Children's home run by Holistic Approach Limited

Inspection report children’s home: 1244460 1 Registered provider: Holistic Approach 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

This children’s home is one of two homes operated by a private organisation. The registration allows the provider to provide care and accommodation for up to five children and young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties and learning disabilities.

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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 outstanding

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good

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

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: Not applicable Inspection report children’s home: 1244460 2

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people make very good progress from the day they arrive.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people have very positive relationships with staff. Relationships between the young people are also good.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Leadership and management are strong. The ethos underpinning the practice is outcome-focused.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Staff know the young people well. They support and encourage them to develop their own individual interests and aspirations.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people feel happy and safe at the home.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people feel that their voices are listened to in the day-to-day running of the home and in more significant events, such as young people’s statutory reviews.

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Key findings from this inspection

 A consistent, nurturing and committed staff team supports young people to learn to manage their own emotions, make safer choices, and thus risk-taking behaviours reduce considerably.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people fully engage with education. They are making good progress in their learning and they have individual aspirations.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Staff communicate well with the young people’s families and support young people to have regular contact with their families and friends.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Staff work very well with other agencies and communication is excellent. Other agencies are extremely positive about the home.

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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

 The recording of health and well-being needs are not always clear. Furthermore, services to support young people are not routinely accessed in a timely way.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Routine maintenance checks do not always identify potential health hazards for young people.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Recording is not always accurate and clear. Information is sometimes contradictory and misleading.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Sanctions do not always have the desired outcome, yet the same sanctions are Inspection report children’s home: 1244460 3 repeatedly used. Monitoring and review systems in this area of practice are not robust enough.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Ofsted notifications are not always sent in a timely way.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

N/A first inspection following registration Inspection report children’s home: 1244460 4

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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

In order to meet the health and well-being standard, the registered person should ensure that children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)). In particular, young people’s health needs are assessed and recorded accurately. Furthermore, that specialist services are accessed in a timely way. 06/06/2017

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the protection of children standard, the registered person is to ensure that the premises used for the purpose of the home are designed, furnished and maintained to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12 (2)(d)). Specifically, ensure that hazards are assessed and responded to in a timely way and that clear plans are in place to reduce any risks to a child’s health. 06/06/2017

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Recommendations

 Ensure that any sanction used to address poor behaviour is restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should have a system in place so that all serious events are notified, within 24 hours, to the appropriate people. The system should cover the action that should be followed if the event arises at the weekend or on a public holiday. Notification must include details of the action taken by the home’s Inspection report children’s home: 1244460 5 staff in response to the event. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.13)

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Recommendations

 Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4). In particular, all assessments and plans should have the correct information in them. Recording of information should be accurate, clear, and timely and show a clear chronology of events.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

