Children's Home run by The Partnership of Care Today in Staffordshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC005050 1 SC005050 Registered provider: The Partnership of Care Today Children’s 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 is owned by a private company. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for six children and young people who may have experienced childhood instability, resulting in trauma and associated complex behaviours.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager holds a level 5 qualification.

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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: 30 January 2018

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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: SC005050 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/01/2018 Full Good 21/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 01/11/2016 Full Outstanding 09/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC005050 3

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Recommendations

 It is crucial that the home works in close partnership with all those who play a role in protecting and caring for the child, but particularly the child’s local authority and statutory social worker. The registered person and the staff of the home cannot force a relevant person to engage or work productively with them and the regulation does not require this. The registered person should evidence what they have done to achieve engagement, including any actions taken to escalate concerns. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 11, paragraph 2.3)  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.

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Recommendations

(‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4) In particular, ensure that children’s records are clear and in line with the therapeutic ethos of the home, specifically key-work sessions and consequences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in a warm and nurturing home. Staff know each child well and provide them with personalised care. This helps children to form strong and trusting relationships with staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children effectively to participate in day-to-day and more complex aspects of their care. Regular children’s meetings and consultations allow children to make important decisions about their care. Staff work alongside children to review their internal plans and targets. This supports children’s progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

For the most part, staff advocate well for children to ensure that their needs are met. However, the registered manager recently missed opportunities to fully escalate his concerns to a placing authority about the sustainability of a child’s transition plan. As a result, the registered manager does not fully consider the potential impact of such concerns on a child’s future stability by raising them with the relevant placing authority.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make some significant progress from their starting points in different aspects of their development. One child told the inspector, ‘Things have massively improved for me here. I feel settled, more than I have ever been.’ Inspection report children’s home: SC005050 4 Children attend the on-site school and have excellent attendance. Staff emphasise the importance of education and ensure that the required routines and structures are in place at home to help children with their attitude to learning. Staff work closely with teachers, sharing information on each child daily and setting joint targets for children. This consistent, joined-up approach helps children to make good progress with their learning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy a wide range of activities in the home and local community. For example, they go for walks or trips to the cinema and enjoy going swimming and playing football with staff. Positive interactions help children to build meaningful and reciprocal relationships with staff, while having fun.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The registered manager is keen to promote children’s interests and hobbies. For example, one child is a ball boy at the local football club and regularly travels to watch his favourite team play. Another child, a keen gardener, is participating in a landscape gardening project with the staff. This personalised approach enables children to develop their own identity and helps them to feel part of their community.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to spend time with those who matter most to them. Staff provide regular feedback to the children’s families and work in partnership with them. As a result, families feel involved in their children’s care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The registered manager has improved procedures for matching new children to the home. However, one emergency placement had a detrimental impact on the rest of the children in the home. For example, there was a significant increase in missing-from- home episodes and some young people were involved in criminal behaviour. It is acknowledged that the registered manager responded swiftly to address the issues and secured another placement for the child. Nevertheless, the impact on children already living at the home was significant.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home environment is bright and vibrant. Children personalise their bedrooms and invest in their home. The registered manager recently included children in a ‘stepping stones’ project, which encouraged them to have their handprints imprinted in cement outside the home. These personalised and child-centred touches enable children to feel valued and develop a sense of belonging.

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

Children are safe in the home and said that they feel safe. The registered manager and staff offer robust responses to manage risk. For example, they are in regular dialogue with police and social workers to manage the risks associated with children who go missing from home. In addition, the registered manager also works closely with a child’s family to agree boundaries and plans prior to his family contact. When necessary, the location of visits changes so that the child can continue to enjoy important family time as safely as possible. Inspection report children’s home: SC005050 5 Staff work closely with children to help them reflect on and understand their risk-taking behaviour, such as aggression and substance misuse. Regular key-work sessions and children’s meetings also help children to develop a greater insight into the impact of their behaviour on themselves and others. Some key-work records lack sufficient detail and

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

this, the registered manager acknowledges, is an area for development.

