Children's home run by ROC Northwest Limited in Westmorland and Furness

Inspection report children’s home: SC401603 1 SC401603 Registered provider: Roc Northwest 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 registered for up to 15 children from eight to 18 years old.  The home is run by a private company.  A company school is on-site.  The home offers care and accommodation for children who have learning disabilities, physical disabilities and associated behavioural needs.  An outreach service is registered separately with the Care Quality Commission.

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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: 1 February 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Good

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Enforcement action since last inspection

None Inspection report children’s home: SC401603 2

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Key findings from this inspection

 The manager is particularly enthusiastic and child-centred.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Staff ensure that young people’s learning disabilities are not an obstacle to their full involvement in the home. Through consultation processes, young people understand what is happening and increase their personal responsibilities.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Networking with other agencies, and relatives, is a strength of the service. This facilitates young people’s progress by creating opportunities and dealing with difficulties as soon as possible.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people enjoy their home and the company of staff. They feel safe and appreciate the difference the service makes for them.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Overall, young people benefit from a high level of consistency among their carers. This is a major contribution to their good progress.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people learn to be more independent and to keep themselves safe.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Staff respect young people’s rights at all times.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Staff give young people’s education a high priority and address any barriers effectively. Consequently, young people engage well in education and obtain a lot from it.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The company is striving to improve its services and is investing accordingly in staff training and support.

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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 registered manager should evaluate if there remains a need for front ground restraints when a young person is in crisis. Inspection report children’s home: SC401603 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

01/02/2017 Full Good 03/11/2016 Full Inadequate 15/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 20/05/2015 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC401603 4

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Statutory requirement

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 protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff have the skills to identify and to act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm through regular monitoring and review and take effective action, specifically with regard to risk management whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare (Regulation 12 (2) (a) (iii) (vi)) 31/08/2017

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation:

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the care promotes each child’s welfare, taking into account the child’s ethnicity and culture. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 14, paragraph 3.2)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people make good progress. Young people get on well with the staff. They express no reservations about the staff and they have a lot of fun together. To achieve this, staff use a variety of communication systems to support young people who have reduced verbal and cognitive skills. They apply these to many routine activities to improve young people’s understanding, involvement and skills. For example, young people now have a pictorial sequence of the evening routine. This contributes to their understanding of the evening meal, independence skills and verbal progress. Inspection report children’s home: SC401603 5 Consultation with young people leads to their views making a difference throughout the home, including in the decoration and furnishings. Young people improve their fitness by walking home from school. This has also led to greater involvement in the community and access to a wider range of activities, such as youth clubs and a trampoline park,

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

which holds specific events for young people who have autistic spectrum disorder. One social worker said about her young person, ‘She has been afforded the ability to make independent choices and she’s absolutely loving it! Staff demonstrate sensitivity and an individualised personal approach, which enables young people to feel valued.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

High staffing levels mean that each young person receives personalised care from adults with whom they are familiar. There is good continuity of care and the team has a balance of age, gender and cultural background. However, although staff are alert to the cultural backgrounds of young people, they do not always prioritise this in the planning or recording. Consequently, there is a delay in understanding the social expectations of some young people about, for example, education, sexuality and gender-specific roles.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, some young people have moved to other services. These have been positive transitions to other settings that meet their needs better. Their social workers are satisfied with the service and say that they would ‘have no hesitation’ in using it again. Most young people come from either the host authority or an adjacent one. Young people who come from further afield receive the same quality of service. The manager takes great care to match new young people to the existing group. As a result, young people usually get on well with each other and, in some cases, become good friends. A new young person said that she likes everything about the home. Her social worker said, ‘She’d really come out of her shell.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The property is clean and comfortable. It has photographs and artwork on display, which contribute to the homely atmosphere. It has easy access to city amenities. There is a reasonable-sized back garden and young people use it regularly. Young people said they particularly enjoyed soaking the staff with water when on a hot summer’s day they organised a water fight.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children’s home has an on-site school and when new young people arrive, they are offered an educational placement. Once they are in school, young people do well and have very high rates of attendance. Staff adeptly interpret young people’s behaviour, particularly when it appears to change for no known reason. This leads them, for example, to pursue school staff for information and analyses. This removes obstacles to young people’s educational progress as soon as possible.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people enjoy good health and learn to take control of their lives. One young person now has good strategies she can use when she is in times of crisis. They pursue healthy, active lifestyles and learn to do so independently and as a matter of course. Staff ensure that young people use mental health services when necessary. Recently, the company has improved this aspect of the service by engaging an independent psychiatry service. The managers and staff now have access to a clinical psychiatrist who provides an important contribution to their work with young people. Inspection report children’s home: SC401603 6 Staff improve each young person’s contact with their family, whenever possible. The re- establishment of important relationships has become a remarkably valuable journey for some young people. This provides important emotional support and helps young people look ahead optimistically. Young people enjoyed a wide range of interesting activities

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

over the spring break, with theme parks and the beach being particular highlights. Young people have a lot of fun in the home, in which there is a good-natured and happy atmosphere.

