Children's home run by Keys QTC Limited

Inspection report children’s home: SC009653 1 SC009653 Registered provider: Quality Time Care Ltd

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides care and accommodation for up to six young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties, and it describes itself as a crisis centre. The home accommodates young people for up to 90 days. The home is managed and operated by a private provider. The home runs a programme that focuses on engaging young people with activities. As part of the programme, young people spend periods of seven days away from the main children’s home in temporary accommodation. Accommodation includes caravans, cottages and tents. Young people return to the main children’s home every six weeks.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 12 to 14 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 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: 2 February 2017

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Good

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

None Inspection report children’s home: SC009653 2

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people value and enjoy a range of activities that provide them with new experiences and opportunities.  Staff support young people to learn and develop new skills. They achieve recognition for their achievements, and this promotes their confidence and self- esteem.  Staff fully understand the risks and vulnerabilities associated with the young people they care for. They assess and plan effectively to keep young people safe. They teach young people to understand and manage risks and consider the safety of others.  Staff are effective in developing and sustaining meaningful relationships with young people that enable them to build trust and friendship.  Young people are able to reflect on past events and move forward in their lives having successfully learned new strategies to self-regulate their behaviour and manage relationships.

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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 registered manager needs to improve on the internal and external monitoring of the home, particularly with regards to the accommodation used.  The organisation needs to provide a programme of training opportunities for staff to gain outdoor pursuits qualifications so that they are able to fulfil the home’s statement of purpose.  Consistency of contact between staff and young people needs to be improved so that young people are better able to develop relationships.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 21/09/2016 Full Good 09/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 25/08/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC009653 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 leadership and management standard, the registered person must: (1) enable, inspire and lead a culture in relation to the children’s home that: (b) promotes their welfare. (2)(a) lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose; (c) ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; and (f) understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home. 26/01/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees: undertake appropriate continuing professional development. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)) 26/01/2018

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Requirement Due date

To inspect the premises of the home and such of the home’s records (except for a child’s case records, unless the child and the child’s placing authority consent) as the independent person requires. (Regulation 44 (b)) 26/01/2018

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Recommendations

 The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and make best use of information from independent and internal monitoring (including under regulations 44 and 45) to ensure continuous improvement. They should be skilled in anticipating difficulties and reviewing incidents, such as learning from disruptions and placement breakdowns. They are responsible for proactively implementing lessons learned and sustaining good practice. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 55, Inspection report children’s home: SC009653 4 paragraph 10.24)  Positive relationships are those which are characterised by consistency and unconditional positive regard for the child on the part of the carer; and where the carer acknowledges the importance of understanding and responding to the child’s lived experience of care. Positive, stable relationships help the child to feel

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Recommendations

secure and cared about and for. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 21, paragraph 4.3)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people value and enjoy the experiences and opportunities offered by this outreach service. Their placements are generally made at a crisis point in their lives, when concerns for their safety and well-being are extremely high and other care placement arrangements have been tried and exhausted.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The service offers opportunities for young people to engage in some stimulating activities that are not without risk, such as trampolining and mountain-biking. Staff use these as a basis to support young people to reflect and learn about risk and avoid behaviours that compromise their safety and well-being. This enables them to learn to value their own safety, the safety of others and respect for their environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people benefit from intensive staff support and personalised planning that address the full range of their individual developmental needs. The service focuses on engaging young people in adventurous and challenging activities that enable them to learn new skills that successfully promote development of their confidence and self- esteem. This is sometimes limited by the skill-set of the current staff team members, as many don’t have the qualifications to tutor adventure activities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

