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Inspection report children’s home: SC488943 1 SC488943 Registered provider: Unity Residential Care Services

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home provides care for up to four children whose adverse childhood experiences and trauma can lead to them exhibiting complex behaviours. A private provider operates this home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since 2015. She holds a level 5 qualification in leadership and management.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 19 to 20 February 2019

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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 good

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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

Date of last inspection: 22 January 2018

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC488943 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

22/01/2018 Full Outstanding 15/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 28/11/2016 Full Outstanding 08/03/2016 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC488943 3

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Recommendations

 As set out in regulations 31-33, the registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)  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 between 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)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children make excellent progress. They receive dedicated and child-focused care that makes a significant difference to their lives. Children who have previously experienced disrupted placements quickly build trusting relationships and begin to trust adults. This trust enables children to begin to have stability in their lives, and as a result they start to blossom physically, emotionally and educationally.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

This is a home that is full of laughter and fun. Children engage with staff, share jokes and talk together. This all-inclusive atmosphere means that children have a true sense of belonging, which is something they cherish.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children experience well-planned moves into and out of the home. Children who move into the home receive a letter from the team that includes the current children’s memories of their arrival to help reassure the new child. Since the last inspection, one child has left the home to return to live with her family. The child’s parent told the inspector, ‘Any plans they facilitated… it worked absolutely fabulously.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff prioritise children’s education. This tailored support enables children who have had difficulties in attending school in the past to begin to make excellent progress in their learning. For example, one child was recognised by their school for achieving 100% attendance in an academic year. Another child is part of the school council and feels involved in their school. This encouragement has enabled children to see school as a positive feature in their lives. Inspection report children’s home: SC488943 4 The individual work that staff carry out with children is excellent. Work is informed by children’s individual plans, and staff use their professional curiosity to help them to understand children’s individual circumstances and how to keep each child safe. In addition, staff consult academic research to help to inform their practice.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff help children to take part in a wide range of activities that encourage children’s own interests and support them to make new friends. For example, children are encouraged to take part in horse riding, attending music groups, being a member of the local scout’s club and participating in dance lessons. These opportunities enable children to build up proud memories of their achievements, especially when they have been able to take an active role in live performances.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff maintain high-quality records. They use a range of recording tools to ensure that positive memories are captured. These include keeping diaries, photo albums and memory boxes for each child.

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

Staff work tirelessly to maintain consistent boundaries so that children are clear about what is expected of them. One child told the inspector, ‘They have boundaries here and I’m happy about that. They help me a lot.’ This clarity results in a calm and respectful atmosphere in the home.

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

Staff recognise and reward children’s positive behaviour. There are very few incidents in the home. When these do occur, children take part in restorative work. For example, children are encouraged to write letters of apology. This enables children to see that they can make mistakes and move on positively.

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

Staff have a range of well-written behaviour management plans. These are regularly reviewed to ensure that staff have the most current information available. However, occasionally when changes are made to a plan a lack of attention to detail has resulted in staff referring to the wrong child. This has the potential to cause confusion.

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

Staff receive training that helps them to better understand the risks children can face from developing associations with gangs and county lines, and the risks of radicalisation and how to support children who are at risk of sexual exploitation.

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

Children are helped to understand how they can keep themselves safe. For example, one child has completed an online training course about social media. This was part of a plan to enable her to have a mobile phone. The child’s social worker told the inspector, ‘Staff think out of the box and where appropriate strive for compromise. This is evident through their approach to her mobile phone, making it safe and managing safeguarding issues while still meeting [the name of child]’s needs.’

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

The registered manager oversees the recruitment of new staff and ensures that only people who are safe to work with children are recruited. However, there is no process Inspection report children’s home: SC488943 5 for the manager to review the checks of staff who transfer to the home from other homes in the organisation. This impacts on the consistency of recruitment practice in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager is an exceptionally child-focused practitioner. She makes excellent use of monitoring and review systems to help her to understand each child’s progress from their starting point. She also uses her monitoring systems to help her to identify the strengths of the service and to highlight areas for development. The registered manager actively seeks feedback from children and professionals about the home. This ensures continuous improvement in all areas of the service.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff have confidence in the support that they receive from managers. They have regular supervision and performance appraisals that support them to reflect on their practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff are empowered to explore additional support and training when they feel that this will help them in their care of children. For example, in response to a query about whether a child may have traits that suggest they have autism spectrum disorder, a member of staff was identified to attend an independent training programme. This increased knowledge was then shared with the team. This proactive approach ensures that staff are knowledgeable on the issues that affect children in their care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff produce weekly reports that ensure that social workers are up to date on all areas of their child’s progress. One child’s social worker told the inspector, ‘The welfare and needs of the child are paramount. We have excellent communication which in turn makes my role easier and together we can progress with [name of child]’s care plan.’ This collaborative approach supports children’s progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager has taken action to address the one recommendation raised at the last inspection. Staff now receive a clear plan of actions arising from their supervision, which is regularly reviewed.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: SC488943 6 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: SC488943 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Unity Residential Care Services Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 98 Lancaster Road, Newcastle-under-Lyme ST5 1DS

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Inspector

Tracey Coglan Greig, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC488943 8 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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