Children's home run by Pathway Care Solutions Ltd in Nottingham

Inspection report children’s home: SC357077 1 SC357077 Registered provider: Pathway Care Solutions II Ltd

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is registered to accommodate up to four children and young people who have learning disabilities. The service is owned and operated by a private company.

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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 outstanding

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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: 13 December 2016

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

None Inspection report children’s home: SC357077 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

 Staff provide exceptional care that promotes excellent outcomes for all young people. Staff use their knowledge and skills to meet the needs of young people in a nurturing and playful manner. Staff morale is very high at this home.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Placement stability is excellent. Staff pride themselves on achieving longer-term placements. Young people form strong attachments to staff and to each other. There is a strong family feel to this home. Young people and staff enjoy spending time with each other.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Staff work incredibly hard with a range of other agencies and with parents and carers in order to secure improved outcomes for young people. Feedback from all stakeholders was highly positive. One education provider said: ‘The staff are so fabulous. This is the best care home that I have worked with, by far.’

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Key findings from this inspection

 From their starting points, young people make exceptional progress in all areas of their development. Incidents of challenging behaviour reduce dramatically, and for some young people there have been no incidents of challenging behaviour for over a year.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Staff pride themselves on promoting good educational outcomes and they have supported young people to maintain long-term educational placements.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Staff and managers demonstrate a real passion for supporting young people in all areas of their lives. Young people, parents and partner agencies all comment on this. One young person’s relative said: ‘I feel part of a family. I love it and it brings joy to me to see the young person doing so well there.’

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Key findings from this inspection

 Staff are highly creative and flexible in the way that they work with young people. They use a number of theoretical approaches in their work. They ensure that theoretical approaches are consistently applied across the whole team. Young people are central to their practice and there is extensive evidence of young people’s participation and consultation across the service.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Inspirational, strong managers run this home and have a real commitment to improving outcomes for young people. They understand the barriers and act as hugely positive advocates for young people who are looked after. They challenge any perceived failings by placing authorities and other agencies to ensure that young people’s needs are prioritised.

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Key findings from this inspection

 No shortfalls have been identified and no recommendations or requirements are made at this inspection. Inspection report children’s home: SC357077 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/12/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 18/08/2016 Full Outstanding 15/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 09/12/2015 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC357077 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The overall progress that young people make is exceptional. Staff provide a nurturing and extremely supportive environment. This is underpinned by trusting relationships between staff and young people. Staff demonstrate empathy and playfulness in their work with young people. Staff combine this with a comprehensive understanding of young people’s individual needs and histories, contributing to excellent outcomes for young people.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people make excellent progress in all areas of their development. There is a strong team-around-the-child approach that ensures that the whole team is involved in plans and reviews for young people. This is linked to high levels of communication between staff and to working together with other agencies. Stakeholder feedback is exceptional from all agencies, including social workers, education providers and therapists. Agencies report what fantastic work the home has achieved with young people and the significant progress that young people make. Families also provide very positive feedback.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Behaviour management is excellent. For one young person, incidents have decreased over time and the need for physical intervention has decreased significantly. Staff monitor and track behaviour. They can identify triggers and they tailor their responses accordingly. Young people have secure and trusting relationships with staff. This supports young people’s sense of stability. Placement stability has ultimately led to young people’s health needs being met. There are positive health outcomes for young people, such as medication reviews, healthy weight management and the development of speech and language skills. Health promotion is important in the home. The home has done some commendable work to support young people to reduce reliance on anti- anxiety medication. There is a strong emphasis on stabilising young people with appropriate and safe boundaries, routines and structures. One teaching assistant said: ‘I

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

find the home is excellent. The young person is very comfortable and content and it really is his home. His anxiety levels are much lower at the home. He is like a different boy there.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people are supported to engage in fun activities both inside and outside of the home. They make exceptional progress, particularly in increasing their self-esteem. A parent said: ‘I couldn’t manage to get him out before, and he is out all the time with staff now. It is 100% the best place he has ever had or could have.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people’s involvement and participation in their care are excellent. Admission and discharge processes are child-centred. Young people generally have longer-term placements at this home. There is evidence of young people’s participation throughout the home, in all documentation, and within the home’s development plan. Young people are truly at the centre of practice within this home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Three young people are engaged in full-time education. Their attendance is excellent Inspection report children’s home: SC357077 5 and they have benefited from long-term educational placements. For one young person, staff, alongside other professionals, have tried to reintegrate him back into an educational placement. Despite lots of support this was not successful. Staff have ensured consistency for the young person by facilitating study in the home with the young person’s teaching assistant.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Key workers and managers track young people’s progress on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Social workers receive comprehensive monthly reports. These reports evidence what young people have engaged with and achieved. Communication with key agencies is exceptional.

