Children's home run by The Partnership of Care Today

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

This home was judged requires improvement at the full inspection. At this interim inspection, Ofsted judges that it has improved effectiveness The young people living at the home are making noticeable progress from their starting points. A young person’s social worker spoke highly of the service and confirmed that the team does all that it can to meet young people’s complex needs. This was reflected in a young person’s comments: ‘It’s a nice home, staff are nice and I have nothing bad to say. I can talk to staff and they are always there for me. I rate it eight out of ten. It would be ten out of ten if my bedroom was bigger.’ The registered manager and her team have worked hard to achieve the required improvements identified at the last inspection. Detailed risk assessments now provide staff with a clear direction on how to identify, assess and manage risk. When young people go missing, staff take swift action to ensure that they are

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

quickly located and returned home safely. Additionally, the home ensures that an independent person visits the young person following each missing episode, which helps staff and other safeguarding professionals to identify any motives or other associated risks. Furthermore, staff provide young people with opportunities to reflect on their risk-taking behaviour in regular key work sessions. As a result, young people gain insight into their own vulnerability and learn how to keep themselves safe. Since the last inspection, two young people have moved out of the home due to serious safeguarding concerns. On both occasions, the manager took swift and decisive action. All placement decisions were made in consultation with the placing authority. The decisions to end these young people’s placements were not made lightly. However, the needs and safety of all young people living at the home remained the manager’s primary focus.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

Effective partnership working with all safeguarding professionals is enhancing young people’s safety. All serious concerns, such as persistent incidents of going missing, are escalated to multi-agency strategy meetings. This enables all safeguarding professionals to work collectively to assess risk and devise action plans accordingly. Furthermore, the home now informs Ofsted of all serious safeguarding concerns, including missing from care incidents. This increased external scrutiny of the home’s safeguarding practice further enhances young people’s welfare and safety. The staff team promotes young people’s physical and emotional health effectively. Individual care plans assess young people’s emotional health and provide details of the therapeutic support services involved. The home works in partnership with the child and adolescent mental health service and young people are receiving the emotional support that they need. Staff encouragement and support is enabling

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

young people to attend all of their health checks and assessments. As a result, young people’s health improves through regular monitoring. Additionally, staff support young people to understand the importance of maintaining good health and address a range of topics in key work sessions. There have been some improvements in the home’s care planning; for example, the home’s health plans now thoroughly assess young people’s emotional well- being. However, the home’s care plans and assessments do not demonstrate young people’s progress, the date of review, or the range of support provided by staff. Similarly, staff do not update care plans to reflect developments in young people’s education. These administrative shortfalls continue to undermine the monitoring of young people’s progress and effective care planning. The home’s impact assessments are still not considering the risks identified in the home’s locality assessment. This comprehensive assessment of the local area was

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

devised in consultation with other safeguarding professionals, including the local police. It refers to an agreement made with the police that young people with a history of anti-social behaviour would not be placed at the home. This has not been adhered to and the home has accepted young people who have a history of anti- social behaviours, including drug and gang-related concerns and prior offending histories. As a result, young people have been inappropriately placed at the home. These young people have since moved out of the home due to serious safeguarding concerns. Improvements can be made in the home’s rotas to ensure that they promote safeguarding practice. Rotas do not include the registered manager or detail the actual hours that staff have worked at the home. Omissions and errors in staff rotas could potentially jeopardise investigations into allegations or complaints made against staff. Monitoring systems are not yet robust. The independent monthly monitoring visits

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

do not provide a rigorous evaluation of the home’s safeguarding practice or young people’s progress and experience. Furthermore, both internal and external monitoring has failed to identify the shortfalls found in the home’s records, particularly with regard to young people’s care plans and risk assessments.

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Information about this children’s home

This privately run children’s home provides care and accommodation for up to three young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

23/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

24/02/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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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 In order to meet the leadership and management standard, the registered person must: (2)(h) use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. 14/04/2017

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Requirement Due date

14: The care planning standard In order to meet the care planning standard, the registered person must ensure: (1)(a) that children receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and (2)(a) that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended. In particular, improve the monitoring and recording of young people’s progress and make impact risk assessments more robust. 14/04/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4. (Regulation 37 (2)(a)) 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. 14/04/2017

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must produce a report about a visit which sets out, in particular, the independent person’s opinion as to whether children are effectively safeguarded and that the conduct of the home promotes children’s well-being. (Regulation 44 (4)(a)(b)) This is specifically in relation to evaluating the quality of the records in the home. 14/04/2017

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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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