Children's Home run by Salford City Council in Salford

Inspection report children’s home: SC040733 1 SC040733 Registered provider: Salford City 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

The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for four young people who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home is run and managed by the local authority.

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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: 31 January 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Sustained effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection

None. Inspection report children’s home: SC040733 2

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Key findings from this inspection

 The home benefits from a passionate, energetic and ambitious registered manager who leads the staff team by example and channels its efforts effectively. The manager is supportive of staff and helps them deliver a good- quality service for young people. Staff are well supported, managed and led.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people benefit from well-planned, highly individualised care that promotes their needs effectively and contributes to change and improvement in their lives. They make good progress, taking into account their individual starting points, across most aspects of their physical, social, emotional and behavioural development.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Staff consistently have high aspirations for young people and they don’t give up on them easily. They engage with the wider community, build effective relationships and partnerships with parents, police, schools and other professional agencies to ensure that young people benefit from the best possible help and all round support.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Staff are resilient, hardworking and resourceful. They work collaboratively as a staff team and have a shared sense of ownership of their practice. Young people view staff as positive role models and they benefit from adults they can talk to and learn from. Young people benefit from a caring, highly supportive and nurturing environment where their needs are prioritised effectively.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people become increasingly safer as a result of the actions staff take to support and protect them. Staff have a good understanding of their specific needs and vulnerabilities and take appropriate action to address them. Young people are kept safe and feel safe living at the home.

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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

 Staff are well qualified, trained, skilled and experienced workers. However, some young people have highly complex needs. This means that staff would benefit from additional training to enable them to work confidently with young people who may display sexually harmful behaviours.

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Key findings from this inspection

 While there are specialist services sourced to support young people with complex needs. There are young people in need of specific therapeutic interventions to promote their emotional and psychological well-being. Inspection report children’s home: SC040733 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

31/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 21/06/2016 Full Good 08/02/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 19/05/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC040733 4

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Recommendations

 When a child needs additional health or well-being support, staff should work with the child’s placing authority to enable proper and immediate access to any specialist medical, psychological or psychiatric support required, and challenge them through regulation 5 – engaging with the wider system to ensure that children’s needs are met, if this doesn’t happen. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, paragraph 7.10, page 34)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs. This relates specifically to working with young people who may display sexually harmful behaviours. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, paragraph 10.11, page 53)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people benefit from well-planned, highly personalised care that promotes their needs effectively and contributes to change and improvement in their lives. They make good progress, taking into account their individual starting points across most aspects of their physical, social, emotional and behavioural development. Young people develop good relationships with staff and benefit from stability and consistency in their lives. The home maintains effective partnerships with health professionals to promote young people’s good health. Young people are registered with health services and have access to doctors, dentists and opticians when they need them. This includes access to therapy, but not at the intensity required to fully promote their emotional and psychological well- being. Medical consents are in place and staff are familiar with the types of health decisions and responsibilities that are delegated to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people are actively encouraged to attend school or alternative educational provision. They benefit from encouragement from staff to attend school regularly and support to resume their education when school becomes challenging or difficult. Staff work closely with the providers of young people’s education to encourage their educational achievement, positive behaviour, progress and learning. The virtual school head reports, ‘I am aware that two of the residents are not accessing education on a regular basis at the moment. However, I strongly believe that this is not a reflection of the work or commitment from staff. The young people at present have very specific difficulties, which are being addressed… Educational placements are under review at present. Both children’s needs are very complex and staff do their very best to work closely with schools to resolve any issues.’ Young people report: ‘I’m doing well here.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There’s been ups and downs. Things at school are really good. I’m moving to the main Inspection report children’s home: SC040733 5 building. I like music, English, maths and am loving history.’ Staff actively encourage young people to take part in positive and enjoyable activities. This provides young people with the opportunity to develop their social skills, appropriate friendships, interests and hobbies. Some young people have embraced these experiences and thoroughly enjoy them. Other young people have enjoyed the home’s activities in the past, but more recently less so. This is due to a young person developing negative relationships with other local children, and on occasions this has resulted in her antisocial behaviour. Since the young person has developed these unhealthy relationships it has been to the detriment of her behaviour and has increased her risk and vulnerability. Consequently, staff are working closely with a range of professional

