Children's home run by Northamptonshire County Council in West Northamptonshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC035364 1 SC035364 Registered provider: Northamptonshire County 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 home is registered to provide care for up to seven children and young people with 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 outstanding

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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: 17 January 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness

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Key findings from this inspection

 Children living in this home are making good, and in some cases, exceptional progress from their starting points. Children who have not been attending education and have frequently been missing from home are engaging in Inspection report children’s home: SC035364 2 education and episodes of going missing have significantly reduced.  Home staff are working in partnership effectively with therapists, social workers, families and carers to progress children’s care plans.  Staff have continued to receive training in the multi-systemic therapy and family integrated transitions skills (MST-FIT) approach to working with families and children and as a result have increased confidence in and understanding of the model.  Children engage in skills sessions and in contributing to their records. This enables them to reflect on changes to their behaviours and progress made.  The managers have improved recording systems and quality assurance systems to

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Key findings from this inspection

continuously improve practice and measure impact of practice.

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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 statement of purpose requires review in light of recent changes and developments within the home.  The monitoring of health and safety systems should be reviewed and consideration given to any risks identified in pre-admission risk assessments.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/01/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 14/09/2016 Full Good 10/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 16/09/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC035364 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 keep the statement of purpose under review and where appropriate revise it. (Regulation 3(a)) 08/09/2017

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Recommendations

 Children’s homes must comply with relevant health and safety legislations. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9) This is with specific reference to ensuring that health and safety monitoring systems are effective and consider risks identified in the pre- admission risk assessments.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are receiving good care and are achieving positive outcomes. Staff build constructive relationships and are skilled in engaging children. Routines and expectations are well communicated from the start. Placements have clear timescales. Staff ensure that they are aware of all relevant information and have contact prior to each child moving into the home, to support relationship building.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in this home for time-limited periods, with a plan to return to their family home or foster placement. Staff are trained in multi-systemic therapy and family integrated transitions (MST-FIT). Staff use these skills to support children to change their behaviours. This is in conjunction with therapists and social workers working with families and carers. Since the last inspection, children have successfully returned to live with families or foster carers.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, staff have continued to develop their MST-FIT skills and knowledge and have received regular refresher training sessions. As a result, staff confidence and competencies have increased.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s placement plans are informed by their individual needs. Staff include Inspection report children’s home: SC035364 4 information about their cultural and identity needs and consider each child’s communication needs. For example, one child responds best to visual prompts about daily routines, so staff use this in his care planning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making good and, in some cases, exceptional progress from their starting points. One child frequently went missing from home and was not engaging in education prior to living in this home. Since moving in, there has been one episode of going missing and he has engaged in education. The social worker was very positive about the impact of this. Managers are tenacious in ensuring that children have education placements. There is excellent partnership working with schools and education providers.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children have health plans. Where possible, children remain registered with their community GP, and essential health information is shared. Staff ensure that routine and preventative health monitoring and appointments are maintained. Family and carers have the opportunity to support attendance at appointments. As a result, children’s health needs are met, good health is promoted and family remain involved in their child’s health care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Contact arrangements are an essential part of each child’s placement plan. Staff proactively liaise with social workers to agree and support safe contact arrangements. As the placement progresses, contact increases. Staff working with therapists, families and children have been successful in supporting improved family relationships. All contact arrangements, including with peers, and all activities, are subject to risk assessments.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged and supported to continue, or develop, interests and activities in their home area, as this is essential to supporting a return home. Staff research and liaise with local facilities. Children have continued with dance classes, attended swimming, football and youth clubs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There is a consistent, agreed, reward scheme in place, referred to as the ‘token economy’. This is an essential part of the model of intervention. Children receive a menu of rewards, they can build their tokens up and choose how they want to spend them. Staff and managers continuously monitor the effectiveness of this and records show that generally children are responding positively.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are confident about the skills they are using and they are positive about outcomes for children. The inspector observed a skills session. Staff carefully prepared for the session, the child engaged, and staff used everyday examples and clear communication to explain the skill.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Professionals report that children make exceptional progress from their starting points. There are reduced challenging behaviours and increased engagement in education. This is as a result of children responding to consistent boundaries and learning new skills to manage their behaviours and feelings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One professional said: ‘This home has some brilliant results because the team work well together; they are good at responding to risk.’ Inspection report children’s home: SC035364 5 One parent said that her child has learned skills in this home: ‘Like they will walk away from a situation, which in the past would have wound them up.’ This parent also said that the staff communicate well with the family: ‘We work together like a team.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s records have improved since the last inspection. There are reviews every three weeks of all the child’s information and a summary is recorded. Children review the summary and contribute to the records. In this way, children are involved and have an opportunity to reflect on progress made.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged to develop independence skills as part of their daily routines.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The admission process is planned; there is a careful sharing of detailed information. The manager and lead therapist undertake a visit to the family home and previous placement, prior to the child visiting the home. In this way, the child and family understand the purpose of the placement and the care plan prior to the child moving into the home. Children move on from the home in a planned way. There has been one unplanned ending to a placement since the last full inspection, which was appropriate and was a response to keeping the child safe. Staff and managers have reflected on this placement.

