SC 489187

Inspection report children’s home: SC 489187 1 SC 489187 Registered provider: Approach-Development (NE) Ltd

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

A private company owns and manages this children’s home. It can accommodate up to five children and young people who have 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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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected Good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers Good

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Requires improvement

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

None Inspection report children’s home: SC 489187 2

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Key findings from this inspection

This children’s home requires improvement to be good because:

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Key findings from this inspection

 The young people new to the home have yet to fully settle and engage with the care provided.  The home’s day-to-day care plans do not detail how the young people’s needs are to be met.  The management team is still in the process of appointing a full staff team.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The newly appointed registered manager is ambitious for the young people to receive high-quality care and achieve the best possible outcomes.  The core staff team provides nurturing and consistent care.  Good, collaborative working with partner agencies ensures that the young people’s health needs are met and that they attend appropriate education provisions.  The young people report that they are happy in the home.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

29/03/2017 Full Requires improvement 30/01/2017 Full Inadequate 29/11/2016 Full Inadequate 10/10/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC 489187 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

In order to meet the leadership and management standard, in particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child. (Regulation 13(2)(d)) 14/11/2017

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children— receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home. (Regulation 14(1)(a)) 17/10/2017

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Requirement Due date

The standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to- ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished as to— meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 6(2)(c )(i)) 14/11/2017

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Requirement Due date

The standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12(2)(d)) 14/11/2017

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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. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4) Inspection report children’s home: SC 489187 4

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improvement to be good

Young people live in a comfortable and spacious home in a well-established residential area. There have been issues with one of the neighbours in relation to a past resident. The manager and staff are in the process of re-building positive relationships within the community now that the young person has moved on, which will benefit the current resident group. The home is well equipped to meet the young people’s needs. The large kitchen is very much the heart of the home where young people and staff sit and eat their meals together. However, not all of the space in the home is well utilised and there are areas that are in need of redecoration and refurbishment. In addition, the wide staircase does not have high enough bannisters to ensure young people’s safety at all times. Since the last inspection, one young person, who had been resident for almost a year, has moved on after the manager gave notice on her placement. During her time in the

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improvement to be good

home, there were a number of changes in staff and management. The new manager and core staff team worked extremely hard to maintain a relationship with her. However, she disengaged from their care, preferring to spend time with her friends in the community. This had a significant impact on her attendance in education and her health needs as her substance misuse had escalated. The placing authority acknowledged the nurturing care she had received, but this was not the positive ending that had been anticipated for this young person. Some aspects of care planning in the home are good, such as the development of independence skills. In addition, introductions and planning for new admissions are well managed, allowing young people to gain an understanding of the care and expectations before they arrive. However, although day-to-day care plans clearly identify the young people’s needs, there is insufficient detail as to how they will be achieved. This could

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improvement to be good

have a negative impact on the young people, preventing them from achieving positive outcomes in all areas of their lives. The current resident group is new to the home and still in the process of settling in. One young person is starting to form meaningful attachments with staff and is able to name individuals he feels particularly close to. However, another young person has yet to fully engage and spends little time interacting with the adults in the home. The manager and staff team are aware that trust is an issue for him because of past care experiences and are working sensitively to build those bonds. A young person said, ‘I like it here, although I hadn’t thought I would because I was used to it being just me and my carer.’ The young people moved in to the home either at the start of, or during, the summer holidays. Nevertheless, the staff have acted proactively in ensuring that the young people have schools to attend. One young person will be able to continue at his

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improvement to be good

mainstream school and the other is in the process of being supported to choose between two appropriate education providers. This enhances young people’s learning opportunities and future employment prospects. A young person said, ‘I’m really happy Inspection report children’s home: SC 489187 5 here and I will try to go to school again tomorrow.’ Young people’s emotional and physical health needs are well met. Good partnership working with both generic and specialist health providers complement robust health plans. As a result, young people’s emotional well-being grows as their physical heath improves. For example, this includes addressing weight issues and ensuring that prescribed medication is administered correctly. A young person said, ‘I especially like kebabs and pizzas, but they won’t give me enough of that here. They make me eat what they call a healthy varied diet.’ Young people feel listened to and grow in confidence to share their opinions as a result

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improvement to be good

of staff encouragement to express their views. Good one-to-one sessions with their key workers empower the young people, enabling them to explore new topics and make sense of past experiences and the reasons they are accommodated. Young people’s feelings of self-worth are enhanced as a result. Young people are encouraged to participate in social and leisure activities in the community. They have opportunities to make new social contacts and are fully supported to maintain positive friendship. The resultant growth in self-confidence boosts the young people’s self-esteem, which will enable them to engage with the care in the home. A social worker said, ‘He had a really successful summer. He visited friends and had them over for tea, which he hadn’t been able to do in his previous placement. In terms of socialisation, he’s making real progress.’ Parents and family members report positively about the regular, supportive

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improvement to be good

communication that they have with staff members. Contact arrangements are facilitated well, enabling the young people to maintain and, in some cases, rebuild important familial connections. This bolsters young people’s sense of self, while promoting cultural and community links. A social worker said, ‘They’ve also been really good at making sure he can keep contact with his nanna, which is very important to him.’

