Children's home run by Future In Mind Limited in Bolton

Inspection report children‘s home: SC394875 1 SC394875 Registered provider: Future In Mind 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

A private provider operates this home for up to three children who have social and/or emotional difficulties. Ofsted registered the manager in 2011.

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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: 17 October 2017

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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: SC394875 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/10/2017 Full Good 03/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 26/07/2016 Full Good 18/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children‘s home: SC394875 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 quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who understand the children‘s home‘s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children. (Regulation 6(1)(a)) This is with regard to staff acting on new instructions and reading relevant documents. 22/10/2018

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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—

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Requirement Due date

that the home‘s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(b)) This is with regard to keeping the key safe and the office locked. 22/10/2018

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Requirement Due date

After consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the registered person must provide adequate means of escape from the home in the event of fire; and ensure, by means of fire drills and practices at suitable intervals, that persons working at the home and, so far as reasonably practicable, children are aware of the procedure to be followed in case of fire. (Regulation 25(1)(b)(d)) This is with regard to obtaining written confirmation of the required fire safety precautions from the fire and rescue authority and ensuring that fire drills are sufficiently informative. 22/10/2018

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Requirement Due date

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained—

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Requirement Due date

the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) (―the Level 3 Diploma‖); or a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma. 22/10/2018 Inspection report children‘s home: SC394875 4 The relevant date is—

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls 2 years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home; or in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1st April 2014, 1st April 2016.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may defer the relevant date if the individual—

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Requirement Due date

does not work, or has not worked, in a care role in a home for a prolonged period; or works, or has worked, in a care role in a home on a part-time basis. (Regulation 32 (4)(a)(b)(5)(a)(b)(6)(a)(b)) The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (―a quality of care review‖) at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children‘s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it.

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Requirement Due date

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review (―the quality of care review report‖).

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (1)(2)(b)(5)) This is with regard to the report being sufficiently evaluative and considering the opinions of others. 22/10/2018

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Recommendations

 For children‘s homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of the 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) This is with regard to improving the lounge and mending the bathroom mirror. Inspection report children‘s home: SC394875 5  The registered person should have a workforce plan, which can fulfil the workforce related requirements of regulation 16, schedule 1 (paragraphs 19 and 20). The plan should be updated to include any new training and qualifications completed by staff while working at the home, and used to record the ongoing training and continuing professional development needs of staff – including the home‘s manager. (‗Guide to the children‘s homes regulations including the quality standards‘, page 53, paragraph 10.8)

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Recommendations

 As set out in regulations 31–33, the registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. (‗Guide to the children‘s homes regulations including the quality standards‘, page 61, paragraph 13.1). This is with regard to recording any conclusions and verifying the references of new staff

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people make good progress overall. Two brothers living together is a significant achievement, given their backgrounds. They continue to increase their emotional resilience after making this their home for several years. This progress is reflected in their educational achievements where their school attendance is 100% and they are making significant academic progress. After having very little trust in adults, one young person is now taking on extra responsibilities at school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young people have enjoyable and stimulating lifestyles that give them new experiences. For example, one is gradually visiting all the Premiership football grounds in England. They have enjoyed a busy summer holiday.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

In most regards, young people benefit from an attractive and well-presented property. Their lounge is somewhat dark and has few homely touches, and their bathroom mirror needs to be mended. Improvements to the internal and external decoration are in hand.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The house is in a quiet, suburban area that presents few risks and good opportunities for the young people, such as access to recreational and town-centre amenities. The young people make good use of their free time and have improved their social skills. They feel involved in the community. One attends Scouts regularly and the other is considering joining a local football club, which shows marked progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help the young people make excellent progress with their independence skills. Consequently, they are prepared well for adulthood, have ambitions and gain self- confidence. One young person manages his own money and can shop for the whole house. Staff are arranging for him to have his own bank account. Inspection report children‘s home: SC394875 6

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

The young people are safe in their home and feel safe both there and in the local area. In the wide variety of consultation exercises, they have raised no concerns.

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

There is no document on site from a suitably qualified person that defines the fire safety precautions. In particular, the front and back doors have key locks, rather than thumb locks, which could cause a delay in the event of a fire or restrict young people‘s freedom of movement. Fire drills occur regularly but do not serve to improve staff and young people‘s understanding of how to deal with different emergency scenarios.

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

Staff use the therapeutic model to good effect. The young people have clear routines, which serve to regularly clarify staff‘s expectations, especially around difficult issues. Consequently, although negative issues still arise, young people show less frustration and the frequency of such incidents is falling. Young people are increasingly able to keep themselves safe.

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

One young person occasionally goes missing from home as a reaction to the pressures he feels from his personal circumstances. Staff engage well with the police and the young person and amend their strategies, for example by increasing young people‘s free time. Staff use resources such as videos to help young people understand dangers. The police community support officer said, ‗The staff do all they can – they explain to the lads the implications of their actions.‘

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

Following incidents when young people took items from the office, staff received a clear instruction to always keep the office door locked. They do not do this. Also, confidential files are on open shelves and staff do not always lock the key safe. These temptations increase the risk of young people being criminalised and means that private information and belongings are not sufficiently secure.

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

The evidence about how the company decides to recruit new staff is not sufficiently clear in some cases. For example, the interviewers consider any concerns arising from applicants‘ pasts but do not evaluate the implications to show why their appointments are suitable. The company does not always verify the authenticity of references. These shortfalls marginally increase the likelihood of unsuitable people working with children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leadership of the service is strong in most respects. All the senior staff demonstrate high standards and are keen to improve the service. This is reflected in the views of a social worker who knows the home well: ‗I‘ll always sing their praises. Staff know the boys‘ complex needs really well.‘

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The team provides a wide variety of role models to the young people. Staff promote social diversity well in their routine conversations and activities, too. They educate the young people to treat each other positively, which helps them in their relationships with other people. Inspection report children‘s home: SC394875 7 Staff feel well supported by the manager and create a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere in the home. However, shift leaders do not always ensure that staff have read important documents before they go on shift. This increases the risk of staff not acting on certain information, such as the need to keep the office door locked.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff follow a clear training programme to improve their skills. Some pursue advanced courses, too. However, one member of staff has not completed the required qualification within the prescribed timescale. The workforce development plan does not address this issue or reflect the developmental needs of other staff. This shortfall has minimal direct impact on children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have an excellent understanding of the therapeutic methods described in the statement of purpose, especially the effect of trauma on the brain. This has a direct effect on the way they care for young people. For example, one young person benefits from a more nurturing approach at bedtime, and staff are helping him to make his own appointments with the barber to increase his social skills. Staff have several ways of tracking the progress that young people make, including, for example, how they get on with each other. Consequently, the young people are aware of their progress and how to improve.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has two homes close together. She demonstrates a good understanding of her service. However, her six-monthly reviews lack evaluation and do not clearly show the impact of young people‘s opinions, as required. This impedes improvement of 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: SC394875 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Future In Mind Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Future In Mind Limited, 65 Market Street, Hednesford, Cannock, Staffordshire WS12 1AD

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Inspector

David Morgan, social care inspector Inspection report children‘s home: SC394875 9 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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