Children's home run by Inspire Children’s Services Limited in St. Helens

Inspection report children's home: 1241757 1 Registered provider: Inspire Children’s Services

p.1

Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

This home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to two children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties and learning disabilities. It is part of a private organisation.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

p.1

good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

p.1

good

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

p.1

good

Date of last inspection: 28 February 2017

p.1

good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Good

p.1

Enforcement action since last inspection

None Inspection report children’s home: 1241757 2

p.1

Key findings from this inspection

 Transition plans for each young person are well planned and individualised.  Young people have formed close and trusted relationships with the staff team.  There is clear emphasis on the staff to provide support to young people to ensure that they achieve in their education and learning.  A wide range of activities and social opportunities provided by the staff team considerably enhances the experiences of young people.  Young people are making highly positive progress in their social development.  Risk management plans are comprehensive. Incidents of challenging behaviour are rare. Staff are skilled in de-escalating heightened behaviour.  Safeguarding arrangements are robust.  Supervision is consistent and effective. Staff feel well supported in their roles.  Leaders are aware of the strengths and development areas for this service. They work hard to continuously improve the service provided.

p.2

Key findings from this inspection

 Placing authorities have provided highly positive feedback about the care provided to young people at this home.

p.2

Key findings from this inspection

The children’s home’s areas for development:

p.2

Key findings from this inspection

 The service has not yet formalised future leadership arrangements or notified HMCI of the previous manager’s departure as required in regulation.  Leaders have not asserted sufficient professional challenge when further education arrangements for one young person have been subject to unnecessary delay.  The home would benefit from a programme of modernisation. Staff have not always maintained the environment to the optimum level of cleanliness.  There have been some minor oversights in record-keeping practice. Staff should take more care in ensuring absolute clarity of the information recorded.

p.2

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

28/02/2017 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1241757 3

p.2

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.

p.3

Requirement Due date

5: Engaging with the wider system to ensure children’s needs are met

p.3

Requirement Due date

If the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans.

p.3

Requirement Due date

The registered person must give notice in writing to HMCI, as soon as it is reasonably practicable to do so, if any of the following events take place or are expected by the registered person to take place— a person other than the registered person carries on or manages the children’s home; a person ceases to carry on or manage the home.

p.3

Recommendations

 For children’s homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of the children, they will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. In particular, the home would benefit from general modernisation. It should be a well-maintained and welcoming environment. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9) Inspection report children’s home: 1241757 4  Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, one young person has left the home and has moved successfully into a semi-independent living arrangement. Staff sensitively prepared the young person for the planned move. They have remained in contact with the young person to ensure that he has settled well into his new environment. His social worker said, ‘They have done amazingly well with him. He [young person] would not be where he is now if it was not for the support of the staff.’ Another young person has recently moved into the home and has settled in very well. His social worker said, ‘The home is really good. I am very impressed with them. [Name of young person] is getting a consistent and nurturing approach and there is already a good relationship being established.’

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The views of young people are at the heart of the service. Staff consult with young people on a regular basis about their day-to-day care arrangements and respond accordingly to their wishes and feelings. All young people are offered advocacy support when appropriate and they know how to complain and have historically been supported by staff to do so. Consequently, young people feel listened to by adults who care for them.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work with other professionals to ensure that young people are provided with appropriate support in their education settings. Staff have been pro-active in arranging a meeting with the educational setting of one young person prior to their admission to the home. This was to ensure that there was minimal disruption to his usual routine. Staff have supported another young person who has historically disengaged in educational settings to enrol on a new programme. This will help him to achieve his ambition of becoming a health and social care professional. This demonstrates the good progress young people make.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Healthcare plans are comprehensive and staff ensure that young people are registered with local health services. Staff support young people to attend medical appointments. One young person had decided not to have the immunisations he was due to have and has refused to attend routine health appointments. Staff worked hard to manage this sensitively and worked collaboratively with the placing authority and healthcare professionals, to impress upon the young person the importance of maintaining good health. There is evidence that through key-work sessions, staff had outlined the benefits of immunisations and other health checks. Staff have also explained the potential consequences of non-engagement. The placing authority has accepted that it is the young person’s right to make these choices. However, this has not prevented the staff from making all efforts to encourage and prompt the young person about his health at

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Inspection report children’s home: 1241757 5 every opportunity. A healthy and well-balanced menu is on offer and all young people have an active lifestyle. Medication arrangements are robust and regularly audited.

