Children's home run by Carehome Limited in Liverpool

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

This home was judged outstanding at the full inspection. At this interim inspection, Ofsted judges that it has improved effectiveness . The children live in a loving, nurturing and supportive home environment, where they enjoy extremely positive and rewarding experiences. Overall, the children continue to make very significant progress across all aspects of their development. Highly effective managers and skilled staff continue to build on their outstanding practice to make an extremely positive difference to children’s lives. The children continue to receive an exceptionally high quality of care that is meeting their individual needs. For example, the staff helped them to celebrate St David’s Day to promote a child’s Welsh identity and cultural heritage. An independent reviewing officer reported that, ‘There is improvement in the child’s behaviour. Staff have a very good understanding of his needs and are nurturing in their approach, which

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

has, in no doubt, assisted him. This is an excellent placement for him. Staff are helping him to manage emotions and working with the placing authority to identify the best options for him.’ The children feel safe and have a strong sense of belonging because they feel loved and are always treated with dignity and respect. They are listened to and the staff take a keen interest in finding out their wishes, feelings and concerns. They have trusting and meaningful relationships with the adults looking after them. The children know that staff always tell them the truth, help them work through problems and fight for them to get the best possible support and opportunities. This includes playing football, going to youth clubs, playing out with their friends, horse riding and staying overnight at their friends’ houses. Staff also support and encourage the children to express their views and to get involved in making

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

decisions about their lives and influencing services for children through the children in care council. The managers and staff work effectively with children’s social workers, schools, health services, police, and therapists. They work collaboratively to ensure that the children get the best possible support at the right time to meet their specific needs and circumstances. The managers and staff work together successfully to promote children’s learning and in agreeing the best use of each child’s pupil premium. For example, excellent communication between the staff and school has resolved difficulties around homework for one child and is helping him to settle into a new school. The staff are excellent at sharing their knowledge about the child’s needs and strategies for helping him manage his worries and frustrations. The manager and staff have played an active role in making sure that children who live a long

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

way from their homes have easy access to health, education and therapeutic services. They also enable children to maintain important links with their families and home areas. They make sure that children are able to continue with activities they did before moving into the home. When children struggle to manage their feelings and control their behaviours, staff take appropriate action to try to reduce the likelihood of aggressive or dangerous behaviour and its impact on other children. They know the children extremely well, and are skilled at seeing beyond children’s behaviour to try to find out and understand any underlying problems. They use their skills to give children time and space to talk about what is upsetting them. This helps to resolve any worries children may have in a positive way. Since the last inspection, some children have been unsettled by changes in their schooling and in their family circumstances. They have, as a result, found it difficult

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

to manage their feelings and have shown aggressive and potentially dangerous behaviour. The number of times staff have restrained these children has significantly increased. The staff’s use of restraint is appropriate, proportionate to the level of risk, and only to protect children from harm. However, the restraint records do not always provide a reflective and evaluative account of each incident. The lack of information about children’s views, discussions with staff, and in-depth analysis of the effectiveness of the whole incident is a missed opportunity to better understand what happened, as well as to identify patterns and emerging themes, to build on good practice and work out how best to support children in the future. Staff’s consistent and, often, creative support is having an increasingly positive impact on how children manage their feelings. For example, staff are helping children to use self-soothing strategies, including hand massage, favourite toys,

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

calming smells, and breathing techniques, to manage their feelings safely. This is helping children to talk about and deal with their worries and frustrations more constructively. Children say this approach is helping them feel more settled and are less likely to express their feelings through negative behaviour. Restorative approaches as alternatives to sanctions are proving effective at helping children discuss their feelings, understand the impact of their actions, make amends, and think about ways of solving problems. Staff have a clear and detailed understanding of which approach works best for individual children. For example, staff have adapted their approach based on a child’s levels of verbal comprehension, reasoning, memory and the speed of processing information. Positive behaviour is encouraged and reinforced through appropriate rewards and treats. Carefully planned and researched work with individual children is helping them to

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

understand their lives, make sense of what has happened to them, and is helping them to make positive choices for their futures. Sensitive life story work has helped a child to find out more about his family, cope with grief and to build his relationship with his brother. Helping to map out all the moves in another child’s life is helping him to express his feelings about his experiences and to build secure attachments and positive relationships with the staff working with him. This discrete work has also enabled staff to identify unmet needs and unresolved issues that are impacting on children’s emotional well-being, and to secure the appropriate specialist help and therapy as soon as it is needed. The children have become increasingly safer since they came to live here; they do not go missing from home and the risk of abuse and sexual exploitation has significantly reduced. The managers and staff are skilled in recognising the signs

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

and symptoms of abuse and neglect, and children’s vulnerability to sexual exploitation through social media, and they take suitable action in response to any concerns. The managers and staff work extremely well with the children to help them understand about personal safety, identify dangers and risky situations, and to recognise healthy relationships. The managers and staff always promptly report any concerns about children’s welfare to the appropriate safeguarding agencies and work together effectively to understand, manage and reduce the risk of harm. The good use of written risk assessments as organic documents means that the managers and staff understand and manage the current level of risk for each child, adapt protective strategies and measure how children are being effectively protected against assessed risks. They carefully balance risk and the need for protection with enabling children to take risks as part of their development. This

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

helps children to make more informed choices, and to become increasingly resilient and more independent. The leaders and managers have an extremely detailed and well-informed understanding of the strengths of the home and the areas for development. They accurately measure the effectiveness of the home’s impact on children’s lives and use this information to improve the quality of care. An independent visitor provides rigorous and impartial scrutiny of the running of the home and how well children’s welfare is promoted and safeguarded. The leaders and managers take decisive action based on the visitor’s findings and recommendations. They identify priorities for each child in order to improve and maintain an exceedingly high standard of support that invariably meets children’s assessed needs and plans. For example, the leaders and managers have designed a training programme around attachment in respect of the needs and behaviour of an individual child to improve how well

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Information about this children’s home

This private children’s home provides care for children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties, learning disabilities, physical disabilities and sensory impairments. It accommodates up to four children in the main house. In addition, a satellite house provides accommodation for up to two older children who are preparing for independence.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

29/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

29/01/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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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 within the given timescales.

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35: Behaviour management policies and records

The registered person must ensure that, within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes the effectiveness and any consequence of the use of the measure; within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so, has spoken to the user about the measure; and has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and, within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(vii), (3)(b)(i)(ii) & (3)(c)) 17 April 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 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 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: 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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