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

The home’s updated behaviour management plan details how the young people can learn and develop positive behaviour patterns, by way of their individual incentives. Consequently, the young people learn the benefits of respecting themselves and others, and physical intervention has not been necessary. This promotes nurturing relationships between the young people and staff, enabling them to start to build positive attachments. The manager said, ‘[Name] has now got people around him that actually care for him. They are having fun stuff, using the time to capture conversations, build memories and showing them there is another side.’ Appropriate sanctions provide young people with the opportunity to learn the consequences of their actions. However, these are not all recorded in sufficient detail, which does not provide young people with consistent messages. The risk assessments prepared for the home and locality complement the young people’s

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

robust individual risk assessments. The information contained in these documents informs the development of personalised plans, which allow young people to become increasingly safe. Once the manager had identified, in partnership with the placing social Inspection report children’s home: SC 489187 6 worker, that the previous resident could no longer be kept safe in the home, the appropriate decision was made to end her placement. Young people are safeguarded by this attention to detail. A specialist police officer said, ‘As far as I know, they did everything they could. The staff did the best they could with a very troubled child.’ The manager has introduced new incident logs, which support the good recording of missing episodes or behavioural management incidents. Information captured in this way allows for the identification of any patterns or triggers and the implementation of preventative steps. Good partnership working with both specialist and local police

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

officers ensures that staff are proactive in searching for young people if they are missing from the home. They actively look for the young people, including visiting known addresses, in order to bring them home safely. Young people are protected by these measures. A parent reported, ‘She is safer than she was when she was at home and things were so difficult.’ One of the home’s main strengths is the staff’s ability to manage situations that may place the young people at risk of child sexual exploitation, such as through social media. Young people are aware that they have to hand in their mobile telephones at bedtime and that, if they do not, the wi-fi for the home will be turned off. This not only safeguards the young people, but also encourages a good night’s sleep, thus allowing them to make the most of their days. A grandparent said, ‘He’s safe there because everything’s fine.’ A comprehensive safeguarding plan provides staff with clear steps to follow if there are

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

any concerns. The manager used the time productively when there were no young people in the home to explore all notifiable incidents with staff. This ensured that staff had a thorough understanding of how situations had occurred and if any steps could have been taken to prevent them. This good practice promotes the well-being and safety of young people. A staff member said, ‘I really enjoyed my training and how that made me understand why kids behaved the way they did.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The committed and appropriately qualified manager has over 17 years’ experience in residential care, with 10 of those years at a managerial level. He obtained registered manager status for this home on 10 May 2017 and his positive influence has been evident in the improvements made. A staff member reported, ‘I am glad that the manager is here, he knows what he is doing.’ The manager has worked extremely hard to ensure that all of the requirements raised at the last inspection have been met. This not only demonstrates a capacity to improve, but ensures that a consistent and well-trained staff team is available to meet the needs of the young people. There are some areas that have not been fully achieved, for example in full staff recruitment and the quality of care planning recording. The relevant sections of these requirements have been repeated. A core team of staff has remained consistent in the home. The manager is striving to

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

appoint new staff, but has not been fully successful at this time. Half of the current staff team are bank workers, which means that, although staff known to young people cover shifts, occasions such as team meetings are not fully attended. Appropriate recruitment Inspection report children’s home: SC 489187 7 procedures are now effectively applied, ensuring that people who do not pose a risk to young people, and can meet their needs, care for young people. Newly appointed staff members speak positively about the welcome and support that they have received from the core team and manager. One carer said, ‘The staff have been very welcoming and [Name] has been very clear and fair as a manager.’ Staff report, and records evidence, how well trained and supported they are to fulfil their role. Not only does this meet a requirement from the last inspection, but it ensures that a happy and skilled staff team care for young people. A staff member said, ‘I feel

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

listened to and respected and that means a great deal to me and encourages my commitment to the role.’ The manager is passionate about promoting safe and positive outcomes for young people. His high expectations and consistent guidance motivate staff and empower them to engage with developing the skills they need to fulfil their role. The manager knows the young people in his care well, and his understanding of their developmental needs enables him to make appropriate decisions in order to promote their welfare. Much-improved monitoring reports, supplied by the newly appointed independent visitor, now contribute towards young people’s well-being and safety. The manager’s internal auditing processes are detailed and comprehensive, ensuring that care and practice continues to improve. The home is now achieving its aims and objectives as detailed in the statement of purpose. This document provides placing authorities with a comprehensive picture of the

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

care provided. This allows for the appropriate placement of young people, who are carefully matched with each other, enhancing their opportunities for success. Good collaborative working between the manager and other professionals involved in young people’s lives ensures a consistent approach to their care. The manager actively challenges other services if necessary and ensures that young people receive the correct services. The manager actively promotes equality and diversity by way of recruitment and ensuring that young people’s individual and diverse needs are met. All staff have been appropriately trained to meet the challenges posed by radicalisation and combatting the influence of ‘right wing’ groups in the local area.

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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 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 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. Inspection report children’s home: SC 489187 8 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

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Information about this inspection

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: SC 489187 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Approach-Development (NE) Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 6 Fulmerton Crescent, Redcar TS10 4NJ

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Inspector

Ann-Marie Born, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC 489187 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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Inspector

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