Children's Home run by Blue Mountain Homes Ltd in Derbyshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC436469 1 SC436469 Registered provider: Blue Mountain Homes Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned by a private company. It provides care and accommodation for up to three young people, irrespective of gender, who have emotional, behavioural and social difficulties.

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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

Date of last inspection: 18 October 2017

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC436469 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

18/10/2017 Full Outstanding 09/12/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 26/05/2016 Full Good 29/09/2015 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC436469 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people are very settled, happy and content. They make excellent progress, because they have exceptionally good relationships with staff. Managers and staff provide very good, nurturing care. This helps young people to make the progress that they need in all areas of their development.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The manager and staff strongly encourage and value the opinions and ideas of young people. Young people have regular meetings with staff. The manager and staff canvass young people’s views regularly over decisions about the home. Consequently, the voice of young people is fundamental to the running of their home, and this helps them to invest emotionally in their home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The deputy manager and staff use workbooks with young people which provide structure to discussions about making good choices, particularly in relation to health and lifestyle. These include detailed work on subjects such as sexual health, physical development, smoking, alcohol and drug misuse, being in care and the dangers associated with going missing. This work is of an exceptionally high standard. Young people engage in the work and are now better able to make good decisions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff invest a significant amount of time in helping young people to prepare to move into independent accommodation. Staff help young people to develop the practical skills and emotional resilience that they will need to succeed when leaving care. Staff remain involved with young people when they have left care, keeping in contact through telephone calls and visits. Staff consistently ‘go over and above’ expectations to help young people.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Managers and staff create a culture of dependable routine and structure in the home. This includes expectations about young people’s engagement in education, training or employment. For some young people, this has led to very good progress in overcoming previous educational obstacles. They now engage meaningfully with education. Young people have structure to their lives, their achievements are celebrated and they are positive about their future.

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

Managers and staff maintain very high expectations regarding the behaviour of young people. Staff manage behaviour well. There are very few concerning incidents, and the use of sanctions and physical intervention to manage behaviour is rare. Staff trust young people and treat them as young adults. This leads to good communication, willingness to compromise and agreed solutions to difficulties.

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

Managers conduct detailed and comprehensive individual risk assessments for young people. Managers actively seek the views of partner agencies and the input of staff when conducting and reviewing assessments. Staff understand the risks and vulnerabilities of Inspection report children’s home: SC436469 4 each young person and the actions that they should take to keep young people safe.

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

Staff have followed procedures correctly on the few occasions when young people have been absent from the home. Staff search for them, constantly telephone them and liaise with partner agencies to secure their safe return home. The manager ensures that return home interviews take place immediately, and she tries to learn lessons to prevent any recurrence of such incidents.

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

Managers and staff have carried out very good work with young people to raise their awareness regarding the risks from extremist views and radicalisation. They have used a game to support this work which helps to challenge stereotypical views that young people may hold and raise their awareness generally about risk in this important area.

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

Staff have a very good understanding of their roles and responsibilities towards safeguarding young people. Staff know that this is their key priority. They have undertaken a broad range of training and development in safeguarding practice and they know what actions they should take if they have any concerns about the safety of young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since 2011 and she leads the home effectively. She has the required qualification in leadership and management. Two dynamic and highly motivated deputy managers support her. They provide excellent leadership as a management team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

This home has retained a settled and stable staff team. Only two new members of staff have started working in the home since the last inspection. New staff are provided with a very good induction programme, which includes:

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

 dedicated time for reading policies, procedures and young people’s files  spending time shadowing more experienced colleagues, and working independently only when they feel confident  undertaking a range of core training programmes to ensure that they have the required knowledge and skills to work effectively with young people  completion of a comprehensive staff induction programme developed by the manager and incorporating all the information that a new member of staff will need.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff report that they feel settled and well supported by managers, who provide regular professional supervision. Supervision is frequent and ensures that the needs of young people remain at the heart of care practice. Staff training and development are kept under constant review, and staff are put forward for training courses designed to enhance their practice. Overall, staff support and practice are of an outstanding quality.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has also worked to ensure that the staff team has a good gender balance. Inspection report children’s home: SC436469 5 Young people in the home are currently all male, and the staff team is also predominantly male. Consequently, the young people receive excellent care from positive male role models. This will help them to develop a positive male identity.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager understands the importance of collaborative working with partner agencies. This is a particular strength of this home. Partner agencies report that communication from the manager and from staff is excellent. Regular multi-agency meetings take place, and this coordinates the efforts of all agencies to make sure that young people’s needs remain the priority. Because of this, all young people are making progress, helped by good, achievable plans.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager and staff constantly seek to improve the service through innovative developments. Since the last inspection, they have introduced a number of new ideas, for example staff taking lead roles in specific areas of care and then cascading this down to the staff team. This demonstrates a manager and staff who are ambitious and strive for continuous improvement.

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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 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 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: SC436469 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Blue Mountain Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Flat 17, Leeland Mansions, Leeland Road, London W13 9HE

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Pradeep Manaktala

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Inspector

Phillip Morris, social care regulatory inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC436469 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 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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