Children's home run by Good Foundations Limited

Inspection report children’s home: SC456417 1 SC456417 Registered provider: Good Foundations Limited

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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 privately owned children’s home is registered to care for four young people who may 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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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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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 feel at home living in this extremely supportive family atmosphere. The outstanding quality of individualised care and support is improving young people’s lives. They are making exceptional and sustained Inspection report children’s home: SC456417 2 progress. Staff help young people to have aspirations and to reach their full potential.  Young people feel safe and emotionally secure because they are valued and nurtured. They have extremely positive and trusting relationships with staff. Staff bring stability to young people’s lives and give them the chance to recover from negative experiences. With staff’s sensitive and skilful support, young people are developing constructive ways of managing their feelings and controlling their behaviour.  Staff are skilled at identifying and managing risk. Their outstanding safe care practices protect young people from harm.  The registered manager and staff play an active part in each young person’s

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Key findings from this inspection

wider support network. They have strong working relationships with parents, social workers, teachers and health services and are extremely effective at making sure that young people’s needs are fully met.  The registered manager leads a highly effective, skilful, experienced compassionate team of staff. They are open, reflective, enthusiastic and positive people who are dedicated to improving young people’s lives. Young people benefit greatly from the effective and committed leadership and management of the home.

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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

 Monitor the level of young people’s participation in the review of the quality of care they receive and the content of young people’s meetings.  Improve the recording of supervision and team meetings to evidence reflective practice on young people’s experiences, progress and support needs, and learning from training.  Include a clear action plan for improvements in the review of the quality of care provided.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

01/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 08/11/2016 Full Outstanding 09/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 10/11/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC456417 3

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Recommendations

 Children must be consulted regularly on their views about the home’s care, to inform and support continued improvement in the quality of care provided. Children should be able to see the results of their views being listened to and acted upon. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.11) With particular regard to ensuring that children’s views are included in the review of the quality of care. In addition, ensure that children’s meetings are led by them and really focus on their ideas.  It is good practice for a note of the content and/or outcomes of supervision sessions to be kept. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.4) With particular regard to the records capturing staff reflection on their training and the discussion regarding the needs of individual young people and the plans that were agreed.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should undertake a review that focuses on the quality of care provided by the home, the experiences of children living there and the impact care is having on outcomes and improvements for children. The review should enable the registered person to identify areas of strength and possible weaknesses in the home’s care, which is captured in the written report. The report should clearly identify any actions required for the next 6 months of delivery within the home and how those actions will be addressed. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, pages 64 and 65, paragraphs 15.2 and 15.4)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people are flourishing while living in this extremely positive, supportive and comfortable home. Young people said, ‘It feels like home and I know I belong here,’ and ‘I used to get kicked out of foster homes, but [here] they have given me stability and made a big difference to my life.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The registered manager and staff provide young people with an extremely high calibre of personalised care that meets their assessed needs and is making an exceptional difference to their experiences and outcomes. Young people are happier, safer, healthier, doing better in education and are more able to accept help. They understand and manage their feelings, feel more confident, and are developing their skills and talents, and have ambitions for the future. The headteacher of a virtual school said that ‘[young person’s name] is a real success story. He had a very difficult past, but they have helped him settle down and do well. They advocated for him and wanted him to do the best he can.’ A social worker said that the staff ‘are doing a fantastic job with [young Inspection report children’s home: SC456417 4 person’s name]. He has come a long way.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The registered manager and staff support young people to express themselves as individuals and to exercise suitable freedom and choice in relation to the day-to-day arrangements for their care. Young people make decisions about their clothes, the food they eat, and how they spend their spare time. They are also fully involved in decisions about their lives, including choices around seeing their family, education and training and plans for their future. Staff encourage and support young people to take part in meetings about their lives and to talk about their wishes. However, the registered manager’s review of the quality of care does not include young people’s views about the home, to influence improvements in how they are being looked after. Young people’s meetings tend to focus on things that the adults want to talk about. The meetings do not provide a real opportunity for young people to talk about what is important to them

