Children's home run by Right-Trak Limited in Newcastle upon Tyne

Inspection report children’s home: SC465475 1 SC465475 Registered provider: Right-Trak 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 accommodates up to six children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. It is operated by a private company. Inspection dates: 12 to 13 July 2017

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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 good

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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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: 2 February 2017

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: Declined in effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection

None Inspection report children’s home: SC465475 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

 Excellent care planning and quality of care help all children to make significant progress in physical, educational and emotional development.  All children have excellent school attendance and enjoy going to school.  Children have clear boundaries and routines and experience stability. They trust the adults caring for them.  Children receive high-quality emotional support from staff. Engagement in therapy is helping children deal with issues from their past.  Staff enjoy spending time with children who benefit from a wide range of social and recreational activities.  Children have made significant improvements in managing their negative behaviours.  Staff are consistent in their approach and follow clear behaviour management and safety plans.  Staff use moral stories and design social stories to help children to reflect on their negative behaviours.  Managers and staff go over and above what is expected to provide the best

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/02/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness 23/08/2016 Full Outstanding 25/02/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 09/12/2015 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC465475 3

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person 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 must comply with the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must produce a report about a visit (‘the independent person’s report’) which sets out, in particular, the independent person’s opinion as to whether (a) children are effectively safeguarded; and (b) the conduct of the home promotes children’s well-being. (Regulation 44(4)) 31/08/2017

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Recommendations

 The registered person should have a workforce plan which can fulfil the workforce related requirements of regulation 16, schedule 1 (paragraphs 19 and 20). The plan should: ─ detail the necessary management and staffing structure, (including any staff commissioned to provide health and education), the experience and qualifications of staff currently working within the staffing structure and any further training required for those staff, to enable the delivery of the home’s statement of purpose; ─ detail the processes and agreed timescales for staff to achieve induction, probation and any core training (such as safeguarding, health and safety and mandatory qualifications); ─ detail the process for managing and improving poor performance. The plan should be updated to include any new training and qualifications completed by staff while working at the home, and used to record the ongoing training and continuing professional development needs of staff – including the

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Recommendations

home’s manager. (‘Guide the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8) Specifically, this is in respect of a training matrix of all staff to identify training needs and renewal dates. This could include development and extra support of staff. Inspection report children’s home: SC465475 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The excellent care planning and supportive quality of care make a positive difference to the lives of children, who are making significant and sustained progress from their starting points. The experienced, highly qualified and skilled staff are committed and passionate. Staff re-parent children and sensitively allow them to regress to an earlier developmental age. Children seek cuddles and affection from staff who effectively use opportunities to nurture them. This includes reading bedtime stories and, if needed, staff remain with children until they fall asleep. Children who have experienced significant emotional and physical trauma respond positively to the high levels of emotional support from staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children benefit from living in a therapeutic environment and they are all engaging in therapy provided by an external psychologist. Managers have provided therapeutic support at no additional cost to the placing authority for those children who have been desperately waiting for this intervention. Children develop trusting relationships with the caring staff team. They discuss their feelings and begin to deal with traumatic issues from their past. Consequently, they make improvements in their emotional well-being, resulting in improvements in other areas of their lives. Staff support children’s contact with family to promote a child’s identity and culture. Parents are reassured that children are cared for and protected, and one said: ‘I can see the difference in [name of child] and she is doing really, really well. Staff keep me up to date. They are nice, and honestly I don’t have a bad word to say against them.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff enjoy spending time with children, keeping them busy and occupied and, consequently, sleep routines improve. Children take part in a wide range of social and recreational activities, including playing football, going to the park and going on seaside trips. Children have new experiences and they build on their existing talents and interests. One child has moved up several groups in swimming and another is in a football team. This has a positive effect on physical health, growth and development, and children learn to work together with their peers.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

‘Measurable outcomes’ books visually demonstrate to professionals and children the exceptional progress that they have made. For some, for the first time in their lives, there has been a reduction in their night-time enuresis and the development of toileting skills. They no longer face embarrassment and are proud of their achievements. Patient and persistent work by staff has resulted in some children overcoming their fear of the dentist. For others, their confidence has grown; they have improved self-esteem and are less anxious. This has opened up a whole range of new opportunities for them. A staff member said: ‘[Name of child] has made massive progress with a lot of things. He wouldn’t go to sleep until 2.00 or 3.00 am in the morning. He couldn’t sit still. He can now sit and watch a film all the way through. This wasn’t possible six months ago.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Most of the children have lived at the home for some time. This provides stability, especially for some children who have had a number of previous placement moves. Inspection report children’s home: SC465475 5 Children have a carefully planned introduction to the home and receive an individualised children’s guide. This includes photographs and details of the existing residents. Staff sensitively introduce young people to the home, to the school they will be attending and to their peers. For children who have high levels of anxieties, this helps to alleviate their fears and worries. Children benefit from exceptional care, consistent boundaries and routines. Relationships develop between the children and newly admitted children settle quickly. One child said: ‘I felt scared and nervous. Now I feel safe and happy.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children, who have a poor history of school attendance or of being excluded are making significant educational progress. Attendance is excellent, and children enjoy attending school and obtain certificates for their achievements. Staff go over and above and stay with children in school to provide additional support so that they can access a full curriculum. There is excellent information sharing between the home and school. This results in positive relationships and shared approaches to behaviour management and safeguarding. This offers consistency of approach across different settings. Children develop positive relationships with peers at school that result in children visiting each other’s homes or playing together in the community. Their social skills improve and, for some, this is their first experience of having peer relationships.

