Children's home run by The Partnership of Care Today in Stockport

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 live in a nurturing and supportive home that provides them with stability and a sense of belonging. They benefit from a consistently good standard of personalised care, which is tailored to meet their individual needs.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Young people get the right support to help them make sustained progress in all aspects of their development. Staff work collaboratively with schools and health professionals to improve young people’s outcomes and life chances.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Young people develop strong and trusting relationships with staff. They are always treated with respect and dignity. Young people are listened to, their views are taken seriously, and staff always do their best to help them. As a result, young people feel valued.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 The registered manager and staff have created a safe living environment in which young people feel protected. Consequently, young people feel safe and they are developing better emotional resilience.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Young people enjoy a wide range of activities and hobbies, which wholly support their social and personal development.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Young people benefit from living in a home that is run by an experienced and committed registered manager. She prioritises young people’s needs and ensures that her team is suitably trained to meet the young people’s range of needs.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Areas for improvement largely concern processes and procedures, not staff practice. These include requirements around the monitoring of the service; staff rotas; and, notifying Ofsted of all safeguarding concerns. Additionally, four good-practice recommendations have been raised to enhance risk assessments; staff members’ professional supervision and development; and, the home’s physical environment.

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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

13: The leadership and management standard

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the leadership and management standard, the registered person must:

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Requirement Due date

(2)(h) use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. 31/03/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4. In particular, ensure that the rotas detail all staff, including the registered manager, when working at the home and the hours that they have worked. (Regulation 37 (2)(a)) 31/03/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation; an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(a)(b)) 23/02/2017

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Recommendations

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

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the home provides an environment that is welcoming, confirming that the staff care for the young person and value them. In particular, ensure that young people's bedroom flooring and the home's sofas are repaired and/or replaced when necessary. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.7)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that staff continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. Where there are safeguarding concerns for a child, their placement plan, agreed between the home and their placing authority, must include details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risks on a day-to-day basis. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the registered person has a workforce plan which can fulfil the workforce related requirements of regulation 16, schedule 1 (paragraphs 19 and 20). The plan should be updated to include any new training and qualifications completed by staff while working at the home, and used to record the ongoing training and continuing professional development needs of staff – including the home's manager. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that all staff 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 young people assigned to their care. A record of supervision should be kept for all staff, including the manager. The record should provide evidence that supervision is being delivered in line with regulation 33 (4) (b). It is good practice for a note of the content and/or outcomes of supervision sessions to be kept and to ensure that both the person giving the supervision and staff member have a copy of the record. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraphs 13.2, 13.3 and 13.4)

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Information about this children's home

This privately owned children’s home provides care and accommodation for up to four children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 14/11/2016 Interim Not judged 16/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 09/06/2015 Full Good 11/09/2014 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Good

At the last inspection in November 2016, the service was not judged as there were no young people living at the home. Two young people have since moved into the home, and they are making noticeable progress. Staff are providing them with consistent boundaries and routines, as well as warm, nurturing care. As a result, young people are settling into their new home and are developing positive relationships with all of the staff team. This is reflected in the young people’s comments: ‘I like all the staff as they are always happy and kind,’ and ‘Living in this home is very good because the staff keep you safe.’ These positive, warm relationships were observed during the inspection, such as when a young person hugged a member of staff and told her, ‘I love you.’

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Good

Staff are committed to supporting young people’s social and personal development. They demonstrate in-depth knowledge of the young people’s needs, vulnerabilities and strengths. What’s more, staff invest time in finding out about young people’s interests and hobbies and enable them to participate in activities of their choice, such as swimming, Cubs, go-karting and football. This is ensuring that young people have the opportunity to maintain their hobbies, socialise with their friends and have fun. Young people said that they feel listened to and fully supported by the staff, and observations during the inspection confirmed this. In particular, a young person spoke about how staff had bought him a go-kart for Christmas, which is something that he said he had always wanted.

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Good

Young people benefit from attending school full time, and this is achieved through staff members’ consistent support, clear boundaries and effective routines. The home works closely with schools to ensure that any potential barriers to learning are swiftly addressed, such as chasing up educational psychology assessments to ensure that individuals’ learning needs are appropriately assessed. As a result, young people are offered the right educational support to help them to reach their full potential.

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Good

Staff understand each young person’s individual health needs, and the home’s daily practices promote good health. Staff ensure that young people attend all routine appointments with the dentist and opticians, which is helping to identify any health needs promptly, including when young people need glasses. Young people are encouraged to eat healthily, and they were observed helping the staff to make a healthy meal during the inspection. Furthermore, staff support them to keep active by taking them out on physical activities. Consequently, young people are fit and healthy, and because they become more stable and build attachments with their carers, their emotional health also improves.

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Good

Young people’s care is highly personalised, and their placement plans promote their individuality. Young people’s progress and experience are truly captured in their personal files and records, which include photographs and memorabilia of their life journey and past experiences. This helps young people to develop a sense of belonging and gain a better understanding of their background. Additionally, it will provide them with opportunities in the future to reflect on their experiences when living in this home.

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Good

Staff have created a nurturing, warm, homely environment in which young people feel valued, cared for and respected. However, this is being undermined by the poor maintenance of some areas of the home. In particular, some young people’s bedroom flooring is in poor condition and the lounge sofas are worn and ripped.

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Good

An enthusiastic, motivated and resilient team works diligently to support young people and protect them from harm. Staff are good at engaging young people in discussions about their feelings and, consequently, young people are learning how to safely manage their difficult emotions. This is clearly reflected in young people’s direct-work records and confirmed in the discussions held by the inspector with staff and young people. Furthermore, young people trust the staff and confide in them about things that concern them, such as threats from school peers. When such concerns arise, staff work collaboratively with the school to assess the situation and put effective safeguards in place.

