Children's home run by St Cuthbert’s Care in Newcastle upon Tyne

Inspection report children’s home: SC433451 1 SC433451 Registered provider: St Cuthbert’s Care

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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 run by a charitable organisation and is registered for the care and accommodation of up to six children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 06 to 07 February 2018

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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

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

 The registered manager is exceptional. She has a lot of experience and is very skilled. She is confident and persistent and leads the staff team extremely well. There is no doubt that the children and young people are her focus and she is Inspection report children’s home: SC433451 2 ambitious for all of them. She ensures that the experience of living in the home is excellent for all the children and young people.  The children and young people are supported to make excellent progress with a range of relevant personalised work. The staff complete this well and also refer children and young people to external specialists as required. The staff create an environment with clear boundaries and expectations that is high on nurturing and individual care.  All the children and young people are attending school or college and achieving well. The staff support their education by working closely with staff at the

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Key findings from this inspection

school and colleges and also by helping the children and young people to do extra work at the home.  Family work is given a high priority. The staff support the children and young people to both maintain and develop their relationships and contact with their families. This is often carried out in difficult circumstances.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 04/10/2016 Full Outstanding 16/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 05/01/2016 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC433451 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children and young people living at this home have very good relationships with the staff. The staff offer highly individualised care and this ensures the children and young people make excellent progress. As a result, the experience of living in the home is excellent for the children and young people. One young person has built excellent relationships with staff after initially finding this very hard. The staff have been persistent and encouraging. They have supported this young person to become more trusting and to be more open with their feelings. This has enabled the young person to make excellent progress with their emotional health and with their school work, and to become a more confident and resilient person. Another child who arrived at the home with very challenging behaviour has settled extremely well. The child has calmed and has begun to be able to gain more control of their emotions. They are now sleeping better, eating better and putting on weight. This

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

has all happened against a backdrop of current care proceedings and family contact difficulties. This is exceptional work by the staff team. Generally, the staff provide excellent support to the children and young people, with in- depth and relevant personalised key-work sessions. In addition, if required, staff refer the children and young people to external workers for specialist support. This all adds to the excellent practice. Two young people have moved away from the home during this inspection period. Both of these young people had become unsettled due to outside influences in the local community. One young person chose to move away in order to have a fresh start. The other was moved on following some safeguarding concerns within the home. Both transitions were managed well by staff. The staff give education a high priority and encourage all the children and young people to work hard to achieve their potential. This approach clearly works well as all the

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

children and young people are doing well at school or college. They are supported to do extra school work at the home by the staff. One young person asked the staff to create a study room for young people to use as they approach their exams, and the staff have completed this quickly for them. The children and young people have a clear say in the day-to-day running of the home and in their own care planning. One young person told the inspector how pleased they were with being able to contribute positively to their recent care planning meeting. The staff team is also strong at supporting the children and young people to maintain and develop relationships with their families. Progress in this area is clear within records. One young person told the inspector, ‘Staff are good. They are supportive and help me with my difficulties.’

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

The children and young people in this home are kept safe. The staff understand risks well. Risk assessments, including actions to guide staff on how to minimise ongoing Inspection report children’s home: SC433451 4 risks, are good. The two young people who have moved on from this home during the inspection period both became involved with people in the local community who influenced them negatively. This included incidents of experimenting with drugs and alcohol and there were also concerns that there was a risk of child sexual exploitation. Both of these young people were also reported missing on a few occasions, and the staff made excellent efforts to follow them and then to locate and return them to the safety of the home. The staff made very good efforts to manage all these risks and to support these young people, and were largely successful. One young person asked to move away from the home in order to have a fresh start in another area, closer to their family. Two young

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

people started a relationship while living at the home, resulting in a move for one young person. The staff team made good efforts to advise the young people and to help them to stay safe but the young people themselves could not manage their relationship safely. One of the young people at the home has a history of self-harm but incidents have reduced significantly as they have grown in confidence and improved their self-esteem with support from staff and external counsellors. The staff are good at putting in clear boundaries and expectations. They only use a few sanctions and these are always appropriate. Generally, staff prefer to negotiate and discuss situations when any of the children and young people need to understand the consequences or inappropriateness of their actions. The staff do use physical interventions if these are required. For example, one younger child with very challenging behaviour has had to be held on a number of occasions, but these incidents are reducing

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

in both number and length of time. This is due to the time and patience of the staff supporting this child. There is no doubt that the children and young people feel safe and secure at this home. This is due to the nurturing environment, the clear boundaries and the excellent individualised key work around keeping safe that staff undertake with all the children and young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager has plenty of experience and is appropriately qualified. She ensures that the home meets the aims and objectives as set out in the statement of purpose. She is a confident leader who clearly puts the needs of the children and young people first. She has an excellent understanding of their needs and is constantly using new learning, research and practice learning both to improve her own understanding and to offer innovative care. There is no doubt that she has a hugely positive influence on the lives of the children and young people in her care and that she is ambitious for all of them. The leadership and management of the home also include the responsible individual, who supports the registered manager well, and the deputy manager, who is experienced and skilled in her own right. The staff say they are very well supported by the registered manager, with excellent training opportunities and very good support from both formal and informal supervision.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Inspection report children’s home: SC433451 5 The registered manager has a good understanding of the needs of her staff and her development plan for the home is comprehensive and ambitious. The inspector was present while the registered manager was engaged in a lengthy conversation with a local police officer chasing up an issue that one of the young people had raised about an incident in the local community. She was checking in detail about what had happened in order that she could ensure she could best protect the young person and meet their needs. The registered manager has also had a prolonged challenge in place for one young person around trying to obtain an appropriate specialist assessment for their learning difficulties and an education, health and care (EHC) plan. The EHC plan would provide for ongoing support at college and lead to additional support being available after the young person’s transition to adult services. Although this has taken some time, the

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

registered manager has now been successful in obtaining this, after appealing one negative decision. This shows a tenacious challenge and demonstrates the lengths that the registered manager is prepared to go to in order to get the best services for the young people in her care. Following a number of recent incidents in the local area involving some of the young people, the registered manager is undertaking a full review of the location risk assessment in order to fully understand the changing picture of the local community. She is also planning to review the statement of purpose at the same time to see if there are changes required. This is excellent proactive safeguarding work. There were no requirements or recommendations made at the previous inspection and none have been made at this one.

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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: SC433451 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: St Cuthbert’s House, West Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE15 7PY

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Sheila Errington

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Inspector

Colin Imrie, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC433451 7 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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