Children's home run by Leeds City Council in Leeds

Inspection report children’s home: SC488679 1 SC488679 Registered provider: Leeds 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

A local authority operates this home. It provides care and accommodation for up to four children or young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

It uses a model of intervention known as Multisystemic Therapy – family integrated transitions model (MST – Fit). The aim is to help children and young people to return to family-based care through a time-limited programme.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Date of last inspection: 21 February 2017

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: None Inspection report children’s home: SC488679 2

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Key findings from this inspection

This children’s home is outstanding because:

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Key findings from this inspection

 The children and young people receive exceptionally high-quality care from a knowledgeable and committed staff team.  The children and young people make excellent progress in relation to their education, emotional health and family relationships, with almost all of them returning to family-based care.  Planning for the children and young people entering and leaving the programme is undertaken sensitively and thoroughly. This is improving their engagement with the programme and leading to sustained success of their family-based placements.  The manager is highly skilled in the model of care delivered by the home. She is leading the home to fully meet its aims and objectives in line with its statement of purpose.  The manager is extremely skilful in her approach to working in partnership with families and other professionals to achieve consistently outstanding outcomes for the children and young people.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

21/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 12/10/2016 Full Outstanding 10/12/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness 22/09/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC488679 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children and young people who enter into the programme provided by the home are thoroughly prepared prior to their admission, along with their families. This increases the likelihood of both parties engaging with the work, leading to the achievement of long- term change. The aim of the programme is for the children and young people to return to family-based care. Almost all of the children and young people achieve this outcome and return to live with their families or long-term foster carers. This is an excellent outcome for children and young people.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Once children and young people start the programme at this home, an extremely supportive and committed staff team cares for them. The staff are knowledgeable about the multisystemic therapy-family integrated transitions (MST-Fit) model and collaborate well to deliver care in line with the home’s statement of purpose.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The staff use dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) in their approach to the work with the children and young people, which helps them to experience, recognise and accept their emotions. Through this, the children and young people learn to change harmful and complex behaviours. This shapes all of the interactions between the staff, children and young people and guides the content of direct work. As a result, the children and young people make improvements because of these excellent elements of their care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The direct work ‘skills sessions’ are of an exceedingly high quality. This demonstrates real change in the insight of the children and young people. One young person was regularly missing from home and subject to sexual exploitation. The relationship with their parent had broken down to the extent that the young person could no longer live at home. At the end of their time at this home, the young person returned to live at home and is no longer going missing or subject to exploitation.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The staff meticulously plan the goals, which will help the children and young people to return home or to foster carers, working alongside them to identify small, manageable steps. Reviews are held every four weeks with the children, young people, their families and other professionals in order to carefully track progress to ensure that any issues are resolved. The staff go the extra mile to enable the children and young people to return to their families. When the family of one young person was rehoused, staff helped redecorate the house in preparation for his return.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The tenacity shown by the manager and her staff team in advocating for the views and needs of the children and young people bolsters their positive outcomes. For example, when one young person was excluded from education the manager arranged a series of meetings with school staff. Through these, she helped the school staff to understand the viewpoint of the young person. The school implemented the same token system of behaviour management that is in use in the home. This proactive and consistent practice by the manager led to the young person returning to the setting and sustaining his educational placement in the long term. This demonstrates the impact of the culture of Inspection report children’s home: SC488679 4 high aspirations for children and young people.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

All the children and young people improve their attendance in education when they come to live at the home because the staff place the highest priority on learning. They put stable routines in place that include attendance in school or training. For one young person, the excellent advocacy undertaken by the home’s staff to find a suitable placement led to him accessing a vocational building course with aspirations to start his own building business one day.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Health outcomes, particularly around emotional health, improve for all the children and young people. Through the individual direct work undertaken by the staff alongside peer-group sessions, they develop greater insight into their feelings and behaviour. They learn strategies to help them learn how to manage these feelings in a more constructive way. Their relationships with everyone in their lives improve as a result, leading to them being able to return to live at home or in long-term foster placements.

