Children's home run by Teen-Works Care Limited in Liverpool

Inspection report children's home: SC472480 1 SC472480 Registered provider: Teen-Works Care Limited

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

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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: 27 February 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Improved effectiveness

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Key findings from this inspection

 Children have very positive experiences living in this friendly, nurturing and supportive home. The high standard of individualised care consistently meets their needs and is enabling them to make good progress. They are safe, happy and healthy, take part in education and enjoy the same social experiences and Inspection report children's home: SC472480 2 activities as other children.  Children enjoy trusting and meaningful relationships with staff, which are providing them with a strong sense of safety. The children feel safe and are protected from harm. Staff listen to their feelings and worries, take them seriously and respond appropriately to sort out problems. The staff’s strong safeguarding practices are helping the children to be safer and protect them from the risks of bullying, going missing, abuse, exploitation and self-harm.  Children’s emotional well-being is improving. They are encouraged to express

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Key findings from this inspection

their views and make choices and decisions about their lives. Staff’s open and engaging relationship with children helps them to work out together when the choices that children make may not always be in their best interest. The staff’s creative and insightful work is supporting children to manage their feelings and frustrations constructively.  Effective care planning and productive working relationships between the staff, placing authority, schools and health and mental health workers mean that children receive the best possible support in meeting all their needs.  The registered manager’s strong and effective leadership is making a positive difference to children’s lives. Caring, experienced, skilled, qualified and well- supported staff provide a high quality of care for each child. The staffing arrangements are efficiently organised to provide children with a continuity of care that meets their needs and provides opportunities for them to form positive

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Key findings from this inspection

attachments.  The manager has a clear and accurate understanding of children’s progress and the key priorities for each child. Her effective monitoring of the quality of care and support means that she has a realistic understanding of how well the staff are promoting and safeguarding children’s welfare and how to make further improvements.

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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

 Staff would benefit from additional opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills relevant to the needs of the children in their care. In particular, to develop their understanding of child development, working with teenagers, disorganised attachment and working with children who may have suffered abuse, neglect and trauma. All care staff need the opportunity to gain the appropriate qualifications relevant to their role.  The independent visitor does not always consult with children, parents, social workers and other people working with the children, to inform the assessment of the home’s effectiveness in promoting and safeguarding children’s welfare. Likewise, leaders and managers do not seek children’s views to assist them when they review staff’s performance.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection report children's home: SC472480 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

27/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 28/04/2016 Full Good 16/02/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 14/07/2015 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children's home: SC472480 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

The registered person must ensure that an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification by the relevant date, which is the level 3 diploma for residential childcare (England) ("the level 3 diploma") or a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the level 3 diploma.

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Requirement Due date

This relates to making sure that ‘bank staff’ have the appropriate qualification.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 32 (3)(b) (4)(a)(b)) 30/06/2017

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Requirement Due date

44: Independent person: visits and reports

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Requirement Due date

When the independent person is carrying out a visit, the registered person must help the independent person, if they consent, to interview in private such of the children, their parents, relatives and persons working at the home as the independent person requires.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, seek the views of children, their parents and relatives, social workers and other people working with children, such as independent reviewing officers, teachers and health workers, to help the independent person make a rigorous assessment of the home’s arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in the home’s care.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 44 (2)(a)) 02/06/2017 Inspection report children's home: SC472480 5

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs. In particular, provide all staff with the opportunities to build their knowledge and skills in understanding the assessed needs of the children in their care, including child development, working with teenagers, attachment and disorganised attachment and working with children who have suffered abuse, neglect and trauma. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)  Appraisals of staff’s performance and fitness to carry out their role should take into account, where reasonable and practical, the views of children and of other professionals who have worked with the staff member. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.5)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

This children’s home provides children with a stable, nurturing and supportive place to live. They receive a high quality of individualised and well-planned care that consistently meets their assessed needs and helps them to achieve better developmental outcomes. They enjoy positive day-to-day experiences and make continuous progress in all aspects of their lives. Overall, they are happier, brighter and healthier, taking part in education and are safe from the risks of going missing, abuse, neglect, bullying, sexual exploitation and self-harm. Children have developed a strong sense of belonging and emotional security. They enjoy trusting and meaningful relationships with their staff. They give staff more direct eye contact and seek out staff’s help, including help to blow dry their hair and when they are feeling confused or upset. Staff know the children well and work out the best ways to engage with them. They are patient and understand how difficult it may be for children

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

to learn to trust adults, realising that some children need time and space to get to know new people and feel comfortable around them. Their friendly and insightful approach provides children with strong messages that staff care about them, are interested in their lives, want what is best for them and that this is a safe place for them to live. Staff treat children with respect and always take their wishes and feelings into account. Children are encouraged and supported to influence the running of the home, including how it is decorated, and to make choices and take part in decisions about what happens to them in the future. The registered manager and staff make sure that social workers and the other professionals working with each child are aware and understand the child’s wishes and feelings, for example about which school they want to attend. Staff are open and honest when children express wishes that are not always in their best interests,