This is the first full inspection since the home was re-registered in November 2016.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people make positive progress living here. Agencies report that they are very happy with the care that is provided and that young people are doing well. One social worker said that ‘[Name of young person] has done brilliantly since being placed at [name of home] and that they are delighted with the placement.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people comment very positively about living here. For example, young people say things such as, ‘You always make me laugh, give me advice when I need it and were there to help and support me’, ‘I am very grateful for everything you have done for me. Thank you for supporting me and sticking by me in my interview today, it means a lot’, and, ‘I want to thank you for everything you have done for me and keeping me in this school. I love [name of home] and I love to be here.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people receive individual care that reflect their needs. Young people have the encouragement they need to identify their own individual interests, and staff support them to develop these further. Young people have positive relationships with staff. It is evident that young people trust staff and feel safe and cared for. Young people generally get on well as a group. Any issues that do arise are dealt with in a timely way and young people are satisfied with the outcome. When issues cannot be practicably resolved, young people receive an explanation as to why.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is calm and welcoming. It is reflective of the young people living there. Young people are encouraged to personalise their home. Their bedrooms are individualised and there is a real sense of respected, personalised space. There are pictures on the walls that show young people undertaking activities with staff. Young people are encouraged to take part in a range of activities, including fishing, swimming, golf lessons, pottery classes, personal music lessons, gym, bowling, badminton and walks and bike rides in the local area. In addition to this, there are a number of in-house activities, such as pool, Inspection report children’s home: 1244460 6 film nights and board games.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people benefit from clear routines and boundaries, which have a positive impact on their development and progress. They are involved in the running of the home. There are regular young people’s meetings and these are meaningful. Young people are involved in developing the weekly menus and their weekly activity schedules. Some young people have their weekly timetable displayed in their rooms, which demonstrates that they value them. Young people are encouraged to keep their home clean and tidy, and to participate in household tasks. For example, they are responsible for the tidying of their bedrooms and there is a weekly rota for tasks such as clearing the table after a meal and washing up. This provides young people the opportunity to develop independence skills and take care of their home. Young people are respectful of their home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When young people first arrived at the home, they had very low educational attendance and attainment. Young people access full-time education and they are all engaging well. The majority of young people have 100% attendance. Young people speak positively about their education and are committed to achieving their individual goals. Young people receive additional support when required. For example, one young person is benefiting from individual mathematics tuition. When young people are struggling to engage in education and reach their potential, staff work well with other agencies to ensure that young people have the required assessment, and that there is a full understanding of their needs. In the interim, staff offer educational settings additional practical support. This ensures that the correct strategies are in place to meet young people’s welfare needs while in the classroom.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people receive the support they need to understand and manage their own risk- taking behaviour, which enables them to make safer decisions. For example, missing from home was a key risk-indicator for the majority of the young people that live here when they arrived. Staff have worked well with young people, their families and the relevant agencies to reduce this risk. Young people do not now go missing from the home and instead they have learned new strategies to manage their feelings and emotions. For example, young people will ask to go for a walk with staff rather than leave the home on their own. Through a nurturing and consistent approach, young people are taking responsibility for their behaviours and making choices that are more positive.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people receive support to access the services that will assist them in meeting their identified needs. However, the recording of needs is not always clear. In some instances, staff do not access services quickly enough to assess presenting behaviours of concern. Nonetheless, they do put the required safeguarding strategies in place to reduce any risk of immediate harm.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff liaise with other agencies well and feedback from them is extremely positive. A professional from a specialist service commented that: ‘[Name of home] communication with agencies and young people is excellent… not only in their communication but listening to what we feel the young person needs and acting on it.’ A number of Inspection report children’s home: 1244460 7 professionals said that they receive weekly progress reports that are very beneficial, and that staff communicate regularly with them. This supports the positive progress young people make and provides the opportunity to explore issues and act on these.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Where it is appropriate, young people have contact with their family. Where there are challenges with this, staff work together with the social worker to promote contact and seek ways to manage this safely. Young people are encouraged and supported to develop relationships with positive peers. Some young people find it difficult to develop and maintain relationships. In these instances, staff explore ways to support young people to develop social skills and encourage them to take part in community activities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff promote the achievements that young people make and these are routinely captured in daily, weekly and monthly feedback and recording. One young person recently won the local authority child of the year award for making the most progress of all the children within the local authority.

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

Young people who live at the home are safe. Staff work effectively together to provide a calm and caring approach. Young people respond well to this and have trusting relationships with staff. There is a real sense of care and support throughout, and young people are responding positively to this. As a result, risk-taking behaviours reduce considerably and young people become content and settled. The parents of one young person said that their child was now ‘settled and safe’. When concerns arise, staff respond well. This ensures that young people are kept safe. When notifications to the relevant authorities are required, these are not always done in a timely way.

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

Young people benefit from regular key-working sessions that are to a very good standard. The sessions encourage young people to learn about their risk-taking behaviours and the influences associated with them. Furthermore, they provide factual information and advice that enable young people to make safer decisions. Young people have the designated time and space to explore their wishes and feelings, and this is having a very positive impact on young people’s behaviours. Direct work is evidently outcome- and solution-focused.

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

Young people’s placement plans are to a good standard and easy to follow. However, the risk assessments and plans, and the health plans, are not as clear. In some instances, key risks and needs are missing. Furthermore, inaccurate and contradictory information is evident. While this does not affect the direct care of young people, there is scope for staff not to fully understand the risks and needs of the young people. In addition, this may also affect the measurement of the progress that young people make.

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

Communication between staff is good. However, staff are not always fully up to date with the young people’s circumstances. Together with this, staff do not always have the required knowledge to manage more complex and specialised areas of need. However, it is clear that when staff do have the required knowledge they are able to provide well- Inspection report children’s home: 1244460 8 informed specialist support and guidance for young people. A professional colleague commented that, ‘The staff team monitors and works with high risk young people very well. They understand the issues around child sexual exploitation and respond to the level of risk robustly and appropriately.’