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

and to provide valuable information about their experience in the home. The registered manager recently missed the opportunity to include young people in his review of the rewards system and did not involve them in the design of a new one.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The registered manager and staff are open and honest with young people. A young person said, ‘Staff are straightforward. They don’t lie and tell you like it is.’ When young people’s wishes are not in their best interests, staff always clearly and carefully explain why they cannot agree with what the young person wants, for example wanting more unsupervised time using the internet. They help young people to understand and accept the decision.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people benefit from effective care planning and staff’s strong working relationships with their families, placing authorities and other people involved in young people’s lives. Their plans are continually monitored and regularly reviewed to make sure that they are getting the best possible support to meet their needs and plan for the future. Carefully planned arrangements help young people to spend time with their parents, brothers and sisters, friends and other people important to them. Staff work actively and positively to help young people maintain meaningful relationships, understand their identity, feel part of their family and improve their self-esteem. They work sensitively with young people and their parents, brothers and sisters to try to overcome difficulties and rebuild relationships. They always make sure that seeing family and friends is a safe and positive experience. A social worker said that ‘the registered

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

manager’s positive relationship with [young person’s name]’s parents has helped to improve the quality of relationships and reintroduced contact with their dad.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The registered manager and staff provide structure, stability and encouragement for young people to learn, develop their knowledge and skills, and do well. Young people have access to books, games, arts and crafts materials and computers to support their learning. The staff have supported young people to make massive improvements in their participation in education, attitude to learning, enjoyment of school life, achievements, and aspirations for the future. For example, a young person successfully passed his GCSEs and is now enjoying a BTEC course at college.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The registered manager and staff work extremely well with teachers, social workers and Inspection report children’s home: SC456417 5 placing authorities to tackle barriers to learning and improve opportunities for young people. They actively support young people to return to mainstream school. The head of the virtual school said, ‘ The manager and the staff are very supportive of children’s education, work well with schools, try to sort out problems in school, always attend meetings and advocate strongly for children’s best interests and education.’ When young people are excluded from school, staff always make sure that they have access to education support, such as online learning programmes, and return to school as soon as possible.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The registered manager and staff work extremely hard to make sure that children get the right support and guidance to help them develop their life skills and prepare for moving into their own accommodation. A young person said, ‘Staff have helped me become independent. I shop and cook for myself. My personal adviser is helping me to look for a place of my own and sorting out a driving licence. I have regular meetings to talk and plan about what is happening.’ In this way, young people are fully involved in planning their futures. Staff ensure that young people have every opportunity to develop practical life skills, including shopping, cooking, managing money and setting up a new home. They also learn about where they can get support from when they need it and to understand their rights and entitlements as care leavers. A personal adviser said, ‘They have done a lot of work on [young person’s name]’s independence. They follow a clear

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

plan and only sign off on tasks once they’re convinced he is able to achieve them independently. They know him well and this has really helped me to know how to support him in the future.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people’s physical health and emotional well-being continue to improve. They enjoy healthy and nutritious food and get plenty of physical exercise, in particular trampolining. The staff support individuals well and ensure that young people get excellent support from health services to meet their needs and to help them understand about healthy lifestyles and the impact on their health from taking drugs and substance misuse. Staff have an excellent understanding of young people’s specific health needs and manage these with sensitivity and confidence. They support children to understand the importance of good dental health and personal care. They closely monitor young people to make sure that they are healthy, and ensure that young people always get suitable medical advice and treatment when they are feeling unwell or when they are concerned about their health.

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

The registered manager and staff’s highly effective professional practice protects young people from harm. Young people’s welfare is their priority. They make sure that young people live in an exceptionally supportive, safe and emotionally warm home.

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

The registered manager and staff’s capacity and ability to build meaningful relationships with young people are exceptional. They have created a relaxed and friendly atmosphere where everyone gets along. Young people have clear boundaries that help them to understand the expected standard of behaviour, how they will be treated, and know that staff care about what happens to them. They feel emotionally secure and find it easy to Inspection report children’s home: SC456417 6 accept the daily routines that have brought stability and structure to their lives.

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

Young people feel safe and trust the staff. They know that staff are there for them, listen to their concerns and take them seriously. A young person said, ‘The staff are really nice to you. If you need to talk, you know you can talk to them.’ Another young person’s face lit up when he talked about his key worker and said, ‘He’s like me mate. Easy to talk to, he’s upfront and that.’

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

Young people are increasingly safer from the risk of abuse, neglect, bullying, aggression and exploitation. The registered manager and staff continually assess the risks to each young person and manage the level of risk exceptionally well. Staff balance protecting children effectively with enabling them to take appropriate and reasonable risks to promote their personal growth, including using social media and spending time with friends in the community. They are vigilant and take effective action to deal with any concerns about young people’s safety in line with their legal responsibilities. They have effective relationships with the local police, social workers, the local authority, schools and health professionals. This well-established professional network works together successfully to identify the risks facing children and takes appropriate action that protects them.

