Children's Home run by 3 Dimensions Care Limited in Somerset

Inspection report children's home: SC060758 1 SC060758 Registered provider: 3 Dimensions Care 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 is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to five young people who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. Some young people may also have specific learning disabilities. The provision is registered with the Department for Education to provide education on this site for young people who live in this and other homes run by this small independent provider.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: 21 December 2016

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children's home: SC060758 2

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people are looked after by an experienced staff team that provides stability and is very child centred. Relationships between the staff and young people are excellent. Staff are positive role models, who encourage young people to be open, honest and respectful.  Young people enjoy living at this home. They are provided with loving care and support. Young people are making good progress in all aspects of their lives because they are provided with good opportunities to explore, learn and develop new interests and hobbies.  The staff are skilled at understanding and managing young people‟s behaviours. They are exceptionally good at recognising and responding effectively to individuals‟ diverse and varying needs.  Care staff took rapid and appropriate action in response to a serious incident. Following this incident, the young person and staff involved were provided with good healthcare support from external agencies.

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Key findings from this inspection

 All young people attend either the organisation‟s school or a school within the community. Young people‟s attendance is good and they are all making progress from their starting points.

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Key findings from this inspection

The children‟s home‟s areas for development:  This inspection found weaknesses within the leadership and management section. Managers need to improve their monitoring and oversight to ensure that records relating to young people are up to date and accessible.  Leaders and managers need to ensure that staff are provided with all of the training that they require to help them to support the young people‟s needs.  Leaders and managers must ensure that staff supervision sessions always take place regularly and that they include good opportunities for staff to reflect on their work practices.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

21/12/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 23/08/2016 Full Good 26/01/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 28/04/2015 Full Good Inspection report children's home: SC060758 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

13. The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in— In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to: Ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. Demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—  research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and  feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; and  use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(1)(2)(g)(i)(ii)(h)) Leaders and managers must ensure that staff are provided with training in supporting children at risk of sexual exploitation, understanding separation and loss and attention deficit awareness. Leaders and managers must ensure that monitoring systems are

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Requirement Due date

effective and that they are used to highlight weakness and areas for development to improve practice. In addition, ensure that the written development plan includes all of the areas the manager plans to develop. 30/11/2017

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Requirement Due date

25: Fire precautions After consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the registered person must:  ensure, by means of fire drills and practices at suitable intervals, that persons working at the home and, so far as reasonably practicable, children are aware of the 30/11/2017 Inspection report children's home: SC060758 4 procedure to be followed in case of fire. (Regulation 25(1)(d)) In particular, ensure records are well maintained, detailing who has engaged in an evacuation drill. 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 which are kept up to date; and are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36(1)(a)(b)(c)) In particular, ensure that all young people in the home have case records that include all the information in Schedule 3.

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Requirement Due date

These records must be reviewed and updated. They must be readily accessible to all staff working at the home. 30/11/2017

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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. In particular, ensure that all young people‟s risk assessments detail current risks and education reports are up to date. („Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive regular supervision of their practice, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 61, paragraph 13.2)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home currently cares for four young people, three of whom have lived here for over a year. Since the previous inspection, one young person has experienced a positive and well-planned move to a new placement and another young person has come to live in this home. This young person has settled in exceptionally well. One of the strengths of this home is the staff‟s ability to identify and develop young people‟s individual skills, interests and hobbies. This has had a positive impact on the young people‟s self-esteem, confidence, social skills and personal development. For example, one young person who plays a guitar now plays in a band and has played at local festivals. Staff also encourage another young person with musical talent, and he is now an accomplished pianist. Inspection report children's home: SC060758 5 Young people are thriving because of the good-quality, nurturing care that they receive.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The care staff are experienced and very child focused. They have the skills and ability to forge respectful and loving relationships with the young people. The care staff have high aspirations for all of the young people and support them to reach their goals. For example, one young person now uses his own voice to communicate rather than speaking in character, as he did before. This same young person has flown in a plane for the first time and enjoyed a holiday abroad. Another young person now feels safe enough to communicate his thoughts, feelings and experiences in writing. A third young person, who previously had experienced difficulties sleeping, now sleeps on a futon in his individually styled bedroom. Positive feedback was received from one young person‟s social worker, who confirmed that the young person is very happy living here. The social worker said, „Communication is excellent, and the young person‟s progress is a testament to the good-quality care and

