Children's home run by Stoke-on-Trent City Council in Stoke-on-Trent

Inspection report children’s home: SC458025 1 SC458025 Registered provider: Stoke-on-Trent City Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides care and accommodation for up to two young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. A local authority operates the home, and they support young people from the area.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: 12 January 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Improved effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: None Inspection report children’s home: SC458025 2

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Key findings from this inspection

 A committed and supportive staff team cares for young people.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people say that they feel safe and well cared for.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The manager ensures that the healthcare needs of young people are recognised and that services are accessed to address them.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people are encouraged to have their say in the running of the home, through participation in house meetings and regular one-to-ones with staff.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The manager ensures that the young person’s contact is encouraged, supported and maintained well.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The manager ensures that staff members work collaboratively with other professionals to safeguard young people.

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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 manager has not ensured that all staff training is up to date.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The manager has not ensured that systems for monitoring staff training are effective.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The manager has not ensured that measures of control are regularly evaluated for effectiveness and have management oversight.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The manager has not ensured that the young person’s guide is an accurate description of the home.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The manager has not ensured that the home’s location risk assessment is a document that assesses risk in its area.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

12/01/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 05/07/2016 Full Requires improvement 07/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 27/10/2015 Full Inadequate Inspection report children’s home: SC458025 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 leadership and management standard means that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home by using monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (2)(h)) 28/07/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees undertake appropriate continuing professional development. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)) 28/07/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure and within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (‘the authorised person’) has spoken to the user about the measure and has signed the record to confirm it is accurate. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(vii)(b)(i)(ii)) 28/07/2017

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Recommendations

 The children’s home must produce a children’s guide. The children’s guide must be made available to all children when their placement in the home is agreed (or on arrival at the home if the placement is made in an emergency) and must be age appropriate, provided in an accessible format and explained to each child to make sure they understand it. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 4.22)

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Recommendations

 When establishing the home, the registered person must ensure that it is suitably located so that children are effectively safeguarded and can access services to meet needs identified in their relevant plans (see Regulation 12 (2)(c)). Under Regulation 46, the registered person should review the appropriateness and suitability of the location and premises of the home at least once a year. The review should include the identification of any risks and opportunities presented by the home’s location and strategies for managing these. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.1) Inspection report children’s home: SC458025 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, one young person has returned home to the care of his parents. Because of this discharge, one young person has been admitted.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The relationships between young people and staff are good. Young people receive consistency of care from an experienced and committed staff team that knows them well. One professional said, ‘The home has been good in making him feel comfortable and putting him at ease.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager ensures that young people’s placement plans set out clearly what staff must do to meet the needs of young people effectively. All staff are aware of the detail of plans. This helps to ensure that young people are treated consistently, and that staff understand set objectives and how these should be met.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager ensures that young people have clear health plans and are registered with the relevant primary healthcare services. Staff receive support from relevant professionals to help meet young people’s emotional and psychological needs. A good medication management system ensures the safe administration of medication.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager ensures that staff work closely with schools to ensure that young people receive the maximum benefit from education. When young people are not in formal education, staff provide educational activities in the home and liaise effectively with the local authority to ensure that an appropriate placement is found, so that any disruption to their education is minimal.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage young people to make a positive contribution to the home. The young people contribute their views through young people’s meetings and regular communication with staff. Young people confirm that they know how to make a complaint if they are unhappy or have any concerns about their care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager ensures that young people are able to maintain contact with their family and friends. Staff will facilitate contact, regularly providing transport, so that these important connections are maintained.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people are supported to develop their independence and life skills, relevant to their age, level of understanding and ability.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people are offered a good range of constructive leisure activities within the local community, which strengthens their sense of belonging. Individual interests and talents are actively encouraged and supported, which increases confidence. Examples include, joining local football teams, trips to the cinema and days out to places of interest. Inspection report children’s home: SC458025 5

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

Staff demonstrate a good understanding of safe working practice. Staff have a positive understanding of young people’s needs and particular vulnerabilities and they take appropriate action to address them. A young person told the inspector, ‘I feel safe living here, staff look after me.’

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

Personalised risk assessments help inform staff about the issues pertinent to each young person and ensure that staff are aware of and understand the most appropriate strategy to use. These documents are regularly reviewed to ensure that they remain up to date and continue to protect young people.

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

Young people’s behaviour is generally good. Staff use the quality of their relationships with the young people to manage challenging situations. As a result, there have been no physical restraints since the last inspection. However, records of sanctions have not been fully completed. For example, there is no management oversight and there are no entries highlighting the effectiveness of the sanction. This means that sanctions are not monitored to assess their effectiveness and can lead to inappropriate sanctions being issued.

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

There have been no reported incidents of children going missing from the home since the last inspection. Staff are aware of procedures to follow should a young person be missing and they have received training around the indicators of child sexual exploitation.

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

Young people live in a physically safe environment. Staff undertake regular health and safety checks and make sure that equipment is serviced regularly. Staff are trained in fire safety procedures and they ensure that young people take part in fire evacuation drills so that they understand what to do in the event of a fire or other emergency.

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

The manager ensures that the young person is protected by safe recruitment procedures. This ensures that only those suitable to work with vulnerable young people are employed at the home.

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

The manager ensures that the home stays homely and comfortable, and is a safe environment for young people to live in. The home is suitably located in a residential area where there are good transport links and access to local facilities.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The home has an appropriately qualified registered manager in place. The manager has been in post since August 2016 and holds a level 5 diploma in leadership, health and social care. The manager also has responsibility for another home in the area.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff report that they receive good support and guidance from the manager. Staff receive regular supervision that supports and challenges their performance to improve. All staff are qualified and have access to training which is pertinent to young people’s Inspection report children’s home: SC458025 6 specific needs and vulnerabilities. However, the manager has not ensured that the training rota is accurate and not all staff training is up to date. This has the potential to deskill staff and place young people at risk.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager ensures that young people receive support as outlined in the home’s statement of purpose. It provides clear information about the level of service provided and helps to inform stakeholders about the aims, objectives and facilities offered. This helps to ensure that young people are appropriately placed. The young person’s guide does not reflect what young people can expect in the home and requires further information to make it a more accurate document.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager ensures that an independent person visits the home every month to monitor and report on the quality of care provided. Monitoring reports provide a review of the home’s practice relating to the quality of young people’s care and identify areas for improvement. The independent person seeks the views of young people and their parents or carers to allow them to contribute to the report.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager has formed positive relationships with a range of agencies, including social workers, the police and education professionals. A social worker said, ‘Communication is good, I get weekly emails and regular updates.’ This collaborative approach means that young people are better protected and have greater access to resources.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager has ensured that there is a review of the home’s location in place. The document is not reflective of any risks in the immediate area that may affect young people and requires assessment in consultation with other agencies to make it more pertinent to the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

In response to the requirements and recommendations made at the last inspection, the manager now ensures that staff supervision is regularly undertaken and that the Regulation 45 report is completed in line with regulations.

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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 differences 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 whom 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 Inspection report children’s home: SC458025 7 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: SC458025 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: City of Stoke-on-Trent, Civic Centre, Glebe Street, Stoke-on-Trent ST4 1HH

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Susan Hammersley

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Inspector

Dave Carrigan: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC458025 9 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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