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

Comprehensive impact risk assessments prior to the admission of a child or young person ensures that staff are well aware of the risks that children or young people may pose to themselves or others. Highly effective planning ensures that strategies are already in place to manage and reduce these by the time they arrive. The staff use this planning to produce a robust working risk assessment, which informs ongoing care practice.

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

The response to any incident of children and young people going missing from the home is guided by clear risk assessments and missing from home protocols, agreed with the children and young people in advance. Staff follow these, undertaking appropriate action to locate them and informing families and social workers. Although not all of the children and young people have received return home interviews, the manager has followed the missing policy and has robustly challenged when these interviews have not taken place.

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

Following any episode of going missing or risk taking behaviour, the children and young people undertake behavioural change analysis, which is an in-depth analysis of the chain of events and their actions. Due to staff exploring the incidents with the children and young people and analysing the information, together they unpick the thoughts behind their choices. As a result of this work, the children and young people gain personal insight, and risk-taking behaviour significantly reduces.

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

Clear expectations of behaviour guide the children and young people. They are involved in identifying ways that will help them de-escalate in situations of frustration and conflict. These are documented in individual behaviour management plans that are used by the staff to offer consistent support. One professional praised the staff for their persistence, saying: ‘They do not allow challenging behaviour to derail the children and young people’s progress on the programme.’ The persistence of staff to help children and young people in this way supports them to improve their interaction with others. The use of physical intervention is rare and the manager aspires to a restraint-free Inspection report children’s home: SC488679 5 model of care practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager took up their post five months ago. She is suitably qualified and is experienced in the MST-Fit model of care and totally committed to its principles. Strengthening the capacity of families so they can care for their children is a priority for her, saying: ‘We don’t set up families to fail. We help them to provide the boundaries, routines and confidence to succeed.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager ensures that the home is achieving its stated aims and objectives. Her excellent leadership qualities are leading to practice at the home continuing to improve from an already-strong base. One member of staff commented that: ‘She shines in her knowledge of DBT.’ The manager uses this knowledge in all her interactions with the children, young people and the staff. After one incident between a young person and a member of staff, the manager used behavioural change analysis to help the member of staff to identify where she had allowed her emotions to influence her reaction to the young person. This resulted in a successful restoration of the relationship between the young person and member of staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Sound and vigorous monitoring and auditing systems are in place, and the manager places great emphasis on feedback from stakeholders, professionals, families, children and young people. This feedback is used to evaluate the standard of care and drive to improve it in order to achieve the optimum outcomes for the children and young people. Professional feedback is overwhelmingly positive. One professional said that the care at the home was ‘a true example of what it takes’. Another said: ‘They will not compromise on quality,’ and theirs was ‘a truly integrated approach’.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has high expectations for the staff and clear oversight of their practice. She challenges them effectively when she sees their performance falling below her high standards. She promotes a culture of learning and development, creating staff ‘champions’ to lead in a number of areas.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

All of the staff undertake specialist training in the DBT approach used in the home and attend regular refresher training. Weekly conference calls to the programme mentor in the USA further supports their excellent practice in this area.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is mindful of the negative views about equality and diversity to which some of the children and young people have been exposed. One young person was reluctant to come to the home because of the mix of ethnicity of other children and young people. He was sensitively but successfully challenged about his views. He agreed to come into the home and gets on with everyone there.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is clear on her role and responsibility in respect of challenging others to ensure that all the children and young people receive the best possible service. One professional described her as like a ‘dog with a bone’ when it comes to getting the best for the children and young people. This ensures that the children and young people have Inspection report children’s home: SC488679 6 the most appropriate services in place to support them when they return home.

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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: SC488679 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 40 Great George Street, Leeds LS1 3DL

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Inspector

Janet Black, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC488679 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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