During the inspection, young people valued the different people that came to look after them at their temporary accommodation. However, this situation doesn’t allow positive relationships to be established between young people and staff members. Currently, the rota system sees staff members working with a young person three times in a 90-day programme. This does not provide consistency for young people and as a result fails to promote their welfare.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff communicate their expectations clearly and they are effective in listening to young people’s views, interests and wishes. They adopt a friendly and relaxed approach that encourages young people to feel safe and comfortable in their company. Staff show particular sensitivity in understanding and promoting young people’s needs to feel included and accepted. They achieve this by taking time to understand things that are important to the young people’s lives, such as their culture and heritage, and working with them on maintaining their identities. Inspection report children’s home: SC009653 5 Young people speak highly of staff and of the trust they have achieved through the many activities they have shared with them. Young people enjoy spending time with staff and appreciate their skills and knowledge in supporting them to learn and enjoy new experiences. Such experiences include activities such as kayaking and canoeing.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One young person said that he had enjoyed ‘rock-climbing’ the most.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people speak with enthusiasm about the service and the bonds that they have made with staff. They identify their time with the service as having made positive changes in their lives and providing them with strategies that prepare and equip them for the next stage in their lives. One young person said, ‘I love the cottage. You cannot get bored here; it’s a good place. Staff are helpful, respectful and nice.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support and encourage young people to maintain contact with family members, as is consistent with their care plans. Visits with family members are not excluded, but tend not to be regular given the nature of this provision. Young people make regular telephone calls and have facilities to chat online. This ensures that family are kept up to date with the young people’s progress and that young people have the opportunity to stay in touch with those who are most important to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help young people to become aware of the importance of following a healthy lifestyle. They provide excellent advice and guidance on a range of issues, such as maintaining a healthy and nutritional diet, taking regular exercise and avoiding activities, such as smoking and drug misuse, which are known to have a detrimental effect on their long-term health. Staff appropriately promote young people’s healthcare needs, ensuring that young people are immediately registered with local healthcare services and supported to access these when required.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All staff are suitably trained in first aid, ensuring that they are able to respond quickly and safely should an accident or emergency occur, especially during particularly challenging and strenuous activities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff offer some support to young people to re-engage with education and learning. Many young people start from a point of having missed significant periods in education and have disengaged with learning. Staff support young people to re-stimulate their interest; however, the staff’s creativity and training in a range of activities to develop this are poor. In the main, two workbooks are used, one in mathematics and another in English. Young people are encouraged to go through these books for two hours each day. No one did and this hadn’t been picked up satisfactorily by the registered manager in her monitoring of the service. The registered manager accepted this shortfall, brought to her attention by inspectors at this inspection and immediately put together a plan of action to improve this. New electronic tablets were purchased to allow young people to use online learning resources. Discussions between the registered manager and the

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

headteacher of the school that is attached to the children’s home led to better work programmes for staff to follow with young people. Young people are in placement for 90 days and this limits the home in what can be achieved. However, it is hoped that the improved variation and support for staff to assist young people in their education will be sustained. Inspection report children’s home: SC009653 6 Placing authorities report considerable satisfaction with the quality of service provided and the significant progress that young people make in developing positive relationships, self-regulating their behaviour and re-engaging with education and learning. One social worker commented, ‘I am very pleased with the care the young person is receiving. He went to [name of home] in a crisis, he was using drugs and getting involved in criminal activity. He was also demonstrating domestic violence within the family home… The staff

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

have challenged his views, such as on women, domestic violence and drugs. As a result the young person has matured, gained in confidence and is looking at his future.’

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

Young people confirm that they feel safe and well protected wherever they may be, for example when they are living in temporary accommodation, such as on campsites, or in camping barns, cottages and mountain bothies. The service also has its own narrowboat located on the inland canal system.

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

Each young person has detailed written risk assessments in place. When risks are assessed as high, arrangements are in place and agreed with professional agencies. This ensures that strategies are in place to manage risk safely and protect young people. Staff members demonstrate a good understanding of young people’s risk; they know and follow the strategies in line with agreed plans.

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

There are no safeguarding issues at present and all staff members are trained to recognise and respond to suspicions of abuse. Risks are detailed around health and safety when the young people and staff are living remotely and cover risks in the surrounding areas, such as farm machinery and livestock. As a result, young people fully understand the dangers of living and travelling around the countryside, and this keeps them safe.

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

The safer area risk assessment does not gather young people’s views on the accommodation types and their locations. While it is acknowledged that being isolated and living in basic accommodation is a big part of the programme, young people should have a formal opportunity to have their views recorded. Social workers rarely visit the accommodation, as it is often quite inaccessible and some distance from main roads. This also applies to the regulation 44 visitor as, while she does visit the narrowboat, she doesn’t visit other accommodation. Having other professionals view the accommodation would assist the manager in making changes or improvements, should these be suggested.

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

Staff are well trained in behaviour management practice, and any incidents are closely scrutinised and monitored by senior staff. Incidents are reviewed and strategies revised to stop repeated behaviour. Staff have the ability, skills and patience to work through difficulties and to de-escalate challenges constructively. This approach works well with the young people placed, helping them to adapt their behaviour to a more socially acceptable standard and to take some responsibility for their own actions. Inspection report children’s home: SC009653 7 Previous risk-taking behaviour has significantly reduced. Young people are not associating with others who have negatively influenced them. They do not engage in drug, alcohol or substance misuse and any links with previous gangs or groups are broken. This provides an opportunity to reflect on and change their behaviours. Rural locations support this change and contribute to placement success. Young people who

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

have moved on from this service have changed their ways and moved positively to other placements, such as foster care, their family or independent living. One social worker reported, ‘The young person told me two weeks ago that he would not have achieved what he has done without the dedication of the staff.’ She went on to say, ‘It is unbelievable what he has achieved.’

