Children's home run by Outdoor Care Limited in Northumberland

Inspection report children‟s home: SC000678 1 SC000678 Registered provider: Outdoor 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 run by a private organisation and is registered to provide care and accommodation for one child who has emotional and/or behavioural difficulties or learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 29 to 30 November 2017

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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: 28 February 2017

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Good

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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Key findings from this inspection

 The staff team offers a good service to children and young people in crisis. It provides a highly supervised and structured environment. It is also quick to Inspection report children‟s home: SC000678 2 provide other services, such as education, healthcare, family contact and leisure activities to the children and young people it takes in emergency situations.  The staff team works hard to safeguard the children and young people, who often arrive with a range of very risky behaviours and it does make progress with reducing the risks.  The organisation employs a psychologist who oversees some of the care of the children and the young people and this enables staff to both assess need and meet need well.

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Key findings from this inspection

The children‟s home‟s areas for development:

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Key findings from this inspection

 Care planning needs to be improved. In particular, the staff need to ensure that the children and young people are more involved in admission and discharge planning.  The registered person needs to ensure that the statement of purpose is sent to the HMCI every time it is revised.  All staff need regular practice-related supervision.  All records on the children‟s files need to be kept up to date.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

28/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 26/07/2016 Full Good 30/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 23/06/2015 Full Good Inspection report children‟s home: SC000678 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

The care planning standard is that children (a) receive effectively planned care in or through the children‟s home and (b) have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure-

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Requirement Due date

that arrangements are in place to ensure the effective induction of each child into the home.

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Requirement Due date

plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child‟s placing authority. (Regulation 14(1) and (2)(b)(i) and (2)(b)(iii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, to involve young people in planning for admissions and planning for leaving. 31/01/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI of any revision and send HMCI a copy of the statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16(3)(a))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, this refers to the statement of purpose. 31/01/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33(4)(b)) 31/01/2018

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Requirement Due date

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 which are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation (1)(a) and (b) and (c)) 31/01/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC000678 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home‟s statement of purpose states that the home „specialises in providing emergency accommodation following a crisis‟. The staff only work with one child or young person at a time and provide two staff to supervise the children and young people at all times.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

During the period since the previous full inspection, there have been four children or young people who have stayed at the home. Two of these have had successful placements and have moved on in positive, planned moves. The other two placements have been less positive. One young person, who initially made good progress, decided that they wanted to leave without making plans. The placement ended with a poor outcome when the young person returned home in an unplanned way. The young person who is currently living in the home has also shown by their behaviour, and has told the staff, that they wish to return to their home area. The staff have now given the placing authority notice to terminate the placement. This is because the staff no longer feel able to keep the young person safe because they are frequently going missing and engaging in risky behaviours.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff do make good relationships with the young people. The nature of the placement is that it is activity-based. Staff are with the children and young people for much of the time and engage with them in a range of activities. This promotes good relationships and allows the children and young people to experience different activities and to both learn and grow in confidence. The staff report that the children and young people usually enjoy the wide range of activities on offer and they talk enthusiastically about the shared experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children and young people are encouraged to attend education and training courses of their choice. The staff go out of their way to facilitate this and the children and young people do benefit from a range of alternative educational and training provision accessed by the staff. One young person has been able to gain a college place in their home area in readiness for their anticipated move back.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children and young people are often placed in this home away from their home areas. The staff make good efforts to support them to be able to keep in touch with their families and friends where this is appropriate. This support maintains and improves family relationships and makes a return home more likely.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children and young people are referred to a range of specialist workers as required. The provider employs a psychologist, who assists staff to assess need and devise ways of working that best meet these needs. All the children and young people benefit from this service and the progress they make is clearly related to this specialist input. A number of the children and young people have made progress because of the positive behaviour planning overseen by the psychologist and actioned by the staff. The children and young people are encouraged to take responsibility for their actions and are encouraged and Inspection report children‟s home: SC000678 5 incentivised to make positive choices and to get involved in productive activities. This extends to developing increased independence skills. The children and young people are given time and encouragement to learn new skills. One young person was, on arrival,

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

unable to perform even very basic self-care tasks, such as using a knife and fork or tying their shoelaces, and was able to acquire many new skills with the support of staff during their placement.

