Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Warrington

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:

 Transitions are well managed, and the views of young people are placed firmly at the centre of planning processes.  The staffing team is experienced and consistent. As a result, staff have developed close bonds with the young person. This promotes an understanding of healthy relationships.  Leaders and staff have high aspirations for young people in their care and help them to reach their potential. Young people have made progress across all aspects of their development in a short space of time.  Effective behaviour management strategies are tailored appropriately to the individual needs of young people. Incidents of challenging behaviour have reduced.  Staff avidly promote a sense of positive self-image and help young people to feel comfortable with their identity, fulfil their cultural needs, and celebrate their strengths and talents.  Young people are helped to access a range of stimulating activities outside

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The children’s home provision is good because:

of the home, which has enhanced their social development and promoted a sense of belonging to peer groups.  Staff feel well supported and work collaboratively to enhance daily experiences for young people. Leaders ensure that structures are in place to offer additional emotional support to staff when needed.  Record-keeping practices are particularly strong, and the manager exceeds expectations in ensuring that sufficient evaluation and scrutiny is applied.  Leaders are very strong advocates for the children in their care, and have repeatedly and constructively challenged other agencies to ensure that young people receive appropriate support.

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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 ensure that children understand the role of an independent advocate and how they can access one. Staff should regularly remind children of their right to access an independent advocate concerning any matter relevant to the child’s status as looked after. Independent advocates can support both the child and the home to redress of issues which affect them such as lack of contact with social worker, contact with family and leaving care grants in addition to issues about their care within the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 23, paragraph 4.17)  Children should have access to a computer and the internet to support their education and learning, unless there are specific safeguarding reasons why this would be inappropriate. In such cases, the home should consider

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Recommendations

whether and how it can support the child to access a computer and the internet safely. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 29, paragraph 5.19)

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Information about this children’s home

This home is registered to provide care and accommodation for one child who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home is part of a large private organisation that also offers specialist educational provision, fostering services and adult residential care services nationally.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 19/06/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 29/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 18/11/2015 Full Good 05/02/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Good

Since the last inspection, one young person has made a very positive transition to a semi-independent living arrangement. This young person was an unaccompanied minor who staff successfully supported through an application process to remain in the country. Another young person was placed at the home recently, and has already demonstrated significant progress in settling into the home and developing close bonds with staff. High staffing ratios are in place at this home. Leaders and staff ensure that young people benefit from highly individualised care. Staff show a genuine interest in their daily lives, and young people enjoy spending time with them. The young person at the home said that the staff are her favourite aspect of living there. One young person commented, ‘my key worker is the best key worker I’ve ever had’. Staff are working exceptionally hard to build trusting relationships with the young

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Good

person, and are building her self-esteem through nurturing activities and offering warm and sincere praise on a regular basis. This is evidenced by the abundance of complimentary notes and good wishes from staff to the young person that are on display. The approach appears to be working, and an inspiring note written by the young person reads, ‘I will try my hardest to be the best I can be and achieve my dreams’. Young people have been supported to make decisions about their day-to-day care arrangements. Staff at the home organised an interpreter to assist one young person to understand more complex information and to make choices in his care planning process. Care plans and other important procedures and aspects of care management are translated as appropriate. Young people are made aware of complaints procedures, and contact numbers for independent organisations are displayed within the home. One young person is at a significant distance from their placing authority and does

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Good

not have any contact arrangements in place. This young person may benefit from the involvement of and representation by a formal advocate or independent visitor, and should be encouraged to understand her rights and entitlements further. A recommendation is made to address this matter. Both young people have made progress in educational outcomes. One was able to access an English tutor through in-house educational provision. The virtual head of the placing authority wrote to the manager of the home to thank her for successfully ‘pursuing and getting the young person into education’. Another young person has also accessed specialist in-house provision at an educational setting, having previously absconded from school and exhibited very challenging behaviours. Staff have facilitated a progressive plan gradually to increase the time that she spends at school to full time. They transport her and stay in the classroom

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Good

to provide consistency of approach with any behavioural needs, and to offer reassurance and support to the young person. She has achieved a ‘pupil of the week’ award and her teacher reports that she is ‘engaging well with her timetable’. Staff and the young person are aspiring to her returning to mainstream education, but this will be a considered and gradual process. Specialist assistance is sought when required. This has included making a referral to mental health support services and using an in-house therapist for staff consultation. This has aided staff’s understanding of how best sensitively to support young people who may be dealing with historic trauma or displaying attachment difficulties, and has helped the young person to learn about forming healthy relationships. Staff also undertake key-working sessions to help young people to reflect on their behaviour, develop problem-solving skills, and take

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Good

personal responsibility for their own health and emotional well-being. Healthcare planning is excellent. Young people have been registered promptly with local services and medical examinations are arranged when necessary. The manager and staff understand the complex health needs of one young person. They have provided significant support to help them to consider their options for future treatment, and how this might impact on their physical health and emotional well-being. The setting is proactive in promoting a healthy diet and an active lifestyle. Young people are actively engaging in positive activities outside of the home. One young person was supported by staff to access sport and leisure opportunities with peers from similar backgrounds, to communicate in a shared language and increase his sense of belonging. Another young person is accessing horse riding and cheerleading, and staff recently arranged for her to meet one of her popstar idols

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Good

at a book signing. She has also enjoyed eating out with staff, trips to Christmas markets, trampolining and visits to a local ice-cream farm. These activities have helped the young person to settle in and build strong bonds with staff, as well as starting to form relationships with peers. Young people are supported and encouraged to develop skills for independence. They take responsibility for cleaning and tidying their rooms, and assist with cooking, cleaning and shopping tasks in order to prepare them for adulthood. They benefit from staff promoting nurturing daily routines such as self-care, recreation and play activities, and nutritious, home-cooked meals enjoyed at the table.

