Children's Home run by Dove Adolescent Services Limited in Wakefield

Inspection report children’s home: SC060811 1 SC060811 Registered provider: Dove Adolescent Services Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a private children’s home. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to two children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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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 outstanding

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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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Enforcement action since last inspection:

None Inspection report children’s home: SC060811 2

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Key findings from this inspection

 The young person is making good progress as a result of the child-focused care provided.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Committed and dedicated staff support the young person to make positive choices.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Effective partnership working ensures that the young person receives targeted support for her health and education.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The young person feels safe and secure. There has been no need for physical intervention.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The manager and staff team ensure that the young person is the focus of everything they do.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

28/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 06/03/2017 Full Good 11/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 20/10/2015 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC060811 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young person is the sole focus and priority of staff at this home. The home is warm and welcoming. Photographs and personal belongings of the young person are present throughout. The young person is comfortable and relaxed in her surroundings and feels settled here.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Good-quality care planning ensures that the young person’s changing needs are identified and met. Monthly reviews of plans address current issues for the young person. Clear analysis of the young person’s progress means that targeted care is provided. The young person receives a monthly summary from the manager. This ensures that she has a good understanding of her progress and any concerns the staff may have. The young person enjoys reading her summaries. This gives her some control over her own plan and decision-making. The young person knows her plan and is empowered to contribute towards it.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young person does not have a specific key worker. This enables her to build relationships with the whole staff team. Restorative discussions about behaviour ensure that the young person has the opportunity to reflect and make changes. In addition, this focused work feeds into the young person’s care planning and risk assessments, ensuring that progress is recorded and celebrated.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work hard to build a meaningful relationship with the young person. The young person did not get an opportunity to end relationships positively at her previous placement. This has had an impact. It has taken time and effort to build trust with a new staff team. The young person said, ‘I was not happy about leaving [previous home] I don’t know why I had to leave. I’m getting to know staff here, I like them. They care about me and I know I am important to them; they make me feel safe.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Close partnership working with education providers ensures that the young person attends mainstream school. There are difficulties, as the young person struggles with maintaining positive friendships. Consequently, this has affected her daily attendance. A joined-up approach from staff and education professionals means that all efforts are made to support her in her academic studies. As a result, the young person continues to access education and make progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Support and therapy ensure that the young person is able to work through her anxieties and worries. This is done by equipping staff with the skills to provide targeted care. Staff recognise that traditional counselling is ineffective for the young person. As an alternative, they follow advice from therapeutic services. As a result, there has been a reduction in crisis situations and the young person is opening up to staff when she is worried.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Two young people have moved on since the last inspection. One moved to independent living. A short period of outreach support helped him to settle in his new home. The Inspection report children’s home: SC060811 4 most recent young person’s placement ended in an unplanned way. The manager identified that staff could not keep him safe or meet his needs. As a result, the young person returned to secure accommodation. The current young person has lived here for five months.

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

Staff are knowledgeable and show good awareness of safeguarding matters. Staff use a comprehensive risk assessment to safeguard the young person. This helps to keep her safe and also allows her to engage in activities she enjoys. The young person feels safe and is able to recognise her own risk-taking behaviour. As a result, she is using different coping methods when in crisis. The young person is involved in her assessments and helps to contribute towards them.

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

A good-quality locality assessment ensures that the manager is aware of any potential risks. Regular meetings with relevant agencies allow for sharing of local knowledge. As a result, the assessment remains current. This ensures that risks are identified and the young person is kept safe in the local area.

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

The young person has had episodes of missing from the home. This has reduced in the last two months. The protocol for missing children has been followed and the young person has been located. The young person is working well with staff to recognise when she feels stressed and wants to leave the home. As a result, she has developed better coping strategies. The young person is aware of the risks associated with going missing. As an alternative, she is talking to staff more and using distraction techniques to calm down.

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

Regular training on physical intervention ensures that staff respond confidently to difficult situations. Their caring and consistent approach has meant that de-escalation is successful. There have been no physical interventions. The young person learns from this and adopts other coping strategies when she is angry. The previous aggressive behaviour from the young person is no longer a feature.

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

Complaints information is available in the home. The young person knows how to complain and has an independent advocate to provide support. With the support of her advocate and staff she intends to raise a complaint to her local authority about her care plan. In addition, the young person has had the confidence to raise a complaint to the police regarding unwanted attention she received from an unknown male. There have been no complaints made against staff in this inspection period.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is suitably qualified and has managed this home since 2010. Staff say that she provides them with excellent support. She is available and approachable. A deputy manager provides an extra layer of support in the event of the manager’s absence. This ensures that the staff team benefits from strong and consistent leadership. High-quality reflective supervision is undertaken monthly. Staff enjoy this focused time and improve Inspection report children’s home: SC060811 5 their practice as a result.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has successfully improved her own monitoring systems for the home. As a result, the recommendation made at the last inspection has been met to a high standard. This demonstrates the staff team’s ability to progress and improve. This inspection found no breaches of regulation. No requirements or recommendations have been made.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

A thorough recruitment and induction process means that qualified and experienced staff work in the home. The manager is ambitious for her staff. She actively promotes development and encourages them to gain more skills and qualifications. In turn, the manager identifies when staff need more experience and makes necessary changes to her team, such as moving staff to larger homes in the organisation. Staff are confident and empowered to support the young person to make progress. In addition, staff receive excellent regular training that is focused on the young person in their care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager raises strong and successful challenges to partner agencies. She is a committed advocate for the young person, ensuring that the best care is given. The manager raised a challenge and complaint to the young person’s previous placement. This showed the young person that she is cared for. As a result, the young person continues to make positive progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Excellent external and internal monitoring systems ensure that the manager identifies areas of weakness quickly. The manager is thoughtful and open in her own assessment of the home. She recognises when change needs to be made and focuses on achieving this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff morale was low as a result of two placements ending. The young people did not engage fully with staff. Consequently this left staff feeling that they could have done more to support them. No negative impact has been reported by the young person. The manager was proactive in addressing this with the team and individually within supervision. A staff member said, ‘She [the manager] really wants you to achieve. She picks up on your strengths and makes you feel good about what you do.’ Inspection report children’s home: SC060811 6

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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’.

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Dove Adolescent Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 170 Southgate, Pontefract, West Yorkshire WF8 1QJ

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Barbara Whittaker

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Inspector

Abigail Maspero, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC060811 7 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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