Children's home run by Willows (Devon) Ltd in Dorset

Inspection report children’s home: SC367637 1 SC367637 Registered provider: Willows (Devon) Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is privately owned and is registered to provide care for nine young people who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. Accommodation is provided in two separate houses in the grounds. The on-site school provides education for children who live in the company’s three registered homes.

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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 requires improvement to be good

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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: SC367637 2

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Key findings from this inspection

 Children make good progress in relation to their health and their emotional, social and psychological well-being.  The relationships between children and the staff team are strong and caring. Children and the team maintain good relationships when they move out.  Children have positive day-to-day experiences. There are many opportunities for them to explore their interests, maintain and build on relationships with family and friends and do fun things.  Children become safer as, the team supports them to have a better understanding of risks.  Leaders and managers are strong advocates for children. This gives children the confidence to challenge decisions that other services make about their future that they may not agree with.

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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 academic progress that children make when in the school is inadequate. Leaders and managers have failed to identify this weakness.  Leaders and managers have not provided a small number of staff with regular supervision.  Records of consequences do not consistently detail their restorative nature.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 31/10/2016 Full Good 15/02/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 28/07/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC367637 3

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet the Care Standards Act 2000, Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

5: Engaging with the wider system to ensure the children’s needs are met

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Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs. (Regulation 5(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that leaders and managers challenge services such as education when they are not meeting the needs of children. 01/03/2018

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Requirement Due date

(4) The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

(b) receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33(4)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that staff consistently receive supervision on a regular basis. 01/03/2018

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Recommendations

 Ensure that records of consequences consistently detail their restorative nature (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38) Inspection report children’s home: SC367637 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress in relation to their health and emotional, social and psychological well-being. Children typically make progress in small steps. For some children, going to see a doctor or a dentist or wearing a school uniform and attending school is a huge achievement. Children attend the school that is attached to the home. The school is failing to provide an acceptable standard of education and is currently inadequate. Leaders and managers have failed to identify this.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The team builds children’s self-esteem effectively. Staff ensure that children focus on their future and raise their aspirations. During school inset days, leaders and the manager make arrangements for external providers to come to school to deliver training to children on first aid, food hygiene, fire safety and manual handling. Children receive certificates for this. Some children have also undertaken work experience and most of them take part in local charity events.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in a warm, caring and nurturing home. There are many photographs of the children and the team displayed around the house. Some children have their own pets, such as a rabbit or fish. Children care for animals appropriately and learn to take responsibility for caring for the cats and chickens which live at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff team is stable and well established. Most team members are long serving, and staff turnover is minimal. Leaders and managers employ a small bank of casual staff to cover any staffing shortfall. This gives children stability and consistency of care. Staff develop positive and nurturing relationships with the children. The team knows the children very well. Staff spend time with them and help them to achieve their goals.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children make the most of what the local community has to offer. Staff and children go out frequently for a coffee, shopping, cinema and ice skating. Some children also choose to attend local clubs such as drama and cadets. Every year the children go on holiday, and they plan this with the team. As a result, children develop their independence and self-esteem.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children keep in touch with their family and friends wherever possible, and the team supports them to build on these relationships. When required, the team will stay with children when they visit home to enable them to spend quality time with their family. Gradually, this level of support is reduced in line with the targets agreed in their individual care plans. Some of this work has enabled children to return home to live with family permanently.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Leaders and managers always plan ahead and help children to think about their future and where they would like to be when they move on. This support includes visiting colleges and potential work placements to support children to make the most suitable decisions. Children who move on keep in touch with the team regularly and come back Inspection report children’s home: SC367637 5 to visit, on occasion.

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

The team provides children with effective support that enables them to understand risk and be safe. When children move in, they have often had difficult experiences. Some come with risks associated with self-harm, abuse, child sexual exploitation, drug and alcohol misuse and going missing. The team helps children to develop a broader understanding of their previously harmful experiences and supports them to learn how to avoid risk. Staff plan and implement creative strategies, for example incorporating the outdoors and walking outings. This enables them to refocus and return home calmly, at times when there is a risk of children going missing. Using art as an outlet has helped a particular child stop harming herself.