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Good

Staff at the home are creative in ensuring that one young person’s cultural and religious needs are fully accommodated. They have established links with organisations that hold events to attract young people from similar heritage and faiths to his, and facilitated his attendance at social events. They ensure that any cultural and religious dietary requirements are appropriately catered for. For example, for one resident staff secured the services of an interpreter with knowledge of the country and area that he is from, which helped the group to understand his heritage and values in more depth. This helped staff to address any language barriers and assisted them in understanding cultural behavioural traits, fostering a more positive relationship between him and the staff.

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Good

Staff at the setting have completed anti-radicalisation training and ensure that they promote British values as required by the ‘Prevent’ duty. In doing so, their sensitivity to young people’s heritage is clear. For example, they contact elders from the local mosque and are responsive to individual faith needs.

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Good

Staff at the home adopt a consistent approach to behaviour management. They are experienced and trained in techniques to provide a calm and considered response, and have been able to diffuse escalating situations successfully. Young people are helped to reflect on their behaviour and its consequences. They are rewarded and praised for positive behaviour.

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Good

On occasion, staff have physically intervened to prevent injury or harm to the young person. This has been as a last resort and used the minimum force required. Record-keeping practices are very strong at this setting. Incidents are clearly recorded, reported to the appropriate agencies, and debriefed and evaluated effectively by the manager. Leaders and staff have encouraged restorative justice and discouraged formal police involvement or outcomes. One young person has significantly reduced her incidents of challenging behaviour since she arrived.

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Good

Risk assessment methods and processes are robust and reviewed regularly. There is a multi-agency assessment of risk and a clear plan for staff to follow, should a young person go missing. Staff are trained in safeguarding and whistleblowing procedures. The processes for reporting concerns are displayed prominently and have been refreshed at a recent team meeting. Fortunately, none of these procedures have been used recently. Recruitment and selection procedures ensure that any new staff are appropriately vetted and found suitable for residential care roles.

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Good

Staff understand the risks that the internet may pose to young people. The young person in placement does have access to a computer for educational purposes, but does not access the internet. There is no stipulation within any care planning processes to prevent the use of internet or social media, and the young person would benefit from being introduced to the principles of using the internet safely. A recommendation is made to address this matter.

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Good

The young person living at the home reports that she feels safe and able to talk to any of the staff at the home if she needs to. Social workers and other professionals agree that this is a safe environment for young people. Judgement grade

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Good

The registered manager is suitably experienced, having been in post for five years. She is currently working towards a level 5 diploma in leadership and management for residential childcare, and plans to have completed this by March 2017. The post-holder manages this home as well as two other homes within the company. Team leaders work on shift, therefore there are suitable arrangements in place to ensure a management presence across all shifts at the home.

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Good

Leaders work well together to ensure that young people’s needs are central to practice, and that the staffing team receives sufficient emotional and practical support to continue prioritising those needs. Formal support structures such as team meetings and supervision are in place and of high quality. Leaders routinely offer staff additional support when young people are presenting particularly challenging behaviours and needs. Staff communicate well with each other and enjoy their work, both of which have contributed to young people making significant progress across all aspects of their development, from their starting points, within short time frames.

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Good

There are two recommendations from the last inspection, centred on meeting the cultural and religious needs of the young person in placement at the time and ensuring that care planning processes were reflective of those needs. The recommendations have been met fully and any linguistic, cultural, religious needs were sufficiently accommodated. The young person’s social worker provided feedback to this effect, stating, ‘we worked together and we were able to move things on in a positive manner’.

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Good

Leaders and staff are offering good-quality care that is in line with the aims and objectives in the statement of purpose of the home, which has been recently reviewed and updated. The manager works well with other agencies and has demonstrated a clear ability to challenge placing authorities appropriately when care planning is not as effective as it could be. She has been a very strong advocate for one young person, whose social worker commented upon her efficiency in chasing the authority for updated plans and ensuring that statutory visit requirements are met.

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Good

Staff are accessing a wide range of relevant training opportunities, including different approaches to positive caregiving, which has provided them with the skills and knowledge to undertake work with young people who have significantly challenging needs. The registered manager cites the staffing team as the home’s greatest strength, and her main focus for development will be to enhance practice in the home further, introducing research-led principles designed to address areas of need for young people. The home is modern, well maintained and very homely. It has recently had a new kitchen fitted and the manager continuously reviews any decorative requirements, taking into account the views of young people.

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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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