Children's Home run by ROC Northwest Limited in Wigan

Inspection report children’s home: 1264537 1 Registered provider: ROC Northwest Ltd

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned children’s home is registered to accommodate five children between the ages of 10 and 18. The home offers emergency, short- and long-term placements for children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The manager is currently awaiting registration.

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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 good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Date of last inspection: 27 February 2018

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1264537 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

27/02/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children’s home: 1264537 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

The health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

the health and well-being needs of children are met;

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Requirement Due date

children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, to ensure that health plans are up to date. 31/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)) 31/08/2018

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Recommendations

 The registered person should only accept placements for children where they are satisfied that the home can respond effectively to the child’s assessed needs as recorded in the child’s relevant plans and where they have fully considered the impact that the placement will have on the existing group of children. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.4) Inspection report children’s home: 1264537 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in a home that is safe and very homely. Children’s bedrooms are personalised and individualised to reflect children’s interests and personalities. Younger children have toys, books and dressing-up clothes in their bedrooms. Staff encourage children to play with Lego, to dress-up and engage in imaginative play with staff and with one another. All children are offered a bedtime story at night or to spend one-to- one time with staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home has a large trampoline and a temporary swimming pool for children to play outside in the garden. Furthermore, the staff and children have recently organised a charity event in the garden for a local cause, inviting their friends, families and people important to them. The children enjoyed this and are planning another event in the summer. Children have opportunities to take part in hobbies and to meet friends and have fun. One child has regular ice-skating lessons and has recently invited a friend round for tea and to play together in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making good progress with their education; staff have organised extra tuition for children who needed it, and this has helped to improve their attainment levels. The staff have good daily routines in place to ensure that children are supported and assisted in completing their homework before they take part in after-school activities. The home operates a rewards system for children and as a result consequences have reduced; staff have not needed to issue any consequences since April.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress in learning how to manage their behaviour and resolve conflict. The staff undertake regular key-work sessions following incidents to help young people reflect on their behaviour. The staff also undertake group work with young people on issues such as bullying and racism to improve children’s understanding. The home has risk assessments with regard to bullying in place to help to reduce any conflict between young people. When conflict does occur, the manager undertakes mediation with young people to resolve any issues. An independent reviewing officer for a young person told the inspector, ‘[The child] has commented to me upon the fairness with which disputes are managed; there appears to be a well-embedded dispute resolution process, which is very important given [child’s name’s] past experiences.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Transitions into the home are well planned, with the manager seeking information from previous carers and other professionals, as well as a range of referral documents. However, three young people were recently admitted within a two-week timeframe. This does not allow for young people to settle into the home. Nor was there any consideration about how these admissions may have an impact on the existing group of children. Inspection report children’s home: 1264537 5

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

Staff help children to understand risk and how to stay safe. They understand the need for children to become independent and to take appropriate risks and help them to manage their behaviours and regulate their responses.

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

However, risk assessments for young people are not clear. They are not individualised to young people and contain some risks that are not reflective of the needs of young people, while not including areas of risk that have been identified. Despite this shortfall, there has been no impact on the day-to-day care needs of young people.

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

There have been few incidents of children missing from home. The local missing from home coordinator has undertaken training with the staff team to ensure that it has the most up-to-date information on local protocols and police responses. All young people have missing from home risk assessments with actions for staff to follow. However, these documents could be improved by ensuring that they are more individualised to reflect the individual needs and behaviours of children and the required actions by staff. Despite this shortfall, staff take all appropriate actions when a child is missing. One social worker told the inspector that the staff go ‘above and beyond’ when a young person is missing from home.

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

The staff and management team have a good understanding of the children’s history and background and how this may have an impact on children’s behaviours. A mental health professional, who has been working with the home, attending staff meetings and providing advice and support to staff, told the inspector that the staff are ‘accommodating and eager to learn’. This multi-agency working has ensured that children are gradually learning how to manage their anxieties and worries, and as a result serious incidents are reducing.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The current manager is currently awaiting registration with Ofsted. She is an experienced and passionate manager who demonstrates an ability to reflect on practice at the home and who is keen to develop the service. She is supported by an experienced and equally passionate deputy manager who has recently joined the team from an outstanding service. Together they are driving improvements and development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager leads a team of staff who are motivated and committed in the support that they provide. Relationships between the children and staff are sincere and positive and staff respond to and speak about children with the highest regard.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager works well with other professionals who are involved in the care of each child. An independent reviewing officer spoke highly of the registered manager’s communication, which results in all parties feeling very well informed about the children’s needs and progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager advocates well for children. The home has regular communication and Inspection report children’s home: 1264537 6 participation with an advocacy service, which attends the home on a regular basis.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

A commissioning manager, who has experience of placing children at the home and undertaking quality assurance visits on behalf of the local authority, has seen improvement in the home. They reported to the inspector and said, ‘I believe the new manager and deputy are taking the home in the right direction.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Training is good. In addition to mandatory training sessions, the manager ensures that training is requested and provided for staff in areas that affect specific children, such as child criminal exploitation. Furthermore, the management team undertakes in-house workshops and training sessions to help staff to improve their understanding and skills around areas such as the assessment of risk, recording and direct work with children.

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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: 1264537 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: ROC Northwest Ltd, Ward Green Lane, Ribchester, Preston, Lancashire PR3 3YB

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Inspector

Jessica Forshaw, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1264537 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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