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

Inspection report children‟s home: SC454838 1 SC454838 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

A large national provider of children‟s services operates this service. Ofsted has registered the home for six children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home is in a rural location. The current manager was registered with Ofsted in 2016 and has completed their 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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: SC454838 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

24/04/2018 Full Good 14/11/2017 Full Good 25/07/2017 Full Inadequate 28/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children‟s home: SC454838 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 quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who— understand the children‟s home‟s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children; use this understanding to deliver care that meets children‟s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person— to understand and apply the home‟s statement of purpose; ensure that staff— understand and apply the home‟s statement of purpose; protect and promote each child‟s welfare; provide personalised care that meets each child‟s needs, as recorded in the child‟s relevant plans, taking account of the child‟s background. Regulation 6(1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(iv) In particular, providing specialist support, when needed, to meet the children‟s individual needs. 28/06/2019

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Recommendations

 The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 61, paragraph 13.2)  All children‟s case records (regulation 36) must be kept up to date and stored securely whilst they remain in the home. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 62, paragraph 14.3) In particular, to ensure that risk assessments fully reflect the progress of each child. Inspection report children‟s home: SC454838 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in a warm and nurturing home and receive good-quality care from staff. Staff are passionate about the children and are committed to understanding their needs. Some children have experienced many moves in early childhood and this is their first experience of stability and security. Staff are appropriately affectionate toward children, which gives them a sense of acceptance in the home and helps to build positive relationships. Children take delight in living in a relaxed, well-maintained, and homely environment. The home displays photographs that celebrate the achievements of children. The children have pride in their bedrooms, which are personalised and maintained to a high standard. Staff support the children with their emotional well-being by promoting a caring environment. Staff ensure that routines in the home are led by the children‟s needs. For example, when children return from school, staff ensure that the children are the centre

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

of attention. Staff are physically and emotionally available for them. As a result, this makes the children feel valued and, in turn, helps them to build positive relationships. The children attend the on-site school and are making good progress. Staff promote children‟s educational needs and all children have 100% attendance in education. As a result, the children have progressed in their learning and social skills since coming to the home. The registered manager, staff and teachers encourage the children to succeed by supporting them with their work and individual aspirations. Staff and teachers communicate with each other daily. This ensures that children‟s progress is at the centre of staff practice. The registered manager ensures that the children have plenty of opportunities to express their views and wishes. Children have regular meetings with staff and each other to discuss their care day-to-day. Staff also provide the opportunity for children to

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

experience new adventures, such as football, mountain biking and skateboarding activities. Staff have ensured that these positive and memorable experiences are captured in photographs, which the children can be reminded about while living in the home. Most children‟s internal care planning processes are centred around the individual needs of the child. The staff and children have regular input from the in-house therapist. All children have started individual therapy sessions and one child has completed a therapeutic programme. As a result, most children are beginning to manage their feelings of aggression and anger better. However, this bespoke package of care is not always consistent. For example, one child‟s individual care plan requires a more specialist approach to address more complex behaviours. Despite this, the home is using a generalised approach, which is not fully meeting the child‟s needs. Additional specialist

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

support and training for staff will enable individual children to manage their feelings even better and improve their behaviours further. The registered manager and staff enable children to maintain important and positive Inspection report children‟s home: SC454838 5 relationships with family members. The registered manager and staff keep parents and carers updated on the children‟s progress. Family members are welcomed into the home to have lunch with their child. One child‟s mother has been encouraged to cook a meal for their child in the home. This provided a memorable and positive experience for this child and his mother. Parents speak positively about staff. A mother told the inspector, „I have a good relationship with her [registered manager] and feel I can talk to her.‟ The registered manager and staff invest time in listening to and getting to know the children. This enables the children to develop positive and consistent relationships with

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

staff and peers. The home has a caring culture that supports children to make progress in many aspects of their lives, such as social skills and education.

