Children's home run by Cheshire West and Chester Council in Cheshire West and Chester

Inspection report children's home: SC413177 1 SC413177 Registered provider: Cheshire West and Chester Council

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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 local authority children‟s home is registered to provide care and accommodation for four children who may have 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: 11 October 2016

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Improved effectiveness

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Key findings from this inspection

 The leadership and management of the home has improved and is good. This is evident through improvements to the quality of care, staff competence and records. Inspection report children's home: SC413177 2  The home works effectively in partnership with others. This helps children to receive the care and support they need.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Children‟s safety and well-being are central to the home‟s ethos and practice. Children have been protected from serious threats to their safety.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Risk assessments are agreed with social workers. They guide staff in how to protect children. When a child‟s safety is compromised, this is appropriately challenged and robust action is taken.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Children feel safe and relaxed in the home.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Children say they are listened to, treated with respect and well cared for. Most enjoy and benefit from positive, supportive relationships with staff.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Children enjoy positive experiences that enhance the quality of their day-to-day lives.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Children receive good support to make progress in their lives.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The home supports children well through transition to and from 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 scrutiny of restraint records is not consistently good and should be improved.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/10/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 19/05/2016 Full Requires improvement 02/03/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness 08/12/2015 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children's home: SC413177 3

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Recommendations

 Ensure that all managers working in a children‟s home have the level 5 diploma in leadership and management for residential childcare (England) („the level 5 diploma‟) within the relevant timescales listed in regulation 28 (3), namely three years after the date on which that person started managing a home. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 53, paragraph 10.12)  Ensure that incidents of control, discipline and restraint are subject to systems of regular scrutiny to ensure their use is fair, respectful, protects and preserves positive relationships between staff and children, supports the child appropriately, and upholds the child‟s rights. In particular, the registered person should improve the arrangements for scrutinising restraint records. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 46, paragraph 9.36)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home provides children with good, individualised care that is tailored to meet their complex and challenging needs. Children say this is a „really nice‟ home and is not what they expected of a children‟s home. Social workers and parents report that children are well cared for and staff do all they can to provide a comfortable and nurturing environment. For example, a social worker said: „I am pleased with everything. I have no concerns whatsoever.‟ Another said: „They got to know her really well and she had a very positive experience there.‟

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children feel well cared for by the staff team. One child explained: „Staff are lovely. They are really helpful and they support you with anything you need. They ask you all the time what you want. They really care about me. I can tell any of them if I am not happy with something.‟ Another child explained: „Staff listen to you. They know how to calm you down. They give you space and are not always in your face. They are really nice.‟

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Similarly, parents and professionals speak positively about the friendly, open communication and good partnership work. They report that they are kept well informed and up to date with children‟s progress, and that any concerns are shared with them promptly. The home contributes effectively to planning and strategy meetings about individual children and updates its placement plans frequently, taking account of the changing landscape and decisions made. The home advocates well for children, making sure that children‟s views are represented in discussions with other professionals. A social worker explained: „They provide weekly reports and daily incident sheets as necessary. They are incredibly helpful. Staff are always available to speak with. They Inspection report children's home: SC413177 4 attend all meetings, contribute well and they make sure her voice is heard.‟

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children‟s health and welfare is well promoted. Staff ensure that children have a good diet and receive the medicines and treatment they need. A parent explained how staff contacted her for more information to ensure that they had a good record of the child‟s health history, prior to important health appointments. All staff are first-aid trained and administer first aid, as required in the event of injuries through accidents or self-injury. They seek specialist and emergency medical attention appropriately. This helps children to stay well.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work in close collaboration with professionals who support children‟s mental and psychological health. A health professional explained: „The two children they were looking after were very difficult. There was a lot of advice being given and they were able to follow most of it. One child‟s needs changed as she began to trust the staff and they had to continually think about the triggers and review their strategies.‟ Another professional said: „The work they did should be applauded. They managed the dynamics between two very challenging young people well.‟

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home has improved its relationship with the virtual school, and staff now have a good understanding of the role of the virtual school in monitoring and promoting children‟s education. Children have individually-tailored education placements which are kept under constant review. Their education progress is variable. For example, three of the four children looked after by the home since the last inspection have made good progress in their education. One child became increasingly disengaged with school, which contributed to a change of care and education placement.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff communicate effectively with education providers and support children‟s engagement with education well. A headteacher explained: „Staff do a cracking job. They got her into school every day, on time. When she first moved there, two staff came and spoke with us. It was really, really useful. We have daily email communication and speak when we need to. Colleagues have built up a good relationship with staff and she knows they share information with us.‟

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home provides children with the opportunity to engage in a wide range of positive and enjoyable experiences. Children say they do a lot of activities, including going for walks, swimming, cycling and shopping; and they enjoy spending time with staff, cooking and using the computer. One said, „I love dancing. They have offered to take me and I‟m thinking about it. They always offer me to do whatever I want. I have friends round. It‟s really good.‟

