Children's home run by Salford City Council in Salford

Inspection report children’s home: SC040509 1 SC040509 Registered provider: Salford City Council

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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 provides care and accommodation for up to three young people who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties and/or learning disabilities. The home is managed by the local authority.

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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: SC040509 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

01/08/2017 Full Good 06/12/2016 Full Outstanding 05/08/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 23/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC040509 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 registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children’s home at least once each month. The independent person must provide a copy of the independent person’s report to— (a) HMCI; (Regulation 44 (1) (7) (a)) 24/10/2018

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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). This relates specifically to ensuring that all children have a compatibility impact assessment completed prior to their admission.

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Recommendations

 The Government has raised the participation in education age so that all young people from summer 2015 will be required to continue in education or training until their 18th birthday. Young people can choose how to participate. This can be through full time education, an apprenticeship or traineeship, or by combining full-time employment with part-time education or training. Whilst the duty is on the young person themselves, it is important that children’s homes’ staff encourage the young person to continue their education or training and support them to develop the skills necessary to succeed in the option they choose. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.16)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs and should understand the key role they play in the training and development of staff. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11). This relates specifically to ensuring that staff receive training on epilepsy and seizures. Inspection report children’s home: SC040509 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people make good progress in relation to their individual starting points. They benefit from effective, high-quality support from staff with whom they sustain their positive attachments. Staff provide young people with continuity of care, so that they have consistency and stability in their lives. Care planning is carefully completed and practice is highly personalised to meet the specific needs of the young people at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A parent reported, ‘I couldn’t want for him to be in a better place. They have got to know him so well. Personally, I can’t thank them enough. They’ve become like our extended family.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people benefit from the support they need to be healthy and enjoy good health. Staff work closely with health professionals to ensure that young people have access to the services they need, including specialist support to promote their physical and emotional well-being. Medical consent is in place, and staff are familiar with the types of health decisions that are delegated to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people often come to the home with a history of non-attendance at school and lack of engagement in education. Some young people show significant improvements in their school attendance and make good progress with their learning. However, there are other young people who have left school and who are not currently engaged in any form of education, training or employment. Consequently, they are not achieving their full potential, despite encouragement for them to pursue their career aspirations, training and educational goals. The home does work proactively with social workers, schools and other professional agencies to try and promote young people’s involvement in training or employment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people participate in a range of activities and benefit from the varied experiences that staff routinely provide for them. Staff encourage young people to develop themselves and pursue their specific interests and hobbies. However, some young people choose not to participate in activities, preferring instead to spend their free time socialising with their family and friends. Staff continue to encourage their inclusion and participation.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home promotes contact, and this helps young people to sustain their close relationships with their friends and families. Staff encourage young people’s independence while enabling them to take appropriate risks to promote their growth and natural development. Staff work closely with personal advisers to ensure that eligible care leavers receive the support they need to make their transition towards adulthood.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people are supported to express themselves, as individuals, and staff actively involve them in making decisions and act on their reasonable requests. This ensures that Inspection report children’s home: SC040509 5 young people are involved in all aspects of care planning and daily living. Young people know how to make a complaint. However, there have been no complaints since the last inspection.

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How well children and young are helped and protected: good

Young people are cared for by well-trained, competent, skilled and experienced staff. Staff are trained in child protection and have a good understanding of their roles and responsibilities to safeguard children. They know how to deal with allegations, report concerns and identify suspected abuse. They maintain highly effective partnerships with the police and all other safeguarding agencies to promote the safety and well-being of young people.

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How well children and young are helped and protected: good

Staff develop a good understanding of young people’s specific needs and emerging vulnerabilities and take appropriate action to address them. The use of clear risk assessments and safe working practice ensure that young people are safeguarded and protected. Risks associated with individual young people are managed safely and effectively by staff. Young people are kept safe and feel safe.

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How well children and young are helped and protected: good

Young people benefit from a caring, supportive and nurturing environment in which positive behaviour is consistently praised, recognised and encouraged. Staff have high expectations of behaviour and encourage harmonious relationships in the home. They implement appropriate boundaries and maintain good order and effective discipline in the home. The use of restraint is exceptionally rare and, if used at all, it is only ever used to protect young people from harm. There have been no restraints since the last inspection, and there is minimal use of sanctions to address negative behaviour.

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How well children and young are helped and protected: good

Young people rarely go missing. When they do, staff work closely with the police to locate them. Staff follow the home’s procedures to find young people quickly and promote their safe return. The frequency with which young people go missing has reduced considerably in relation to their starting points. Young people become increasingly safer because of the actions staff take to protect and support them.

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How well children and young are helped and protected: good

Health and safety arrangements in the home are managed effectively. The home provides a physically safe, appropriately secure, comfortable and homely environment for young people and staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed efficiently and effectively. Young people benefit from skilled, appropriately qualified, well-trained and very experienced staff. The home employs a full-time, well-qualified registered manager and deputy, who demonstrate strong and effective leadership of the day-to-day operations of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home meets the aims and objectives as set out in the statement of purpose, delivering a high-quality service for young people. All staff working at the home are suitably qualified. Inspection report children’s home: SC040509 6 The home has met one of two recommendations from the previous inspection. Pathway plans are now in place to support eligible care leavers to achieve their independence. The recommendation not met is repeated. This relates to compatibility impact assessments being completed prior to a young person’s admission. The home has begun this process; however, risk impact assessments are insufficiently detailed and lack evaluation.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The training needs of staff are generally well supported, identified and met. The home is looking to source relevant training courses for staff in relation to sexually harmful behaviour, epilepsy and seizures, to help them meet the specific needs of the young people at the home. A recommendation is made in respect of the latter.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home employs extremely committed and dedicated staff who prioritise the needs of young people by working positively and proactively with a range of external agencies to ensure that young people benefit from effective services and the best possible help and all-round support.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There are effective arrangements for monitoring and improving the standard and quality of young people’s care. The home is visited on a regular basis by an independent professional who scrutinises the home’s arrangements to safeguard young people and promote their well-being. The reports in relation to these visits are consistently positive, demonstrating that the home consistently provides a good quality service for young people. However, there has been an issue with Ofsted not receiving the independent person’s monitoring reports. Consequently, a requirement is made in respect of this issue.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager makes good use of the internal and external monitoring activities to understand the home’s strengths and tackle any known weaknesses to secure the home’s continuing 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 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 Inspection report children’s home: SC040509 7 children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’. Inspection report children’s home: SC040509 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Salford City Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Civic Centre, Chorley Road, Swinton, Manchester M27 5DA

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Inspector

Anthony Kyem, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC040509 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 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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