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

Staff work in an extremely positive and inclusive way. They have a good understanding of the risks faced by each young person. The current risk of child sexual exploitation of young people is low. Through key-worker sessions and systematic repetition, staff help young people understand the reasons why positive behaviour is necessary. As part of this philosophy, they seldom use sanctions but frequently reward young people for their effort and achievements. Bullying is almost non-existent. This approach contributes substantially to young people’s positive progress, whether it be in their personal care, understanding of their medication, or their attempts to try new activities.

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

Given the complex needs of the young people, it is inevitable that their behaviour varies from time to time. Negative incidents have significantly decreased in the past few months. Staff have shown resilience in their response to assaults against them and to young people damaging bedrooms. These are unusual events in the home. Staff kept young people safe, albeit with a greater use of physical intervention, including holding young people in a front ground position. In close liaison with other professionals and the young people, the causes of such behaviours were analysed and appropriate remedial action was taken. External professionals provide positive feedback. One recently said ‘[The staff show] impressive efficiency and dedication. There is good, collaborative working.’ The manager routinely reviews incidents and has correctly learned lessons from those when staff did not manage quite as well as possible. Overall, young people’s

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

behaviour improves, which increases their social and recreational opportunities. One young person has made substantial progress with his verbal skills. Another young person has improved her reading and writing, which has had a wide range of benefits.

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

Risk assessments have been put in place to enable staff to understand how to support the young people they care for. These are regularly updated by the manager. However the risk assessments are not being followed by staff. They are not always signed as being read and understood by regular and agency staff, and this fails to keep young people and staff protected. Recently, a young person was admitted into the home following a discharge from hospital. The local authority gave clear instructions to the home how this risk was going to be managed in an evening, with regular checks. However the staff at the home did not consistently follow the requests made of them, and the well-being of the young person was unknown. As a result, this exposed the young person, if they self-harmed in any way, to the risk of this not being detected quickly. In discussion with the registered manager about this, she felt that the risk

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

assessment had not been updated and it was currently not necessary to undertake the checks as the risk had been significantly reduced. Inspection report children’s home: SC401603 7 There are systems in place to help make the home a safe place for young people to live in. For example, there are regular checks of fire safety equipment and fire drills, so that staff and young people would know what to do if there was a fire. Young people speak positively about the home and staff. They feel confident that staff would listen to them and take action if they had a problem or wanted to make a complaint. Staff are trained in areas that help them to promote acceptable behaviour and to keep young people safe. This includes areas such as de-escalation and restraint, fire safety, child sexual exploitation and online safety.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager runs a well-organised, settled home, where young people are making progress in all areas of their development. Her strong child focus and organisational ability have supported staff to meet the complex needs of young people effectively. Since the last full inspection, there has been a significant reduction in challenging behaviour from young people. This is due to the registered manager’s skilful impact assessments and matching of the young people in placement. The more settled environment and consequent improvement in staff morale have enabled the registered manager to achieve the aims and objectives of the service set out in the statement of purpose.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager consistently provides the staff group with clear leadership, supportive supervision and relevant training. Staff say that the registered manager is supportive and they feel well trained to do their job. Supervision is thorough, and staff can bring ideas to discuss. The registered manager leads by example and is not afraid to challenge other professionals when they do not provide young people with the services that they need. Challenging commissioners is an example of this, with the registered manager repeatedly contacting local authorities in order to secure correct information for young people in placement.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff team has sustained a degree of consistency since the last inspection. Staff feel that there is a happy atmosphere in the team. One staff member said, ‘We’re good at praising each other.’ Recent recruitment drives have led to a small number of staff accepting that the role was not for them. The registered manager is keen to find the right calibre of staff for the home. This has seen the additional help required by some young people provided by the temporary use of agency staff. This has not had a detrimental effect on the young people, and some agency staff have become permanent members of staff. All staff, including the waking night staff, receive regular supervision and development opportunities.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff benefit from an improved programme of training, some of which they undertake online. The vast majority of staff are either suitably qualified or are on track to become qualified within the required timescale. They demonstrate their understanding by applying their learning in practice. The team understands concerns about child sexual exploitation, radicalisation and female genital mutilation. The staff apply their learning to Inspection report children’s home: SC401603 8 practical issues and feel that it helps them ‘think outside the box’. For example, one of the recent training courses resulted in staff revisiting young people’s safety online.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

An independent person and the senior staff undertake effective monitoring of the service. This means that they identify any shortfalls at an early stage. Records clearly reflect the good progress made by young people, and the monitoring processes track it. The company has recently given the six-monthly monitoring process more impact by including greater analysis. This contributes to the ongoing improvement of the service. All monitoring focuses on the specific needs of the young people. The process of improving the service is ongoing and shows a positive effect.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

As part of the substantial involvement of young people in the running of the home, staff have translated many of the main documents into pictorial formats. This means that young people have a meaningful understanding of, and involvement in, practical issues, such as their statutory reviews and fire safety.

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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: SC401603 9

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Children’s home details

Provision sub-type: Residential special school

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Roc Northwest Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Roc Northwest Ltd, 41 Silverdale Road, Arnside, Carnforth LA5 0AL

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Children’s home details

Registered managers: Jane Vowles, Lindsay Tallon

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Inspector

Elaine Clare, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC401603 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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