Children's home run by Birtenshaw in Bolton

Inspection report children’s home: 1233310 1 Registered provider: Birtenshaw Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a private children’s home registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three children who may have learning disabilities. It is part of an organisation that includes children’s homes, a short-break service, specialist education provision and adult care homes. The manager was registered with Ofsted in May 2017.

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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: 31 January 2018

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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: 1233310 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

31/01/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 24/04/2017 Full Good 14/12/2016 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: 1233310 3

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Recommendations

 Ensure that relevant plans are in place for young people. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 14, paragraph 3.1) This relates specifically to obtaining a copy of a young person’s most recent personal education plan (PEP).  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 providing staff with training on attachment.  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

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Recommendations

the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.4) This relates to the registered manager completing a risk impact assessment prior to a young person’s admission.  As outlined in 10.1, the registered person should plan staffing levels to ensure that they meet the needs of children and can respond flexibly to unexpected events or opportunities. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.15) This relates specifically to the recording of the actual hours worked by staff, including the registered manager.  The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and make best use of information from independent and internal monitoring (including under Regulations 44 and 45) to ensure continuous improvement. They should be skilled in anticipating difficulties and reviewing incidents, such as

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Recommendations

learning from disruptions and placement breakdowns. They are responsible for proactively implementing lessons learned and sustaining good practice. The review should focus on the quality of care provided by the home, the experiences of children living there and the impact the care is having on outcomes and improvements for the children. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people make sustainable progress in relation to their individual starting points across aspects of their physical, social, emotional and behavioural development. Young Inspection report children’s home: 1233310 4 people enjoy warm and secure relationships with staff and benefit from continuity of care, so they have consistency and stability in their lives. They benefit from highly personalised, well-planned care that promotes their needs effectively and contributes to change and improvement in their lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A social worker reported, ‘I am the allocated social worker for [young person] who has a full-time placement at [the home]. He is always happy and settled when visited. I feel that he receives good-quality care and the staff and manager have a good understanding of his needs and respond in an appropriate way.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Risk impact assessments have been completed by the registered manager. However, these were not completed prior to young people’s admission. Consequently, a recommendation is made to ensure that risk impact assessments are completed prior to any new admissions to the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people attend school and receive good support and encouragement from staff to attend school daily. Young people make good progress with their education. Staff maintain strong partnerships with the schools of young people to promote their educational achievements. The registered manager requests updated plans for young people who require them. However, one young person’s revised personal education plan is currently missing from the records.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff maintain highly effective partnerships with schools, families, health professionals and social workers to ensure that young people benefit from the best possible help and all-round support. Young people are registered with a doctor, a dentist and an optician and have access to these services when they need them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people’s medication is stored and administered safely by staff. Medical consent is obtained so staff are familiar with the types of health decisions and responsibilities that are delegated to them. Staff maintain highly effective partnerships with health professionals to ensure that young people’s specific health needs are consistently met.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A parent reported, ‘Staff are very good at keeping us updated with [our child’s] health appointments. [She] is well looked after in and around the home. She would let it be known if she wasn’t happy there. Her staff are brilliant with her. They all seem to have her best interests at heart.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide young people with enjoyable activities at home and in the community. Young people enjoy trampolining, shopping, sensory play, walking, swimming, bowling and visiting parks. Staff use signs, symbols and visual supports to communicate with young people effectively. They ascertain the young people’s views and act on their reasonable requests. Staff promote contact for young people and this ensures that they sustain their close relationships with their families and the people who are most important to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage young people’s independence. They help young people to develop their self-care skills, which improves their individual abilities and self-confidence. A social Inspection report children’s home: 1233310 5 worker reported, ‘His communication and his independence skills since moving to [the home] have improved. He is making slow but steady progress in all areas of his life. He is supported to make choices and accesses the local community on a regular basis.’

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

Young people are kept safe and develop a strong sense of personal safety. Staff have a good understanding of their specific needs and vulnerabilities and take appropriate action to address them. Apart from the lack of compatibility risk assessments already reported upon, once resident, risks associated with young people are generally well known and understood by staff.

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

The safety of young people is consistently at the centre of staff’s practice. High staffing ratios ensure that young people’s whereabouts are known. As a result, young people do not go missing. Staff provide young people with a supportive, caring, safe and nurturing environment that promotes effectively their safety and well-being.

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

Staff are trained in child protection to ensure that they know how to deal with allegations and how to report suspected abuse. Young people are protected from abuse, bullying and all other forms of significant harm.

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

Significant incidents are reported to the appropriate authorities. This ensures that action is taken by the right professional agencies to safeguard and protect young people. Staff maintain highly effective partnerships with all safeguarding agencies to promote the safety of young people.

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

The home provides young people with a warm, comfortable and homely environment. Adaptations have been made to the home where necessary to meet young people’s needs and to keep them safe. A physically safe and appropriately secure environment is consistently maintained for both young people and staff.

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

There have been no sanctions or complaints since the last inspection. The behaviours of young people are managed safely and effectively by staff. Staff have a good understanding of the triggers for young people’s individual behaviours. Staff anticipate issues exceptionally well and they support young people to self-regulate their own behaviour. Staff use effective de-escalation techniques and other behavioural support strategies to address the specific needs and behaviours of young people.

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

The use of restraint is a last resort that is only ever used by trained staff to protect young people from harm. Restraints used are proportionate and are always low level and of short duration. The registered manager monitors and scrutinises the use of restraint to ensure that its use is fair and necessary. Consequently, the registered manager can take appropriate action if patterns of concern emerge.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Young people benefit from a home that is managed efficiently and effectively. The home Inspection report children’s home: 1233310 6 employs a full-time, well-qualified and experienced registered manager who exercises strong and effective leadership of the operation of the home. The manager was registered with Ofsted in May 2017.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff meet the aims and objectives as set out in the home’s statement of purpose. They provide a good-quality service for young people and share and implement the home’s ethos, approach and philosophy in caring for young people. Young people benefit from effective, high-quality support from staff that contributes to change and continuing improvement in their lives. A tutor reported, ‘I have seen the staff working with the young people. They show a great deal of respect to the young people and choices are given, at all times, and all the children are treated on an individual basis.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager ensures that the home is consistently well staffed and resourced. Sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, trained and experienced staff are employed to meet the specific needs and numbers of the young people. The registered manager’s actual working hours are not included in the staff rota. Consequently, a recommendation is made to include their working hours.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff not qualified are enrolled to undertake training to obtain their professional qualifications. Staff benefit from regular, high-quality supervision to discuss their work and performance. Supervision enables staff to reflect on their practice. Combined with access to good-quality training, this enables staff to meet the specific needs of the young people at the home. Despite staff being well trained, they have not received training on attachment theory to develop their knowledge, skills and practice further. As a result, a recommendation is made in respect of this issue.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has good oversight of the care provided by the home. She regularly monitors the quality of young people’s care and has produced a detailed and informative quality of care review. However, the format and content of the report could be further improved by being more analytical, evaluative and less descriptive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is visited on a regular basis by an independent person who scrutinises the home’s arrangements to safeguard young people and to promote their well-being. Any weaknesses identified are addressed by the registered manager to improve the care provided for young people.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: 1233310 7 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: 1233310 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Birtenshaw, Darwen Road, Bromley Cross, Bolton BL7 9AB

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Inspector

Anthony Kyem: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1233310 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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