Children's home run by Newcastle City Council

Inspection report children’s home: SC033645 1 SC033645 Registered provider: Newcastle City Council

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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 provides care and accommodation for up to five children and young people under short-break arrangements, and for a further child to live at the home. These children and young people may have learning disabilities and/or physical disabilities. The home is operated by a local authority.

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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

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: Inspection report children’s home: SC033645 2  Children and young people participate in a diverse range of interesting activities, both at the home and in the community. This boosts children and young people’s confidence in their abilities, integrating them socially. Staff focus on making sure children and young people have fun times during their short-break stays.  Children and young people’s safety and well-being are central to the home’s strong safeguarding ethos and values. Parents feel confident that their children are safely cared for by the experienced and competent staff team.  Children and young people are consistently helped to improve their daily living skills, which makes a difference to their lives.  Staff are highly effective at communicating with children and young people who are actively involved in decision-making and the running of the home.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Close partnership working with other services, such as health, education and social care, is a constant strong theme.  Strong leadership and management are driven by high aspirations for children and young people. These aspirations extend to the enthusiastic and creative staff team.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

28/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 16/11/2016 Full Good 05/01/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 03/06/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC033645 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

A caring and nurturing staff team welcomes children and young people who visit this home for their short breaks, and those who receive short-term care. Children and young people are well supported by staff and are treated with dignity and respect. This is particularly important for those who need a high level of personal care and attention. Staff have the required knowledge and are competent to provide high-quality care to children and young people who have a range of complex health and behavioural needs. Staff know the children and young people well and appreciate their individual personalities, humour and behaviour traits.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Careful planning and a highly individualised introduction programme sensitively prepares newly referred children and young people. The friendly staff team helps children and young people relax, and they adapt quickly to the environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children and young people have fun and enjoy a vast array of activities. They are encouraged and supported to expand their interests and engage in new hobbies such as wall climbing and trampolining. These promote exercise, and help to build confidence and self-esteem. Staff are proactive in searching for new forms of entertainment in the community, such as pantomimes and circuses that are appropriate for children and young people who have autistic spectrum disorder. Children and young people enjoy these new experiences. Careful matching results in children and young people staying at the same time as friends or others with similar needs and interests, which is beneficial to them. They socialise with peers, which gives them the chance to build and develop relationships, resulting in improved social skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The highly individualised and child-friendly care plans help staff to identify and meet children and young people’s needs and targets. This drives staff to improve outcomes for children and young people. The longstanding staff team is very skilled and experienced, and its excellent care helps children and young people make progress in acquiring new skills. This brings massive benefits to children and young people, who experience improved life chances. For example, one parent said: ‘Since [name of young person] has come here it has made a big difference to his life. He is now more sociable and more relaxed to go out. He has more opportunities. It is a massive thing that they are doing.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff are inventive, and children and young people use different mediums, such as the home’s newsletter and personalised video recordings, to demonstrate their achievements. Topics are educational, and events such as the Great North Run are used to promote the identity and culture of the area. These opportunities enhance the children and young people’s sense of independence and help them develop a positive identity.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Some children and young people have been coming to the home for many years and have well-established and trusting relationships with staff. These close relationships extend to their families, with several parents speaking of staff being like, ‘extended Inspection report children’s home: SC033645 4 family members’. The introduction of the home’s Facebook private group provides a forum for staff to share photographs of the children and young people. All families spoken to thoroughly enjoy this innovative idea and take pride in their children’s accomplishments. Families attend regular coffee mornings which provide a forum for parents to receive important information about things that affect their children’s lives. External speakers have included an incontinence nurse and a transitions worker. One parent said: ‘I love the Facebook page and the photos and messages on there. It keeps parents up to date. The coffee morning gives us a sense of community. There is

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

information for parents and we share ideas for events.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff empower children and young people to make decisions about their care, and involve them in the running of the home. Staff’s exceptional efforts were recognised with the ‘Investing in Children Membership Award’ which assessed that: ‘The young residents are continuously involved in making choices, preference and influencing their experiences at [name of home].’

