Children's Home run by Keys Child Care Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report children’s home: SC009651 1 SC009651 Registered provider: Keys Child Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned and operated by a private organisation. It provides care and accommodation for up to four children with emotional and social difficulties, including attachment problems.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been registered since March 2009.

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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 outstanding

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC009651 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/08/2017 Full Outstanding 29/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 05/12/2016 Full Good 16/02/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Younger children with complex needs live in an incredibly nurturing home environment. They feel safe and loved. They receive the help that they need to recover from traumatic and harmful experiences. A child said that ‘this home has made my life better’. Many are enabled to move on to live successfully within a family.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The professional care that children receive results in sustained improvements in their lives. Children have made exceptional progress in their education, health and emotional well-being, building positive relationships, feeling good about themselves and their identity and being able to talk about extremely difficult experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff really listen to children’s views, wishes and worries, and respond to meet them appropriately. Children are involved in making decisions about their daily lives and plans for their future. They are also involved in the development of the organisation. Recently, children shared their views with senior managers about what makes a good children’s home and a good carer, and these have informed positive developments within the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Carefully considered and effective care planning has enabled children to achieve stability. The manager carefully considers the needs of all the children when agreeing who is coming to live in the home. The manager is clear that she will take only children whose needs the staff team can appropriately meet.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children’s introductions to the home are always carefully and sensitively planned for. Before they move in, children meet the manager and their key worker and visit the home. The manager makes sure that children have information about the home in ways that they can understand, including in a film about the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children leave the home to live with a suitable family in a planned way when the time is right for them. Children are fully involved in planning their move and have the information that they need to make sense of what is happening. The manager and staff make sure that children have positive endings and that their move is celebrated. For example, when a child recently left the home there was a farewell ceremony to give Inspection report children’s home: SC009651 3 everybody, including children, staff, teachers and therapists, the opportunity to share their memories and say goodbye.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children have the help and encouragement that they need to go to school every day, to actively take part in education and to make excellent progress. When children struggle in school, staff, therapists and teachers work together positively to make sure that children have the support to help them to do well in school. For example, the professionals have helped a child to improve his behaviour at school and his ability to learn. He had been spending only 20% of his time in class but, by December 2018, this had risen to 80%.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children have every opportunity to have fun and take part in activities with children in the community. They enjoy going to cubs, scouts and brownies, having swimming lessons, playing football, hula-hooping, attending baking club and horse riding. These activities have helped them to develop their interests and talents, self-esteem, confidence and social skills and to make friends .

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children’s health and emotional well-being continue to improve. Staff have an excellent understanding of children’s specific health and emotional needs. They have the relevant skills and knowledge to respond appropriately to children’s health needs.

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

Staff’s knowledge and professional practice help children to feel safe and protect children from harm. Staff make sure that children live in an extremely safe, supportive home environment.

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

Staff provide children with a suitable level of supervision. They continually assess the risks for each child. When they have concerns, they take every step necessary to make sure that children are protected. They work successfully with social workers and safeguarding agencies to identify the risks facing children and take appropriate action to protect them.

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

Children have healthy and secure relationships with those providing their care. They trust staff and know that staff listen to them, help to keep them safe and always try their best to help them. Children feel safe enough to accept help and engage productively in therapy.

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

The manager’s and staff’s detailed understanding of attachment, trauma and therapeutic parenting helps them to create a social environment where children have a strong sense of safety and well-being. Staff work positively and confidently with each child to find the best way possible to support and enable them to them, deal with their feelings and feel safe.

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

When children struggle with strong emotions, staff work with them to find constructive solutions. For example, staff have helped a child who struggles to say what is wrong to find other ways to deal with her feelings. She writes down her worries and gives them to a ‘worry monster’ to take away and eat. She also lets staff know that she wants an adult Inspection report children’s home: SC009651 4 to stay close by, because she does not like being alone when she is struggling. Staying close is helping the child to feel calm and has significantly reduced the number of times that staff have used restraint to keep her safe.

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

Staff use restraint appropriately and only when it is necessary to keep a child safe. They follow the agreed plans for intervention and use the least intrusive way possible to support the child. Following the incident, children always talk about what happened. The manager thoroughly reviews each incident, identifies effective practice and responds promptly to emerging issues.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is very experienced and is suitably qualified. She is a highly effective, inspirational and confident leader. She has created an extremely positive and aspirational culture that is improving the lives of younger children with very complex needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home is achieving its aim to support and enable children to move on to live successfully in a family setting.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers use comprehensive and evaluative monitoring systems to understand the quality of care that children receive. They take effective action to make necessary improvements that benefit children. Since the last inspection, the quality of the accommodation has improved to provide children with an extremely comfortable and homely place to live.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager and staff give a great deal of thought to how they can help children to feel at home, and they remove anything that gives the house an institutional feel. For example, children know that their carers are known as ‘adults’ or ‘grown ups’, not ‘staff’.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

An effective, therapeutic and well-thought-out approach is thoroughly embedded in the running of the home and professional practice. Staff and therapists work closely together to understand children’s needs and to provide them with the best possible support.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has an extremely accurate understanding of the progress that each child is making and the priorities for their care. The manager is quick to identify when children are struggling. She has taken appropriate and effective action to reduce the number of times that children have needed to be restrained.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager challenges local authorities to provide children with the best possible support. This has included using a local authority’s complaints procedure to ensure that a child received the funding and support that she needed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Highly effective staffing arrangements make sure that there are always enough knowledgeable, experienced, well-trained and qualified staff available to meet children’s needs. The staff team works together cohesively, and the day-to-day care of children is extremely well planned to provide them with a high standard of support and supervision. Inspection report children’s home: SC009651 5 Leaders and managers provide each member of staff with excellent support, guidance and encouragement. Staff use practice-related supervision, team meetings and consultation with therapists extremely well to reflect on children’s progress and to identify ways to improve the support that they give children. These are also important opportunities for staff to develop their skills and knowledge and to consider the emotional impact of the work on them. Inspection report children’s home: SC009651 6

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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: SC009651 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Keys Child Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Maybrook House, Queensway, Halesowen, Worcestershire B63 4AH

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Inspector

Nick Veysey, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC009651 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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