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Regular key-worker sessions and children‟s meetings offer children the opportunity to share their wishes and feelings, to seek and receive advice and to comment on the quality of their care. Children‟s records demonstrate the many and varied discussions that staff hold with children, many of which are tailored to meet their specific needs at that time. The manager and staff advocate well for children if they are not getting effective and appropriate support from other professionals. Children express confidence in the staff team and recognise their commitment to them. Inspection report children's home: SC413177 5 The quality of impact risk assessments and matching children has improved over time. The home ensures that it has all the information it requires before a child is placed, and this is given careful consideration before a placement is agreed. The needs of children already in placement are considered, as well as the needs of the referred child. Staff

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

receive additional training to meet children‟s specific needs before, or soon after, a child is admitted to the home. For example, staff have received refresher training in caring for children with attachment difficulties and those with self-injurious behaviour.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Social workers describe the rigorous assessment and introduction process, which involves supplying information to the home, attending meetings to discuss the child‟s needs and agreeing risk assessments and placement plans at the time of admission. This gives them confidence that children are well matched and that the home has a good understanding of the child‟s needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children visit the home before placement and have a say in whether they wish to move there. A social worker explained: „She had a lot of anxieties before the visit. But she came out of the house and said, “I‟m well happy with that”, and she wanted to move in immediately.‟ The home makes children feel welcome. For example, their bedroom is prepared in advance and supplied with toiletries, towels and a copy of the children‟s guide. A child said: „I was proper nervous at first but I really enjoyed the visit. They welcomed me and it was really nice.‟ Another child described how staff write important phone numbers down in the children‟s guide so they always have them to hand. She said: „They definitely care about me and I can tell they want the best for young people.‟

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to move on positively. When children move at short notice, staff do all they can to help them prepare for the move and maintain contact with them afterwards, being conscious that children might feel abandoned. Children who have left the home have written to staff expressing their thanks for the good care they received.

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

The home monitors and reports serious safeguarding and child protection incidents properly and contributes effectively to safeguarding strategy meetings. The management team continuously assesses risks to children‟s safety and provides guidance for staff in how to manage and mitigate against risk taking behaviour that threatens children‟s safety and welfare. For the most part, staff have a very good understanding of how to protect children. They take clear and decisive action that is agreed in multi-agency safeguarding meetings and keeps children safe. For example, staff provided extremely good and consistent protective care to a child at risk of serious self-harm. This kept the child safe and prevented her untimely death. The child‟s social worker said: „They were particularly responsive to her needs. Risk assessments were continually reviewed and adapted. They got to know her very well and were very flexible. The psychiatrist

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

recognised her behaviour was very unusual and, mindful of her risk-taking behaviour, the staff team went above and beyond to keep her safe. They recognised the triggers for her unsafe behaviour.‟ Inspection report children's home: SC413177 6 When a staff member responded to a child in a manner that compromised her safety, this was immediately and robustly addressed by the manager and senior leadership team. Staff were subsequently reminded of their duty to protect children at all times.

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

Children understand how to stay safe online and say there are clear rules about using the internet in the home. However, some children use their phones to make contact with unsafe people and this places them in danger. When children are considered to be at risk of child sexual exploitation, the home is proactive in securing specialist support and advice for the child and the staff team. Staff encourage children to learn how to protect themselves from grooming, both in relation to child sexual exploitation and radicalisation. Staff help children to understand the dangers associated with drug and alcohol misuse. Some children have very strong and influential relationships outside the home and, despite good guidance from staff, have continued to engage in unsafe behaviour. One child‟s placement has been appropriately terminated because the home recognised that it was not able to keep the child safe and stop the decline in her all-

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

Over the last 12 months, three children have been missing from home a total of 12 times. This is comparatively low and reflects the good work the staff team do to protect them. For example, staff respond swiftly and robustly, following children who leave the home without permission and actively searching for children who fail to return at agreed times. They do all they can to maintain phone contact with children, encouraging them to return. They are often able to find children and persuade them to return to the home, thus safeguarding them from dangers associated with being missing.

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

The home has agreed missing-from-home protocols with the police, which are tailored to meet the individual safety needs of the child. This ensures that children at the most risk are given high priority by the police and they are returned to safety quickly.

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

The home makes children welcome on their return and staff encourage them to talk about where they have been and why, although children rarely say. The home has worked with the placing authority and others to ensure that children are offered independent return interviews when they return from being missing. Although these are now being routinely offered, children rarely engage with the independent person and seldom share information about why they went missing or with whom. This means that despite the efforts of professionals, children continue to be at risk in the community.

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

Children report that there is no bullying in the home. Staff are trained to recognise and intervene when bullying occurs. The home explores suspected bullying incidents well, and uses a restorative justice approach to help children establish comfortable and respectful relationships with their peers.