p.5

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff go to great lengths to try to engage young people in structured and positive activities in the home and the local community. Although one young person prefers to have unsupervised time in the community with his friends, he is still offered the same opportunities to take part in different activities should he choose to. Staff help young people to nurture and sustain good relationships with their peers. This helps to build their confidence and self-esteem. Staff play games with young people and together they go on bike rides and do activities such as using the trampoline in the garden. This helps to strengthen the bonds between young people and the staff team.

p.5

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff promote and support contact for young people with their family and friends. This is in accordance with the placing authorities care plan. One young person has re- established positive contact with an older sibling. Another young person, who recently moved into the home, had enjoyed his family coming to visit him at the home and he also has positive daily phone contact. Staff understand the value of helping young people to maintain bonds with those who are important to them.

p.5

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The environment is homely, warm and caring. However, the fabric of the house is in need of modernisation. The garden area and laundry room were untidy and unkempt at the time of inspection and a recommendation is made to address this.

p.5

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

Since the last inspection, there have been several allegations made in respect of the conduct of staff working at the home. This included a historic incident of poor performance and decision-making. On all occasions, the manager has taken appropriate action to safeguard young people and address any performance matters with the staff members involved. She has notified and worked collaboratively with the relevant external agencies and has instigated appropriate investigations. These have now concluded satisfactorily and appropriate performance management and disciplinary action has been taken. The service has managed this situation extremely well given the resourcing pressures that have ensued as a result.

p.5

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

Young people have comprehensive risk assessments that identify all known risks to their safety. The plans provide staff with detailed actions to take to respond to risk and minimise the impact on the safety of young people. Following the recent admission of a young person at the home, staff have worked closely with another setting who know him well, to ensure that all known risks and any appropriate information was shared. One young person has a medical condition that requires careful planning and specific actions to be taken in the event of an emergency. The plan was made available to the staff and leaders of the home. In addition, managers have organised specialist training for staff, which was delivered by an appropriate healthcare professional. Consequently, staff are suitably equipped with information to meet the safety needs of young people. Inspection report children’s home: 1241757 6 The staff team focus on de-escalating any heightened behaviour in the home. Incidents

p.5

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

of challenging behaviour are rare and staff have not needed to use any form of physical intervention. Young people feel safe at the home and there have been no incidents of any young people going missing. All staff have had mandatory safeguarding training and are fully aware of the procedures in place to report any concerns.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager of the service has moved to another position within the organisation. The organisation took action and had in place an interim manager, who had planned to register with Ofsted. However, they then decided to undertake a different role. The organisation took further action and recruited another new manager with the appropriate experience and qualifications. Leaders and staff have minimised the impact of the changes on young people, wherever possible. A requirement is made to ensure that the service makes all the necessary formal applications to Ofsted, in a timely manner.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff benefit from a varied training programme that is tailored to the individual needs of the young people at the home. Staff state that they are supervised regularly and feel well supported. The setting has recently experienced resourcing difficulties and leaders have worked hard to reduce the impact on young people and on staff morale. Care planning is good and young people are making good progress across all aspects of their development. Leaders routinely monitor and evaluate the progress that young people make. There has recently been an unacceptable delay in obtaining information about a young person’s educational placement. The interim manager did not assert sufficient professional challenge and although this has not yet hindered the progress of the young person, a requirement is made to address this matter.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders are acutely aware of the strengths and development areas in the home. The home’s development plan demonstrates that there are already plans to modernise the home and engage more meaningfully with educational professionals. Record-keeping practice is generally good but while staffing levels have recently been problematic, there have been some minor oversights, which have not impacted on the standard of care provided to young people. A recommendation is made to enhance this area of practice. The setting is achieving the aims and objectives defined in the statement of purpose for the home. Placing authorities have provided extremely positive feedback about this service. One social worker said, ‘Communication is very good, I can’t praise them enough.’

p.6

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 differences 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 Inspection report children’s home: 1241757 7 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.

p.6

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: 1241757 8

p.7

Children’s home details

Registered provider: Inspire Children’s Services

p.8

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 121 Church Street, St Helens WA10 1AJ

p.8

Children’s home details

Registered manager: Christopher Pennington

p.8

Inspector

Nicola Thomas, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1241757 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.

p.8

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.9

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.9

Inspector

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.9