Children's Home run by St Hill Establishments Ltd in Kingston upon Hull

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’s highly individualised care meets their diverse needs. The good help and protection that staff provide support their progress from their starting points in all aspects of their lives.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Staff act as good parental role models to the young people and treat them with respect. This helps young people to develop some exceedingly positive and mutually enduring relationships with the staff.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Staff promote young people’s safety and welfare. They talk to the young people about keeping safe and monitor their whereabouts to ensure that they are safe from the range of threats to their vulnerabilities.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 The staff’s good relationships with other professionals help to counter the serious risks that are associated with the young people’s potential risky behaviours.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Staff actively listen to young people’s wishes and feelings and act upon their reasonable requests in relation to their plans and the running of the home.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Young people’s education is actively promoted. Obstacles to their development are challenged to ensure that they have realistic opportunities to prosper.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 The staff team is child focused, motivated and well supported by the registered manager. The good team communication and training opportunities help the staff team to care effectively for the young people.

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions which must be taken so that the registered person(s) meet(s) 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

13: The leadership and management standard

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Requirement Due date

(2) In order to meet the leadership and management standard, with particular reference to ensuring that children looked after placement agreements are signed, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to:

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Requirement Due date

(h) use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. 28/02/2017

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (2)(c)(5)) Specifically, ensure that any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children and feedback from staff consultations are included in the reviews. 31/03/2017

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Recommendations

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

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Recommendations

 The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 61, paragraph 13.2)

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Recommendations

Specifically, supervision records should be accurately recorded and be reflective of staff practice.

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Information about this children's home

A private company runs this children’s home. It provides a service for up to five children or young people, irrespective of gender, who have emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 17/05/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 02/02/2016 Full Good 12/08/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness 23/02/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Good

Young people respond well to the family-inspired, nurturing care and support that enables them to acclimatise to the consistent routines and boundaries. This promotes their sense of safety and motivates them, which allows their positive experiences to continue. The good parental role models adopted by the staff help young people to develop some exceedingly good, enduring relationships that are empathetic and delivered by staff who treat them with unconditional positive regard. Included are the emerging connections with young people who need to take their time to fully engage with staff. As a result, young people said that they like the staff. The staff treat young people with care and respect, they make them feel safe and help them to make sensible choices. This is because staff promote young people’s safety and welfare, listen to their wishes and feelings and act on suitable requests in relation to the running of the home and young people’s plans.

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Good

A young person said that staff listen to them ‘all of the time’. A professional said that the staff team, ‘do have the girl’s interests at heart’. In one recent statutory review, the chair thanked the staff team for ‘the excellent turnaround’ in one of the young people since she moved into the home.

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Good

Highly individualised care meets young people’s diverse needs. This enables a clear focus on young people’s strengths, risks and difficulties, thus allowing them to access the right services to help them to overcome any barriers and help them to prosper. The registered manager’s insistence that any placements made to the home are compatible with the current young people’s needs is strong and uncompromising. Consequently, there have been no new placements made since the last inspection.

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Good

The staff team views education as an important mechanism by which to help young people to improve their life chances. Consequently, those young people who moved into the home without an education package now have a full-time placement. Additionally, young people experiencing a breakdown in their education placement have overcome the emotional hurdles and they are waiting to attend a placement that is better suited to meet their learning needs. Good liaison with the virtual head teacher supports the registered manager to challenge education providers to help to overcome obstacles to young people’s educational progress. The staff team’s good communication with a range of health professionals helps the hard-to-reach young people to promptly access the health services that meet most of their individual needs. This is a strength of the service. The good contacts with health professionals help staff to address social and well-being issues. For

