Children's home run by Family Care Associates Limited in Preston

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 who have learning disabilities and complex needs enjoy positive experiences living in this safe, friendly, and supportive home. The enthusiastic, experienced, and competent staff work together effectively to deliver a good standard of individualised care that consistently meets young people’s needs and helping them secure better outcomes. They are making good progress in education, social skills, managing their feelings and behaviour. The level of risk to young people’s safety from self-harm and aggression has considerably reduced and they have become increasingly safer.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Young people enjoy positive and trusting relationships with their staff. They feels safe and are protected from harm. Staff help him to understand and manage their feelings and control their behaviour. Young people are learning how to manage feelings constructively

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Effective care planning and productive working relationships between the registered manager, staff, the local authority, education and health workers means that young people receive the support that meets their assessed needs and safeguarding their welfare. Effective communication and partnership working are helping to improve young people education and health outcomes.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 The registered manager provides effective leadership and management that prioritises young people’s welfare and secures improvements. The positive working relationship with the clinical psychologist is a strength and is having a positive impact on the quality of care. The staffing arrangements ensure that the young people receive consistent support and continuity of care that helps him to feel settled and to do well from experienced, qualified and familiar people.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Improvements are needed in relation to the quality of the young people’s health and behaviour management plans, the review of the quality of care and understanding its impact on the young person’s life, and showing how young people’s views are influencing their care.

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Statutory requirement

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 with the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the leadership standard the registered person must:

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Requirement Due date

2 (f) understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided

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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.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person's review of the quality of care, under Regulation 45, must provide a thorough and evaluative assessment of children's experiences and views about living in the home and the impact the quality of care is having on outcomes and improvements for the children: to enable the registered person to identify areas of strength and possible weakness, and identify any actions required to make improvements in the home. Reviews should be underpinned by the quality standards as described in regulations 5 to 14. 28/02/2017

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  Each child is provided with support to communicate their views, wishes and feelings and participate as fully as possible in all aspects of their care planning and daily care. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.6) In particular, contributing to the review of their placement plan.

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Recommendations

 Ensure that children's individual health plan set out the day-to-day arrangements for meeting all their health and emotional well-being needs. (‘Guide to children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 33, paragraph 7.2)

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Recommendations

 Behaviour management plans must set out in detail the approach for promoting positive behaviour and the specific strategies and measures for supporting individual children to understand and manage their feelings and control their behaviour. (‘Guide to children's homes regulations including the quality standards, page 46, paragraph 9.33)

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Information about this children's home

This is a privately owned children’s home providing care and accommodation for up to three children who have learning disabilities. It operates under a contractual agreement with a local authority.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 22/02/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 07/12/2015 Full Requires improvement 23/02/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness 10/11/2014 Full Outstanding

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Good

Young people who have learning disabilities and complex needs live in a positive and supportive home. They thrive in this nurturing environment, enjoy trusting relationships with staff and have a strong sense of belonging. They receive a good quality of individualised care that consistently meets their assessed needs and is helping them to make sustained and significant progress. Staff demonstrate genuine warmth and care towards children. They are proud of and celebrate young people’s achievements.

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Good

Staff understand how each young person communicates, and processes and manages information. They use clear and precise language to communicate with children. They give children time to work what they are saying and to respond to them. They expertly support and encourage every young person to express their wishes and feelings and make choices in a meaningful way. This is done as a natural part of his daily life including decisions about the food they eats, the clothes they wear, how they spends their spare time, and influences the plans for the future. Young people have access to an independent advocate. However, young people’s views about their daily care, experiences and the quality of the support they receive are not always evident in their records, including the reviews of their plans.

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Good

Over the last 12 months improved care planning and partnership working with the local authority, education, health and adult services has secured better outcomes for young people. This has included working creatively with a local college to encourage and support a young person’s participation in education. Because of the young person’s level of anxiety and the amount of time he has been out of school, they have adopted an outreach model of learning, which builds on his existing skills and interests working at home with staff to gain ASDAN qualifications. This is the starting point for building his confidence in going into college. Young people’s emotional and physical health is also improving through strong partnership working with health practitioners. Regular reflexology sessions are helping a young person’s to relax, manage her feelings and improve her sense of well-being. Advice and guidance from a dietician has helped a young person to lose weight and have a

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Good

healthier lifestyle. He is maintaining a calorie controlled diet, which staff monitor daily, encouraged to make healthier food choices, and take part in at least 20 minutes of physical exercise each day. Staff have also promoted another younger person’s mobility and physical development through a healthy diet and regular exercise, including swimming, trampoline and walking.

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Good

Staff have successfully encouraged and supported a young person to do more activities outside the home. He has been anxious about going out but is now much more motivated to do things, including going to the shops and out for meals, visit colleges, and go to the cinema independently with his brother. Staff have worked patiently building up his confidence and skills, including helping him to feel comfortable using public transport. They are also providing him with opportunities, support and guidance to help him build his confidence and develop practical life skills, including shopping, planning healthy meals, cooking and managing money. They are working with him, his advocate and an adult social worker to make plans for his future.

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Good

Young people see and speak regularly to their family. This is helping them to maintain and improve important relationships. Their family receive a warm welcome when they visit the home. Staff understand it can be a difficult time for children, and take every effort to make sure it is a safe and positive experience for everyone.

