Children's home run by Bryn Melyn Care Limited in Telford and Wrekin

Inspection report children’s home: 1223491 1 Registered provider: Bryn Melyn Care

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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 part of a private organisation. It is a 12-week assessment centre providing up to three placements for young people who 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: 22 November 2016

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Requires improvement

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: None

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people settle quickly and make good progress. They develop positive relationships with staff who support them effectively to re-establish normal Inspection report children’s home: 1223491 2 patterns of day-to-day life.  Young people who have been out of education prior to moving into the home re-engage and achieve good attendance and learning outcomes.  The staff team works in partnership with clinicians to complete well-informed assessments.  Staff support and educate young people to keep themselves safe. Strategies tailored to individual young people result in a reduction of historical high-risk behaviours.  Consequences and physical interventions are rarely used to manage behaviour or challenging situations.  The new management team is using quality assurance processes effectively to identify areas where the service needs to continue to improve.

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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 previous manager’s system for reviewing the quality of care does not use the opinions of young people, their parents, placing authorities or staff to inform practice and the future development of the home.  Some staff have not completed mandatory training to ensure that they are able to meet the complex needs of young people.  Some records are not robust and do not reflect the good practice of staff or views of young people.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

22/11/2016 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: 1223491 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 registered person must ensure that all employees undertake appropriate continuing professional development. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)) 31/08/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure the system for reviewing of quality of care undertaken by the registered provider provides for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (5)) 31/10/2017

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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. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people receive the help and support that they need to ensure their well-being throughout their stay at the home. Young people often arrive at the home at short notice and while experiencing crises in their lives. The staff team supports them to re- engage in positive routines, reduce high-risk behaviours and focus on what they want to achieve in the future.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff form meaningful relationships with young people. They work in partnership with a clinical team which completes comprehensive assessments based on the staff team’s observations and discussions with young people, their families and other agencies. These accurately identify young people’s immediate and future needs and aspirations. Inspection report children’s home: 1223491 4 Young people make good progress in most areas of their lives. Their self-esteem and overall well-being improves. For example, healthy sleep patterns become better established and medical appointments are attended. They feel listened to because they are able to influence the care that they receive. They develop confidence and engage in age-appropriate hobbies and activities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff promote the importance of learning to improve future outcomes. This is a key element of the period of assessment provided at this service. Education takes place in the home, provided by the organisation’s registered school. A full-time tutor has recently been appointed and works exclusively at the home. Young people are very positive about the learning space she has created and the educational activities she coordinates. Young people ‘enjoy education’. This was evident watching them put together a greenhouse ready for a new garden project, and listening to them talk about a planned trip to London.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people are warmly welcomed into the home, whatever time of the day or night they arrive. Staff work proactively with other agencies and family members to ensure that they have as much information as possible. Young people are well supported to move on from the home. When they are ready to move on, staff work in partnership with their family or new placement to ensure a smooth transition.

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

Staff offer good support to young people who display emotional and/or behavioural difficulties because of previous experiences or placement breakdowns. For some young people, the main focus of their placement is to immediately reduce specific high-risk behaviours and keep them safe. The impact of this work is that young people significantly reduce their historical risk-taking behaviour. For example, incidents of aggression, going missing and self-harm decrease.

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

The staff team maintains an environment where young people are safe and where they feel valued and cared for. They understand that for a young person living away from family and friends the experience may well be difficult and very emotional. To counter this, they provide a well-ordered, well-planned environment that is welcoming but with clear structure and ground rules. Young people learn to keep themselves safe, accept responsibility for themselves and begin to understand the effect of their actions on others.

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

Most staff receive regular safeguarding training on a range of topics including children who go missing from home, radicalisation and child sexual exploitation. This ensures that staff are able to prevent or respond effectively to any safeguarding concerns. For example, young people who are identified as being at risk of going missing are monitored carefully. There have only been three missing incidents for one young person since the last inspection. These were appropriately managed by staff in partnership with appropriate agencies. This is a significant reduction in incidents for this young person. Staff understand, and are working to address the root cause of, the young person’s actions. Inspection report children’s home: 1223491 5 There have been no complaints made by young people since the last inspection. However, young people know how to raise issues and how to complain. They say that they feel safe and well supported. They have access to a range of staff and individuals

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

they can go to if they have any worries.

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

The house has been recently refurbished. It is bright, clean and well cared for. Young people like ‘the space’ and ‘the big bedrooms’. The new manager and staff team are currently working to make it feel more homely.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager left the home after the last full inspection. A new manager was appointed but left in April 2017 before completing his registration process with Ofsted. A new manager is now in post. She received a handover from the exiting manager and is now in the process of registering with Ofsted. She has 10 years’ experience as a registered manager and holds a level 4 national vocational qualification in management. The home’s deputy manager also holds a level 5 qualification in management.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

On 21 December 2016, the home was closed and refurbished. This was after the last full inspection when the home was judged to require improvement in order to be good. All the young people placed at that point had moved on. Before reopening on 22 January 2017, the new manager and staff team revisited the aims, objectives and purpose of the service and looked at the lessons that they had learned.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Since reopening, the outcomes of young people have been good. The staff team has begun to stabilise and the quality of care has been good. The safety and well-being of young people has been given priority.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The provider is currently focusing on developing and strengthening the management and staff team within the home, and ensuring that the manager becomes registered with Ofsted.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Since starting in post, the new manager and existing deputy have been auditing records and systems. They have put effective measures in place where shortfalls have been identified. For example, they found that not all staff had completed mandatory training. All staff have either now completed training or are booked onto the next available course.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The responsible individual and new manager have also identified that the quality of records is not consistent within the home. Information is at times dispersed and not cross-referenced. Records do not always contain clear timelines or record the details of conversations with professionals, parents and young people. The home’s managers have not been systemically reviewing records to ensure that practice is appropriate, records are of a good quality and that lessons have been learned. Records do not consistently reflect the staff team’s good practice. Inspection report children’s home: 1223491 6 Staff are supported to develop their care practice through team meetings, team away- days, supervision and appraisals. These forums provide the staff team with time to reflect on its practice and discuss how young people are progressing.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home’s external and internal monitoring arrangements are being implemented effectively to improve the quality of care and outcomes for young people. The previous manager’s internal monitoring tool does not contain evidence of feedback from staff, young people, parents and social workers. As a result, their views are not being used to influence the future operation of the home or improve staff practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers and staff have a good understanding of the progress and plans for young people. As a result, young people are making good progress from their starting points across many aspects of their development. The new manager is taking effective action when the plans for young people are not clear. For example, she is actively challenging local authorities when future placements are not identified in a timely manner. Moving forward, this is an area she is looking to develop to reassure young people and prevent disruption.

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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: 1223491 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Edward James House, Hadley, Telford TF1 6QJ

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Inspector

Dawn Bennett, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1223491 8 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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