Children's home run by Living Life (UK) Limited in North Northamptonshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC481844 1 SC481844 Registered provider: Living Life (UK) 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

The home is privately owned and provides care and accommodation to five young people who have emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD).

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Date of last inspection: 8 February 2017

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: Improved effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection

None Inspection report children’s home: SC481844 2

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Key findings from this inspection

This children’s home is outstanding because

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Key findings from this inspection

 Children make excellent progress and this has been sustained since the last inspection.  Children’s safety is vastly improved because they are confident to speak about their most personal feelings and thoughts. They soon develop a better sense of safety.  Staff are creative in finding ways to build strong relationships with children. These strong relationships enable young people to do well.  Children are all doing exceptionally well in their education. They know that they can aim high because they are constantly encouraged to be ambitious. This greatly improves their life chances.  Staff are kind, caring and resourceful. They speak very warmly about the children, who in turn know that they are cared about greatly.  Staff know that they are expected to make a difference to children’s lives each time they come to work. These high expectations help them to provide excellent care.  The staff’s very child-centred approach builds children’s self-esteem and

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Key findings from this inspection

confidence. Children are always listened to and are consistently encouraged to have their say.  The home is extremely well managed. The acting manager leads his staff team by example. He is inspirational and motivational.  Managers know what the home does well. They develop their own tools and research. They share their good practice with other homes in the organisation and with the wider sector.  Children’s interests and talents are particularly well nurtured.  There are overwhelmingly positive comments from all stakeholders about children’s welfare, experiences and progress.

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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

 Further training for staff is not always fully considered when young people who have particular needs come to the home. This has not impacted on children but has the potential to do so. Inspection report children’s home: SC481844 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 28/09/2016 Full Outstanding 15/12/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness 30/06/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC481844 4

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Recommendations

 Ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

A happy and bubbly staff team create a cheerful environment where children feel very settled and can be themselves. One professional said that a child ‘knows they are absolutely there for him and that is lovely to see. There is so much support around him and now he can be himself.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The ethos of the home is to establish a network of support that empowers children and provides them with a sense of belonging. The home’s statement of purpose sets out this very positive ethos clearly. There are several new initiatives that empower staff to support children well. For example, the organisation’s qualified psychologist has produced some materials, and staff are weaving these ideas into their direct work with children. These resources are published, and it is clear that the company is influencing the wider sector. There is constant evaluation of children’s progress in promoting their own and others’ happiness.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff fully understand how young people’s self-esteem is affected by their past experiences. The inspector was shown a video clip that is shown to all staff when they start working at the home. In the video, an inspirational speaker talks about the importance of self-esteem in relation to disadvantaged children. This is an excellent starting point for new staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home feels like a family home. For example, there are football boots in the hall and games and young people’s belongings around the house. It is a place where children develop a sense of belonging. They feel very settled. Children’s, parents’ and professionals’ comments about the home are all overwhelmingly positive. One professional said that the home is ‘amazing’ and all children insisted that the home should be graded as outstanding.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children all agreed that one of the best things about the home is the activities. Children engage in lots of physical activity, promoting their good health. During the inspection, they were playing football, basketball and going out to clubs. The busy house suits the children well. They can run around and ‘let off steam’ in the pleasant gardens. Children are never bored because staff bring lots of energy and enthusiasm to each shift. Staff Inspection report children’s home: SC481844 5 organise and join fun activities, creating a very happy environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Interests and talents are well nurtured. Children soon learn to feel valued and know that they can aim high. This is because staff have strong aspirations for them. One child has a love of art and has been supported to obtain a place at art college. Another child is said to be excellent at football and currently has a choice of professional football clubs to play for. This is because staff made sure that he had chances to be ‘scouted’ and for his talents to be noticed. Children are encouraged at every opportunity in all they do. They soon begin to see what they are good at and to learn about themselves. Young people’s self-esteem improves significantly.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children all attend and engage well in school. They invest in their school placement because they are encouraged by staff. Some children, who have previously not sustained a school placement for many months, start to attend and to achieve. Staff know that children need to make up for lost time. Extra tutoring is provided on a weekly basis to ensure good progress. School staff and the home work very closely together on incentives, rewards and consequences. Children are clear about what is expected of them because they receive an exceptionally clear message from all. Recently, school staff came to the company’s fete, and staff from the home attended the school fete. A member of teaching staff talked about the consistent support to children in school. They said: ‘It is lovely to see. There is so much support around him. That’s what keeps him on the straight and narrow.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children’s ability to spend quality time with their families is constantly improving. One child is now seeing their sibling for the first time. Children are able to take small steps and progress goes at their own pace. For example, a video call was set up so that the child could see what their sibling looked like before meeting them in person. The close support and supervision prepare children very well for developing their relationships. Staff look out for new behaviours during any increase in family contact. They know that children may have higher anxieties and struggle with emotional regulation while coming to terms with their background. This work is so good that it is likely to improve the child’s relationships in their adult life.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Placement planning is comprehensive. Children only move in when there is clear and comprehensive information available. Children’s changing needs are monitored extremely carefully. Risk assessments are robust and consistently reflective of children’s needs, so that their excellent progress can continue.