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

Most of the young people do not go missing from home and are very good at keeping in touch with staff when they go out. When young people have gone missing, staff always act quickly to find them together with the police and social workers. When young people return home, staff always provide them with a warm welcome, check to see if they need medical attention and get them something to eat and drink. Young people have the opportunity to see an independent person to talk about what happened and the reasons for them going missing.

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

Staff get to know each young person exceptionally well, understand their personal needs and how best to communicate and support them. A personal adviser said, ‘The manager is brilliant with [the young person’s name]. He is open and honest with him, willing to challenge him in a positive way that enables him to move on and feel confident.’ Staff’s compassionate and skilful approach is helping children to manage their feelings, control their behaviour, understand risk, improve relationships and recover from negative experiences and trauma. The registered manager and staff’s behaviour management strategies are extremely effective at reinforcing positive behaviour. Young people’s behaviour is usually very good. When young people struggle to manage their feelings, staff deal with them calmly and give them time and space to think and talk about what is upsetting them. They continually monitor their ways of working to make sure that they

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

are using them consistently and meeting young people’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Young people benefit enormously from living in this highly effectively and extremely well organised children’s home. The registered manager is experienced and continues to complete the required management qualification to enhance his skills. He is a positive and passionate leader. He makes every effort to provide young people with the best Inspection report children’s home: SC456417 7 possible support and guidance to meet their individual needs. He is ambitious for young people to do well, to reach their full potential and lead happy and fulfilling lives. These high expectations are fixed in every aspect of the running of the home and are fully implemented in practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager and staff have a detailed understanding of each young person’s needs, the progress they are making and the priorities for their care. They ensure that young people are cared for in line with their agreed plans. They are quick to identify when children are struggling. They work together exceptionally well with parents, families, social workers, teachers and health agencies to make sure that young people get the support they need. The registered manager and staff play an important and active role in the wider support network for each young person. They are tenacious advocates for young people and always act in their best interests. They fight for young people to get the right help and challenge parents, social workers and schools to make sure they get it, while maintaining effective working relationships.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager has created an open and positive working environment for staff to provide children with an extremely high standard of care and consistency. A small, stable, experienced and committed staff team provides young people with an exceptionally high quality of care. The skills within the staff team meet young people’s needs exceptionally well. Cohesive and effective teamwork helps members of staff to share information about young people and make sure that they are looked after consistently in line with their plans. Young people are looked after by the same people who get to know them well. This provides young people with a continuity of care that has helped them to form secure attachments with members of staff. Young people have a strong sense of belonging and all of them see it as their home. This is helping young people to overcome difficulties in their lives to make sustained progress and achieve

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager provides each member of staff with excellent support, guidance and encouragement. Staff clearly understand their roles and responsibilities. They have regular opportunities through high-quality practice-related supervision and team meetings to reflect on young people’s progress, their own performance, share skills, and develop their skills and knowledge. The registered manager supports and encourages staff to develop expertise by gaining qualifications and to complete good-quality training relevant to the individual needs of the young people and by taking on new responsibilities. The registered manager, for example, encourages staff to attend meetings to build their confidence in sharing their views with other professionals.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Unfortunately, the records of supervision and team meetings do not always show the extent of the discussion and reflection around the needs of individual young people and the plans that were agreed. Also, the supervision records do not show that staff are reflecting on their training with their manager. This information is important to help everyone understand the plans for each young person and how staff are using their training to support young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager has a realistic and accurate understanding of the home’s Inspection report children’s home: SC456417 8 strengths and areas for development. The quality of the external monitoring by an independent person provides a thorough scrutiny of professional practice and the efficiency of the running of the home. The registered manager uses the independent person’s reports to improve the quality of the care for young people. For example, he is taking steps to make sure that young people’s meetings are more child-focused and enable young people to lead the discussion.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager reviews the quality of care. However, his findings are not currently being brought together effectively to show the direct impact that the quality of care is having on young people’s experiences and outcomes. Likewise, he has not developed action plans to show how any weaknesses he has found will be dealt with. This would help him to monitor the quality of care thoroughly, measure progress, and show the improvements being made. The registered manager’s review of the quality of care shows the ways in which he consults with young people about living in the home, but does not reflect on what they actually say or how their views are being used to improve their experiences.

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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: SC456417 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Good Foundations Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 6 Tower Quays, Tower Road, Birkenhead, Merseyside CH41 1BP

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Inspector

Nick Veysey, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC456417 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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