Children's Home run by North Lakes Children’s Service Limited in Cumberland

Inspection report children’s home: SC398253 1 SC398253 Registered provider: North Lakes Children’s Services Limited

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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 registered to provide care and accommodation for up to five children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties or learning disabilities. The home is part of a private organisation. The home provides care for single-sex occupancy only.

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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: SC398253 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/05/2018 Full Good 10/05/2017 Full Good 08/02/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness 06/09/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC398253 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 protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff—

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(v)) 28/06/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home. (Regulation 23 (1))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, that health care plans accurately reflect the child’s prescribed dose of medication. 28/06/2019

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(iv)) 28/06/2019

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home provides a homely, warm and nurturing environment for children. Children are encouraged to have a voice and influence their day-to-day care. This promotes their feelings of safety and ensures that they feel appropriately loved and cared for. Inspection report children’s home: SC398253 4 Consequently, children develop meaningful and trusting relationships with staff that help them to settle in the home and, overall, make good progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The quality of care planning is a strength in this home. Children’s placement plans are highly detailed and provide clarity about the actions staff need to take to meet their individual needs. They identify what progress will look like and how this will be achieved. Children’s progress and achievements are well documented and celebrated, which promotes children’s confidence and self-esteem.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people have excellent attendance, and are making good progress, at the company’s local independent school. Staff maintain daily communication with teachers to ensure the continuity of children’s care throughout the day. Also, this helps staff learn how to support children’s education outside of the classroom. Staff actively promote children’s learning, helping with homework, attending school meetings and engaging them in activities that will further develop their skills. For instance, a calming activity such as bedtime reading is popular. This allows a good opportunity to stimulate their interest in literature and practise reading skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health needs are clearly understood and their care coordinated by the company’s registered health professional, who closely monitors their progress and provides direction and health advice to staff. For one child, there has been significant progress with a health condition that had previously been neglected. His social worker commented, ‘The home has made huge progress in understanding how he functions and what his health needs are, which had been masked by his long-term foster placement.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is maintained to a high standard and provides a comfortable and child- friendly environment. Young people have plenty of games, toys and outdoor play equipment available to match their interests. Children also enjoy a wide range of trips and activities that provide fun and good opportunities to socialise with other children outside the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Placing authorities and partner organisations spoke highly about children’s care and the progress made while at this home. One social worker commented, ‘He has developed a lovely relationship with some of the staff. I am really pleased that he is here in this placement and feel it is a real success for him. They support and improve family contact. It has been a huge success. I can’t thank them enough.’

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

Staff value and invest in their relationships with children. Staff follow a therapeutic parenting approach adopted by the home to help children deal with difficult emotions and behaviours resulting from early childhood trauma. Consequently, these trusting relationships allow children to feel safe and able to share their worries and feelings with staff.

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

Staff practice is informed by a therapeutic model, PACE (playfulness, acceptance, curiosity and empathy), that is known to be successful in helping and supporting children Inspection report children’s home: SC398253 5 who have suffered early childhood trauma. Staff work cooperatively together to ensure that their care and support is consistent. This provides children with greater certainty in their lives and, ultimately, helps build resilience.

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

Children are closely supervised and monitored to make sure they are kept safe. Children do not go missing from this home. However, staff are familiar with the procedures to follow should such an event occur. All visitors to the home are checked and vetted to ensure that children are not exposed to adults who may harm them.

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

Staff are confident in their safeguarding practice. They regularly update both child protection and safeguarding training to ensure that they keep up to date with current issues and best practice. Their practice is guided and supported by good-quality risk assessment and safety planning. Because of this, they have a clear understanding of children’s behaviours, risks and needs to safely support and care for them.

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

Staff are skilled in de-escalating challenging situations and behaviours. They encourage mutual respect and prioritise talking as the best way to resolve issues. Staff use of physical intervention is only ever when it is absolutely necessary to keep children safe.

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

Generally, records are appropriately detailed and provide a good account of any incidents. However, the inspection highlighted a shortfall in one record, which didn’t meet the usual good standard in detailing the incident. In addition, it was noted that there was a failure to swiftly report a concern following an incident. This was picked up and later dealt with by the manager but identified an error in staff judgement. This, too, was quickly dealt with by the provision of further training to raise staff awareness.

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

Medication is safely stored in the home and carefully managed by staff. Children’s individual requirements are accurately detailed and clearly recorded on children’s individual medication administration records, ensuring that errors are not made. Arrangements, overall, work well and keep children safe. However, it was noted that an incorrect dosage was recorded on one child’s health and placement plan. Although staff were not using this as their guide to administering medication, it was an inaccuracy that could have misled staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has been acting in this role since the previous registered manager left in July 2018. At that time, she was the home’s deputy manager. She was later appointed to the role of manager, following an interim period acting in this role. She successfully registered with Ofsted in May 2019. This has been a positive appointment, as it has promoted continuity of care for children and ensured that staff have remained well supported over this period of management change.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is proving herself to be a strong leader who is confident and passionate about her role and committed to the children. As with staff, she shares an extremely strong understanding of the children’s needs and how these should be met. This is also shared with her staff team. She is committed to ensuring that children receive the Inspection report children’s home: SC398253 6 highest standard of care. She is proud of the progress they are making and highly motivated to ensure that they continue to thrive and achieve in this home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff said they feel well supported in their roles. They share a genuine respect for their manager and appreciate the extent of her considerable experience in this home, both originally as a member of care staff and latterly as deputy manager, before her appointment to manager.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff development and support are highly regarded by staff. They believe it makes a positive contribution to staff practice and the outcomes children achieve. Staff enjoy regular training opportunities and supervision that develops the quality of their professional practice. Staff particularly appreciate the therapeutic supervision and guidance sessions that the home’s therapist can provide. They identify this as particularly valuable, as they are helped to have a better insight into how the children are feeling and experiencing the world.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Overall, children’s records are well maintained and consistently provide a good account of their progress and achievements since coming to the home. Information is kept up to date and plans are clear and sufficiently detailed to inform and guide staff practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Internal and external monitoring arrangements are good. The manager has implemented her own monitoring systems and made improvements to ensure better organisation and management of information in the home. Arrangements for the home’s independent monitoring have changed with a new visitor. He brings fresh scrutiny and new ideas to stimulate further ongoing improvements within the home.

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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: SC398253 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: North Lakes Children’s Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Rayrigg Show Rooms, Rayrigg Road, Windermere LA23 3DN

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Inspectors

Gillian Walters, social care inspector Charlie Bamber, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC398253 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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