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

Children in this home are increasingly safe as a result of the care they receive and skills they develop.

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

Staff have received and continue to receive safeguarding and child protection training to enhance their awareness, skills and knowledge in their work with children and families.

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

When children move into the home, there are explicit contracts with them about their use of digital technology and social media. Key-work sessions reinforce the contracts and raise awareness about risks. Consequently, risks associated with children’s use of digital technology are carefully monitored.

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

There have been no incidents of bullying and staff and children are aware of the home’s anti-bullying policy.

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

There have been a very low number of episodes of going missing and unauthorised absences. When there have been incidents, staff follow procedures, actively look for children and report to the relevant agencies in a timely way. Professionals are positive about the home’s response to going missing or unauthorised absences. Staff have links with the police, they seek advice and liaise effectively. There is an up-to-date location assessment and staff are kept informed of any emerging risks in the community.

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

Following any incidents of concern, staff review with children the issues that led to the incident, particularly focusing on feelings. A review also takes place following a positive experience, for example when the child or family feed back that a positive choice was Inspection report children’s home: SC035364 6 made by the child. These reviews are embedded in staff practice. They are recorded and provide a useful opportunity for reflection for children.

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

Children’s records demonstrate that staff have a good understanding of the range of vulnerabilities of the children they are working with. Detailed risk assessments and risk management plans are in place. Staff work with children to enable them to reduce and manage risks, to support their return home. They support children to develop skills that will help them sustain positive relationships. There are very few incidents of physical intervention; staff build good relationships and are generally able to distract and defuse challenging behaviours. Staff use physical intervention in a safe way and as a last resort, to prevent children from harming themselves or others. There are detailed records, reviewed by a manager. Managers and staff have received safeguarding training about allegations against adults who work with children. Managers have good working relationships with the local authority designated officer. There has been one allegation about a member of staff that

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

was appropriately referred, independently investigated and has concluded. There are no concerns about the safety and welfare of children living in the home as a result of this allegation. The home environment has recently been subject to health and safety risk assessments. There is a recommendation for managers to review health and safety monitoring systems in light of the feedback from these assessments.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager has relevant experience and qualifications and is completing the mandatory qualification in leadership and management. He has been tenacious in supporting the staff team to remain on track with time-limited placements, developing staff practice and improved outcomes for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The management and staff of this home have worked effectively with MST-FIT consultants, therapists and social workers and have consistently delivered exceptional outcomes for children. The provider is committed to continuing to deliver this model. The registered manager should ensure that the statement of purpose is reviewed and updated as set out in the regulations. In particular, it needs to reflect the ethos of the home, the outcomes that the home seeks to achieve, and its approach to achieving them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff are complimentary about the management of the home. There is a stable staff group, benefiting from training and consultations to enhance their knowledge and skills. The staff and managers have grown in confidence in delivering the model, in conjunction with MST therapists working with families.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers and staff have developed case tracking mechanisms to provide excellent evidence of progress from children’s starting points and of children’s outcomes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff benefit from weekly consultation with the clinical lead about children’s progress. Inspection report children’s home: SC035364 7 They also have weekly team consultations to reflect on practice examples and challenges. Consequently, there is a continuous learning and development culture within the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers have developed a safe workplace. Staff report that they feel supported, are able to contribute to regular team meetings and receive supervision that adds value to their practice. There have been no changes to the staff group since the last inspection. Staff morale is very good.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager and staff respond to recommendations in the independent visitor’s report. There have been no complaints. Staff and managers regularly liaise with parents and carers and encourage formal and informal feedback.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The managers have improved quality assurance mechanisms. In addition to case tracking and auditing of records, they have introduced a system of quality assurance of supervision practice. They respond with action plans, where practice needs developing and reinforce good practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff complete three-weekly summaries of children’s records; these are important milestones in reflecting on practice in the 12-week placement. Children contribute to these records. This demonstrates excellent practice in capturing the child’s views and ensuring that records evidence progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The managers are committed to effective partnership working. Their work starts prior to each child moving into the home. They ensure that education and health contacts are in place. Staff are skilled at engaging each child immediately. Partners report that the manager is confident in challenging professionals to ensure that staff have the right information from the start, to prevent delays in children receiving services and to progress children’s care plans.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

This team is achieving excellent outcomes in a challenging context. The team has enabled the return to the local community of children from placements some distance away. They have helped to repair family relationships and maintain good working relationships with professionals so that when each child returns home, support is in place to sustain positive change. A member of staff has developed a placement planner for children, a resource that they can keep and maintain, about the programme and the specific skills they have learned each week.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The statement of purpose requires review in light of recent changes and developments within the home. A requirement has been made to address this issue.

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Information about this inspection

Inspection report children’s home: SC035364 8 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: SC035364 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Northamptonshire County Council, John Dryden House, 8–10 The Lakes, Northampton NN4 7YD

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: (Interim) Abigail Marsden

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Inspector

Cathey Moriarty, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC035364 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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