Children's home run by Darlington Borough Council in Darlington

Inspection report children‟s home: SC038237 1 SC038237 Registered provider: Darlington Borough Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home offers short-term breaks for up to five children who have physical and/or learning disabilities. It is currently offering a service to 20 children.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 12 to 13 December 2017

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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 good

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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: 24 January 2017

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness Inspection report children‟s home: SC038237 2 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

 The staff group is knowledgeable and long-standing, offering consistency of care to children.  The staff team works closely with partners such as social work and health professionals to ensure that children have safe and enjoyable short-term breaks.  Planning documentation used by the team is of a high quality because it is highly individualised.  Flexibility is a particularly strong aspect of the manager‟s approach when matching the service to the needs of the child.  Parents are highly supportive of the home and say that they are content when their children stay, because they know that they are safe and having fun.  Children staying at the home enjoy an exceptionally wide range of leisure activities.  The manager champions the home‟s bespoke approach and this leads to the provision of a very high standard of personalised care.  The home provides the children with a homely and comfortable physical

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Key findings from this inspection

environment for their short-term breaks.  The home is evidently a learning environment. For instance, staff are well supported by regular and comprehensive training.

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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 home‟s admissions procedure is strong, but it could be better. Social workers consistently underestimate risk prior to short-term breaks commencing. This is addressed by the home, but only in the longer term. This means that the children go for prolonged periods without an accurate assessment of risk.  Once clearly identified, risk could be more consistently stated on the home‟s written risk management plans.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

24/01/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children‟s home: SC038237 3 29/06/2016 Full Good 10/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 29/10/2015 Full Good Inspection report children‟s home: SC038237 4

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Recommendations

 Ensure that risk assessments are kept up to date and relevant. In particular, ensure that any potential ambiguities on initial risk assessments and risk management plans are reviewed and eliminated. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 62, paragraph 14.3)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children who come to this home for short-term breaks are offered safe and enjoyable stays. They are looked after by highly knowledgeable staff who are observably proficient at the job they do. Because they learn from experience, the staff‟s practice is constantly developing and it is evident that outcomes for children continuously improve as a result.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

To ensure that staff are fully aware of the complexities of children‟s needs, the staff team works effectively in close partnership with a range of professionals, including a particularly wide variety of both education and healthcare personnel. Liaison with services for children with special educational needs has recently been further enhanced by the phased introduction of education and health care plans (EHCs). These now provide a detailed overview of children‟s complex needs. Staff provide fellow professionals with detailed information about the children, and learn how to care for the children in the best possible way from specialist assessments undertaken by other professionals. The result for the children is that they receive consistent, integrated care from all of the professionals involved in their lives. This open and inclusive approach to learning ensures children‟s continued progress against planned outcomes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Social workers allocated to the children who stay at the home for short-term breaks are highly positive about the role the home plays in their support plans for children with complex needs. Staff at the home now complete highly individualised day-to-day care plans, which support safe and enjoyable short-term breaks by providing comprehensive details about the personalised day-to-day care requirements of each child. These plans are regularly reviewed and updated by the home‟s staff. One positive aspect of the home that is especially highly valued by social workers is its flexibility when putting together bespoke packages of care. These are appropriately provided in line with the children‟s assessed needs and one social worker said that she had „nothing but praise‟ for the home‟s „flexible and helpful‟ approach.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

When children stay at the home, the regular regimes of medication that meet their complex needs are maintained because the home has in place robust systems for the management and administration of medicines. Continuity with the administration of the children‟s medication at their family homes is ensured by the home‟s rigorous system. A Inspection report children‟s home: SC038237 5 recent notification to Ofsted regarding improper administration of medication came about as a result of a mistake by the dispensing chemist, not the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Parents are highly complimentary about the service received from the home, and their comments are now gathered in a compliments book which demonstrates the children‟s parents‟ support for the home. One foster carer said that the home works with her in close partnership to ensure that the children placed with her keep to the set routines she has established. She is assured that the children are safe and happy when they are staying at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children staying at the home are offered an exceptionally wide range of leisure activities. For example, the home has a large variety of activities to enjoy both indoors and in its spacious and safe outdoor play area, the bright appearance of which has recently been further enhanced by volunteers from the National Citizen Service. The home has been presented with an award for the children‟s artwork; this has both boosted the children‟s self-esteem and brightened a previously drab area of the home, which is now decorated with the children‟s colourful pictures. The home also takes part in activities in the community, such as a promenade theatre performance which the children thoroughly enjoyed.

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

Children staying at the home have complex needs, and need to be kept safe. Consequently, the home‟s safeguarding practice is primarily concerned with the management of the risk of harm that occurs. This home does not have an issue with the children going missing or becoming exploited. Children are not restrained or sanctioned for their behaviour.

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

A particular strength of the home‟s management of risk is its relationship with the team of social workers allocated to the children. The quality of the information received from social workers has observably improved. Staff now have access to assessments and plans on case files that are detailed and suitably analytical, which supports effective risk assessment.

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

Risk management is therefore generally strong, with clear management plans that appropriately detail risks of harm to the children and identify ways of mitigating risk. However, the initial risk assessments completed by social workers as part of the home‟s comprehensive admissions procedure are invariably overly positive. They usually have to be revised after children have stayed at the home and staff have got to know them better. This means that the children go for prolonged periods during which they are not the subject of an accurate risk assessment, which calls into question the usefulness of the initial risk assessment process as part of the home‟s admission procedures.

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

When staff do identify risk, they are not uniform and consistent in the statements they write down on risk management plans. This might potentially cause confusion regarding the levels of risk that the children face. No children are placed at direct risk because of Inspection report children‟s home: SC038237 6 these shortfalls, but the existing strong risk management processes would be further enhanced if they were reviewed in order to eliminate any opportunities for ambiguity.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home is well run by a suitably qualified and experienced registered manager who, according to the manager of the social work team that works in partnership with the home, „models the home‟s “can-do” approach‟. Management of the home is highly effective and its inclusivity engenders a „family‟ atmosphere among everyone involved in the provision of short-term breaks, including staff, partners and parents, but most importantly the children themselves. The children are fully enabled to exercise choice and preference at the home, for example in regard to what they eat or what activities they wish to enjoy. This is effectively achieved through the use of specialised communication techniques, as the children are often non-verbal.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The physical environment of the home is very warm, friendly and homely. It is decorated and maintained to a very high standard, which supports the provision of comfortable short-term breaks for the children. One local community health practitioner who works in close partnership with the home described it as a „home from home‟.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff are appropriately supervised and their learning needs are fully considered and met by the home‟s managers. This means that children‟s unique needs are very well understood and catered for by the home‟s staff. Where there is a specific need, the home is highly proactive in meeting it. For instance, health professionals are frequently asked to attend team meetings and train staff in medical procedures to keep children safe. Handouts from these sessions are suitably evidenced in children‟s individual case files.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home is effectively regulated, and is visited regularly and independently under regulation 44 of the Children‟s Homes Regulations 2015. The home‟s manager is routinely receptive to observations and comments made by the independent visitor. For example, the independent visitor recommended keeping the compliments book, which has been effective in helping the home to understand both what it does well and what it could do better.

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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 Inspection report children‟s home: SC038237 7 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: SC038237 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Town Hall, Feethams, Darlington, County Durham DL1 5QT

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Jane Kochanowski

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Inspector:

Ian Young, HMI Inspection report children‟s home: SC038237 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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