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

support he is provided with.‟ Staff are good at acknowledging and responding to the views, wishes and feelings of young people. However, more formal consultation systems are not utilised effectively. This is a missed opportunity for the young people to contribute to the development of the home and the services provided. All young people attend school and they are making good progress from their starting points. However, staff are not able to maximise the young people‟s educational achievements as well as they could because there is not a cohesive working relationship between them and the school staff. The responsible individual has identified this as a weakness and is taking action to make relationships better. She is introducing a parents‟ evening and formal consultation forums.

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

Young people feel safe and they are protected from harm. They speak openly to staff and know that, if they have any worries, staff will help them. Positive relationships are also maintained with social workers and parents. All staff receive refresher safeguarding training, and discuss any potential safeguarding concerns in team meetings and one-to-one supervision. This means that young people are looked after by a manager and staff team who understand their responsibilities and the procedures that they must follow to keep young people safe. Leaders, managers and staff reflect on their work and identified that, because of the swift action staff took in response to a recent significant incident, a young person and staff were protected from a serious injury. Positive behaviour is promoted consistently by staff. Young people are encouraged to identify the targets and rewards that they would like to achieve. The staff set clear

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

boundaries that help young people to regulate their emotions and manage their behaviour. Staff do not set sanctions; instead, they recognise and praise good behaviour. Staff help young people to understand the impact of their behaviour on others, support them to make amends, and to learn positively from their experiences. Physical restraints do take place; however, these are for a limited amount of time. Inspection report children's home: SC060758 6 Physical interventions are typically used to redirect a young person away from a conflicting situation or to manage a serious risk. Staff manage missing from home incidents well. There have been two incidents when young people have been away from the home without prior agreement. Staff actions ensured that the young people returned safely to the home. The recruitment and selection process is good. All staff have been fully assessed for their suitability to work in the home. All new employees attend a comprehensive induction,

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

followed by an ongoing training programme. These opportunities provide them with the required skills to meet the complex and unique needs of the young people. All staff spoken with had a good understanding of how to safeguard and care for the young people. Not all young people‟s risk assessments include the current risks that are identified in behaviour management plans. The manager took immediate action to rectify this omission during the inspection. Internal care plans are up to date, and they typically align well with the local authority‟s aims of the placement and targets. The manager actively challenges shortfalls in other agencies‟ practice. A good example of this is a recent challenge to a local authority for not providing a copy of a reviewed care plan despite repeated requests.

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

Since the last inspection, the registered manager has left. Between February and June 2017, the home was managed by the deputy manager and the responsible individual. Together, they maintained stability in the staff team and provided the staff with good support. A new manager has now been recruited and, although he is not yet registered with Ofsted, his application is in process. This manager has a clear vision of how to develop the services of the home. However, he has not yet formalised this vision into the development plan. Since his appointment, the new manager has undertaken a full review of the recording and filing systems. However, the manager‟s own monitoring requires improvement to ensure that all records maintained by staff are of a good quality and reflect the young people‟s day. In addition, weaknesses in other records have been identified as part of this inspection. These weaknesses include deficits in fire safety checks, risk

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

identification, and a local authority care plan and one young person‟s statement of educational needs not being up to date. The opportunities to support and develop staff require improvement. While daily handover meetings are informative and provide staff with good opportunities to plan ahead, supervision sessions do not always ensure that the staff reflect on their work practices and the needs of the young people. The organisational training programme enables the staff to keep abreast of current work practices and enhances their knowledge on a wide range of subjects. However, the staff‟s skills could be further improved to meet the changing needs of the young people. Inspection report children's home: SC060758 7 For example, staff could be provided with specialist training in supporting children at risk of sexual exploitation, understanding separation and loss, and attention deficit awareness. The home has an independent visitor who writes evaluative monthly reports. These

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

reports help the manager to improve the quality of care. However, the deficiencies identified from this inspection had not been recognised as part of the internal and external monitoring processes.

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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.

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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: SC060758 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: 3 Dimensions Care Limited

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Inspector

Sharron Escott, social care inspector Inspection report children's home: SC060758 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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