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

Staff work tirelessly to ensure that children are safe. Highly effective planning and risk assessment contribute to a reduction in risky behaviours. Plans are thorough and are regularly reviewed by the team. Young people’s risks are well known, shared and documented. Staff work hard to respond to known risks. Incidents of challenging behaviour, violence to staff and physical interventions reduce over time. An overview of progress regarding risk-taking behaviour is well documented. This is fed back to other agencies through well-structured and informative monthly summaries and through reports for looked after reviews.

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

Young people at the home do not go missing and they are not deemed to be at risk of child sexual exploitation. Staff maintain their safeguarding training and remain alert to possible risk factors.

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

Staff undertake a broad range of training. Safeguarding continues to be a thread throughout staff supervision and team meetings. Staff experienced a difficult summer period when risks were heightened. The team pulled together to ensure that the risks were minimised as much as possible for both staff and young people.

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

The quality of risk assessments is excellent. Staff assess each risk and identify potential triggers and responses. Children are supported wherever possible to take safe and appropriate risks in line with their care plans and their developmental needs.

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

Physical intervention to manage risk to the young person or to others is managed and recorded well. A number of strategies are used to manage challenging behaviour and physical intervention is used as the very last resort. Physical intervention, along with other behaviour management strategies, is clearly logged and tracked. There is excellent management oversight. Over time, there is a distinct reduction in the use of physical intervention with young people, as they become more able to self-regulate and communicate their needs in a safe manner.

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

Staff recruitment is safe. Safeguarding processes are central to staff recruitment and there is clear evidence of thorough and robust scrutiny of staff during the recruitment and selection process. Inspection report children’s home: SC357077 6

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home is led by a very experienced, strong manager. She has used her knowledge, skills and experience to promote positive outcomes for young people. She also leads an excellent staff team, delivering a shared ethos. The deputy manager is equally equipped to manage this service well, and the two managers complement each other. The managers are inspirational, confident and ambitious for the young people in their care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The monitoring and review of plans is exceptional and the home is able to evidence change in young people’s progress through behaviour management plans, regular internal tracking processes and providing feedback to other agencies.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Gathering user feedback is a strength of the service. There are extensive feedback forms that show a comprehensive log of parents’, agencies’ and young people’s views on the service. These are unanimously positive about what the service does well and how well young people achieve when they live here.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Young people can express their wishes and feelings in a number of ways. Participation is a thread throughout all work in the home, including planned key-work sessions, the life- skills programme and young people’s meetings. In addition, young people can access the complaints process within the home. Young people have access to independent advocates.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff supervision and team meetings are structured, take place regularly and are well recorded. Staff feel able to share their experiences and they respect the manager. The ethos of the home is supported through a strong nurturing approach towards both young people and staff. It is commendable that there are close and positive relationships within the staff team. A member of staff said: ‘The staff team is really positive. We know how each other works and we are dynamic. It’s amazing to have a team like this. I’ve never had it before. The way that management are, they are strong and help new staff to fit in really well. We are all different and unique and we all bring something. We are like a massive family.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Therapeutic intervention is central to how care is provided. This model of intervention is shared with other agencies with a view to achieving consistency for young people, and preventing services for young people breaking down. Staff are supported emotionally through open and transparent team meetings and supervision meetings. They receive training and support from the organisation’s therapist. Other positive incentives are employee of the month and employee of the year awards. Staff morale is high and incredibly positive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager recognises that training needs to be refreshed regularly and will source appropriate training when necessary. Recruitment, induction and training of staff are comprehensive and thorough, with staff receiving excellent support through their developmental stages within the organisation. Inspection report children’s home: SC357077 7 Transitions are carefully considered. The manager makes clear decisions that are based on the best interests of the young people at the home. For one young person, this was to ensure that they received appropriate mental health services and to assess the risks to and from them. Managers were assertive and clear with placing authorities, and when the placement ended, staff were able to share comprehensive information with the new provider and support transitions.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Matching is carefully planned prior to young people’s placements. New placements are thoroughly risk-assessed, leading to good matches. Staff recognise that careful thought and consideration goes into this and they are confident that they will be able to meet the needs of young people coming into the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Family contact is central to the care that is offered to young people. Staff include parents and carers and support them in improving contact arrangements for themselves and the young people. Relationships are rebuilt over time and families are incredibly grateful for this.

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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: SC357077 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Pathway Care Solutions II Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 1 Merchants Place, River Street, Bolton BL2 1BX

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Inspector

Bev Allison, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC357077 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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