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Inspection report children’s home: SC488943 1 SC488943 Registered provider: Unity Residential Care Services

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is registered to provide care for up to three young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. A private company operates this home.

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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: 15 February 2017

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: Sustained effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

None Inspection report children’s home: SC488943 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

 Young people develop strong and trusting relationships with a highly dedicated staff team.  The registered manager has established a calm, nurturing environment which young people respect and take pride in.  Young people receive highly individualised care that reflects their age, understanding and individual needs.  Young people thrive educationally as a result of the focus and support that staff place on this area of their development.  Young people’s physical and emotional health improves as a result of the care that they receive.  Staff are particularly child focused in their practice and have a proven ability to challenge and achieve positive change that means young people are increasingly safe.  Young people’s family contact significantly improves as a result of the support that staff offer. Family members feel comfortable to visit the home and have a direct involvement in the day-to-day care of their child.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Staff and young people are mutually respectful. Staff create positive behaviour management through using praise and reward rather than sanctions.  The registered manager ensures that records in the home are well maintained. She has implemented excellent monitoring systems that help to drive service development, which is aimed at getting it right for every young person.  Staff receive high-quality training, which is focused around the needs of young people.  The registered manager has developed a particularly strong working relationship with local police that has helped to strengthen staff safeguarding practice and to help each young person to feel safe.

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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 does not always ensure that staff supervision records are sufficiently detailed. Inspection report children’s home: SC488943 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 28/11/2016 Full Outstanding 08/03/2016 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC488943 4

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendations:

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Recommendations

 Ensure that a note of the content and/or outcomes of supervision sessions is kept and to ensure that both the person giving the supervision and staff member have a copy of the record. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.4)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people benefit from strong, significant relationships with a highly dedicated staff team. Young people have trust in these relationships. A young person told the inspector, ‘They really care for you. It’s not like they are here because they are paid or because it’s their job, they are here because they want to be and they care about you and want you to do well.’ This unconditional and positive care gives young people confidence in their ability to achieve.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The registered manager has established a homely and nurturing environment. A social worker said, ‘This is a very therapeutic environment; staff are calm. If the staff are calm, the children are calm.’ Young people personalise their own bedrooms and are involved in developing the home. For example, young people have helped to establish a vegetable patch in the garden. This has given young people the experience of growing their own vegetables that can be used to prepare healthy meals.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff use research and implement innovative tools to support and motivate young people. They ensure that documents relating to young people’s care are amended to reflect their age and understanding so that each young person can contribute to their care plan. As a result, young people receive extremely personalised care, which supports them to make excellent progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff prioritise young people’s education, with all young people seeing daily school attendance as the norm. They take all young people to and from school, at times over a significant distance, and use these opportunities to build positive relationships with school staff. A social worker said, ‘They have been really proactive about school. They had to act really quickly; the staff have done everything that they needed to do to make it happen.’ In response, young people demonstrate positive attitudes to education, with school attendance for some young people now achieving 100%.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people’s physical and emotional health improve as a result of the care that they Inspection report children’s home: SC488943 5 receive. Staff ensure that young people’s health needs are met. Young people are involved in compiling their health plans and understand the aims of these plans.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff support young people’s progress with clearly targeted key-work sessions. The progress achieved in these is reviewed with young people. Work has included self-harm support strategies and online safety. A nominated staff member oversees key-work practice in the home. This oversight helps to monitor staff practice and supports staff with identifying specialist resources. Young people recognise the support that they receive and the role that staff have played. A young person told the inspector, ‘The staff will always help you here – if you feel like you are going downhill then they talk to you and help you to remember what your goals are so you stay focused.’ A social worker told the inspector about one young person, ‘Staff aren’t just ticking the box here, they do some really good work about her wishes and feelings.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people are supported to care for individual pets. For example, one young person has tropical fish and another young person has a bearded dragon. This provides them with a level of responsibility and the opportunity to show the nurture they have learned as a result of living in this home. Young people participate in a range of activities that reflect their interests. Consequently, young people enjoy going horse riding, having regular cinema trips, attending cadets and going running. Young people have the opportunity of a holiday each year. The registered manager is clear that young people will not be disadvantaged as a result of living in the home and will have the same opportunities as other young people. A parent told the inspector, ‘They just want her to be like a normal kid, they don’t want her to have that stigma that she’s in care.’ This approach promotes young people’s confidence and supports the development of self-

