Children's Home run by Radical Services Limited in Westmorland and Furness

Inspection report children’s home: SC476083 1 SC476083 Registered provider: Radical Services 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

The children’s home is run by a private organisation and is registered to provide care and accommodation for three young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 22 to 23 November 2017

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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 good

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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: 26 October 2016

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

None Inspection report children’s home: SC476083 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

 Young people enjoy stability in this home. They receive a consistently high standard of care that promotes their safety and well-being.  Young people share extremely positive relationships with staff and have made some very positive attachments. This has helped them to feel secure and settled in this home.  Young people make excellent progress in all areas of their development relative to their starting points. Their risk-taking behaviours are seen to significantly decline following their admission to the home.  Young people feel happy and well cared for. They thrive on the emotional warmth and nurturing they receive from staff.  Young people feel valued, knowing that staff listen and take their views into account.  A skilled and experienced registered manager leads the home with confidence. This has a positive influence on staff, who feel well motivated and inspired to make a difference in young people’s lives.

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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

 Not all staff have been successfully enrolled to undertake their level 3 diploma award. This means that some staff will have significantly less time to complete the award, which they must have within two years of starting their employment.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

26/10/2016 Full Good 11/05/2016 Full Inadequate 25/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 02/12/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC476083 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 leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that helps children aspire to fulfil their potential and promote their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child.

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Requirement Due date

This relates specifically to making sure that all relevant staff employed in the home are successfully enrolled to complete their level 3 diploma. 29/12/2017

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people at this home benefit from a consistently high standard of care that promotes their safety and well-being. Staff are attentive and nurturing in their approach. They offer an appropriate level of emotional warmth and a homely environment that enables young people to thrive. Consequently, they make significant and sustained progress relative to their starting points.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people share extremely positive and meaningful relationships with staff. They are able to make good attachments and feel that staff genuinely care about them and want them to be happy. One young person commented, ‘If I am sad, they will come to me and ask me if I’m okay. I like hugs and they give me hugs. I’m happy here and I feel safe.’ Inspection report children’s home: SC476083 4 Young people’s placement planning is highly personalised and focuses on their individual needs and preferences. Young people are familiar with their plans and contribute to their content as they are reviewed and updated. They understand the expectations surrounding their behaviour and can identify their own progress since coming to the home. For example, one young person spoke of significant changes in her own attitude and behaviours. Specifically, she now avoids friendships with people who are likely to wrongly influence her and compromise her safety. As a result of these

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

changes, she is pleased that she had been able to re-establish a positive relationship with her parent and return to full-time education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people attend school regularly and are making considerable progress. Staff work in close cooperation with teaching staff to ensure that young people are settled and supported effectively to learn. One young person said, ‘I like that staff will help with homework, but they don’t do it for you.’ An independent reviewing officer, speaking of a young person who had recently left the home, said, ‘They had her best interests at heart. They were absolutely on the ball. They engaged well with her and had her focused on education, and she did very well.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff actively support young people reading for pleasure by taking them regularly to the local library. This is successful in stimulating imagination and improving literacy skills. Staff also encourage creative and imaginative play to ensure that essential childhood experiences are gained and become memorable. One young person commented, ‘It’s amazing here and I love it. Everyone is so nice and we do lots of activities. This home is superb. The best.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff aim to provide young people with a wide range of activities and experiences that are fun and will help build their confidence and self-esteem. These include activities at organised clubs, such as army cadets and brownies. Young people also have good access to leisure facilities as well as outdoor activities, such as tree-trekking and horse- riding. These activities provide good opportunities for young people to socialise and make friendships within the community.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people’s good health and emotional well-being are priorities for staff. At the point of their admission, young people are registered with local practitioners to ensure that their routine health needs are met. Staff work closely with healthcare specialists and the local authority’s ‘children looked after’ nurse. This allows them to be sure that any additional health needs or concerns are fully assessed and monitored to optimise the young person’s health and well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people are confident in expressing their views. They say that they can easily talk to any member of staff and know staff will listen to them. Regular key-worker sessions and house meetings also provide good opportunities for young people to share their thoughts and views with staff. Young people understand that they can talk in confidence to staff about sensitive issues and that their conversations will not be shared with other young people. Consequently, they can see that their privacy and dignity is respected. Inspection report children’s home: SC476083 5 Staff are proactive in supporting young people to keep in touch with family and friends, as is consistent with their care planning. This ensures that young people can maintain and develop positive relationships with those who are most important to them. Young people particularly like the fact that they are allowed to invite friends to their home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

This gives them a real sense of belonging. One young person said, ‘Even although we are not a family, we are really like a family.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people who leave the home do so in a planned way. During their time at this home, they are supported to learn self-care and a range of other practical skills in accordance with their age and ability. This promotes their independence and resilience at an important stage in their life. One professional commented about a particular young person, ‘She is more or less self-sufficient. They did well with her.’

