Children's Home run by Meadows Care Limited in Kirklees

Inspection report children’s home: SC460593 1 SC460593 Registered provider: Meadows Care Ltd

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is registered to provide care for three children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home forms part of a large social care company.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Date of last inspection: 6 December 2016

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Improved effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: None

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Key findings from this inspection

 Staff are skilled at recognising and managing young people’s risk-taking behaviour. Inspection report children’s home: SC460593 2  Staff are able to provide nurturing, individualised care for young people due to their detailed understanding of their needs and behaviour.  Staff develop positive relationships with young people, providing them with a strong sense of security.  Young people become increasingly safe, including those who have the most complex behaviours.  The registered manager is ambitious for young people and advocates well on their behalf.  Staff are committed to improving young people’s outcomes and work hard to maintain relationships despite young people’s efforts to break them down. As a result, young people feel that staff care about them.  Staff work extremely effectively with professional stakeholders and families to provide consistent care.

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Key findings from this inspection

The children’s home’s areas for development

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Key findings from this inspection

 Some staff and the registered manager do not receive supervision regularly. This represents missed opportunities to support staff in this emotionally challenging work and in ensuring they develop to their potential.  The independent visitor’s report is not clear that staff safeguard young people and promote their welfare. This does not alert the provider and Ofsted to serious concerns.  The electric gates to the home do not have a manual override. This poses significant risks to young people and staff when there is a power cut as no one is able to enter or leave the property.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/12/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 27/04/2016 Full Requires improvement 25/02/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness 17/09/2015 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC460593 3

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet 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

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the protection of children standard the registered provider must ensure that: (d) the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. 02/06/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered provider must ensure that all employees receive practice-related supervision. (Regulation 33(4)(b)) 02/06/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that the independent person’s report sets out the independent person’s opinions as to whether children are safeguarded effectively and the conduct of the home promotes children’s well-being. (Regulation 44(4)) 02/06/2017

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Recommendations

 All children’s case records (regulation 36) must be kept up to date. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.3)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people benefit from highly individualised care. Staff take the time to get to know young people and are very interested in and knowledgeable about their lives. Staff understand the crucial role that positive and reliable relationships have on young people and their ability to improve their outcomes. Young people who are new to the home quickly settle as they develop positive relationships with their staff. A social worker said: Inspection report children’s home: SC460593 4 ‘It was extremely difficult for my young person when they moved in due to previous placement breakdowns, but she settled well and I am impressed with the staff and the therapeutic intervention.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are proactive in working with professional stakeholders and families alike in meeting young people’s needs. They promote family contact when that is safe and in young people’s best interests, including for those young people who are living away from their placing authority. As a result, young people maintain their sense of family identity. Staff use their delegated authority to encourage positive friendships, and act as a responsible parent would in checking where young people are and who they are with. This ensures that young people feel valued and cared about and are able to safely take age-appropriate risks.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Day-to-day care is organised around young people’s interests and routines. Staff know what is important to young people and ensure they are able to engage in their hobbies, such as swimming, going to the park, shopping and walking. They play with those young people who are younger and like toys and board games. As a result, the home environment is relaxed and fun. Young people enjoy healthy and varied meals which they have chosen and, at times, prepared and cooked. Staff keep under review any restrictions in place to safeguard young people so that young people benefit from living in a homely environment. Young people know how to complain, although they rarely do so due to the good levels of daily interaction with staff and the registered manager, which prevent small issues becoming problems.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have high aspirations for young people and always encourage their attendance at school. Staff attend parents evenings and understand the young people’s goals and progress. A teacher said: ‘They are excellent at communicating with school and have also given me access to see my young person’s records on their system. I can see from those the level of work they are doing with her and I’m really happy with that. Staff have shared strategies with us and vice versa to ensure we are providing consistency in terms of rewards and sanctions.’ Staff support young people’s preparations for GCSEs, with one inclusion worker noting: ‘Communication between school and home is excellent. We liaise together over decisions around my young person’s behaviour and support needs regularly, which enables us both to work together effectively to ensure that she is safe, and has the best possible chance of fulfilling her potential.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people’s health is improving. Staff ensure that young people receive universal and specialist healthcare that meets their individual needs. Staff have effective relationships with local health professionals. The in-house therapists work in collaboration with local child and adolescent health services to ensure there is continuity of care and the sharing of information. Staff work collaboratively with the therapeutic care team to ensure that they all respond consistently in managing young people’s complex behaviours. This provides staff with confidence to manage self-injurious behaviour, minimising risks and reducing incidents. A therapist said: ‘The team has worked consistently hard to support their young people, often taking extra shifts to avoid the difficulty of having agency staff, as they understand how difficult and unsettling this can be for young people. There have been some trying events in the push-pull of attachment dynamics within the home, and