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

Overall, staff understand risk well and keep detailed and accurate records about safeguarding children. In most cases, there are detailed risk assessments that identify what specific actions staff should take to manage and reduce risk. However, some risk assessments contain inconsistent information and are not updated regularly. This means that guidance and advice to staff to support the management of risk is not always as clear as it could be. However, this has not had a detrimental impact on children to date. Children very rarely go missing from the home. When children have gone missing, staff take quick and decisive action in accordance with the home‟s children missing from care policy. Staff work in close partnership with local services, police and placing local authorities to identify any potential risks and consider ways to reduce these. All staff have completed training in the use of physical restraint and use de-escalation

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

techniques effectively. Staff only use physical restraints as a last resort to prevent children from either hurting themselves or others. Physical restraint records are very detailed and reflective. The registered manager takes responsibility for monitoring and reviewing these incidents. As a result, the registered manager has been able to identify certain characteristics in behaviours and emotional stability. For example, one child has used physical aggression as a way of coping with experiencing multiple rejection. The registered manager was able to identify this and put in appropriate support. All children in the home have complex and challenging behaviours. The home provides a balance between incentive and rewards to ensure that positive behaviours receive appropriate recognition. Most children develop skills to manage their actions better and take responsibility for all their behaviours. Staff support children to feel safe and protect themselves. For example, they provide

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

key-work sessions looking at the impact of poor mental health, to encourage children to share their feelings. However, key-work sessions vary, are not robust enough, lack reflection and are not revisited when there are persistent unwanted behaviours. As a result, in these situations children do not develop the skills to manage their behaviours and do not make as much progress as they could, with specific support. Children are helped and supported by staff with close supervision to understand and manage risks posed by the home‟s rural location. The registered manager has taken some proactive steps to ensure that hazardous items are removed from the home and Inspection report children‟s home: SC454838 6 this reduces the risk these items may pose to children. A portacabin, which children have climbed on, remains in the home‟s grounds. Arrangements have not yet been finalised to move this structure. To mitigate risk of harm to children, the registered manager

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

ensures that staff supervise children well when playing out and there is signage warning of the dangers of climbing onto the roof of the portacabin. In addition, risk assessments have been updated to reflect these measures.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is passionate about the care the children receive and has high ambitions for the development of the home. Children and staff are at an advantage by having an enthusiastic and insightful registered manager, who drives better achievements for staff and children‟s progress. The registered manager supports two assistant managers, who share the registered manager‟s vision for the home. The registered manager has been instrumental in monitoring and improving the home. She also has a good understanding of where improvements and further areas of developments can be made. The registered manager is proactive in addressing shortfalls. The statement of purpose has been recently updated to accurately reflect the service of the home and the support offered to the children. The registered manager escalates matters on behalf of children when she identifies there are shortfalls in the support and care from the local authority. When necessary, the

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

registered manager will challenge local authorities to ensure that their care plans reflect the needs of the child. Staff have a positive relationship with the registered manager and told the inspector that they feel supported by her. The registered manager is able to strike a balance with staff relationships and will challenge staff if their practice falls short of what is expected. Although supervision sessions are regular, the quality of the supervision can vary at times, which does not always allow new staff to reflect on their practice or emotional well-being. Formats for recording, reviewing and evaluating supervision sessions need to be updated to show the quality of support that staff receive. The registered manager has ensured that all new staff are supported through their induction. All staff are provided with a wide range of training opportunities to inform their practice. Most staff are qualified to level 3 diploma, with the remainder of staff

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

enrolled to complete this qualification and are expected to complete this within the required timescales. Innovative ideas introduced by the registered manager help to improve the quality of care to children. For example, the registered manager has devised a monthly event night, when she will take one child out for something to eat, discuss their individual care plans and spend quality time with them. This gives her an in-depth knowledge about the individual children, builds strong relationships and creates an opportunity for children to express their wishes and feelings in confidence. The registered manager has insight into the importance of children seeing their families. She supports the children and their families above the expectation of the home‟s service Inspection report children‟s home: SC454838 7 of care. For example, family and children‟s community activities are funded by the home, to support children to keep in touch with people who are important to them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has developed positive working relationships with other professionals in the wider community. These partnerships are established with other agencies such as the placing local authority, police, and health professionals. An independent reviewing officer told the inspector, „[Name of child] is thriving in this setting, there is a real focus on building on his [the child‟s] strengths and achievements… the staff all seem to know him well and he feels valued by them. This small, “family-like” setting has provided him with stability.‟

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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: SC454838 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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Inspectors

Patrick McIntosh, social care inspector Gareth Leckey, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC454838 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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