Children's Home run by Aspireone Care Ltd in Staffordshire

Inspection report children’s home: 1228191 1 Registered provider: Aspireone Care Ltd

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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 emergency, medium- and long-term placements for two children and young people irrespective of gender, aged between eight and 18 years, who have come from a variety of situations, backgrounds and experiences and who have a range of complex needs. The registered manager is suitable qualified.

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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 outstanding

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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: sustained effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1228191 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/03/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 19/09/2017 Full Good 10/11/2016 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: 1228191 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

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that, if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5(c))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular reference to escalating concerns about safeguarding young people. 07/12/2018

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose. (Regulation 6 (1)(2)(a)).

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular reference to staff understanding the therapeutic base to the home’s practice. 07/12/2018

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Requirement Due date

The children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who develop positive relationships with them; engage with them; and take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives. In particular, the standard requires the registered person to ensure that staff regularly consult children, and seek their feedback, about the quality of the home’s care. (Regulation 7 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular reference to improving the content and quality of young people’s meetings in order to engage them more fully in the running of the home. 07/12/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that within 5 days of the use of a measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35(3)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular reference to recording the child’s response to the use of restraint. 07/12/2018 Inspection report children’s home: 1228191 4

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Recommendations

 Staff should seek to meet the child’s basic needs in the way that a good parent would, recognising that many children in residential care have experienced environments where these needs have not been consistently met – doing so is an important aspect of demonstrating that the staff care for the child and value them as an individual.(‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.7) This is with particular reference to replacing the worn and stained stair carpet.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people like living here and form warm and trusting relationships with staff. Sensitive staff listen to young people, and young people said that they can talk to staff about any concerns that they may have. They benefit from a comfortable, welcoming and well-maintained home. Young people personalise their rooms, providing them with personal space to relax. An area for improvement is the stair carpet, which is stained and worn.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people have fun with staff, engaging in positive relationships and stimulating activities. For example, young people have enjoyed completing assault courses, bowling, football and spending time with staff on trips out. Young people make friends in the local community, and one young person attends army cadets on a regular basis. Staff support young people’s interests and are aspirational for them. One young person has a talent for skate boarding and is supported to attend high-class training facilities to further their talents.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Diligent staff ensure that young people’s physical and mental health needs are identified and met. Young people have access to regular consultations with a therapist who comes in to meet with them. Young people feel that the staff care about them and help them to make progress in their lives. Young people’s identity needs are met by dedicated staff who encourage and strongly support family contact. Nurturing and child-focused staff enable young people to make significant and sustained progress in building their self-esteem, confidence and personal hygiene and maintaining a healthy body weight. Young people engage in key work, which focuses on the needs identified in their plans, including healthy relationships. One young person has experienced stability after many failed placements.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When young people leave, staff keep in touch to help them settle in their new placement or independence. Throughout their placement at the home, they collect photographs and items in memory boxes, which they take with them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people make progress in attending and engaging in education. For example, one young person had not attended education prior to arriving at the home and now attends regularly and is making good progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff enable young people to express their views, wishes and feelings on a daily basis, but an Inspection report children’s home: 1228191 5 area for improvement is the weekly young people’s meetings. These meetings lack structure, and young people would benefit from a stimulating and engaging agenda to encourage participation.

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

Highly trained staff keep young people safe. When young people go missing, staff search for them and follow protocols. There is excellent liaison with other agencies including the police, local authority, drugs services and other local children’s homes, to prevent young people going missing in the first place. Multi-agency work is a key strength and has enabled the registered manager to obtain information about gang activity in the area. This intelligence has helped the police take action to protect one young person. When young people return from being missing, they have an independent return interview.

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

Skilled staff work with young people to help them understand how to keep themselves safe. Key work sessions address relevant safeguarding issues for young people, including internet safety, sexual health, relationships and gangs. The registered manager has brought in other agencies, including the police and drugs workers, to speak to young people about risks.

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

The home is safe and well maintained, and recruitment practice is safe.

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

When young people arrive at the home, impact assessments are thorough and effective, incorporating as much information as possible from the placing authority. Behaviour management is based on staff forming trusting relationships with young people and having in- depth knowledge of the reasons for their challenging behaviours. Professionals said that staff respond well to incidents and keep them informed about risk assessments. The local police officer commented, ‘I feel that the home works very well with the police.’

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

The staff and registered manager are committed to keeping young people safe but recognise when they can no longer keep them safe. One young person needed additional staffing levels to keep him safe. The registered manager put these in place when the placing authority refused the funding. However, increased challenge to placing authorities in this situation is an area for improvement. Another area for improvement is that staff are not consistently recording the views of young people after speaking to them after a physical intervention.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff team is well managed. Staff work very well together and provide excellent levels of consistency and stability for young people. Staff told inspectors that the past few months have been challenging. However, they are positive about the manager and they praise her management skills. Staff reported that they feel listened to by the manager and that they are well supported. Staff supervision is excellent. Staff can discuss their practice individually and as part of group supervision sessions. This has further enhanced teamwork and promoted the good quality of care given to young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Comments from professionals are very positive. A social worker said that there is excellent communication from the staff and that staff ensure that any concerns are passed on to them. Inspection report children’s home: 1228191 6 The manager leads by example and is an excellent role model for the staff team. She advocates for young people, for example, in resolving young people’s educational needs and academic progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff training is very good, and staff reported that they enjoy attending training events. There are systems in place to track mandatory training and a training forecast for the year. Staff work closely to share their knowledge and understanding. This is further enhanced by regular consultations with the in-house therapy team. However, staff do not always deliver the therapeutic model as outlined in the home’s statement of purpose.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is inspirational, confident and passionate. She is ambitious for young people and wants them to have the best care possible including positive experiences and futures. The manager and staff work hard to support young people to make progress, for example supporting overnight visits to family and friends. Young people feel that they are cared for and they like living at the home. One young person, who has now left, wrote a message for staff saying, ‘Thank you for putting all of your effort in to me to make me a better person.’

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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: 1228191 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 4 Lyme Drive, Lyme Vale Court, Parklands, Stoke-on- Trent, Staffordshire ST4 6NW

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Inspector

Louise Whittle, social care inspector Karen Gillingwater, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1228191 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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Inspector

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