The Banyan Tree

Inspection report children’s home: SC396186 1 SC396186 Registered provider: Living Life (UK) Limited

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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 privately owned and provides care for up to five children and young people 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 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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC396186 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

09/10/2017 Full Good 26/01/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 08/09/2016 Full Outstanding 15/02/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC396186 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 education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans.

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Recommendations

 For children’s homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children they will in most cases be homely, domestic environments. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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Recommendations

This is with particular reference to ensuring that staff maintain a clean and tidy home environment for children, as a good parent would.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have positive relationships with staff and with their peers. Children have a range of complex needs, which do have an influence on behaviours. However, staff know the children’s needs and histories well. There are detailed plans in place that support good, nurturing care. This means that there is a settled group and few incidents of concern. Inspection report children’s home: SC396186 4 A clinical psychologist provides monthly consultations with staff and managers. These help them to meet children’s needs. There is also a therapeutic interventions manager who provides consultation with staff and delivers direct work with children. The staff use a positive behaviour support framework, informed by transactional analysis. The individual key-worker sessions that staff have with children are underpinned by this framework. The impact of these arrangements is that children benefit from consistent behaviour support, advice and interventions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There are comprehensive education plans for each child. All children have good education arrangements in place and some children are making exceptional progress. One child is currently making slow progress due to inconsistent attendance. However, the registered manager has been tenacious in ensuring regular ‘team around the child’ meetings to address these difficulties. The commitment of this team to resolve the difficulties is impressive. Consequently, a good school placement has been maintained and there is a support plan in place for the new term.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Unfortunately, one child did not have an up to date education and health care plan. This is essential information for the child’s placement, particularly to advise care staff how to support the achievement of education targets. There is evidence that the manager has requested this plan. However, this request needs to be escalated with the placing local authority.

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

There have been a limited number of incidents involving the use of physical restraint. Staff use de-escalation and diversion techniques effectively. Physical restraint is used only as a last resort.

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

There has been a cluster of allegations against staff. These have all been referred to the local authority designated officer and shared with the social worker involved. Procedures to keep children safe have been robustly followed. The manager has carried out a thorough analysis. A comprehensive plan is in place to respond to such allegations effectively. There are no concerns about children’s safety and welfare as a result of the allegations. There have been no allegations in recent months.

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

Children benefit from appropriate safeguarding advice and guidance. There are also consistent boundaries in place, as agreed in their placement plans and risk assessments. These are regularly updated and reviewed.

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

Children have individual contracts regarding the use of digital technology. Some controls are in place, depending on individual risk assessments. There has been one concern regarding one child’s use of social media. However, as a result of positive relationships, information was shared and risks have been sensitively managed.

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

Children have a number of ways to share any concerns, including independent advocates and independent visitors. Children contribute to their plans and to the development of Inspection report children’s home: SC396186 5 the home. Since the last inspection, they have been involved in a child and staff development day, which was very positive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is an experienced management team. The registered manager is qualified and has undertaken a range of post-qualification training courses to develop her skills and knowledge.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Since the last inspection, the management team has been enhanced by the creation of a part-time quality assurance post and the development of the therapeutic interventions manager role. This has helped to address shortfalls identified at the previous inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There are improved quality assurance mechanisms in place to review and evaluate the quality of care. These include feedback from partners, other agencies, children and families. The manager has developed and implemented a post-incident evaluation tool so that learning opportunities for staff can be identified.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

A system to support improved tracking of supervision outcomes by managers has been introduced. This includes the use of staff competency records.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers have responded robustly to two isolated but concerning staff performance issues. As a result, there have been some changes in the staff group. Managers and staff were child focused and supported children well to manage the changes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Effective multi-agency care planning supports children’s progress. Staff send regular reports to social workers to inform and update children’s assessments. Social workers are very positive about the impact of the care on children’s progress and relationships. One social worker said: ‘This home is very good at reinforcing positive progress. They are very good at celebrating achievements, including small steps.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Team meetings include discussions about up-to-date research and evidence-based practice. Recently, individual staff have been responsible for delivering a presentation on one of the quality standards and have audited current practice against the standards. This has resulted in good ideas to further develop practice.

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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. Inspection report children’s home: SC396186 6 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

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Information about this inspection

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: SC396186 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Living Life (UK) Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 60 Overstone Road, Sywell, Northampton NN6 0AW

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Lorraine Andrews

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Inspector(s)

Cathey Moriarty, social care regulatory inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC396186 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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