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

Staff work hard to manage the group dynamics between the children at the home. They promote positive relationships and challenge incidents of play fighting or name calling. As a result, the home has a positive and vibrant atmosphere and children generally get along well together.

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

Staff know the children well and recognise when they are unsettled or distressed. They use this knowledge to successfully manage potentially challenging situations. Incidents requiring physical intervention are rare. When incidents do happen, staff manage these safely. Furthermore, the registered manager ensures that those involved have a debrief to reflect on what has happened and use this learning to inform future practice.

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

Children arrived at the home with high-risk behaviours including violence, substance misuse and sexualised behaviour. With good support and care, these risks have reduced.

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

Children can identify a trusted member of staff when they need to discuss concerns or worries. They told the inspector that ‘staff listen’ and ‘they care’.

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

Staff reward children for positive behaviour. These behaviour targets are closely aligned with the in-house school. Children take pride in meeting their targets and enjoy a range of activities for doing so. However, when children receive consequences for negative behaviour, records show that some are punitive and lack any exploration of the context of children’s behaviours. This is at odds with an otherwise nurturing environment and the manager has plans to address this.

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

The registered manager uses independent research to enhance staff knowledge of risks. For example, he identified a gap in staff knowledge in relation to the sexual exploitation of boys. The registered manager created a training programme for staff. This programme has been adopted by other homes run by the organisation. This proactive and innovative approach enhances staff’s knowledge to keep children safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is child focused and passionate about children in his care. This ethos inspires the established, experienced and skilled staff team to offer children consistent and nurturing care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children enjoy access to staff with a range of skills and interests. For example, some staff hold qualifications as mountain-bike leaders and use this to offer children enjoyable experiences.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There has been no staff turnover for a significant period, providing children with Inspection report children’s home: SC005050 6 consistency. The registered manager ensures that staff do not become complacent. He continually strives to develop their practice and promotes a culture of effective challenge and reflection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager uses a range of monitoring systems to oversee all aspects of children’s care and staff practice. He compiles monthly reports which identify strengths and areas of development. The registered manager uses this information to inform the home’s development plan. He uses learning from independent reports to improve the quality of care children receive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Some aspects of leadership are outstanding. For example, the registered manager is innovative and keen to introduce new ideas to develop staff practice. He uses research projects to help staff reflect on the care children receive. In addition, he is in the process of launching the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in the home. This project has the potential to offer children valuable life skills and enhance their confidence.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff develop strong relationships with partner agencies. They work seamlessly with staff at the in-house school to ensure that children receive consistent care. The local police community beat officer is a regular visitor to the home, which promotes a positive working relationship. Furthermore, staff work closely with a range of voluntary organisations. For example, the registered manager has forged links with local charities. As a result, children are involved in a few projects such as litter picking, improving the appearance of their local community and helping people who are homeless. This brings children a sense of pride and helps them to make valuable contributions to their local community.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is a healthy learning culture in the home and staff take on different areas of responsibility. For example, some staff take the lead on integrating therapy, while other staff undertake specialist counselling training and are part of the company’s integral progression programme. In addition, staff meetings incorporate a reflective model to discuss children’s progress and identify ways to improve children’s care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

A comprehensive training programme responds to children’s needs. Staff receive regular supervision and appraisal. They communicate effectively with each other and feel able to challenge their peers. This healthy, transparent culture helps to continually improve the care children receive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children’s individual plans comprehensively identify their needs. The registered manager uses child-friendly internal plans to engage children in discussions about their progress. However, there are some shortfalls in the recording of key-work sessions and consequences. The registered manager acknowledges this issue and plans to address this with staff. Inspection report children’s home: SC005050 7

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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: SC005050 8

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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

Gareth Leckey, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC005050 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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Inspector

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