Children's Home run by Active Ark Limited in Cumberland

Inspection report children‟s home: 2506856 1 Registered provider: Active Ark 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 owned by a private company. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three children and young people who have social and emotional difficulties.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: 2506856 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

None Inspection report children‟s home: 2506856 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

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child‟s needs;

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority‟s or a relevant person‟s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child‟s needs are met in accordance with the child‟s relevant plans; and

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Requirement Due date

seek to develop and maintain effective professional relationships with such persons, bodies or organisations as the registered person considers appropriate having regard to the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the children‟s home is to provide care and accommodation. (Regulation 5 (b)(c)(d)) 15/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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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

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally;

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Requirement Due date

maintain regular contact with each child‟s education and training provider, including engaging with the provider and the placing authority to support the child‟s education and training and to maximise the child‟s achievement. (Regulation 8 (1)(2)(a)(v)(vi)) 15/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that— 15/07/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: 2506856 4 the health and well-being needs of children are met;

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Requirement Due date

children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being; and

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Requirement Due date

children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

that each child has access to such dental, medical, nursing, psychiatric and psychological advice, treatment and other services as the child may require. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b)(c) and (2)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that psychological advice and therapeutic support are accessed without delay, to promote children‟s emotional well-being. The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children‟s home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) and (2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, ensure that communications and meetings are documented, monitored and reviewed to inform and implement improvements. 15/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This refers specifically to case records being complete and up to 15/07/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: 2506856 5 date, with relevant plans and reports.

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Recommendations

 Each child‟s talents and interests should be understood and nurtured. Staff should also support children to try activities that are „new‟ for them. The registered person should ensure that children are offered a wide range of activities both inside and outside of the home and are encouraged to participate in those activities. („Guide to the children‟s home‟s regulations including the quality standards‟, page 31, paragraphs 6.4 and 6.5)  Staff should continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 42, paragraph 9.5)  Staff should be familiar with the home‟s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. („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: good

Currently, there is only one young person living at this home. He is very settled, having moved here from another children‟s home run locally by this company. Overall, he is making good progress and enjoying stability living at this home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young person shares positive and trusting relationships with staff. One professional commented, „I have seen a massive improvement since his move to [name of the home]. He is more positive and happier and has built good relationships there. Staff provide him with good boundaries and with very clear expectations. I couldn‟t fault them.‟

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young person feels involved in his care planning. Staff regularly consult him and make sure that his views and wishes are considered and influence his day-to-day care arrangements. Consequently, he feels that staff care about him and listen to him. Discussions with his keyworkers and other staff are regularly documented. However, not all records are written with enough detail that fairly reflects the young person‟s voice.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young person is clearly continuing to make good progress from his starting point. A notable reduction in his risk-taking behaviours, such as going missing from home and criminal offending, has greatly improved his safety and well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage the young person to understand the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle, including the benefit of a healthy diet and regular exercise. Staff actively Inspection report children‟s home: 2506856 6 discourage smoking, and because of this he has significantly reduced his smoking habit, which was a health concern for someone so young. He feels pride in his achievements and is developing more maturity and self-confidence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Although the young person enjoys lessons with a personal tutor who attends the home, this is only for a few hours a week. It is of concern to staff that he is not yet receiving full-time education after many months in placement. This delay in the placing authority securing a more formal arrangement has compromised the young person‟s education progress at this time.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have not yet been successful in encouraging the young person to participate in many fun and recreational activities outside the home, which would bring him in contact with others of his age. This means that the young person has little opportunity to make friends and socialise with peers.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young person keeps in touch with his family through regular phone calls and weekend visits home, supported by staff. These arrangements are enjoyable and reassuring for the young person, who misses living with his family.

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

The home provides a welcoming and safe environment for young people. The young person said that he feels safe here and protected by staff. He is aware of the home‟s plans to promote his safety and can identify his own progress in keeping himself safe. This has positively influenced his self-esteem and confidence.

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

Since he came to this home, there have not been any incidents of the young person being missing or incidents of offending, which were previously of concern. However, staff are practised and familiar with the home‟s procedure and protocols should such events occur.

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

Staff make good use of targets and incentives to motivate and encourage positive behaviour. For the young person currently in the home, a points system has proved effective in maintaining his positive behaviour. He enjoys tracking his progress, and this has also boosted his self-esteem.

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

Risk assessments are generally well written, providing good narratives to help staff understand the young person‟s individual risks, previous history and the action required to reduce or mitigate those risks. However, a rating system used to judge the level of risk tends to confuse the reader rather than add clarity to the document.

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

Staff have good access to child protection and safeguarding training. This ensures that they are suitably skilled, and their knowledge is up to date and in accordance with good practice. Staff are trained and familiar in dealing with challenging behaviour and situations. They use de-escalation, negotiation and restorative practices effectively and have so far avoided the need for physical intervention. Inspection report children‟s home: 2506856 7 The home is still in the process of recruiting more staff. Arrangements for staff recruitment and selection have been observed to be robust. These promote the safety of young people by ensuring that adults are fully checked and vetted as suitable to work with children and young people before working at the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

This is the home‟s first inspection following registration with Ofsted. The manager is relatively new to his role, having previous experience of working in children‟s residential care but not in a registered manager post. He successfully registered with Ofsted in January 2019 and is currently working towards his level 5 diploma in residential care leadership and management. He has recently completed further training, widening his knowledge and skills, further promoting his personal professional development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff said that they feel well managed and supported in their roles. They receive regular supervision, and all have benefited from an annual appraisal since moving to this home from other homes run by the company. Although some staff meetings provide further support, these are not consistently recorded to ensure that all staff understand their content and decisions made.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

During this inspection, it was identified that some relevant plans were missing from one young person‟s personal record, and these were not immediately available in the home. This shortfall meant that staff did not have access to important planning documentation to inform the young person‟s day-to-day care in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager is not yet showing enough confidence in working with other professionals to ensure that young people‟s needs are met in a timely manner. For example, the manager has not challenged a placing authority about a significant delay in identifying a school for the young person. This has resulted in the young person being denied the opportunity of full-time education and consequently the ability to make good education progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Furthermore, the manager has not taken decisive action to follow up a health referral, made by another professional, that was declined due to lack of clarity. Again, this means further delay in the young person receiving a service.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager‟s scrutiny of the home is developing but not yet robust. However, the manager‟s monitoring routine is being supported by the company‟s external monitoring arrangements. The manager values the independent person‟s knowledge and experience and has responded well to advice and guidance provided. This is helping to inform the home‟s development and improvement planning as the manager has not completed a quality of care review because the home has not yet been operating for a six-month period.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young Inspection report children‟s home: 2506856 8 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: 2506856 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Active Ark, Unit E, Baron Way, Kingmoor Business Park, Carlisle CA6 4SJ

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Inspector

Gillian Walters, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: 2506856 10 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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