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

On the occasions when children do go missing, the team responds swiftly. Staff know the places to search in the local area. ‘Missing’ protocols are initiated instantly. Leaders and managers commission a local agency to conduct all independent return home interviews on behalf of the local authority. Leaders and managers now receive copies of the interview notes.

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

Leaders and managers incorporate into the school day formal workshops facilitated by the local police force. Children have taken part in workshops about choice and consequence, online safety and a ‘traffic light’ awareness of healthy and unhealthy relationships. The team then reflects on these with children at home.

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

Children are consulted about the type of rewards that they can receive when they achieve or behave well. Children can also receive instant rewards for positive behaviour and achievements at school. Consequences are used in a restorative manner to help children to understand the impact of any poor behaviour. However, some of the records relating to consequences are unclear. There is therefore a recommendation in relation to this.

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

Physical restraint has been used on occasion to prevent children from harming themselves, other children or one of the team. The restraints that have taken place last for very short periods of time, often less than one minute. There was an occasion when the police were called to help the team to support a child’s behaviour. Leaders and the manager responded proactively by reviewing and learning from the incident. All staff have robust and reflective debriefings following any incident of physical restraint. Children are supported to reflect on the incident and voice any concerns. Leaders’ and managers’ monitoring of physical restraint is effective.

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

The team receives regular child protection training, and the designated safeguarding leads have training to the appropriate level. Leaders and managers have good systems in place to identify and report child protection concerns. Leaders and managers work jointly with other services to ensure that they manage child protection concerns with rigour. They include children in this process, and the team swiftly updates risk assessments to include any new information. Inspection report children’s home: SC367637 6

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Leaders and managers are experienced and qualified, and have been in post for a number of years. They consistently provide children with good- quality social care. The home’s development plan identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Leaders and managers recognise their lack of experience around the provision of education. They identified concerns about children’s education, because they had noticed that children were coming out of lessons more frequently. However, leaders and managers did not recognise that children do not make good progress when they are at school.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The quality of supervision is good. It is a challenging and reflective process. The staff say that leaders and managers support them well. A small number of staff have some gaps in their supervision, meaning that it is not as frequent as leaders and managers stipulate that it should be. Children review the performance of the team, and this feedback informs the team’s annual appraisals and personal development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The team meets on a monthly basis, and house managers take responsibility for the development of their homes and challenge practice that they want to develop. For example, a house manager is addressing how to move away from institutional language, including words like ‘contact’, ‘sibling’ and ‘unit’.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Leaders and managers have a training plan in place for the team, and this develops around the needs of the children. All the team members are up to date with their training. The psychologist who supports children living here also provides a training package to the team, and this covers topics such as self-esteem, resilience and attachment.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Effective monitoring systems enable leaders and managers to evaluate the quality of care and make improvements. There is a clear vision for the home and what it aims to achieve for children. Children who have moved on speak positively about their time at the home and how it has enabled them to progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Leaders and managers listen to children and develop their care around their views and opinions. Children write their own care plans and risk assessments with the team, and their voice is evident within these key documents. Children have not needed to use the complaints process, as any disputes or concerns are managed at a low level, before they can escalate to become a larger problem.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Leaders and managers advocate on behalf of children. This has resulted in some positive outcomes for children and their futures. An example of this is that one child has been able to stay living close to the home and in her local community, which she wanted to do, rather than moving back to the area from which she was placed.

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Information about this inspection

Inspection report children’s home: SC367637 7 Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the difference 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 that 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: SC367637 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Willows (Devon) Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: The Granary, Hinton Business Park, Tarrant Hinton, Blandford Forum, Dorset DT11 8JF

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Inspector

Nicola Lownds, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC367637 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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