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Inspection report children’s home: SC437069 1 SC437069 Registered provider: Derbyshire County Council

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The service provides short breaks for up to six young people, irrespective of gender, who are aged between 10 and 17, and who have moderate to severe learning and/or physical disabilities. The young people may have additional sensory impairments and disabilities. A local authority owns and manages the service.

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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: SC437069 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

25/04/2018 Full Outstanding 04/07/2017 Full Outstanding 19/01/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 21/09/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC437069 3

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Recommendations

 Staff should further support children to understand the importance of a healthy diet. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.8)  For children’s homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. Children’s homes must comply with relevant health and safety legislations (alarms, food hygiene etc.); however, in doing so, homes should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children thoroughly enjoy their short breaks at this home. They make friendships and enjoy the freedom, within a safe space. Additionally, staff provide much-appreciated support for families. For example, a member of staff helps a family with their child’s medication and supports them with their child’s medical appointments. Staff also support a child in their home (the child will only allow familiar people in the house), enabling the parent to leave to do the shopping, for example. This enables families to get through periods of crisis and means that children do not enter the care system full time.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff have an in-depth understanding of how important warm and nurturing relationships are for children. Children are relaxed in the company of staff. Individualised support means that children are at the centre of all decisions and practice. A parent said: ‘You feel like they are just looking after your child.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Excellent partnership working between schools, the children’s families and care staff means that there is consistency for children, enabling them to make great progress in all areas of their lives. For example, children make significant progress in managing their own behaviour, life skills and social skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children have lots of opportunities to practise life skills. Targets are set for them to achieve, which help them to make progress towards successfully transitioning to adulthood. Work to support children to move on to adult services starts early, at age 16. A person-centred approach is taken to ensure that the process revolves around the child. ‘I can’ folders provide a year-by-year photographic account of the child’s experiences at the home. These are focused on what children can do rather than what they cannot do, and provide lovely memories of their time at the home of their time at the home. The Inspection report children’s home: SC437069 4 new transition work has been highly successful in helping children move on from the service smoothly.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Mealtimes are sociable occasions. Staff sit and eat meals with children, providing support throughout the meal. Staff encourage children to eat a more varied diet, but this could be strengthened to support children to choose more healthy options.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Life-story work and the ‘I can’ folders provide children with important information about their childhood and achievements.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Medication is managed safely. When minor errors have occurred, learning from the incident has been implemented to prevent future errors.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff understand the importance of helping children to express their wishes and feelings. Staff use a range of communication aids. However, it is mainly through the warm and supportive relationships they build with the children that they understand how each child communicates and how to respond positively to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The environment provides a safe, large space for children to explore and enjoy. They have lots of resources for indoor play as well as outdoor play. Children have a well- thought-out garden that offers sensory experiences, such as the herb garden and sensory walk, as well as accessible play equipment and a cycle track. There are some practices that could be reviewed to make the environment safer and more homely. For example, the television could be removed from the protective box that it is currently kept in; the television could be switched off during mealtimes, rather than left on; and extension cables could be moved so that they are no longer visible and potentially hazardous.

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

Staff are highly effective at keeping children safe. However, this does not prevent children from accessing the community and taking part in well-planned activities, such as bowling, a walk to the park or going to the cinema.

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

Carefully targeted interventions and creative strategies mean that incidents are rare. For example, staff give soft toys to one child to throw when they arrive back from school. This means that they are less likely to throw their meal. A social story was created for another child about kind hands when staff are trying to help them in the bathroom.

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

Supportive relationships mean that children feel safe and secure. This helps children who are very anxious to settle in to the home quickly and enjoy the opportunities and experiences the home offers. Parents say that they know their children are safe. Inspection report children’s home: SC437069 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager provides a service that is continually looking to improve and strive towards excellence. He sets high expectations for staff and tells them that ‘better never stops’. Robust monitoring and quality assurance systems mean that the service for children is highly effective and safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager spends time based with the social work team. This enables him to challenge decision-making and be part of the assessment process for children being admitted into the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

There is a well-established staff team. Staff are knowledgeable, skilled, warm and passionate about the children. They are very experienced and appropriately qualified. They feel very well supported by the team and managers. They have a thorough understanding of the children. They use creative ways to support children with their anxieties and they communicate new strategies to the rest of the team effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Parents and external professionals are highly complimentary about the service. However, overwhelmingly they would say that the only thing they would improve would be for the service to be open every day. This sentiment was also reiterated by staff.

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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: SC437069 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Derbyshire County Council, County Offices, Matlock, Derbyshire DE4 3AG

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Inspector:

Joanne Vyas: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC437069 7 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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