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Good

example, the dangers of smoking, drug and alcohol misuse and sexual health matters results in varying levels of engagement and success with the young people. Young people’s contact with family and friends promotes their identities. Their activities also reflect their cultural interests, for example going swimming and go- karting, visiting the youth club, going to the cinema and taking day trips away to fun and interesting places. Playing card games and watching television at home stimulate positive interactions between young people and staff. Some young people have approved overnight stays with friends. These positive experiences enable young people to develop social skills and relationships and to integrate with the wider community. Young people acquire a wide range of independence skills. For example, they learn how to cook, clean and maintain self-care skills, they learn social graces and travel to the shops and other places independently. Young people who have since moved

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Good

on from the home have left with a good send-off and finances to fund several driving lessons. These skills for life boost young people’s confidence in their abilities. The ongoing improvements to the premises are having a positive effect on the ambience of the home, which contributes to a homely environment for the young people to live in.

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Good

The young people benefit significantly from living in a safe and secure home environment with staff who care about them and prioritise their safety and well- being. The staff know young people’s individual risks very well, which enables staff to counter any threats to the young people’s safety and welfare through frank discussions and monitoring their whereabouts without imposing on their liberty. Consequently, the staff understand young people’s complex vulnerabilities and they are trained to identify and report any signs and symptoms of abuse. Professionals and the independent visitor raise no concerns about young people’s safety and welfare.

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Good

Effective working-together practices between staff, the police and other safeguarding professionals counter the serious risks that are associated with young people who are at risk of child sexual exploitation and missing from care. Although these are both areas of low risk, the good systems ensure that, should these concerns escalate, staff respond with rigour. A social worker said, ‘We are working together as best as we can.’ The clear and firm routines and boundaries enable the young people to know where they stand, and this contributes to their sense of safety. Young people are learning to develop socially acceptable behaviours. This is due to the good behaviour management practices that staff skilfully use, which effectively de- escalate young people’s negative behaviours. Consequently, no young people have been physically restrained. Young people rarely have sanctions imposed, which is positive, considering some of their highly emotionally charged and physically

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Good

challenging behaviours. Police involvement is utilised only if this is absolutely necessary, so as not to criminalise young people and affect their future plans. This balances the need to teach young people about the consequences of their wrong actions. This also helps them to self-regulate their behaviours and reduce the longevity of their anger outbursts and is good for reducing their stress levels.

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Good

The regular checks on fire prevention equipment and other health and safety appliances, such as electrical testing, keeps everyone safe in the home.

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Good

Young people’s involvement in the staff recruitment ensures that they contribute to the safe vetting of adults who care for them.

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Requires improvement

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since June 2014. She has over 15 years’ experience of caring for vulnerable young people, which she uses to influence her hands-on management style. She holds an appropriate management qualification and she is studying towards the level 5 diploma in leadership and Management for residential childcare. The hard-working staff enhance their skills through updated training, daily handovers and team meetings, which sufficiently empower them to carry out their roles. However, their individual supervision records do not reflect the actual discussions held at the time and they are not reflective.

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Requires improvement

The requirement raised at the last inspection that relates to the manager’s six- monthly review of the service does not provide for consultations with staff. It does not incorporate an action plan that would show how the registered manager intends to prioritise improvement over the next six months. A repeat of this requirement is made to ensure full compliance with the regulation. A clearer written undertaking by the independent visitor regarding their opinion as to whether children are effectively safeguarded, and whether the conduct of the home promotes children's well-being, is work in progress. The documents for the most recent admission are without signatures several months into the placement. This undermines the placement and agreements made about the young people’s plans.

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Requires improvement

Professionals are complimentary about the quality care provided to the young people living in the home. Describing the good communication shared between the home and professionals, one said, ‘We do get very good communication.’

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Requires improvement

Overall, the registered manager operates a child-focussed home with an established staff team that has a coherent understanding of the young people’s personalities and traits. The staff team shares the manager’s aspirational vision for the young people to succeed. The staff can demonstrate the difference that they are making to the young people’s lives and care for them in a manner that promotes the young people’s best interests. The registered manager notifies Ofsted about significant events, which enables Ofsted to carry out its regulatory duties.

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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 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 whom 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 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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