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Inspection report children’s home: SC460593 5 it is the strength of the team and the registered manager’s dedication that have enabled everyone to ride the difficulty out and return to a stable home.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support young people to prepare for their transitions to family placements and to living more independently. Staff teach essential practical skills such as cooking, budgeting and completing laundry, as well as helping them to develop emotional resilience. Staff remain in contact with a young person who completed her transition last year and she continues to make progress.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Staff are skilled at identifying and managing young people’s risk-taking behaviours. They work effectively with the team around the child to ensure there is a coordinated multi- disciplinary response to manage missing behaviour and self-injurious behaviour. Staff develop detailed individualised risk assessments so that there is a consistent and clear plan of how to manage behaviour. A therapist said: ‘The needs of their young people are central to this team and they are always looking at effective ways to get them met. There are a number of current challenges and they work together as a team to support young people in working through these, and the registered manager is fully committed to supporting these challenges and providing the best care for all her young people. The team is reflective in their practice and will use therapists and others to support this.’ This ensures young people become increasingly safe, with incidents of both missing and self-

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

injurious behaviour decreasing over time, which represents significant progress from young people’s starting points. A young person said: ‘Staff keep me safe and make me laugh. I give them 10 and of 10!’

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Staff know what to do when young people are missing. They always follow them and try to persuade them to return. If they lose sight of them they follow their individual missing protocols and contact the police, placing authority, family and friends as required. When young people return, they are welcomed home and staff ensure that they offer an independent return interview within time scales. The registered manager is proactive in ensuring that strategy meetings take place to review young people’s risk of child sexual exploitation and to consider strategic planning for missing behaviour.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

The registered manager has developed positive relationships with the local police officers, child sexual exploitation team and youth offending team. As a result, young people receive targeted support that helps reduce their risk-taking behaviour and prevents police involvement from unnecessarily criminalising them. The local police officer comes to meet young people when they are new to the home and keeps in regular contact with the registered manager. There are excellent links with the local youth offending team too, who spend time with young people, even when their statutory role has ended, to support young people’s understanding of the impact of their behaviour on themselves and others. The child sexual exploitation team values the staff team’s partnership working, and commented: ‘The manager has contacted me on a number of occasions and requested support and kept me informed of developments in an appropriate manner and has worked effectively in partnership. I am of the opinion

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

the home do their best to reduce risk to their children.’ Inspection report children’s home: SC460593 6 Staff’s detailed understanding of young people’s behaviour and positive relationships with them mean they need to use physical intervention infrequently. Staff use de- escalation techniques effectively to support young people to use self-regulation to manage their own behaviours. For example, some young people benefit from taking themselves outside the home into the garden to manage their emotions, and others enjoy the security of comfortable enclosed spaces within the home when they are feeling distressed. The registered manager ensures that she reviews each incident of restraint carefully for learning, and always provides debriefs to staff and young people, using child-friendly tools which are appropriate to young people’s age and development. This ensures that any learning from incidents informs reviews of risk and behaviour-