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

agencies to address the wider issues with local youths and antisocial behaviour. The home has also had a camera surveillance system installed as a deterrent to any unwanted visitors. Staff promote contact for young people to enable them to sustain their close relationships with the people who are most important to them. Young people are taught life-skills, such as shopping, cooking and budgeting, and show improvements in their motivation and self-confidence. Staff allow young people to take appropriate risks to promote their growth and natural development. Young people report, ‘I prefer living here. I just find the other kids and staff nicer, plus it’s cosier. They’re getting me back home quick enough and staff listen to me and they’re dead understanding. It’s fun here, decent and respectful. Staff are entertaining and they’re all got a heart of gold. I like living here but would prefer to be with my family. There’s no place like home.’

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

Staff consistently place the safety of young people at the centre of their practice irrespective of the challenges this presents. Staff have a good understanding of young people’s specific needs and vulnerabilities and take appropriate action to address them. Risks associated with young people are well known and understood by staff. Staff maintain highly effective partnerships with parents, schools, social workers and other professional agencies to ensure that young people benefit from the best possible help, protection and all-round support. They engage with the friends and families of young people to ensure that their relationships are safe and appropriate. When young people’s relationships are not considered safe, staff take appropriate action to disrupt these relationships to keep young people safe from harm. Staff take prompt action to locate young people if they go missing. They maintain effective partnerships with the police and other safeguarding agencies to promote their

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

safe return. Staff have recently allowed one young person to return home on a shared care arrangement, which has seen a significant decrease in the young person going missing or mixing with the local young people that are involved in antisocial behaviour. This arrangement is supported through outreach work and is kept under regular review. Staff are trained in child protection and know how to deal with allegations and report suspected abuse. Risks associated with young people going missing from care, offending, misusing drugs and alcohol are well known and understood by staff. The use Inspection report children’s home: SC040733 6 of clear risk assessment and effective behaviour management strategies reduce the risk of harm and promote the safety and well-being of young people. Staff know the young people exceptionally well. They anticipate issues and take appropriate action to prevent incidents and behaviours from escalating. Staff actively

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

encourage and reinforce positive behaviour and ensure that the use of sanctions is kept to a minimum. The use of restraint is exceptionally rare. Restraint is only ever used as a last resort to protect young people from actual harm. Young people know how to make a complaint and their rights are promoted effectively. Young people benefit from a physically safe, appropriately secure, warm, comfortable and homely environment. Young people report, ‘All staff know me really well. They help me to stay focused. They help me get away from negative behaviour. They’re helpful, forgiving and respectful. They respect me and I respect them. It’s wonderful.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Young people benefit from a home that is managed efficiently and effectively by an enthusiastic and ambitious registered manager. The manager exercises strong and effective leadership of the operation of the home and ensures that staff are well supported, managed and led. Staff benefit from regular, high quality supervision and have appraisal of their practice. They benefit from good quality training that is relevant to most of the work that they perform. However, staff are in need of more specialised training in relation to sexually harmful behaviour, to help them meet the complex needs of some young people. Sufficient numbers of well-trained, qualified, skilled and experienced staff are employed to meet the needs and numbers of young people. A stable staff team is employed to provide young people with stability and consistency in their lives. Staff maintain highly effective partnerships with parents, schools, social workers and other professional

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

agencies to ensure that young people benefit from the best possible help, protection and all round support. They work constructively and proactively to secure positive outcomes for young people and can demonstrate the impact and difference the home has made to the lives of young people. Significant incidents are reported to the appropriate authorities charged with a duty to protect young people. This ensures that young people are kept safe and are protected from harm. The home meets the aims and objectives, as set out in the statement of purpose. Staff consistently deliver a good quality service for young people that contributes to change and improvement in their lives. An independent person visits the home on a regular basis to scrutinise the quality of young people’s care and the home’s arrangements to safeguard them and promote their well-being. The manager has a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

the home and makes good use of the home’s internal and external monitoring activities to secure improvement. The performance of the home is monitored effectively to ensure positive outcomes for young people.

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Information about this inspection

Inspection report children’s home: SC040733 7 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: SC040733 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Civic Centre, Chorley Road, Swinton, Manchester M27 5DA

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Inspector

Anthony Kyem, social care regulatory inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC040733 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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Inspector

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