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

The staff work with children and young people in crisis and are able to make good assessments of risk and to put the appropriate controls in place to minimise these. When one young person started absconding to return to their home area, the staff drew up a practical and sensible risk-reduction plan to build in regular home visits. They acknowledged that there were risks in this plan due to the young person‟s risk-taking activity in their home area. However, it was felt these risks were less than the risks of the young person running off. Although the placing authority accepted the plan, it was not able to be fully implemented because of issues with the young person‟s family.

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

There have been safeguarding concerns with the two most recent placements. Both young people changed their minds about wanting to live in this home, got into patterns of going missing, and returned to their home areas. Staff tried hard to minimise these incidents and spent time trying to locate and return the young people, as well as spending time afterwards discussing the issues. However, the staff were unable to decrease these incidents. One young person returned to live with their family in an unplanned way, which was not particularly positive, and another had their placement terminated as staff felt unable to keep them safe. Both of these young people engaged in criminal and other risky behaviours when back in their home areas and now have ongoing involvement with the criminal justice system.

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

One young person was placed at this home after there were considerable concerns about their drug-taking activity in their home area. The staff team has ensured that the young person has continued, regular access to their drugs worker. The staff team, in partnership with the drugs worker, has carried out a good deal of education, advice and guidance work to try to reduce any possible future harm. This has been a good piece of work and, together with the out-of-area placement, it has enabled the young person to reduce their drug-taking activity and their missing from home activity.

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

The staff do provide the children and young people with clear and consistent expectations and boundaries, and with the high levels of structure and supervision the children and young people are kept safer. The inspector was, however, unable to interview the young person currently living at the home as they were missing at the time of the inspection.

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

The registered manager has been in post for many years and is suitably qualified. He ensures that the home meets the aims and objectives as written in the statement of Inspection report children‟s home: SC000678 6 purpose.

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

The registered manager clearly prioritises the care of the children and young people, and placement plans reflect the in-depth work that is carried out by the staff. With only one young person in the home at any one time, the focus is entirely on them and this allows staff to provide a good individualised service.

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

There have been some safeguarding concerns around the current placement and the registered manager has made the appropriate decision to end the placement and to plan with the placing authority for the young person to move back to their home area. This demonstrates that the registered manager monitors progress and when the young person stopped making progress he has taken effective action.

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

There have been some shortfalls in the leadership and management of the home.

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

The two most recent placements may have had better outcomes if staff had planned more with the young people involved. Although planning at the point of crisis is sometimes difficult, more time spent engaging with the children and young people at this point would be advantageous. Equally, more time spent planning moving on might also make outcomes more positive. A requirement has been made to involve children and young people more in the planning processes.

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

Three other requirements have also been made for the registered person to improve practice within the home. These include ensuring that all required documentation is up to date and on the child‟s file, making sure all workers have regular supervision and ensuring that the statement of purpose is sent to HMCI every time it is revised.

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

The registered manager has at times challenged the placing authority when he has felt that its plans were not providing the best for the children and young people. There is also evidence that he discusses and negotiates services with other professionals and agencies when this is required. He has good relationships with external specialists and agencies and in particular has worked closely with the police to safeguard some of the young people when they have gone missing.

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

The staff clearly feel supported by the responsible individual and the registered manager and they receive good training, which is comprehensive and up to date. The registered manager monitors the home well and understands the strengths and weaknesses of the staff team. He encourages the staff to undertake additional training to meet both their interests and needs.

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

At the previous inspection, a requirement was made to improve risk assessments and this has been done. A recommendation made to record the assessment of the risks prior to locking the front door has also been met. This was a measure used to safeguard one younger child and was appropriate. Inspection report children‟s home: SC000678 7

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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: SC000678 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Outdoor Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 16 Bondgate Without, Alnwick, Northumberland NE66 1PP

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Inspector:

Colin Imrie, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC000678 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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