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The kitchen is a hive for activity and socialising. Young people naturally gravitate to the kitchen after school and help staff with cooking. They also join in with conversations with staff to share experiences of their day. Young people want to get involved in their self-care and the running of the home. As a result, they have learned to wash their own clothes and make their own beds. This means that young people are learning essential life skills but in a relaxed and supportive way that promotes their independence skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The registered manager models strong advocacy for young people, and this is reflected across the staff team. Staff are highly child focused and have demonstrated their ability to challenge and achieve change for young people in all areas of their care plan.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff work hard to keep meaningful records of young people’s time at the home. Each young person has an individual memory box with photos and achievements from their time at the home. In addition, staff keep individual handwritten appointment diaries for each young person, with notes of activities, events or funny incidents. This supports young people to have a positive understanding of their history when they move on from the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people’s contact with their family members, including families who live at a distance, improves significantly as a result of the support provided by staff. This has Inspection report children’s home: SC488943 6 included support for visits, both at the home and in young people’s home area. One social worker said, ‘They have helped her get the changes that she wanted and they are really supportive of it, which has helped. It’s managed really well, I don’t know what else to say, there is face-to-face contact and they just sort it, it’s done.’

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

Safeguarding of young people is of paramount concern to all staff. As a result, young people feel safe living in this home. One young person told the inspector, ‘This is the safest I have ever been.’ The committed and respectful relationships established between staff and young people help to encourage openness and honesty. Because of this level of care, young people are more confident to discuss risk and seek staff advice and support.

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

Staff are extremely alert and responsive to safeguarding issues. A police officer said, ‘Safeguarding here is second to none. They have really thorough procedures here to keep young people safe.’ Staff know and understand safeguarding processes. Their confidence and ability to implement these means that risks are quickly identified and action taken. This means that young people are protected.

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

Risk management plans are very detailed. Staff encourage young people to be regularly involved in reviews and updating these plans. As a result, staff have clear guidance about how to implement effective behaviour management strategies that take into account the views and opinions of each young person.

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

Staff promote a positive culture of praise and reward. As a result, negative consequences and physical intervention are rarely used.

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

Staff are proactive in managing situations when young people go missing from the home. This includes following young people into the community, which has at times encouraged young people to return to the home. When young people do go missing from the home, staff work closely with police and social workers to try to understand the motivation for this behaviour. When this information is not forthcoming, the registered manager actively challenges this, recognising the need to form risk assessments based on current and accurate understanding.

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

The registered manager ensures that staff receive comprehensive safeguarding training. This includes specialist training regarding radicalisation, and supporting young people at risk of child sexual exploitation. The registered manager has recently implemented these as mandatory training modules for all staff, to reinforce their significance.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Inspection report children’s home: SC488943 7 The registered manager has been in post since the home opened in 2015. She holds a level 5 qualification in leadership and management.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager has an exceptionally good understanding of her service. She promotes a culture of continuous improvement both for staff and young people. She has high expectations of her staff and for the young people who they care for. This is reflected in a positive culture of progress and praise throughout the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Records held at the home are comprehensive and maintained to an extremely high standard. The registered manager has implemented excellent monitoring and review systems. These support her to review the service and identify areas of development. This is further supported by the monthly visits undertaken by the home’s independent visitor.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager and the responsible individual take responsibility for staff recruitment. This means that all staff who work at the home are assessed as safe to work with young people. Recently, staff recruitment has included a review of applicants’ learning styles. This supports the manager to build a diverse team and to understand how best to support new staff in the early stages of their induction

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff development plans incorporate clear competency targets that support a continuous improvement model. The registered manager actively supports staff to progress their individual career aspirations. This creates a highly skilled and motivated staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager ensures that staff receive regular supervision that supports them to reflect and learn from their practice. Staff reported that they feel supported by the manager and able to discuss areas openly. A member of staff said, ‘If I’m honest if I have a problem I go direct to [the registered manager] and we sort it. I don’t feel like I have to wait for supervision.’ Because of this, staff feel safe and supported in their roles. However, records of supervision do not always clearly identify the actions agreed. This could prevent staff from understanding and responding to these in a timely manner.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff work closely with a wide range of professionals to support the young people. For example, through working closely with the local police, staff have helped to reduce young people’s anxieties regarding the police and enabled them to feel protected by the police.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager makes sure that the home operates in line with its statement of purpose and that this is regularly updated. This ensures that parents and professionals understand the aims and objectives of the home.

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Information about this inspection

Inspection report children’s home: SC488943 8 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: SC488943 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Unity Residential Care Services

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 98 Lancaster Road, Newcastle Under Lyme ST5 1DS

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Inspector

Tracey Coglan Greig, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC488943 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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