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

Staff have excellent insight into the children and young people’s vulnerabilities. They provide close observation and supervision, with high levels of support so that children and young people are safe. The specially adapted home ensures that children and young people live in a physically safe environment. They do not go missing and there is no one known to be at risk of child sexual exploitation. Any risks are highlighted in the individual assessment and risk management plans which provide staff with the approach and measures to help minimise negative behaviours. For children and young people who have limited speech, individualised pictorial behaviour plans are provided.

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

Staff take a consistent approach and monitor the effectiveness of behaviour management plans. The intuitive staff learn how to defuse situations. This avoids an escalation in angry, aggressive or self-injurious behaviours, and children and young people remain calm. Effective de-escalation strategies and knowledge of children and young people make physical interventions very rare.

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

The use of pre-visit telephone calls to parents provides staff with information about any pre-existing bruises or injuries that children and young people have. Vigilant staff use the injury form to record these marks and any other bruises found on children and young people during their stay. This monitoring offers safeguarding for children and young people who may receive personal care from different carers in different environments. One parent spoke enthusiastically about this and said: ‘We get a pre booking-in telephone call. Medication is thoroughly checked. It is fantastic. They will check parents have got it right.’

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

Staff receive external medical training, such as in gastrostomy feeding or epilepsy. In order for staff to meet children and young people’s highly complex health needs, staff receive competency testing for each child or young person who needs medical intervention. This keeps staff’s knowledge up to date and ensures that they only care for children and young people when they are deemed competent to do so. The robust Inspection report children’s home: SC033645 5 medication administration procedures limit the chance of errors occurring. This is important, particularly given the amount of medication that staff deal with. Staff are able to check discrepancies with medication due to the good links developed with pharmaceutical staff. A medical professional said: ‘Staff will ring for advice. They will challenge and have no qualms to ring a doctor if they are unsure about a young person’s medication.’

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

Independent external scrutiny provided by health professionals offers stringent controls and auditing. As a consequence, families are reassured that their children are cared for and protected. They feel at ease about entrusting the care of their children to staff. One parent said: ‘I know [name of young person] is safe. Staff are more than capable to care for him. I am completely at ease leaving him. Staff are very dedicated.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager has been in post since February 2017 and has worked for many years in residential care. He has the necessary leadership experience gained through working in managerial roles in social care settings. The manager has a social work degree and is working towards obtaining a level 5 management qualification. He has the necessary experience, qualifications and skills to undertake the role.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The approachable and personable manager has a visual presence in the home and provides strong leadership and oversight. He is committed and passionate, making many positive changes since taking on the managerial role. These have included challenging the staff team to undertake the ‘Autism Accreditation’ quality assurance programme, with positive provisional feedback received.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home has a consistent team of conscientious, qualified and experienced staff who talk of their enjoyment at working there and take pride in their work. They are highly dedicated professionals, and are committed to providing the best possible care and support to children and young people. The manager recognises staff members’ talents and encourages these by matching skills to tasks. This offers motivation to staff, who feel empowered to take on individual responsibilities such as improving parent participation. Staff are constantly looking at ways to improve children and young people’s experiences. There are many examples of their inventiveness in providing educational opportunities while making it fun. One staff member said: ‘We look for topics that are educational and media led. Young people leaving will create their own newsletter which is about their graduation and looks at their time here. It provides

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

memories for young people and is personalised, making it special for them.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Detailed reflective practice discussions take place during regular team meetings and group supervision. Staff are open and honest with each other and share ideas, which promotes consistency of practice, and staff remain child focused. This contributes to the home being a learning environment, with staff benefiting from input from external speakers. The manager encourages staff’s personal and professional development. Staff implement learning from their training, and practice is informed by research. Inspection report children’s home: SC033645 6 Effective links with parents and health, education and social care professionals stimulate excellent working-together practices. One professional said: ‘It is a strong partnership. We work well together. It is more of a community-based way of working.’ The manager has completed a comprehensive and evaluative quality of care report seeking, and taking action on, suggestions made to improve the service.

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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: SC033645 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Newcastle City Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: P O Box 690, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE99 2BN

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Inspector

Tina Ruffles, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC033645 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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