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

The registered manager works with the designated officer to manage allegations swiftly and effectively. This safeguards both young people and staff. Staff make child protection referrals and follow these up to conclusion. They understand the impact of abuse on young people’s ability to engage in these processes, and offer stability and support as young people engage with the police and placing authority. Staff notify Ofsted of any serious incidents within the home so that the regulator is aware of patterns and trends as they occur.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is suitably experienced and skilled and has been in post for six months. She is working towards her level 5 diploma in leadership and management in residential childcare. The registered manager is ambitious for the young people in her care and also for her staff team. She is proactive in addressing staff training and developmental needs to ensure that the team works together to implement therapeutic care plans which meet young people’s complex needs. Staff report receiving good informal support from their manager and value her energetic problem-solving approach, which results in a positive ‘can-do’ attitude to managing young people’s high risk-taking behaviour.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Most staff receive frequent supervision but this is not consistent; some staff have received supervision only once in four months, and the registered manager has received only three supervisions since coming into post. This does not support staff to maintain their emotional resilience, and does not provide professional development opportunities. There have been a number of changes on the staff team, as a result of which there are currently three new staff members. Leaders and managers safely recruit staff, who receive an appropriate induction and mandatory training. The registered manager addresses inadequate progress in staff’s development sensitively, without compromising her drive to provide consistent, high-quality care for young people. The registered manager listens to young people’s views about staffing, and endeavours to use the core staff team or consistent agency staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has a detailed understanding of young people’s plans and the progress they are making. She is rightly proud of significant progress young people have Inspection report children’s home: SC460593 7 made in engaging in education and reducing their risk-taking behaviours . The registered manager makes child-centred decisions about who comes to live in the home, considering how staff can meet the new young person’s needs as well as the needs and views of those young people already living in the home. She is aware of the impact that staff have on young people’s progress and understands the strong sense of permanence that young people develop through their positive relationships with staff. The registered manager advocates well for young people. For example, when young people are ready to transition from living in a residential environment she supports them while their placing authorities seek appropriate alternative care. At times, she recognises the need

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

for more robust challenge of placing authorities when they are failing to meet young people’s right to have prompt and clear care plans. She escalates her concerns within the placing authority, although this has not always been successful and some young people do not have important local authority reports and minutes. The registered manager ensures staff complete their own records of meetings, which ameliorates the impact of this shortfall.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager promotes tolerance. She encourages young people to understand other people’s perspectives and to consider the impact of their behaviour on others. This commitment to equality and diversity permeates her team. The registered manager and staff team place each young person at the centre of their practice. They listen carefully to young people and are attuned to their behaviours and moods.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is developing her monitoring systems. She has made considerable progress in addressing the requirements made at the last inspection, reflecting her commitment to continually improve the quality of care provided. The registered manager uses computerised records and her own reviews to understand patterns and trends. She responds to the independent visitor’s scrutiny in helping the home to improve. However, the visitor does not form an opinion as to whether staff safeguard young people or promote their welfare. This is a missed opportunity to alert the provider, and Ofsted, to any serious concerns. The registered manager has identified a number of maintenance issues awaiting resolution. Most significantly, staff cannot open the electric gates during a power cut. This means that no one can access or leave the home at such times, presenting a significant risk to young people and staff. The

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

registered manager has the capacity to address these shortfalls.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the difference made to the lives of children and young people. They watched how professional staff work with children and young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care provided. Wherever possible, they talked to children and 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.

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Information about this inspection

Using the ‘Social care common inspection framework’, this inspection was carried out Inspection report children’s home: SC460593 8 under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service, how it meets the core functions of the service as set out in legislation, 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’. Inspection report children’s home: SC460593 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Meadows Care Ltd, Egerton House, Wardle Road, Rochdale OL12 9EN

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Niel Shelmerdine

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Inspector(s)

Rebecca Quested, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC460593 10 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, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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