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

Young people living at this home say that they feel safe and well cared for. Staff clearly understand their vulnerabilities and prioritise their safety and protection. They are trained and appropriately guided by their manager to have a good understanding of child protection practice and safeguarding issues.

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

All young people have comprehensive risk assessments. These identify their personal vulnerabilities and behaviours that are likely to compromise their safety or cause them harm. They also provide staff with sufficient detail and guidance so that they are familiar with the actions they need to follow to keep young people safe.

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

Young people appreciate the need for rules and boundaries and feel safer and more settled for having those in place. One young person said, ‘I’m happy here and everyone is nice. I thought it was going to be horrible, but it is better than I thought. The rules are good and they have helped me settle here.’

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

Positive behaviour is consistently praised and encouraged. Rewards are discussed with young people to identify their personal choices. Staff try to avoid simply giving young people extra pocket money and prefer to identify rewards that are more meaningful to young people. These rewards include a trip to the cinema, an adventure day out or games. As a consequence of rewarding positive behaviour, sanctions have declined and are quite rare.

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

There have been some occasions when young people have gone missing, and have left the home without permission. Staff have acted appropriately to follow young people and only involved the police when necessary. These incidents have significantly declined over the past few months as young people feel increasingly settled within the home.

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

The use of physical restraint in this home has also significantly reduced and is minimal. Staff are suitably trained and show skill in de-escalating situations that have the potential to become challenging. This is a positive reflection of the strong bonds and positive relationships that young people have with staff. One young person commented, ‘I don’t think you can get any better than this home.’ Inspection report children’s home: SC476083 6 Young people’s safety is further promoted by the company’s safe recruitment and selection practice. This requires all staff to be suitably checked and vetted before they ever work in the home. Young people are also advised of their right to complain and the ways in which this can be done. Young people say that there are a number of staff in the home they can talk to should they have any concerns. Together, these measures are intended to protect young people from adults that may do them harm.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

A new registered manager has taken over responsibility for this home since its last full inspection in October 2016. Prior to coming to this home, she was a registered manager for another home operated by the organisation. She has recognised skill and experience and possesses the required level 5 diploma qualification. While managing this home in accordance with its statement of purpose, she has also been successful in supporting and mentoring another manager, new to her role, in another of the provider’s homes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

At the last inspection, one requirement was made as the majority of staff were not qualified to work with children in a residential setting, despite staff benefiting from a robust training package. Although Ofsted was told by the home’s previous manager that all staff were registered for the level 3 diploma award, it was identified during this inspection that this information was inaccurate. Currently, several staff are still waiting to be enrolled for this award. Although the registered manager has escalated her concern within the organisation, the requirement is repeated because of this shortfall and delay in arranging enrolment.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff speak highly of the ‘brilliant’ support they receive from the home’s registered manager and assistant manager. Their commitment and dedication to young people is commended. Staff view them as positive role models and feel well motivated and inspired to make a difference in young people’s lives.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff highlight the quality of regular supervision and staff meetings as central to their support. However, they particularly value the registered manager’s abilities in carefully matching young people’s needs with those already living in the home, while ensuring that staff have the skill and confidence to meet their needs effectively. Staff identify placement stability and young people’s excellent progress to be a reflection of the success of this initial matching process.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff work in close partnership with a wide range of professionals, parents and local organisations. Their aim is to promote young people’s inclusion and ensure that they receive well-coordinated and planned support. Staff and their managers are ambitious for the young people in their care. They strive to enable young people’s access to all available opportunities that will fulfil their needs and ambitions. For example, one young person who has recently left the home has successfully moved into her own accommodation and is now engaged with training that promotes her love of art. In praise of the home, a relative of another young person who has recently left the home said that he was ‘blooming’ in his new residential school. Inspection report children’s home: SC476083 7 Monitoring arrangements are well established and sufficiently rigorous, ensuring safe practice to promote young people’s well-being. The registered manager uses both

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

internal and external monitoring processes to inform her development planning and continuous improvement of the home. Ofsted receives regular reports sent from the independent person as well as the manager’s six-monthly review report of her monitoring activity. These provide good accounts of the home’s operation and ensure that Ofsted is kept up to date between inspections.

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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: SC476083 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Radical Services Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Rouse House, 2 Wyther Lane, Leeds LS5 3BT

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Inspector

Gillian Walters, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC476083 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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