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

Staff and young people are clear about the standards of behaviour that are acceptable. Young people respect this. They benefit from effective behaviour management practices. Staff are able to respond quickly to issues that arise and subsequently de-escalate incidents effectively, with minimal need for physical intervention. When this is required, staff work within the procedures and recording is to a good standard. Any incidents are followed up by either key-work sessions or individual discussions, which are also recorded.

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

Young people receive support and incentives to take responsibility for their own behaviour and make good choices. Sanctions are not often used. However, when they are used, they are not proving to be effective as young people repeat the same behaviours. Young people would benefit from sanctions that are restorative in nature and have the desired outcome.

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

The recruitment and selection of staff is sufficiently robust. Staff are vigilant and take appropriate steps to verify visitors’ identity to protect young people. Health and safety checks are completed and this ensures a safe living environment. The community risk assessment is in place and this was completed in partnership with police colleagues.

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

Staff are clear about their roles and responsibilities to keep young people safe. Staffing levels are very good. This allows young people to have access to one-to-one support. In addition to this, it ensures that young people have the required safeguards in place and that the management of risk is effective. Where particularly close supervision is required, young people do not feel oppressed or restricted. Supervision levels are managed in a sensitive and supportive way. One social worker said ‘[Name of young person] feels supported by staff and they do not feel it is intrusive with the close supervision.’

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

The home is generally well maintained. However, there are areas that need some cosmetic attention. Furthermore, routine maintenance checks have failed to identity possible health hazards within the young people’s bedrooms. These hazards could pose a health risk to young people, particularly those with existing health concerns.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leadership and management is strong and the home benefits from a senior management team that is knowledgeable, well experienced and outcome-focused. The ethos of the home has a foundation of good relationships and pro-social modelling. Together with this, the home now benefits from a more robust, systematic approach and it is evident that staff are responding to the changes well and that this is improving practice. Furthermore, the revised approach is also allowing key themes to be identified Inspection report children’s home: 1244460 9 and acted on. Achievements that the young people make are captured well within this new approach. This supports young people to recognise their achievements, which encourages them to continue with their positive progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager is suitably qualified and experienced. She was the registered manager for this home prior to its re-registration in September 2016. Therefore, the young people have benefited from a consistent manager. An experienced assistant manager supports the manager to run the home effectively in line with the aims and ethos of the statement of purpose. Staff are suitably qualified or working towards this. The staff team is well established and a number of the members of the team have worked with the manager and deputy manager for a number of years. The young people clearly benefit from this consistent staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff say that they feel supported and that they are encouraged to take on new responsibilities so that they can develop their knowledge and skills further. Staff training is available and the training matrix is clear. While the organisation provides good opportunities for training, the recent training programme did not offer specialist training to meet the specific needs of young people. There are plans for this training to take place. However, staff would have benefited from having this sooner so that they were adequately equipped with the knowledge they needed to manage this area of practice effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff have a clear understanding of the needs of young people. Staff work together effectively to ensure that young people receive consistent positive messages. This is particularly evident in the day-to-day practice and indeed in the key-working sessions. This is a particular strength of the home and young people are clearly responding to these reinforced, positive messages. Young people receive continuous praise on their achievements and they have obtained a variety of awards, both internally and externally. They are able to earn incentive points for fulfilling individual targets. Young people are motivated by this award system and it is evident that it is effective.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The external monitoring of the home is completed well. The manager uses this information to support the continuous development of the home. The manager has quality assurance practices in place, which are effective overall. However, these are not always robust enough, as there are errors in some of the assessments and plans.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Liaison with other agencies is extremely effective. Professionals speak very positively about staff communication and partnership working. They are readily kept up to date with the progress of young people and any incidents are reported in a timely way. Agencies value the home and its ethos and the positive changes that young people have made since living here.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: 1244460 10 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 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: 1244460 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Holistic Approach Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 8, Meadow Court, Amos Road, Sheffield S9 1BX

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Inspector

Lisa Gregoire-Parker, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1244460 12 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

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Inspector

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Inspector

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