Children's home run by Witherslack Group Limited

Inspection report children’s home: 1263199 1 Registered provider: Witherslack Group Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides a therapeutic facility to meet the nurturing, management, social, emotional and moral needs of up to six young people aged seven to 17 who are unable to live in a family context.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 11 to 12 September 2018

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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 requires improvement to be 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: not applicable

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/03/2018 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1263199 2

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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 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 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; have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm; 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; and that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. In particular, that all risks are understood, assessed and appropriate plans and strategies are put in place to minimise these risks. (Regulation 12 (1) and (2) (a)(i)(ii)(b)(c)) 01/11/2018

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs and that the training available meets the needs of the children in their care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)  The registered person must have an effective internal quality assurance monitoring and reviewing system in place to ensure that practice is consistently good. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)  Ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Recommendations

Specifically, that records contain accurate, sufficient detail that is not ambiguous. Inspection report children’s home: 1263199 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress living here. They settle quickly and establish good routines. Children speak positively about living at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff care about the children. Staff have strong and trusting relationships with the children. Staff have a nurturing approach and children respond well to this.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from regular clinical support. However, records of the progress that children are making are not always clear. Furthermore, there is sometimes a delay in the children receiving the required support to meet their presenting needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff empower children to express themselves in a safe and supportive environment. Children receive encouragement to access a variety of activities, which they enjoy. As a result, children develop good social skills and their confidence and self-esteem improve.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children attend school regularly. They make good progress in education and their attendance and attainment improve. Staff recognise that children have additional educational needs. Consequently, staff ensure that school placements are equipped to meet these needs.

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improvement to be good

Risk assessments and plans are not always clear. In some instances, key information is missing. As a result, strategies to reduce risk-taking behaviour are not always identified.

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improvement to be good

Children receive support to have regular contact with their family. Children benefit from maintaining these relationships. However, the safeguarding plans to support contact arrangements omit important safeguarding information.

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improvement to be good

Children do not always receive the continual support and help that they need for their health needs to be met holistically. This is particularly in relation to smoking tobacco. As a result, children do not have the correct plans in place to reduce this risk-taking behaviour.

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improvement to be good

When staff understand the risks, they manage them well. They work in a proactive way with partner agencies, and safeguarding plans are clear. As a result, children reduce their risk-taking behaviour and their outcomes improve.

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improvement to be good

Managers and staff undertake a range of training in safeguarding practice. This supports the learning and development of staff. However, not all training reflects the children’s needs. As a result, staff do not always have the knowledge and skills to assess and manage complex behaviours. Managers are committed to improving this and are Inspection report children’s home: 1263199 4 sourcing the appropriate training.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The current manager was registered with Ofsted on 9 August 2018 and holds a relevant qualification. She has previous experience of being a registered manager.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The managers and the staff have high aspirations for the children. They are passionate and committed to the work that they do. Senior managers offer the required support to the staff team. The home benefits from this additional leadership.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager and the staff work well with other professionals. Professionals speak positively about the home and the good progress that children make.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Internal monitoring is not consistently effective. Consequently, recording is sometimes ambiguous and on occasion, there are gaps in information. Furthermore, some agreed actions and tasks drift and thus they are not completed in the required time frames.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers and staff are committed to developing the home and to enhancing their practice. They take the time to reflect and learn from their experiences. This provides them with the opportunity to further enhance their knowledge, skills and abilities.

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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: 1263199 5

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Witherslack Group Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Witherslack Group, Lupton Tower, Lupton, Carnforth LA6 2PR

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Inspector

Lisa Gregoire-Parker: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1263199 6 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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