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

Incidents of going missing or absent are rare because of the different locations to which young people travel. When travelling to destinations and while there, they are occupied in various on-board activities and outdoor pursuits. Being occupied reduces the need to go absent or missing.

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

There are careful selection and robust recruitment practices that protect young people from being harmed by unsuitable people. The service is also regulated and licensed with The Adventure Activities Licensing Authority (AALA), which ensures that activity providers follow good safety management practices. AALA expresses confidence in this service. Staff leading adventurous and challenging activities possess the necessary qualifications and experience to safely instruct and support young people during activities, and all equipment used, such as kayaks and climbing ropes, is safely maintained.

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

The registered manager has been in post at this service since May 2015, but has been a registered manager since 2009. She has completed her level 4 diploma in leadership and management and has the relevant experience of working with young people. She is supported by an experienced deputy manager. Together, they manage the service effectively.

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

Leaders, managers and staff do not fully achieve the aims and objectives as set out in the home’s statement of purpose, particularly with regard to staff training and providing a positive learning environment for young people.

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

The staff benefit from a wide-ranging training programme, which includes team-teach and safeguarding. However, the training has not been sufficiently targeted to meet the training and development needs of the staff at the home. For example, not all staff have completed training in adventure activities, such as mountain leadership or kayaking, despite it being said in the home’s statement of purpose that the service provides these opportunities for young people in its care. Staff commented that they are keen to take on new opportunities and want to be given the time and opportunity to do this. Many have chosen the outreach service because of their love of the outdoors and outdoor activities and are then disappointed when the opportunity to undertake the qualifications in various sports is restricted. Inspection report children’s home: SC009653 8 Monitoring systems are poor and do not identify areas for improvement. For example,

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

the daily notes indicated that young people are not engaging in education on a daily basis. This had failed to be picked up by the manager and addressed.

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

There is little consistency in the contact between staff and young people as staff often do not work with young people on a regular basis. Development of relationships is limited, as the staff changes mean that young people may only see a particular staff member every couple of months. Because of a lack of consistency, some practice issues have failed to be picked up by the registered manager. For example, staff members were unaware that a young person had been to visit his next placement, as the information had not been handed over at the last staff changeover. This did not allow the new staff team to explore any anxieties that the young person may have had about his next placement, as staff had not been aware of them.

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

The service is visited each month by an independent person who produces detailed reports that take in the views of young people, their parents and placing social workers. A prompt response by the registered manager actions any shortfalls identified in these reports. However, the independent visitor does not visit all the accommodation used or speak with the young people at their temporary home. This does not give the opportunity to independently assess the accommodation used. On one occasion, the independent person had said that medication was kept locked securely while at the temporary accommodation. However, during the visit to the premises, this was observed not to be true. This clearly demonstrates the need for the external monitoring of the accommodation to take place, so that the manager is satisfied that any written policy is actually happening in practice.

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

The young people receive good information about the service prior to admission, via the children’s guide and the welcome booklet. The young people are making progress from their starting points. Their needs are consistently prioritised and they are very positive about their experiences.

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

The staff work effectively in partnership with children and partner agencies, one of which described the home as the ‘best home for working in partnership’. Staff are individually caring and provide care that meets the needs of the individual children. They are well thought-of by professionals. One described the staff as intuitive and responsive, and another said that the ‘optimistic staff want to see the best in him. This has really helped him move on’.

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

Staff report that they feel well supported and know what their responsibilities are. Individual supervision arrangements are sufficiently frequent to support and challenge staff professionally and effectively. All staff who have been working with children in a children’s home for over two years have completed their level 3 diploma and all the remaining staff who are not currently on probation have been enrolled.

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

Staff are enthusiastic and fully committed to the way of working adopted by the service. They believe in what they do and they believe that they can change young people’s lives Inspection report children’s home: SC009653 9 for the better. This has created a happy, team-centred staff group with high morale that transfers into the positivity of the relationships enjoyed between staff and young people. The home has an excellent record of compliance by addressing any requirements or recommendations that have been made; some shortfalls were immediately actioned during the inspection.

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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: SC009653 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Quality Time Care Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Hurstwood Court, New Hall Hey Road, Rossendale BB4 6HR

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Inspector

Elaine Clare, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC009653 11 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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