Children's home run by Somerset Council in Somerset

Inspection report children’s home: SC029950 1 SC029950 Registered provider: Somerset 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

The home is registered as a children’s home providing short breaks for young people who have physical and learning difficulties. The home is owned and managed by a local authority.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account good

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Overall experiences and progress of

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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Overall experiences and progress of

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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Overall experiences and progress of

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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Overall experiences and progress of

Date of last inspection: 7 February 2017

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Overall experiences and progress of

Overall judgement at last inspection: Sustained effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection

None Inspection report children’s home: SC029950 2

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people are looked after by a manager and care team who demonstrate genuine care for their safety and welfare. Young people’s needs are at the centre of the care that the staff provide.  Relationships between the young people and staff are positive. Young people can identify staff with whom they have developed a trusting and dependable relationship.  Young people are provided with good opportunities to have fun. Staff ensure that young people have opportunities to develop, learn and to explore new activities. Staff are successful in making sure that each stay is memorable. As a result, young people look forward to their short-break stay.  Parents are very pleased with the care and support that is provided. They speak highly of the manager and say that communication is good.  The manager and staff team skilfully manage the times when young people join and leave the service.  Areas for improvement identified at this inspection include the monitoring of

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Key findings from this inspection

records, incorporating targets requested by parents in care plans, ensuring that risk assessments reflect the actual current risks, and ensuring that young people receive feedback about their requests.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 28/09/2016 Full Good 03/03/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness 23/06/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC029950 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

12: The protection of children standard In order to meet the protection of children standard, the registered person should ensure that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to: assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child. In particular, ensure that risk assessments, care plans and behaviour management plans provide staff with up-to-date and clear instructions about how to meet and respond to the young people’s daily needs. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(i)) 01/10/2017

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the employment of staff standard, the registered person should ensure that all employees: undertake appropriate continuing professional development. (Regulation 33(4)(a)) 01/10/2017

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Requirement Due date

36: Children’s case records The registered person must maintain records (‘case records’) for each child which include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child. The registered person must ensure that all case records are kept up to date. In addition, the registered person must ensure that all records 01/10/2017 Inspection report children’s home: SC029950 4 identify the author of reports and are dated. (Regulation 36(1)(a)(b))

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Recommendations

 Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. In particular, ensure that all children’s and young people’s care and support plans are up to date and provide critical information for care staff to enable them to identify and respond to their daily needs. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Overall, this is a good home. The manager and her team provide consistent and nurturing care. Staff are caring, they understand the young people’s needs and promote their privacy and dignity well. Young people enjoy staying at this home, and they are relaxed and comfortable in the home’s environment. They say that they have fun.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people receive good-quality, individualised care and support. As a result, many of them are making good progress. Examples of the progress that the young people make include learning how to complete independence tasks, engaging in a wide range of activities, improving their social skills and interacting more with other young people.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people benefit from a full range of activities and experiences within the home and the local community. Staff plan activities around young people’s individual likes and personal interests, including trips out to places of interest, such as visiting local car dealerships, visiting train stations and trips out to the beach. The young people and staff have fun together.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff team work well with parents to ensure continuity of care and support when their child visits for a short break. Parents provide positive feedback about the service. A parent was really pleased with how the manager has responded when a child became anxious during their initial visits to the home. The parent confirmed that the manager and staff team are working with the parent to support the child. The arrangements for young people’s education remain the responsibility of parents and the local authority. Despite this, communications between the home and schools are maintained. However, individual care plans do not provide staff with information relating specifically to young people’s educational targets and their achievements. This limits the staff’s ability to help young people to work towards their educational targets and celebrate their achievements. Inspection report children’s home: SC029950 5

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

Since the previous inspection, there have not been any referrals made to the designated officer or children’s services. Staff demonstrate a good awareness of safeguarding procedures and protocols and refresh their safeguarding training every three years. There are no concerns relating to child sexual exploitation, young people going missing or bullying. Staff manage behaviour positively. They successfully follow behaviour support plans to help young people to manage their behaviour, feelings and emotions. Behavioural incidents do occur, but they are managed well. There have been no reported incidents where staff have used restraint or sanctioned the young people. The managers monitoring has not always identified omissions in incident records, such as omissions in recording the authors of reports and/or dates. The manager ensures that young people are safe during their visits. She ensures that young people’s needs are compatible with each other. Moves into and from the home

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

are managed well. Parents say that their child is safe, and they value the quality of safe care that their child receives. There are no recorded complaints since the previous inspection. Robust procedures are in place for the management, storage and dispensing of medication; errors are rare. All staff who dispense and administer medication are appropriately trained. Safer recruitment procedures are robust. The manager ensures that all staff working with the young people are vetted for their suitability, experience and skills. Recruitment of permanent staff is under way to reduce the need for temporary staff. The manager has liaised well with the local police to gain an understanding of some of the risks in the home’s area. This information is recorded in the home’s locality risk assessment, which accurately captures the information gained from the police.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The responsible individual and manager know and understand the home’s strengths and weaknesses. They have high expectations of staff to ensure that the experiences of young people are memorable and beneficial. They quickly identify shortfalls in practice and take effective action.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager’s monitoring requires improvement. Young people’s placement plans, behaviour support plans and risk assessments vary in quality, and some lack essential information. As a result, temporary staff who do not know the young people as well as the permanent staff are not consistently provided with up-to-date, factual and detailed information on how to meet the day-to-day needs of all of the young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Consultation about the quality of care is good. Parents are invited to identify targets that will support their child’s progress and development. The manager ensures that key workers are informed of these targets and asks them to review the aims of the Inspection report children’s home: SC029950 6 placement for young people. However, not all files include the care plan targets and activities that parents had requested.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff are happy and feel well supported by the manager and the management team. New staff receive the necessary training as part of their six-month induction period, before then enrolling onto the required level 3 professional qualification. In addition, basic mandatory training is provided to all staff. This, they say, helps them to refresh their understanding and raise their awareness of the young people’s needs. However, the staff spoken to say that their professional development would be supported further if they were provided with alternative methods of learning to e-learning. They said that basic awareness training in understanding autistic spectrum disorder, supporting young people with learning disabilities, total communication and personal care is insufficient. This does not meet the diverse and changing needs of some young people or promote individuals’ professional development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The statement of purpose does not reflect the current staffing levels and the staff’s qualifications. Immediate action was taken to remedy this shortfall. Staff receive effective and regular supervision, and attend regular team meetings. As a result, staff have good opportunities to reflect on their practice individually and as a staff group.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Overall, this is a good home. The team is committed and offers consistent and nurturing care to children. The manager and staff team are enthusiastic and confident, their child- centred delivery of care ensures that young people are safe and that their stay is memorable and positive. One parent said: ‘Children are valued, they are treated as individuals, and they enjoy spending time with staff and friends. Most importantly they have fun and look forward to their short-break stay.’

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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: SC029950 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: County Hall, Taunton, Somerset TA1 4DY

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Inspector

Sharron Escott, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC029950 8 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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