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 ensure that staff assess and make arrangements to reduce the risk of harm to each child, and help each child to understand how to keep safe. In particular, the registered person must ensure that independent return interviews are undertaken in a timely manner. The home should then take account of the information provided by such interviews when re- assessing risks and putting any new arrangements in place to protect the child. (Regulation 12(2)(a)) 28/02/2017

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What the inspection judgements mean

At the interim inspection we make a judgement on whether the home has improved in effectiveness, sustained effectiveness, or declined in effectiveness since the previous full inspection. This is in line with the ‘Inspection of children's homes: framework for inspection’.

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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 focused on the effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of children and young people since the most recent full inspection.

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Information about this inspection

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 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 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 at 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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