Children's home run by Warrington Borough Council

Inspection report children’s home: SC444792 1 SC444792 Registered provider: Warrington Borough 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

This children’s home is run by a local authority. It is registered for two young people who have emotional and/or behavioural problems.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 12 to 13 December 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 good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people make excellent progress from their individual starting points due the individualised, well-planned care they receive in this home.  Staff are skilled at building up positive relationships with young people and Inspection report children’s home: SC444792 2 making them feel valued, which contributes to their progress.  Young people like living in the home, and professionals and parents are consistently positive about the care that young people receive.  Behaviour management in the home is effective. There are few behavioural incidents or restraints, reflecting staff’s skill at managing young people’s behaviour effectively.  Young people have good opportunities to express their views on matters which are important to them. As a result, young people feel listened to.  It has been a period of transition for the home, with a new manager now in post. He is very child-focused and is committed to improving the service and

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Key findings from this inspection

ensuring that young people have the best possible experiences and outcomes.

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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

 The manager needs to ensure that staff understand their roles and responsibilities when young people go missing from home and that they are supported by adequate staffing, particularly after 10pm when they ‘lone work’ in the home.  Individual risk assessments must contain clear written guidance for staff to follow about how they are expected to manage identified risks, such as alcohol use, self-harm and child sexual exploitation.  The manager needs to ensure that new staff receive supervision in line with the organisation’s supervision policy.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 29/11/2016 Full Outstanding 17/03/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness 12/01/2016 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC444792 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 protection of children standard the registered provider must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

staff assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child. In particular, ensure that risk assessments are accurate and up to date and include written actions for staff to follow when young people are at risk of self-harm, alcohol use or child sexual exploitation.

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Requirement Due date

staff understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. (Regulation 12(2)(a)(I)and(v)) 25/01/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-based supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33(4)(b)) 25/01/2018

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Recommendations

 Evaluation of missing incidents should be undertaken to identify any gaps in training, skills or knowledge for staff or to record or retain evidence of what worked well. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.31)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people live in a very warm and homely house. It is well decorated and maintained to a high standard. The home is highly personalised to the young people who live there, with many photos of the young people enjoying activities, special events or holidays. Staff have successfully created an environment which replicates family life. This contributes to young people feeling settled in the home. Young people receive high- Inspection report children’s home: SC444792 4 quality, individualised care and support from an experienced and committed staff team. Because of this, some young people make excellent progress in all areas of their development. One social worker reported, ‘The young people at [name of home] receive a very high standard of care. The staff know them very well and attention is paid to their emotional well-being. Staff encourage children to reach their potential and help them to develop a positive self-worth.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All young people attend education. One young person’s attendance has increased from 58% to 100% since he has been placed in the home. This is because staff ensure that there are good routines in place and encourage attendance with the use of effective individualised reward systems. Staff challenge educational provision when they feel that it is not acting in a young person’s interests, for example by ensuring that re-integration meetings are held when young people are excluded. This ensures that young people have the opportunity to meet their educational potential. One young person has obtained a grade A in her GSCE art. She is engaged as a volunteer at a doggy day care centre on the days she is not in college, a position that one of the staff members helped her access. This ensures that she has the opportunity to learn skills she will need for her future working life.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff promote young people’s health. Each young person has an individual health plan which identifies his or her health needs. Staff ensure that young people attend health appointments and have access to more specialist services such as child and adolescent mental health services, should this be required. Staff actively try to educate young people about healthy eating to support them to make more healthy food choices. Staff encourage physical exercise. For example, they pay for one young person’s friend to join her on activities, such as trampolining, as they recognise that the young person is more motivated to exercise with someone her own age. This not only promotes her physical health but also her emotional health, through developing friendships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are skilled at building positive relationships with young people, and positive relationships were observed during the inspection. Staff work hard to ensure that young people have positive day-to-day experience of living in the home. Young people enjoy holidays with staff, and staff ensure that key dates in young people’s lives are celebrated. For example, a young person requested a prom party for her 16th birthday, which staff organised for her. Staff went to a lot of effort to make this a positive, memorable experience for the young person, including getting her a cake, getting her hair and make-up done and decorating the home. They also arranged for a red carpet outside for her to walk down. The young person reported that, ‘It was the best day of my life.’ Staff recognise and celebrate young people’s achievements. For example, staff included a young person’s exceptional artwork in the six-monthly review report. Young

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

people’s achievements are displayed in the home. For example, certificates of young people’s educational achievements are displayed in frames. As a result, young people feel valued, which has resulted in their improved confidence and self-esteem.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A strength of the home is how well staff support young people with transitions. Staff endeavour to meet young people before they move into the home. When young people move in, staff make them feel welcome by preparing welcome packs, which contain Inspection report children’s home: SC444792 5 items such as headphones, writing pads and toiletries. Young people are consulted about how they wish their bedrooms to be decorated. A new mattress and carpets were purchased for one young person who recently moved in. Staff have updated their young person’s guide to include staff photos, and existing young people contribute to this by adding their own comments about the staff’s individual characteristics. This gives young people useful information about the home and helps them prepare for moving in. When young people move out, this is well planned and child-centred. The long transitions give young people the opportunity to meet staff at their new home prior to moving in and

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

remain in touch with staff from their old home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people are supported to develop skills that they will need for adulthood, such as budgeting and independent travel. Young people have an individual independence plan, and staff have created a tool to use with young people to identify which skills they need to develop and to monitor their progress. This tool includes useful information on healthy relationships, and cross-referenced worksheets to be used with young people on various aspects of independence work. This well-coordinated approach ensures that young people develop useful skills that they will need when they live independently.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people are given good opportunities to express their views on matters which are important to them. Staff consult young people through young people’s meetings and key-work sessions. There is evidence that they adapt this work to young people’s specific levels of functioning, for example using tools which a young person has to draw/write on to communicate their wishes and feelings. Young people’s views are listened to and acted upon. For example, young people requested pets and they were able to get these with certain ground rules in place. As a result, young people feel listened to by staff. Young people know how to complain.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people, professionals and parents are consistently complimentary about the staff and the level of care provided by the home. One parent reported that, ‘They are really helpful, I love them as well. I can’t say enough about them.’

