Children's home run by Independent Living Services (North West) Limited in St. Helens

Inspection report children’s home: SC431192 1 SC431192 Registered provider: Independent Living Services (North West) Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is a four-bedroomed mixed-gender home for children aged up to 18 years on admission who have difficulty living within a family environment or have suffered significant trauma through neglect or abuse. The manager has been registered with Ofsted since February 2014.

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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: outstanding

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC431192 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/05/2017 Full Outstanding 15/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 03/11/2016 Full Good 29/02/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC431192 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 make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home. (Regulation 23 (1)) 19/12/2018

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Recommendations

 Any individual appointed to carry out visits to the home as an independent person must make a rigorous and impartial assessment of the home’s arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children in the home’s care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.5)  Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes fact, opinion and third-party information. 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)  Regulations 35–39 detail the records that must be kept in the children’s home. The registered manager should ensure that all young people living in the home

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Recommendations

have the necessary up-to-date looked after children records for all young people. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.3)  For children’s home 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)  The information set out in the statement of purpose is an essential part of the process of agreement between the registered person and the placing authority that a placement in the home is the right one for that child, and that the home will be able to respond effectively to the child’s assessed needs. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.6) Inspection report children’s home: SC431192 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children and young people receive a good quality of care from the registered manager and staff, which is making a difference in their lives. The registered manager and staff have high aspirations for the children and young people. Children and young people have positive experiences and make good progress, resulting in improved outcomes for them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The education needs of children and young people are met well. Children and young people have structured routines that support them to attend school or college and to make progress in education. Staff support children and young people to be prepared for education with the correct uniform and equipment to enable them to participate fully. Children and young people receive help and support to complete their homework. Consequently, children and young people achieve improved outcomes in education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff promote good health and well-being for the children and young people. Children and young people attend routine health and development appointments, such as the dentist and opticians to ensure that their health needs are met. The manager and staff help and encourage children and young people to eat healthily and to adopt a healthy and active lifestyle. When young people are reluctant to talk to therapists to support their emotional well-being, staff spend time with them discussing the issues and offering them advice and guidance to help them and to encourage them to receive specialist support.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Effective care planning for children and young people takes place to ensure that their needs are met and outcomes are improved. Regular care planning meetings enable information to be shared, which means that there is a shared understanding and collaborative approach to meeting the needs of the children and young people. However, some records for children and young people do not always include sufficient up-to-date information, for example their contact arrangements and health information. Furthermore, not all children’s and young people’s files contain their statutory records, such as health assessments and personal education plans.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s and young people’s relationships with the manager and staff are very good, and they are trusting and nurturing. Young people spoken to during the inspection spoke positively about the manager and staff and how well they help and support them. One young person said, ‘This is the best placement I have had.’ Another young person said, ‘It is good that we all sit together at mealtimes and discuss things like a family.’ Children and young people feel valued and listened to and have a sense of belonging. Consultation with the children and young people is a strength at the home, with their input being sought in all aspects of the work undertaken.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home environment is warm and welcoming and provides children and young people with a nurturing and supportive home. Young people are encouraged to keep their bedrooms clean and tidy, which helps to improve their independence skills. Staff monitor Inspection report children’s home: SC431192 5 the conditions of bedrooms daily and when standards fall, they help and encourage the young people to improve the standards. At the time of the inspection, there was inappropriate writing on the dining room wall which detracted from the homely environment. However, the wall was painted during the inspection.

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

Safeguarding practice at the home is good, which helps and protects children and young people. The manager and staff are alert to the individual risks to the children and young people and know what they need to do to keep them safe from harm. Children and young people feel safe and know that the manager and staff do their very best to keep them safe.

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

Risk assessments and risk management plans need to be strengthened. They lack sufficient detail that makes it difficult to know what the risks are, whether they are current or historical risks and what the staff are doing to manage and reduce the risks. Although this has not yet compromised how well children and young people are safeguarded, it has the potential to do so.

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

The manager and staff have a good understanding of the statutory guidance for children who are missing from home and implement this through practice. Staff take effective action to locate children and young people when they are missing to try to ensure that they return home safe and well as quickly as possible. Independent return home interviews always take place with children and young people. This helps to identify the reasons why they were missing and the risks that they may have faced. Furthermore, the manager evaluates all missing from home incidents and identifies action to be taken to support the child or young person and to help prevent any further missing from home incidents.

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

Effective action is taken when it is believed that a child or young person may be at risk of harm. The manager has developed good professional relationships with safeguarding professionals and is proactive in making sure that safeguarding professionals work together to reduce risks and to keep children and young people safe from harm. The manager challenges safeguarding professionals when she believes that they are not doing all that they can to keep children and young people safe. This proactive safeguarding practice has resulted in risks being reduced for children and young people.

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

Behaviour management in the home is good and promotes positive behaviour from the children and young people. Rewards and incentives encourage positive behaviour and good relationships in the home. The manager’s and staff’s focus is on acknowledging positive behaviours and helping children and young people to turn negative responses into positive behaviour. This approach means that the home is generally settled, with improved behaviour from the children and young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home continues to be led and managed by an inspirational manager. Since the last Inspection report children’s home: SC431192 6 inspection, the manager has been registered to manage another children’s home in the company. This additional role has not had an adverse effect on this home as the manager continues to manage this home efficiently and effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is fully involved in the care of the children and young people and she knows the children and young people well. The manager is supported by a highly committed and competent staff team that shares her motivation for achieving the best possible outcomes for the children and young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home’s statement of purpose includes child-focused information about the home’s ethos and aims and objectives. The information relating to the experience and qualifications of the manager and staff are not up to date. However, during the inspection, when the manager was made aware of this, she updated the statement of purpose immediately.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The internal monitoring and review systems at the home are strong and help the manager to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the home. However, the independent monthly monitoring does not include regular consultation with family members or professionals. Furthermore, the reports from the visits do not always sufficiently demonstrate a rigorous assessment and evaluation of the home’s arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. However, the manager has recently appointed a new independent person and is hopeful that the independent monitoring will improve.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff feel valued and supported by the manager. They receive regular supervision that enables them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children and young people. The continuous professional development of staff is regarded as a high priority by the manager, and she ensures that staff receive regular training and development opportunities. Regular team meetings give the manager and staff the opportunity to discuss good practice, information from training and research, which enhances their knowledge and skills.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: SC431192 7 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: SC431192 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Independent Living Services (North West) Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Lakeside, Prescot Road, St Helens, Lancashire WA10 3TP

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Inspector

Lisa Mulcahy: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC431192 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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