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

Very creative work ensures that all children, however ‘hard to reach’, engage exceptionally well with staff about all aspects of their safety. Staff have recently used a particular theoretical model to help a newly admitted young person to reflect on, examine and think more carefully about their own safety. Children have engaged in ‘all about me’ portfolios. These entail a high level of individual work with staff to establish and develop the child’s sense of safety. Their portfolio reflects their improving Inspection report children’s home: SC481844 6 understanding of personal safety.

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

All staff, professionals and parents are confident that children are safe. One child said: ‘I like living here, I feel safe.’ Extremely strong relationships with staff enable children to trust them, to talk openly about their worries, and to explore aspects of their behaviour.

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

Risk assessments are extremely effective. For example, the location risk assessment identifies risks in the community, which are then explained to children. One individual work session was viewed by the inspector and was very meaningful to the child in terms of developing their knowledge of stranger danger.

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

Children progress exceptionally well in developing better behaviour. One parent was particularly happy with this, saying, ‘[He] used to be angry and now they have helped him, he is safer and doing well.’ When restraint takes place, staff carefully reflect on their practice. The views of the child are actively sought. In this way, staff establish whether their support could have been better, and what the restraint felt like for the child. This approach gives some control and power to the child and reduces the frequency of restraint. One child talked about being regularly restrained previously, and was proud to tell the inspector that this had not happened recently. They said: ‘I have had a month without restraint, without any at all.’ The manager talked about one child’s particular progress and said: ‘A couple of months ago, [he] would not have even been able to talk about behaviour. Now he readily sits down to discuss it.’

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

When children’s behaviour is particularly challenging, staff demonstrate an extremely calm, knowledgeable and resourceful approach. They use skills such as ‘change of face’ and ‘calm speaking’ and give firm guidance so that children are given a clear message. There is high-quality one-to-one work that gives children opportunities to learn about their own behaviour. This allows them to develop better coping strategies for the next time they feel angry. The home’s psychologist has sessions with each member of staff every month. All staff are expected to regularly reflect on their behaviour management performance, and to think about new and improved approaches.

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

When children go missing, staff do absolutely everything they can to look for them. They maintain as much contact as possible and work exceptionally well with other professionals to ensure a safe return. Staff use a very caring approach in trying to persuade children not to go missing in the first place. Children know that staff care greatly about their welfare. They will be able to reflect on this caring approach in the future and will know that they were cared about, whatever their behaviour.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

A new acting manager has been promoted from deputy manager, which gives children consistency. He is undergoing the process to register with Ofsted. He is suitably skilled and experienced. He has a commitment to his own development, recently enrolling on a relevant management qualification. Inspection report children’s home: SC481844 7 The acting manager always has children’s best interests at heart and ensures their safety and welfare at all times. He is not afraid to make decisions about moving children to more appropriate placements if their progress is being hindered by safety concerns. Such decisions are not taken lightly and, when this happened recently, he demonstrated a thoughtful approach. He stated: ‘I never want to do that again’, fully understanding how it must feel for children if they have to move on.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Admissions are extremely carefully selected, and new children’s profiles are well matched to the existing children. All decisions are made in the best interests of children. Managers clearly know what they are good at and want to help children in distress. The acting manager reflected on a recent admission process, saying: ‘There was a young person inside crying out for help.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Children’s comments about the acting manager are overwhelmingly positive. One child said: ‘He is fantastic.’ He has ensured that children progress in all areas. He uses research to develop his staff. For example, he has used a recent government report about the benefits of residential care to give a powerful message to the team in order to further improve team members’ practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff are kind and compassionate. Their approach to children is highly professional, but also caring and tender. They give children the strong message that they are cherished.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff feel well supported and well trained. They are very knowledgeable about how they should deliver care. The wide range of training includes mandatory training, such as behaviour management, safeguarding and first aid. The psychologist and assistant psychologist, who regularly come to the home to provide additional training and support, enhance training. Recently, there have been bespoke training sessions on mental health and self-harm. This personalised approach equips staff exceptionally well to meet children’s complex and changing needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

There are some gaps in training. There is not always careful consideration about the team’s training profile when children who have particular needs are admitted. Children have not been affected in any way by this shortfall, but there is the potential for staff not to fully understand how to meet children’s particular needs. This shortfall is relatively minor, given the otherwise very good-quality training.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Children’s views are instrumental to the home’s development. They are involved in the staff recruitment process, and fill out comment sheets on each candidate’s performance when they come to spend time in the home as part of the selection process. Regular ‘catch up’ meetings ensure that children can get together to make suggestions about the food, activities and the decor. A children’s council ensures further opportunities for children to share their ideas about what works well and not so well.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

An independent visitor comes to see the children, even when they have no concerns. Children have a good rapport with this professional. This gives them the message that they can and should use advocacy in the future. The independent visitor told the Inspection report children’s home: SC481844 8 inspector: ‘Staff are really good at getting children to engage’. Children know that their views are very important and that they should have their say. This builds their confidence to represent their own views assertively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The acting manager invests a lot of time in ensuring very positive communication with other professionals. He makes sure that the most up-to-date information about children’s progress is shared. Professionals welcome the proactive approach to communication. One social worker said: ‘Communication is brilliant. They have kept me updated.’ A member of the teaching staff said, ‘Communication is excellent both ways.’ The multi- disciplinary approach ensures that appropriate professionals carefully monitor children’s progress.

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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 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 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: SC481844 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Living Life (UK) Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 60 Overstone Road, Sywell, Northampton NN6 0AW

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Lorraine Andrews

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Inspector

Caroline Brailsford, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC481844 10 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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