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Good

Improvements can be made in the home’s risk assessments. Individual risk assessments and compatibility assessments do not detail all risks or reflect the effective strategies that are in place to minimise harm. Staff do not, therefore, have access to comprehensive risk assessments that inform them of all potential risks and the action that they must take to keep young people safe. So far, this has not had any impact on young people’s safety because the staff know the young people extremely well and update each other verbally at daily handovers. However, this would not support safe practice if the home had to use agency or bank staff who are not familiar with the young people or home’s safeguarding practices.

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Good

The young people who are currently living at the home are safe and feel safe. Furthermore, they do not engage in high-risk behaviours, such as going missing from care, offending, drug misuse, or child sexual exploitation. Staff are suitably trained to tackle all potential dangers and have all received training on safeguarding/child protection, missing from care, child sexual exploitation and radicalisation. As a result, young people are being protected by a knowledgeable and competent team.

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Good

The home experienced an unsettled period prior to the new young people moving in. In September 2016, young people were moved from the home due to serious safeguarding concerns. These young people were regularly going missing, offending, associating with unsafe peers and adults, and bringing weapons into the home. Staff dealt with each incident appropriately and worked collaboratively with the placing social workers, police and specialist safeguarding teams throughout this difficult time. All professionals involved agreed that the local environment was significantly impacting on these particular young people’s safety. As a result, the young people were moved from the home due to the risks presented to them in the local area, not because of shortfalls in staff members’ safeguarding practice.

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Good

The registered manager and her team have reflected on this period and identified areas for development, including revising the local area assessment. The registered manager has since updated the local area assessment to ensure that it reflects all potential risks and dangers in the local community. Furthermore, strategies have been put in place to manage these risks. For example, the home has agreed with the police that it will not accommodate young people who have a history of anti- social behaviour or child sexual exploitation.

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Good

Young people’s welfare and safety is enhanced through robust staff recruitment procedures. All staff are suitably vetted prior to them working in the home. However, the staff rotas require some improvement to ensure that they provide a clear and accurate picture of staff working in the home. At present, the registered manager is not included on the rota and neither are the hours that staff work. Although this has not impacted on young people’s safety so far, it could potentially undermine any future child protection enquiry should an allegation be made against a member of the team.

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Good

Generally, the registered manager and staff ensure that all serious events relating to the welfare and protection of children are reported to the appropriate authorities, including parents, social workers, the police and safeguarding teams. However, on more than one occasion they have failed to inform Ofsted of serious safeguarding incidents, including potential child sexual exploitation concerns. Although this had no direct impact on the young people’s immediate safety, it prevented the service regulator from evaluating the home’s response to all serious safeguarding matters.

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leaders and managers

The registered manager has substantial experience of managing children’s homes and holds the appropriate professional and management qualifications. She leads a nurturing and skilled team that is committed to providing young people with a high standard of care and support. The day-to-day management of the home prioritises children’s needs and, in the main, delivers the aims and objectives set out in the home’s statement of purpose, which has now been updated and forwarded to Ofsted.

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leaders and managers

The team works in an open and supportive environment and is supervised and guided effectively by the registered manager. However, some staff are not having one-to-one professional supervision at least once a month, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose. Furthermore, not all professional supervision sessions are recorded to provide evidence of the discussions held and actions agreed. Consequently, staff are not entirely benefitting from having dedicated time to review their work with their manager and, thus, promote their professional development.

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leaders and managers

Similarly, staff are eager to learn and develop and are provided with on-going training on a range of relevant topics, such as first aid, internet safety and radicalisation. This is ensuring that the team is sufficiently equipped to care for and protect the young people living in the home. However, the manager does not have an effective system in place for monitoring staff members’ training needs. The training matrix, which identifies the training that staff have undertaken, was out of date and did not consider staff members’ individual needs. Improvements in how the manager identifies, plans for, and monitors the team’s training needs would enhance staff members’ professional development further.

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leaders and managers

External monitoring of the service is supporting the manager to continuously improve the home. An independent person visits the home every month and prepares a helpful report of his findings. Although the visitor talks to staff and young people to establish their views of the home, he does not seek the views of other relevant people involved in young people’s lives, for example social workers, independent reviewing officers and parents. Gathering these views would further assist the leaders and managers to understand the effectiveness of the home’s approaches. This was acknowledged by the registered manager, and she intends to address this with the visitor.

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leaders and managers

The registered manager has a system in place for monitoring and reviewing the quality of care that is provided in the home. This involves auditing paperwork, consulting regularly with young people and sending feedback questionnaires to other stakeholders. All of this supports the continued development of the home. However, despite regular internal monitoring, several shortfalls were observed in the home’s records, in particular room search records, staff rotas, risk assessment, and failing to notify Ofsted of all serious safeguarding concerns. Therefore, the registered manager’s monitoring of the home is not yet wholly effective.

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leaders and managers

The service employs a sufficient number of staff who either hold or are working towards obtaining the relevant professional qualification. There is currently one staff vacancy and this is covered by regular relief workers or staff overtime. Consequently, young people benefit from a consistent staff team and therefore receive continuity in their care. The team is stable, resilient and wholly committed to meeting the needs of the young people. This was consistently reflected in young people’s comments and observations during the inspection. When the young people were asked what they thought of the home and the staff, they replied, ‘Ten out of ten.’

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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 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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