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

There is a high staffing ratio that keeps children safe and protected. The detailed risk assessments have clear strategies for staff to follow. The manager scrutinises and regularly reviews these to keep them up to date and relevant. A social worker spoke of how staff produced a risk assessment so that a child could enjoy a school trip, saying: ‘This was well planned and covered all eventualities.’

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

Children test the boundaries and have run away from staff in the past, often just for fun. However, because of their young ages, staff respond promptly to locate and return them. Staff are creative in developing strategies to keep children from running off. For example, encouraging children to take their shoes off in the home when they come in from school has resulted in a significant decline in these incidents. Return to home interviews are completed even if children have only been missing for a few minutes. Staff are effective at balancing the need to protect children from running away with their need to have a normal childhood. For example, children are able to play with friends in the community with staff supervising at an appropriate distance.

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

There has been a significant improvement in children’s spontaneous angry outbursts and aggression towards others. Staff know which strategies to use to de-escalate situations for each child. These include praise, humour or just a big hug. Children respond well to positive reinforcement and consequently can now have new experiences, such as eating out at restaurants. Some benefit from increased contact with family.

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

Staff are consistent in their approach because of the very detailed and clear behaviour management and safety plans. These have input from the psychologist with references to research and theory throughout, which are successfully implemented in practice. When children’s engagement in therapy has resulted in a rise in angry outbursts, staff Inspection report children’s home: SC465475 6 use therapeutic holds to help to contain the negative behaviour. They keep children safe in a way that in non-threatening, and children soon calm down. There is a culture of staff reflecting on their responses to situations. They are encouraged to think in an empathetic way even when children’s behaviour becomes challenging. This calm, caring and considerate approach allows children to develop an awareness of appropriate behaviour.

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

Staff use child-friendly moral stories to educate children about the impact of their negative behaviour on others. They are also creative and design their own individualised social stories to read to children. These are effective in helping children relate to their own experiences.

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

The independent visitor completes monthly visits to the home. The inclusion of a safeguarding opinion by them will ensure external scrutiny of the home’s level of safeguarding.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The provider was formerly the responsible individual and registered manager of the home. Since the last inspection, she has voluntarily cancelled her registration as the manager but remains the responsible individual. There is now a new manager in post. This shares the leadership and management responsibility of the home between two people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The new manager has been in post for a few months but has worked at the home for several years. He has a good understanding of the children living there and the homes strengths and weaknesses. He has already made improvements to systems and procedures at the home. This includes child-friendly placement plans and measurable outcome reports. All the requirements from the last inspection were promptly met.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is excellent information sharing with agencies and parents through a weekly progress report. Staff regularly update professionals and parents about their children, and a social worker reported: ‘Staff are aware of [name of child]’s needs and give regular updates about risk assessments and keep me in the loop. I get regular emails and staff attend meetings and are very supportive.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff team comprises a mix of experienced and new team members. They have a wealth of experience from different backgrounds, have different skills and hold a multitude of qualifications. New staff are welcomed and bring in new ideas. Staff provide different positive role models for children. They demonstrate a commitment to the children whom they care for. This includes doing things in their own time for them, such as coming in at Christmas to celebrate the day. A staff member said that one of the strengths of the home is ‘the friendly staff. Kids are pushed to meet their potential and supported with a good mixed staff team. We have a good variation of old and young with different skill sets. Everyone has something different to offer.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive good support and supervision on a regular basis. Group consultation also Inspection report children’s home: SC465475 7 takes place with the psychologist working with the children. These sessions provide valuable support and insight to staff. Managers provide young people with an exceptional service. This includes providing therapeutic support to a child’s parent and sending a staff member into school daily to support a child. Managers advocate on behalf of the children and escalate concerns to the director of social care when necessary.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager although new in post is committed to his own professional development and ensures that staff receive ongoing training and support. A clear workforce development plan helps him keep abreast of the changing needs of staff however, the compilation of a training matrix would help him to better identify gaps in staff’s learning. A detailed six-monthly report in line with regulations focuses on his plans for the home and concentrates on the development of the service, including the team. He is child focused and aims to ensure that there are ongoing positive outcomes for children.

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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: SC465475 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Suite 104 1st Floor West, Wingrove House, Ponteland Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE5 3DE

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Glynis Spriddell

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Inspector

Tina Ruffles, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC465475 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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