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

In most cases, staff build a good rapport with children and children respond well to the nurture, warmth and good humour displayed by the staff. The staff report that they have become more cohesive and consistent in setting clear boundaries for children. They use incentives and positive behaviour management strategies to encourage children to behave in a socially acceptable way. Children currently living in the home say they feel Inspection report children's home: SC413177 7 safe and secure there.

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

Staff are trained to manage children‟s behaviour by defusing situations and providing calm and nurturing support. They use restraint appropriately, only to prevent serious injury or serious damage. A social worker commented: „She was very scared of physical interventions and of males. They took account of that and were very sensitive in the way they restrained her and intervened physically. It was well managed.‟

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

Records of restraint do not always fully reflect the method of restraint used. Although the manager usually reviews these within five days of the restraint, there are no arrangements for this to be done in the manager‟s absence, for example during her annual leave. This means that no senior manager has had oversight of the restraint record to ensure that the incident was necessary and managed effectively, nor does it show that lessons have been learned through timely reflection. The manager‟s comments do not always show that she is satisfied that the restraint was necessary, appropriate and fair, and that she has spoken to the child about the restraint.

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

Extensive damage has been caused to the home through high levels of aggressive behaviour, and staff have suffered a number of injuries when assaulted. Strategies to address this behaviour were implemented and professional support was made available to the child concerned. Her reluctance to engage with any professionals and her negativity towards the home have meant that attempts to reduce this behaviour were unsuccessful.

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

The home takes action quickly to repair damage so that it continues to provide comfortable, homely accommodation, where children can relax. A child said: „It‟s a really nice environment. They make it homely and comfy.‟

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The leadership and management of the home has significantly strengthened. The manager has been in post for 18 months and has established good links with partner agencies. This enables the home to access appropriate support for children from other professionals. The manager has developed effective working relationships with social work colleagues, and correctly advocates for children, challenging those parties who are not fully providing the input and services required to meet a child‟s needs. This has led to improved placement planning, risk assessment and matching of children. She ensures that the aims of the placement are clearly set out for each child so that staff and children know what they want to achieve, and take a more active role in care planning alongside social work colleagues.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and senior staff have a good understanding of children‟s needs and progress. They provide sound advice and guidance to staff, often leading by example. A good induction programme ensures that new staff receive the support they need to quickly develop their skills, under the guidance and scrutiny of senior staff. Inspection report children's home: SC413177 8 Staff report that they are very well supported, supervised and trained to meet children‟s specific needs. Balanced with effective challenge from the manager, this has resulted in improvements in the quality of their work. For example, they have received further training in and challenge to their report writing. They recognise that their records are now more accurate, informative and valuable. One explained: „We are better at recording now and we are getting the training we needed.‟

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

They receive monthly support from a psychologist who attends the staff team meeting and helps them to understand the impact of early trauma, insecure attachments and neglect. He advises members of the staff team on behaviour management strategies to implement with particular children, and this gives them confidence and helps them to provide consistent care that meets children‟s needs. A member of staff explained: „I have good support and supervision. As a staff team, we can all talk openly and ask for support if we need it – from each other and the managers. The psychologist comes to the team meetings and he has given us a different perspective. He gives us ideas and we agree strategies. It‟s really helpful, because when you are closely involved, you don‟t always see things as clearly.‟

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager continuously monitors the operation of the home and children‟s progress. She knows the staff team well and has identified individual staff members‟ strengths and weaknesses, and has taken effective action to improve the overall competence of the team and the quality of care. This is a work in progress, but there is good evidence of an overall improvement. For example, staff have a better understanding of their role and duties. They take more responsibility for addressing day-to-day problems, have better engagement with other professionals and recognise that they are all accountable for children‟s progress and experiences. For example, one said: „I think we‟ve improved all- round and are getting better. We are getting good support. There are a lot of people involved with these children and we have got to take the lead on things, as we are with them day-to-day. We are sharper now. We can see we needed training.‟ The staff team

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

are working together more consistently and are providing children with a more positive experience of living in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has a clear development plan, which includes the recommendations made at the last inspection. These have all been met, which has contributed to the overall improvement in the home‟s performance. Plans to provide more office space by setting up an office for the manager on the site are well under way.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

A new independent visitor to the home provides monthly reports to the manager and provider. These reports provide good and timely evaluation and assessment of the quality of care and children‟s safety and wellbeing. They helpfully set out areas for improvement, which the manager addresses. This promotes continuous improvement and ensures that the provider has regular overview of the operation of the home. External scrutiny of the home by the senior leadership team has significantly improved, and this has raised the profile of the home within the local authority. The manager and staff are respected by social work colleagues who recognise the good work they do. The home keeps a record of feedback from professionals, parents and children. This contains many positive comments, which shows how much the service is valued. Inspection report children's home: SC413177 9

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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 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: SC413177 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 58 Nicholas Street, Chester CH1 2NP

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Inspector(s)

Sharon Lloyd, social care regulatory inspector Inspection report children's home: SC413177 11 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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