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

such as a child wanting to use his mobile phone late at night. Staff carefully and clearly explain the reason why they have decided against following the child’s wishes, in ways that the child understands and can accept. Effective care planning and strong working relationships between the staff and social Inspection report children's home: SC472480 6 workers ensure that the arrangements for children’s care meet their assessed needs. Everyone works extremely well together to ensure that the relevant plans for each child’s care are reviewed on an ongoing basis to reflect their progress and continue to meet their needs and circumstances. Clearly written records and up-to-date care plans provide an accurate picture of the good progress that the children are making and contribute to a better understanding of their lives. Children only come to live at the home when the registered manager is satisfied that the

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

staff have the skills and expertise to meet each child’s assessed needs and careful consideration has been given to the impact on children already living in the home. Children move into the home in a sensitively planned way. When children have struggled to settle, the staff and social workers have worked effectively with children and their families to help them to feel safe and at home. An independent reviewing officer said, ‘It was clear at the first review that the child did not want to be there, but staff encouraged her to personalise her room, and she is building good relationships with staff and feeling more positive about living there. Staff make every effort to promote positive endings for children when they move on. They have done this even when [a] child’s move has been unplanned. They help the child involved understand the reasons for them having to leave and worked carefully with new carers to ensure the move is sensitively managed in

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

the child’s best interests.’ Carefully planned arrangements help children to spend time with their parents, families, friends and other people important to them, including previous foster carers. Staff work actively and positively to help children to maintain and build meaningful relationships, understand their identity, feel part of their family and improve their self-esteem. Children are seeing much more of their families since they moved into the home, including overnight stays with their parents and grandparents. Some children often go out with their previous foster carers and speak to them regularly by telephone. Staff make every effort to ensure that seeing family and friends is a safe and positive experience for the children. The staff actively encourage and support children to attend school and do well. Children’s participation in education and progress has improved since they moved into the home. A child, who has missed a lot of school, is now attending every day on a

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

reduced timetable, and is feeling more confident to spend more time in lessons. Her recent school report shows that she is making some progress. The registered manager and staff are ambitious for the child to do well and are working effectively with the school, social worker and virtual school head to improve her participation, meet her education needs and help her to reach her potential. They also work well with schools to tackle any barriers to children’s learning and find achievable solutions. For example, using a child’s interest in football to encourage him to read and develop his literacy skills. Staff also work with teachers and social workers to manage his feelings and control his behaviour in school positively. Staff provide children with opportunities to follow their interests and develop their talents through a wide range of fun activities, including football, scouts, music, boxing and playing guitar. Staff actively support children, for

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

example watching children play football for a local team, and ensure that children have the funding and equipment to get the most out of what they enjoy doing. Children live in a healthy environment. They are physically healthy and their emotional well-being is improving. They have healthy and nutritious diets, and get plenty of Inspection report children's home: SC472480 7 exercise. The staff support and encourage children to attend health appointments. Children’s vaccinations are kept up to date and their health needs are routinely assessed by the placing authority. They are receiving support from health services to meet their needs and help them recognise, understand and manage their feelings safely.

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

Children live in a safe and supportive home. They feel safe and are protected from harm. They feel able to talk to any of the staff if they are worried or upset. They said that staff always listen, take their concerns seriously and sort out the problem. A child said that staff had really helped her when she was being bullied and that she feels much safer now. Staff are clear about their roles and responsibilities in protecting children. They take appropriate action to involve social workers and the police when they have concerns about children’s safety. They work effectively with children, parents, social workers, schools, health professionals and the police to understand and manage the risks to children’s welfare. Staff actively and continuously assess the risks to individual children and make sure that the arrangements for their care protect them. They clearly understand children’s vulnerabilities and the risks associated with self-harming behaviour. They are very aware

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

of the signs and behaviour that individual children show when they are struggling emotionally. This means that they know when and how to support the child and have taken action that actually reduces the risk of harm. Children have started to tell staff when they are feeling anxious and have thoughts about harming themselves. Staff listen to children carefully and respond effectively to help them. They always acknowledge how the child is feeling, try to understand the problems, provide calm reassurance and work together to find a solution. Skilled staff are also encouraging children to use self- soothing strategies to help them to manage their feelings safely. Staff balance effectively protecting children while enabling them to take appropriate and reasonable risks to promote their personal growth. Staff take reasonable precautions to promote children’s confidence and independence in the community and to promote their

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

understanding of how to use social media safely. They work effectively with children to understand risks and develop the skills to manage risk and keep themselves and others safe. This has included helping children to understand what makes a healthy and supportive relationship and learn the skills to resolve disagreements positively. Children usually do not go missing from this home. Staff help children to understand the risks and dangers involved if they go missing, and make sure that they know how to get help. Children are very good at keeping in touch with staff when they are out and usually come home on time. On the occasions when children have gone missing, staff always act quickly to try to find the child by actively looking for them, making contact with their family and friends and informing the police and social workers. When there have been concerns that a child is going missing more often and may be at risk of

