Children's home run by Duty of Care Limited in County Durham

Inspection report children’s home: SC476602 1 SC476602 Registered provider: Duty of Care Limited 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 private organisation and is registered for the care and accommodation of up to three children who 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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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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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: improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC476602 2 Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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Key findings from this inspection

 The leadership and management are excellent. The registered manager continues to develop the service and is a strong, confident role model for the staff as well as being extremely dedicated, motivated and child centred.  The children and young people are kept very safe. There are very few safeguarding incidents and when they do occur staff deal with them effectively. Proactive safeguarding work carried out by staff and others is also very strong.  The staff provide nurturing care with clear boundaries and expectations. They ensure that the home has a homely feel, and form very good relationships with the children and young people.  The staff give education a high priority and work closely with all the children and young people’s schools. This results in good attendance, with good and sometimes excellent achievement.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 03/05/2016 Full Good 20/01/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 29/07/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC476602 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home has seen quite a few changes in staffing over this inspection period, with seven new members of staff starting. Two older young people left the home when they reached independence and two much younger children have been admitted so that the nature of the home’s work has changed as well. The registered manager has also been developing the service by continuing to embed a more therapeutic approach into the work. While there is still some way to go with getting the whole staff team to use this approach, it has been a good start. The registered manager has done extremely well to maintain high standards of care through this period of change.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One of the two young people who left had made excellent progress from a low starting point. The young person has moved on to independent living, with good qualifications and a good job, and clearly has excellent prospects now. Another young person moved back to live with their family in a planned move, after making some progress at the home. One young person has remained at the home throughout, and continues to make good progress in all aspects of their life albeit with some ups and downs along the way. The two younger children more recently admitted have settled. One is making good progress and the other is making very good progress from a very low starting point.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Relationships between the children and young people and the staff are very good. Staff are nurturing and caring, but also put in place firm, clear boundaries where required. They involve the children and young people in the day-to-day running of the home. One of the young people spoken to by the inspector confirmed that the home was ‘good’; the young person said this despite the fact that they had had a few difficult weeks themselves.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children and young people are given excellent support with their education. Levels of school attendance are high and all of them are now achieving well. One child has achieved far beyond their expected level within a very short space of time. The staff and the registered manager maintain contact with schools twice a day, at the beginning and end of each school day. This allows for consistent practice and responses to develop between the two. This is excellent practice. One older young person has done exceedingly well with their education, gaining good college qualifications and then getting a very good job.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Where possible, the staff support the children and young people to maintain contact with their families and there has been some good success here. One young person chose to reduce the contact they have with their family after they found this difficult and staff are supporting them well through this difficult time until contact can be re-established.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All the children and young people benefit from good-quality personalised work with staff and with external workers and generally they engage very well. This has enabled a number of the young people to work through difficult areas of their lives and make progress with their emotional development. The older young people are well supported Inspection report children’s home: SC476602 4 to develop independence skills which prepare them for adult life.

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

The children at this home are kept safe. The staff understand risks well; they make good assessments and take appropriate action to minimise risks where they exist.

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

Levels of missing from home have been very low and there have been no incidents of this for over a year now. On some occasions, children or young people have left the building without the staff’s agreement and staff have followed them and ensured that they have returned quickly. This active, caring approach is typical of the staff team and is particularly appropriate with younger children.

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

Some of the children and young people have disclosed historical abuse to staff during their time at the home. Staff refer this on appropriately to the safeguarding authorities for further investigation. It is, however, a testament to staff that the children and young people clearly feel safe enough to talk about these difficult issues from their past.

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

The staff do put firm clear boundaries in place, and have held or physically intervened with some of the children at times when they have been unable to control themselves. Again, it is mostly the younger children who require this approach.

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

Some of the older young people have on occasions made complaints about the staff or about life at the home. These have all been thoroughly investigated by the registered manager and referred to a local authority designated officer as appropriate. All of these complaints have been resolved amicably. These issues have been less serious in nature, but have been raised when the young people have been angry or upset, but the home’s response does demonstrate that young people are listened to, and that what they have to say is taken seriously. The staff do not use many sanctions, but prefer to use restorative practices wherever possible. The registered manager has also been very good at following up safeguarding concerns when they have occurred at schools and again this demonstrates the support that the children and young people receive.

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

One of the younger children in the home is, because of their traumatic past, quite volatile and aggressive at times. There have been instances where they have attempted to become verbally and physically abusive to both staff and the other children and young people. The registered manager has increased staffing levels so that the situation is very well managed and staff are vigilant and quick to step in when needed. The staff continue to give high levels of supervision to any child with challenging behaviour, and do this in a proactive way by offering high levels of organised activity. This is very good active safeguarding.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager has a good deal of experience and is appropriately qualified. Inspection report children’s home: SC476602 5 She ensures that the home meets the aims and objectives that are set out in the statement of purpose.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager is confident and is very child centred. She has been instrumental in introducing therapeutic work and additional support and guidance which is progressing well. The progress of the children and young people is clearly prioritised by her and she is ambitious for them in every way. Providing consistent care and support to children and young people when they are recovering from trauma, when they are dealing with past difficulties or when their behaviour becomes more challenging is also very much a priority for the registered manager. She has introduced more therapeutic ways of working into the staff team’s practice, and has been tenacious and effective with regard to this. She is supportive of her staff and provides high-quality supervision and good training for them. The inspector did speak to the majority of staff at the home in relation to two anonymous complaints about the management of the home. The staff

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

were overwhelming in their support, appreciation and praise for the registered manager. The inspector found the complaints to be unfounded.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Recently, the registered manager has made some changes to the management team. The deputy manager was promoted to the position of trainee manager and a new deputy manager has been appointed. This has strengthened the management team and allowed the registered manager some extra time to address organisational work. These changes have unsettled the staff team a little, but the registered manager has continued to ensure that the staff team is fully supported.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The children and young people are all making good or better progress and this is down to the strong leadership of the registered manager, and her careful care planning and attention to detail.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

A number of areas of the home’s practice have become stronger because of the work put in by the registered manager. Her relationships and daily contact with each of the children and young people’s schools have been instrumental in them making very good progress at school. The continuing drive to introduce more therapeutic ways of working into the home has also supported the good progress of the children and young people. She will challenges others as necessary, and continues to build excellent relationships with other professionals and external services.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager has a very hands-on approach with the young people, but is also very good at standing back and monitoring the wider practice and issues within the home. She has overseen the resolution of a number of complaints and allegations, and ensures that the children and young people take an active part in their own care planning.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

No requirements or recommendations were made at the previous inspection and none have been made at this one.

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Information about this inspection

Inspection report children’s home: SC476602 6 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: SC476602 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Duty of Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 13 Front Street, Staindrop, Darlington, County Durham DL2 3LZ

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: David Heartfield

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Inspector

Colin Imrie: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC476602 8 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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