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Good

Young people’s placement plans are personalised and clearly set out their individual needs, and the arrangements for making sure they get the right support at the right time. The staff consistently follow the placing authority’s plan for each young person and work hard to meet their needs on a daily basis. Placement plans are living documents that are continually reviewed and up dated to reflect the young person’s changing needs and circumstances, and are aimed at young people’s progression to better outcomes. However, health plans do not always clearly show the arrangements for meeting young people’s emotional health needs, or provide a coordinated picture of their medical history or immunisations.

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Good

Young people live in a safe and supportive environment where a consistently good quality of care helps them to feel safe and promotes their emotional security. Staff’s awareness and safe care practices protect young people from harm, going missing, bullying, exploitation and neglect. Staff are suitably trained and knowledgeable about child protection, child sexual exploitation and e-safety and provide young people with a good level of supervision that keeps them safe. They follow safe care practices when assisting with personal care that respect and promote young people’s dignity, and take appropriate action when they have concerns.

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Good

Staff have a detailed understanding individual young people’s vulnerabilities. They identify and continually assess the risks for each young person and take considered and reasonable precautions to make sure the young person is protected. Their use of thorough written risk assessments helps them manage and reduce risk on a daily basis. Risk assessments are personalised to reflect the needs of individual young people and protective precautions are proportionate to the level of assessed risk. This effective management of risk is enabling young people to be safe and explore new experiences and challenges, which is promoting their personal development. For example, staff take suitable protective measures to encourage and support young people to play online games and use the internet safely.

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Good

As in a family home, young people have the appropriate level of freedom and privacy. Any restrictions are based on young people’s individual needs and a detailed assessment of risk. The use of alarms on bedroom doors is intended to promote young people’s safety at night, and only used in agreement with parents and the placing authority and clearly set out in young people’s plans. External doors are locked as a security precaution as part of the normal routine, but also as a precaution to safeguard some young people who may be at risk if they leave the house without support. One young person has his own key fob for the front door, based on his age, level of understanding and abilities, and is able to leave without staff first having to unlock the door. He has agreed to let staff know when he is going out, where he is going and how long he will be. This arrangement is part of his plan to build his independence and confidence in the community.

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Good

Staff work alongside an experienced and suitably qualified clinical psychologist to understand each young person’s assessed needs, and develop and put into practice well-informed plans to help young people make sense of the world around them and their place in it. Staff’s clear and consistent approach is meeting each young person’s emotional needs by helping them to understand socially acceptable behaviour, sustain positive relationships with other young people and adults, and express and manage their feelings constructively. Young people appear more settled and resilient. They are significantly less likely to show their feelings through self-harm, aggression or risky uninhibited behaviour. Staff and the clinical psychologist have devised strategies that have help young people deal with the challenges they face, including helping a young person manage the transition home from school safely. They have also supported a young person following a family

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Good

bereavement: helping him to understand what had happened and answer his questions openly and in ways that he is able cope with the information.

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Good

Young people are supported and encouraged to find ways to manage their feelings and control their behaviour as part of their daily routine. The staff have helped a young person identify and use safe places in the house, including a lounge and her bedroom, when she comes home from school or feels anxious and upset. These rooms are decorated to provide her with a soothing place with her favourite toys to help start to feel calm. It is a safe and effective strategy that is reducing her level of anxiety and helping to build her emotional well-being.

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Good

The quality of written behaviour management plans is improving, but some plans lack precise information for staff about how best to promote positive behaviour for individual young people. These plans do not set out the specific measures for supporting the young person to manage feelings and control behaviour. They often include vague statements, such as ‘use distraction techniques’ without showing in detail what to do in different situations to support the young person.

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Good

The registered manager has been in charge of the home for over 14 years. He is a very experienced and suitably qualified manager. He provides clear and effective leadership and demonstrates a strong commitment and the capacity to continue to improve the quality of care young people receive and their opportunities for personal growth. The registered manager and staff are ambitious for every young person, regardless of the complexity of their needs, to reach their potential and enjoy the same experiences and opportunities as other young people. Staff are sensitive and responsive to young people’s personal needs in relation to their age, interests, gender, disability, identity and culture.

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Good

The registered manager and staff actively engage in the wider support system for each young person in their care. Strong and productive working relationships with social workers, schools, colleges, health practitioners, independent advocates and adult services is contributing to better outcomes for young people across every aspect of their development. The manager and staff’s working relationship with the clinical psychologist is a particular strength and has been an extremely positive development. Staff value the clinical psychologist’s regular support and the opportunity it gives them to critically reflect with her on young people’s progress, the effectiveness of plans, their practice, the emotional impact of their work, and to build on their existing skills. Recent training on intensive interactions highlighted and validated the high quality of staff’s relationships with young people, and help them to think how they can further improve the support they provide for each

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Good

The staffing arrangements ensure that there is always sufficient staff available to meet all the young people’s assessed needs. Young people receive the continuity of care that they need to promote good attachments and relationships with the people caring for them. A well-established, stable, experienced, qualified and skilled staff team provide young people with a high quality of care. Their skills, knowledge, values and personal qualities are tailored to the needs of children who have disabilities and complex needs. They are appropriately support and guided by the registered manager, and receive good quality professional supervision and training, relevant to the needs of the young people.

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Good

The registered manager’s formal review of the quality of care does not provide a thorough and evaluative assessment of how well young people are being supported in line with the quality standards, their experiences and views about his care, and the impact the quality of care is having on their lives. This lack of detailed assessment does not help the registered manager and provider to identify accurately areas of strength, measure young people’s progress, identify share and build upon good practice; or identify possible weaknesses and the actions required to make further improvements in 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.

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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 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 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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