Children's Home run by Warrington Borough Council in Warrington

Inspection report children’s home: SC442779 1 SC442779 Registered provider: Warrington Borough Council

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This local authority children’s home provides care and accommodation for two children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC442779 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/08/2017 Full Good 27/03/2017 Full Outstanding 17/10/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 18/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC442779 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 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 quality of care provided for children;

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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; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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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)(a)(b)(c)(5)) 17/01/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC442779 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Practice in this home consistently exceeds the standard of good and has resulted in sustained improvement to children’s lives. There is significant evidence of change and improvement because of the excellent quality of care provided by staff. Children like living in the home and see it as their home. One child said that she loves everything about the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children build trusted and secure relationships with staff. This is because staff provide a stable, nurturing environment and emotional warmth. These relationships provide a secure base that supports children in their progress and helps them develop a sense of permanence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children in the home make excellent progress in education because of the help and support that they receive from staff. Staff use reward systems to promote school attendance and, as a result, children have 100% attendance. Staff celebrate children’s achievements and have established good communication with school staff. Because of the staff’s approach, children are meeting their potential in education and have high aspirations for when they leave school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children become increasingly healthier because of the help they receive from staff. This is because staff use creative ways of encouraging children to have a healthier lifestyle, such as using a child’s interest in ‘pokeman’ to encourage walking and exercise. They spend time with children educating them on healthy lifestyles and use a range of resources in this work. For some children, this approach has resulted in significant lifestyle changes, such as them stopping smoking.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children make progress in their emotional and behavioural development. They develop skills and strategies to manage their own feelings and behaviour through the positive relationships that they have with staff. Staff provide clear and consistent boundaries for children in the home. They undertake a high level of high-quality direct work with children to support them to communicate their feelings, which reduces the need for them to act out their feelings with behaviour.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Relationships between the children in the home have improved significantly since the last inspection because of the input of staff. The children now enjoy spending time together. This contrasts with last year, when an assessment was undertaken to consider whether they should remain living together because of the level of risk they presented to each other.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff use a range of creative resources to support children with their identity. For example, they sourced a film to watch with a child that would facilitate a discussion about the young person’s sexuality. Staff also undertake excellent life-story work with children in conjunction with the placing authority. Inspection report children’s home: SC442779 5 Children’s experiences on a day-to-day basis are positive. They access a wide range of positive experiences and staff are creative in trying to encourage children to access new groups and experiences. The children have enjoyed a range of activities since the last inspection, such as a trip to Harry Potter World and the Minecraft convention. Staff go above and beyond to try to make these experiences memorable for children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff understand the importance of promoting children ’s relationships with family in a safe way. They supervise contact when necessary and often go the extra mile to ensure that children can attend special family days, such as family birthday parties. This year staff are facilitating a family contact on Christmas Day to enable the children to enjoy the day with their family in a safe way. Children recognise the impact that staff support has had on improving their relationships with family.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff communicate well with parents. They have developed newsletters, which they share with family members. This communication enables family to understand what children have been doing and the progress that they are making, which supports family contact.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff ensure that children live in a warm and homely environment. Children choose the decor and decorations for the home. Staff go the extra mile to ensure that children can personalise their bedrooms to their own preference, such as sourcing specific wallpaper for one child from overseas.

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

Children are becoming increasingly safe because of the support and care provided by staff. Identified risks for children have decreased since the last inspection because of creative and highly effective risk management in the home.

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

Staff ensure that children have individual risk assessments in place, which clearly identify any known risks and the actions staff should take to address these risks. These are regularly reviewed and updated to reflect the progress that children make.

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

Children do not go missing from this home. However, staff ensure that there are missing from home risk assessments in place for each child, which ensures that staff know what action to take should children go missing.

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

Staff use effective reward systems to promote positive behaviour in the home. The manager has made improvements to the reward systems following the last inspection. She has implemented an individualised ticketing system, which has proved highly effective in promoting positive behaviour in the home . These changes have contributed to significantly improved relationships between the children and a reduction in challenging behaviour in the home.

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

Restraint is rarely used. This is because staff know children exceptionally well and know the best strategies to use to de-escalate situations effectively. Inspection report children’s home: SC442779 6 Staff ensure that children are educated about risks associated with internet use and social media and ensure that there are systems in place to minimise this risk. As a result, children understand these risks and understand why, for example, they must hand their phones to staff at night.

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

Staff have accessed a wide range of training in safeguarding since the last inspection, including training on self-harm and county lines. This supports staff’s professional development and ensures that they have the knowledge and skills to meet children’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers have good systems in place to monitor progress, and as a result have a clear understanding of the progress that children make in the home. The manager undertakes a twice-yearly review that focuses on the quality of care provided by the home. However, she has not included in detail the opinions of children, parents and professionals to further enhance this review. A requirement has been issued to address this shortfall. However, this has not had a negative impact on the care or service provided to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

There have been some changes in management since the last inspection. The registered manager was moved to manage two other homes within the organisation and since then the deputy manager has been managing the home. The deputy manager is experienced, child-focused and has ensured that children continue to enjoy a high quality of care. The registered manager has continued to have some oversight of the home during this period and is returning to manage the home imminently.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers show an ambitious vision and have high standards for the quality of care that children should receive. As a result, children have made exceptional progress and have high aspirations for their futures.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home is staffed by a stable, experienced and child-focused staff team. The manager has worked hard to develop a culture of reflective practice in the home and has developed a highly motivated and strong team, which provides a warm, nurturing environment for children in line with the home’s statement of purpose. Staff are passionate about their roles and consistently go the extra mile for children .

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers provide a supportive environment for staff. Staff like working in the home and feel well supported in their roles. Staff receive reflective supervision regularly. There is an open and honest culture in the home and staff spoke about valuing the frankness of management. This is reflected in supervision records, where practice is challenged when necessary. This ensures that staff morale and standards in the home remain high. As a result, staff retention is high, which ensures that children have the benefit of a stable staff team that they know well.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Team meetings take place regularly. The manager invites external professionals to team meetings, which informs staff’s practice. She also shares resources and research with staff at team meetings. Staff are proactive at researching resources and information to Inspection report children’s home: SC442779 7 inform their practice with children , such as sourcing information about psychosomatic illness for direct work with a young person who was displaying this behaviour.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Children are given good opportunities to voice their views and opinions in the home. Children’s meetings are meaningful, and they feed directly into team meetings so that children’s views are discussed and acted upon. Children were able to give examples of how their views had been listened to by staff. As a result, children feel valued by staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Professionals are complimentary about the level of care provided by the staff and how this contributes to children’s progress. There is evidence of excellent communication with external agencies to ensure the best possible care for children. Staff are proactive in seeking advice and support from external agencies, such as the child in care nurse or educational psychologist, to inform their work with children .

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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: SC442779 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Warrington Borough Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Children’s Services Directorate, New Town House, Buttermarket Street, Warrington, Cheshire WA1 2NJ

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Inspector

Sarah Billett, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC442779 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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