Children's Home run by Phoenix Learning & Care Holdings Limited in Somerset

Inspection report children’s home: SC478152 1 SC478152 Registered provider: Phoenix Learning and Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four female young people who have experienced child sexual exploitation. The service offers therapeutic intervention as a part of the placement agreement. On-site educational facilities are also available.

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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

Date of last inspection: 13 September 2017

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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: SC478152 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/09/2017 Full Good 01/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 20/09/2016 Full Good 06/07/2016 Full Inadequate Inspection report children’s home: SC478152 3

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Recommendations

 Ensure that any child who has been restrained is given the opportunity to express their feelings about their experience of the restraint as soon as is practicable, ideally within 24 hours of the restraint incident, taking the age of the child and the circumstances of the restraint into account. Children should be offered the opportunity to access an advocacy support to help with this. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.60) Ensure that this debrief discussion is carried out by a person who was not involved in the restraint incident.  Ensure that all staff have their performance and fitness to carry out their role formally appraised at least once annually. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.5)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children continue to receive good-quality individualised care at this home. The staff team is well trained and helps children effectively to make good progress. The quality of relationships between staff and the children is very positive. Staff provide children with care, nurture and appropriate affection. These approaches were seen in practice during the inspection. Children and external professionals who talked to the inspector spoke very highly about the quality and benefit of these good relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Care planning is good. Children, external agencies, staff and families are all involved in this process. As a result, children receive bespoke care, and everyone involved in their lives has a good understanding of how to support them effectively to achieve the aims of their care plan.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making good progress. High-risk behaviours such as self-harm and going missing have reduced and positive achievements, including going to school more regularly, have increased. Prior to living here, some children had been out of school and they are now attending regularly and engaging well.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children who leave the home move on positively and with the skills to help them in adult life. Children who have left keep in touch with staff, often phoning and visiting the home. Staff continue to promote these relationships akin to good-quality, family-style attachments.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The admission process is good and it helps children to move into the home in a positive Inspection report children’s home: SC478152 4 way. Leaders and managers have used information from previous admissions to help them to improve their work in this area. Leaders and managers now always meet with children and external professionals before children move in and use the information from these meetings to help them all to plan an appropriate package of care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Healthcare needs are met and well managed. Staff appropriately challenge other agencies when they disagree with their assessment of children’s needs and proposed support plan. They advocate strongly on behalf of children.

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

Staff have a comprehensive understanding of children’s needs, vulnerabilities and risks. Staff manage risk well and understand accurately how to keep children safe. Staff demonstrate the skills to support children who have been abused and sexually exploited. For example, they work hard to disrupt and prevent exploitative behaviour and help children to learn the skills to use the internet and smartphones safely.

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

Children are actively involved in the risk assessment process. Staff have good-quality one-to-one discussions with children about behaviours that may increase the risk of harm to them. Staff help children to speak openly about how they are feeling. Children spoke positively about this approach, telling the inspector that they respect the boundaries that staff implement and know that they are in place to keep them safe. Children said that they feel safe living in this home and confirmed that they feel confident to talk with staff about any worries that they may have.

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

Safeguarding concerns are managed well. Information about these concerns is swiftly reported to safeguarding agencies and there are good-quality records that provide a detailed chronology of the actions that staff take once they receive a concern, through to its conclusion.

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

Behaviour is managed well. Staff are not punitive in their approach, instead they communicate clearly their expectations to children and regularly praise them for making positive choices. Boundaries are fair and proportionate and kept under regular review. Children are involved in developing their own behaviour support plans and this helps them to take ownership for their behaviour.

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

Restraint is rarely used. When it is used, approaches to intervene with children are proportionate to the level of risk and help them to keep safe. Staff do talk with children about times when they are restrained. However, on three occasions, the debrief discussion was carried out by the member of staff who was involved in the restraint. This approach could reduce the ability of children to talk openly about how they felt.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers understand accurately how this home is performing. They use monitoring activities effectively and undertake detailed and evaluative reviews of practices in the home. Leaders and managers use the findings from their monitoring Inspection report children’s home: SC478152 5 activities to inform their development and training plan. The development and training plans are implemented effectively to improve the quality of care provided to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers understand the progress that children are making and keep comprehensive and useful records about this progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff team is very proactive at helping children to receive the services that they require. If children need additional support to meet their needs, the staff advocate strongly for children until this support is obtained. Leaders and managers appropriately challenge and escalate their concerns when this required support is not provided swiftly or responded to appropriately by other agencies.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are supported effectively in their roles because training, team meetings and supervision are good quality and take place regularly. Leaders and managers have developed a new appraisal system that includes feedback from peers and children. Although most staff have received an annual appraisal, some staff have not. Leaders and managers are aware of this shortfall and have plans in place to undertake these appraisals.

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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: SC478152 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Phoenix Learning and Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Phoenix Learning and Care Limited, Rolle Quay, Barnstaple EX31 1JE

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Inspector

Wendy Anderson: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC478152 7 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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