Children's home run by The Partnership of Care Today in Stockport

Inspection report children‟s home: SC025417 1 SC025417 Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately run children‟s home can provide accommodation for up to four young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since 18 January 2019.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: 14 November 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: SC025417 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/11/2017 Full Good 21/02/2017 Full Good 14/11/2016 Interim Not judged 16/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children‟s home: SC025417 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 care planning standard is that children–

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children‟s home and have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. (Regulation 14(1)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that matching assessments are carried out prior to a young person moving into the home. 25/02/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children‟s safety. (Regulation 32(1)) 25/02/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees receive practice-related supervision. (Regulation 33(4)(b)) 25/02/2019

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Recommendations

 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)  The children‟s home must produce a children‟s guide. The children‟s guide must be made available to all children when their placement in the home is agreed (or on arrival at the home if the placement is made in an emergency) and must be age appropriate, provided in an accessible format and explained to each child to make sure they understand it. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 24, paragraph 4.21)

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Recommendations

 Homes are required to develop and keep under review a “Statement of Purpose” (regulation 16 and schedule 1). The home‟s Statement of Purpose should be child-focused, indicating how the home provides individualised care to meet the Quality Standards for the children in their care. („Guide to the children‟s homes Inspection report children‟s home: SC025417 4 regulations including the quality standards‟, page 14, paragraph 3.5)  Those with a leadership and/or management role should be visible and accessible to staff and able to deliver their leadership and/or management responsibilities. Any registered manager employed in the home should have sufficient capacity to ensure that the Quality Standards are met for each child in the home. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 52, paragraph 10.7)  Ensure that staff play a full role in preparing a journal for young people which

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Recommendations

captures their journey through care and provides children and young people a lasting memory. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 16, paragraph 3.14) Inspection report children‟s home: SC025417 5

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people make good progress in their lives through living at the home. They grow in self-awareness and, over time, learn to manage their emotions. Interactions between the staff and young people are warm and considerate, and there are observable attachments. The atmosphere within the home is very warm and calm and social interaction is friendly and fun.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All the young people continue to regularly attend full-time education that meets their individual education needs. The manager and staff have high aspirations for the children and young people and work in partnership with education professionals to ensure that the children and young people can meet their targets. For example, when young people are struggling in education, staff from the home support them in the classroom.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff monitor the young people‟s health and provide the necessary support to ensure that routine appointments and checks are up to date. Staff are adept at sensitively helping young people with their individual personal care needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young people benefit from many positive experiences such as days out, camping trips and group holidays. These positive experiences are captured in photographs. However, these are not collated or used as ongoing life-story work or to capture the young person‟s journey. This is a missed opportunity to create a lasting memory for the young person, as it can also be used very effectively to show the progress that they make.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people are fully supported to maintain contact with people who are important to them. Staff ensure that all contact arrangements reflect the young person‟s care plan. Appropriate support is in place to ensure that contact is as safe and positive an experience as possible.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home presents as a lived-in family home. It is warm, welcoming and comfortable. The quality of furniture and decoration is very good.

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

The young people told the inspector that they feel safe at the home. They benefit from high levels of support and supervision provided by a staff team that is trained in all aspects of safeguarding. Staff present as knowledgeable and confident in implementing the home‟s safeguarding policies and procedures, and take a highly proactive approach to ensuring the young people‟s safety. Inspection report children‟s home: SC025417 6 Compatibility assessments for young people coming to live at the home are not robust. The assessment is carried out on the day that young people arrive at the home. Therefore, there is no evidence of how new young people‟s presenting behaviours may impact on and affect the young people already in placement. This has the potential for poor matching, where young people may not feel safe and either feel or be at risk of harm.

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

The young people have detailed and effective risk assessments that demonstrate the reduction in risk that has occurred over time. Strategies are in place to manage and reduce the risks that the young people face, while still encouraging them to take age- appropriate risks to increase their independence.

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

Some young people, for whom going missing from home was a feature of their lives, experience a significant drop in the frequency of these episodes. When young people do go missing, staff are prompt to follow protocols and to liaise with other agencies. They go looking for the young people, checking with friends and family, and search the local area.

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

Staff have a calming influence when young people become anxious or struggle to manage their behaviour. Behaviour management plans have useful de-escalation strategies that support young people. Young people agree to the consequences given, which are all around minor issues. Consequences are proportionate and not punitive. A young person commented, „We get extra pocket money if we are good, but if we are not then we don‟t, and that‟s fair.‟

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

The physical environment for young people and staff is safe and secure, because it is checked regularly. This, along with the risk assessments which are reviewed and updated frequently, protects young people and staff from risk of harm.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The home is going through a transition period for managers. A new manager was registered for the home on 18 January 2019, and she is suitably qualified and experienced. Prior to her appointment, the manager registered for the home had another part-time position within the organisation. Her commitments to her other role impacted on her availability to manage the home. Consequently, she was not visible and accessible to staff, which contributed to the shortfalls found at the inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff feel valued and supported by the managers. However, some staff supervision records do not demonstrate that supervision takes place regularly. The lack of regular supervision does not enable staff to reflect on their practice or identify any further training that they need to support their continued professional development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Recruitment practice at the home needs to be strengthened to make certain that only suitable staff work at the home. The registered manager has failed to ensure that full and necessary information is available in respect of the matters required by regulation. For example, one member of staff did not have any documentation, including the Inspection report children‟s home: SC025417 7 application form, interview records or references relevant to his position, within the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The home‟s Statement of Purpose is regularly updated to reflect changes in staff and the individualised care provided to young people. However, some of the information included in the Statement of Purpose is inaccurate and outdated. For example, it states that young people attend staff handovers. The registered manager confirmed that this did not happen. Moreover, a children‟s guide needs to be written to give young people an insight into the day-to-day routines of the home, produced in a format that is accessible to all age groups.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

There is evidence of collaborative working with other professionals and family members who are involved in each young person‟s care to support positive outcomes for them. Feedback from professionals and family members is positive, praising the management‟s and staff‟s commitment to the young people and the progress that they make. A family member commented, „I am happy that he is well looked after.‟

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Monitoring and review systems at the home help to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the home and the staff team, and action is taken to quickly address shortfalls and build on strengths. However, the management team agrees that young people‟s records require further improvement to ensure that each is signed and dated by staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Although some requirements and recommendations have been set at this inspection, these do not significantly undermine the good-quality individualised care that the young people receive. The new registered manager fully acknowledges all shortfalls raised at this inspection. She shows both the capacity and enthusiasm to make all the required improvements. Inspection report children‟s home: SC025417 8

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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 difference 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: SC025417 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Lansdowne House, 85 Buxton Road, Stockport, Cheshire SK2 6LR

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Inspector

Elaine Allison, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC025417 10 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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