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

Young people’s individual risks and vulnerabilities are identified in risk assessments. Risk assessments, however, lack guidance on how staff will support, manage and monitor young people who have self-harmed or who are under the influence of alcohol or substances. Furthermore, young people at risk of child sexual exploitation do not have detailed risk assessments that include measures to reduce this risk and safeguard young people. Staff understand what to do if these situations occur but there is no written guidance for them to follow. This means that staff have no clear guidance to ensure that they work in a consistent way to manage and reduce young people’s known risks.

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

When young people go missing from home, staff follow missing from home protocols by reporting the young people to the police. Staff inform the local authority and parents. Staff are proactive in requesting strategy meetings when young people are persistently missing from home. Missing from home risk assessments state that staff will conduct a search of the home, the young person’s bedroom and the local area, but staff have not Inspection report children’s home: SC444792 6 been able to do this after 10pm as they ‘lone work’ in the home after this time. This was, however, addressed during the inspection with an agreement being put in place which ensures that the out-of-hours service will provide this support. This means that young people will be searched for, followed, picked up, and returned to the home, should they go missing after 10pm.

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

Staff are not all clear that they should be searching for young people when they go missing. Staff do not always record that they search for young people, and they did not consistently do this during the inspection when a young person had gone missing from home. Furthermore, staff had not followed procedures by ensuring that kitchen windows were locked at night. As a result, a young person went missing during the night. Current practice does not ensure that young people are kept safe from harm.

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

Staff put in place preventative strategies to try to discourage young people from going missing, for example by arranging for a young person to see his friends in a planned way so that he can spend time with them without going missing. When young people return home after being missing, staff spend time with them trying to understand why they went missing and to try to help them understand the risks inherent in this behaviour. The manager does not, however, routinely evaluate missing from home incidents, which means that opportunities to identify patterns of missing behaviour or issues with staff practice are lost.

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

Staff work effectively with other professionals such as the police to keep young people safe from harm. This was observed during the inspection, when police visited the home in connection with a young person who was missing. Staff also work well with specialist agencies for child sexual exploitation, such as ‘Catch 22’, to ensure that there is a multi- agency approach to reduce the risk of harm.

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

There are very few behavioural incidents in this home. There has been one restraint since the last inspection, which reflects how settled the home has been and how skilled staff are at managing behaviour. Staff promote positive behaviour with reward systems. These are individual to each young person and work effectively for the young people in the home. When consequences are used, these are fair and proportionate and relate to the behaviour displayed, which helps young people learn the consequences of their actions.

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

Staff understand safeguarding procedures and follow the correct procedures when safeguarding concerns and allegations are made. This means that prompt action is taken to ensure that young people are kept safe from harm.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

This has been a period of transition for the home, with the registered manager and a number of staff leaving. The home was managed by the deputy manager for two months until the new manager started in post. The new manager has the required level Inspection report children’s home: SC444792 7 5 qualification and has submitted his application for registration promptly within the required timescale.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Despite the short period of time he has been in post, the manager has developed a good understanding of the young people in the home and the progress that they have made. The manager has completed a thorough audit of the home and has identified its strengths and areas for improvement. He has a clear plan in place for how he intends to improve the quality of the service. For example, he has identified that they need to make better links with the local community to support young people to access facilities and to develop a sense of belonging and purpose.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is well supported by an experienced deputy manager and staff team. Staff like working at the home and feel that they are well supported by each other and the management team. Staff report that communication is good between them. Staff meetings take place regularly and are well attended. These meetings demonstrate the wide range of discussions in relation to children and young people and practice, which ensures that young people receive a consistent approach from all of the staff. The staff team is very motivated to ensure that people have positive experiences, and staff have high expectations for the young people they are caring for. They deliver care in line with the home’s statement of purpose.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have good opportunities to access a range of training specific to their role, and mandatory training is up to date. This ensures that staff have the relevant skills and knowledge to understand and support the young people whom they are working with. There is a new system in place via work force development assessments to support staff development. The new manager is committed to the development of his staff team. He delegates tasks and responsibilities in order to equip them with the knowledge and skills they will need should they wish to progress in the organisation. This ensures that the staff team continues in their professional development and remains motivated in their roles.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Most staff receive regular supervision in line with the organisation’s supervision policy. However, this is not always the case with new staff. For one staff member, there is one recorded supervision from when he started in January 2017 to April 2017 and a further gap between June and October 2017. This does not ensure that staff are supported sufficiently when they first start in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has good internal monitoring systems in place to ensure that young people are receiving a good quality of care. There are continued issues regarding external monitoring. These have been acknowledged by the organisation, and are being addressed by further training of the regulation 44 visitors and more robust challenge by the manager when the quality of these reports is poor.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: SC444792 8 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: SC444792 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Children’s Services Directorate, New Town House, Buttermarket Street, Warrington, Cheshire WA1 2NJ

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Inspector

Sarah Billett, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC444792 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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