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

exploitation, the registered manager has appropriately called a multi-agency risk management meeting to assess and manage the risks for the child. When children return home after being missing, they always have the opportunity to see an independent Inspection report children's home: SC472480 8 person to talk about what happened and the reasons for them not wanting to come home. The registered manager and staff have used intelligence from these interviews to tackle bullying in the home to help children to feel safer and less likely to feel the need to run away. Staff promote positive behaviour based on trusting and meaningful relationships with children. They provide children with clear and unambiguous expectations for behaviour. Staff constantly praise, reward and celebrate children’s achievements. This is supporting children to understand the benefits of positive behaviour. Staff show empathy towards

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

children and understand how children’s experiences and circumstances leave them feeling anxious, frustrated and angry. Their compassionate approach is helping children to learn how to understand and deal with their frustrations and worries safely. Children are less likely to show aggressive behaviour and are able to accept suitable boundaries. A social worker said that her child, ‘Is doing really well. He is maturing and is less confrontational.’ His independent reviewing officer supported this view and said that, ‘Staff always give the child clear explanations why decisions are made and he responds positively to their openness and honesty. They always give him a clear explanation why decisions are made.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has been in charge of the home since it opened in January 2014. She is a very experienced and suitably qualified manager. She provides strong and effective leadership that delivers the home’s objective to provide children with a nurturing environment that makes a positive difference to their lives. She actively promotes a friendly atmosphere where children are accepted, feel safe and are encouraged to express themselves as individuals. She supports staff to have high aspirations for every child. They deliver a high quality of individualised care that meets each child’s assessed needs and provides them opportunities to reach their potential and have improved outcomes. The registered manager ensures that children’s welfare is central to everything that happens in this children’s home. She has a clear understanding of the quality of the care and its impact on children’s lives. Detailed and informative reviews of the quality of care

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

evaluate how effectively staff are applying the quality standards, children’s progress and reflect on the success of the strategies that staff are using to support children. The findings inform the manager’s dynamic development plan which she uses to continue to improve the standard of support and services that children receive. The registered manager and staff have a clear understanding of the progress that every child is making. They closely monitor each child’s experiences and development. This helps them to identify when a child’s plan is not meeting his or her needs and to take effective action to tackle the obstacles to improving the child’s progress and experiences. Strong professional relationships with the people involved in the child’s life mean that partnerships work efficiently to ensure that the child receives the right support at the right time. This has included staff helping children to manage their feelings through

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

relaxation or breathing exercises and resolving problems at school, but also identifying when it is in a child’s best interests to move somewhere else to live. An independent visitor provides impartial scrutiny of the running of the home and how Inspection report children's home: SC472480 9 effectively children’s welfare is promoted and safeguarded. However, the visitor does not always talk to the children or get the views of children’s parents and social workers to help get a fuller picture of children’s experiences living in the home. Staff work in a supportive environment that enables them to care for vulnerable children safely. The staffing arrangements ensure that there are sufficient knowledgeable, experienced and skilful staff available to meet all the children’s assessed needs. The stable and cohesive staff team ensures that children receive the continuity of care that helps them to form positive attachments and relationships with the people caring for

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

them each day. The staff receive clear, effective support and guidance through regular practice-related supervision from appropriately qualified and experienced managers and at team meetings. Consequently, they have the regular opportunities that they need to discuss children’s needs, reflect on their practice, share skills and highlight any areas for their development. Through supervision, managers also provide staff with the time to reflect on the emotional impact of their work. The staff have their performance and suitability to carry out their role formally appraised by the registered manager and responsible individual each year. However, the appraisals do not take into account the views of the children and other professionals who work with the staff. This information would provide a more detailed picture of each member of staff’s qualities, skills and how well children feel that individual staff support them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager supports and encourages staff to develop their interests, knowledge and skills through training and access to research materials. For example, staff have developed skills in supporting children to manage their feelings through relaxation and self-soothing techniques and completed training to carry out life story work with children to help them understand their experiences. Staff are developing their understanding of emotional well-being, mental health and self-harming behaviour. The children living in the home would benefit from staff having opportunities to develop their understanding of child development, working with teenagers, disorganised attachments and working with children who may have suffered abuse, neglect and trauma. Most of the staff have the appropriate qualifications, including social work and the level 3 diploma in residential childcare. However, the two members of bank staff have not yet

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

had the opportunity to gain an appropriate qualification. This would enhance further their knowledge and skills relevant to the needs of the children in their care.

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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. Inspection report children's home: SC472480 10 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

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Information about this inspection

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: SC472480 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Teen-Works Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Lonsdale and Marsh, Orleans House, Edmund Street, Liverpool L3 9NG

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Inspector(s)

Nick Veysey: social care inspector Inspection report children's home: SC472480 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(s)

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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