Children's Home run by Choices 4 Children Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report children’s home: SC400880 1 SC400880 Registered provider: Choices 4 Children 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 provides care and accommodation for up to four children or young people who have complex emotional and social needs, including autism spectrum disorder.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been registered since 2014.

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Information about this children’s home

This inspection has been brought forward in order to address specific concerns received by Ofsted about the home.

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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: outstanding

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC400880 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/06/2018 Full Outstanding 19/07/2017 Full Outstanding 11/01/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 18/05/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC400880 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 involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans;

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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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person and staff must work closely with the placing authority so that children are supported and enabled to resume full-time education as soon as possible. When no education has been put in place by the placing authority, the registered person must challenge them to meet the child’s needs under regulation 5. 28/06/2019

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that— helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) 2(c)) 31/07/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC400880 4 In particular, ensure that staff have the opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills of using evidence-based approaches to understand each child’s behavioural and emotional needs and provide children with the help they need when they are having a difficult time with their emotions.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that staff are supported to enable them to understand and manage their own feelings and their responses to the behaviour and emotions of children.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that every member of staff, including agency staff, is adequately trained in the home’s preferred approach to managing children’s behaviour, including restraint techniques appropriate to the needs of children in their care. The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that— helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare.

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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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should complete a thorough and in-depth review and analysis of every serious incident and use of control, discipline and restraint to ensure that the measure used was appropriate and proportionate, to identify any learning from the incident to develop a better understanding of the child’s needs, and to identify effective practice and respond promptly where any issues or trends of concern emerge. The review should provide the opportunity for improving practice to ensure that it meets the child’s assessed needs. 28/06/2019

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 35 (3)(c)) 28/06/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC400880 5 In particular, the registered person and staff should make sure that children have the opportunity to talk about what happened, their feelings about the restraint, any concerns they may have and what staff can do to help them when they are upset, considering their level of understanding and communication style.

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Recommendations

 Records of staff supervision and performance reviews should include a clear and detailed plan showing the actions to be taken by the member of staff and their supervisor to develop the member of staff’s learning, development and performance. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’ page 61, paragraph 13.3)

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Recommendations

 Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child and contributes to their understanding of their life. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Recommendations

In particular, staff should keep informative records of children’s activities, which show in detail what children did and how they enjoyed the experience, and the impact on the quality of their lives and physical, emotional and social development.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children with very complex and challenging needs live in a nurturing and comfortable home. Children like living here and have a strong sense of belonging. The caring and skilful staff provide children with a very high standard of personalised care. Staff are extremely knowledgeable about each child’s needs and the best ways to support them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A social worker said, ‘This is a small and friendly home. Staff are very skilled at working with children with autism spectrum disorder. My child is very calm and settled here. He feels safe and his behaviour is more manageable. He responds very well to staff and feels very at home.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help every child to develop their communication skills and enable them to express their wishes and feelings. Improved communication is helping staff to understand children’s wishes and reducing the level of children’s frustration.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making positive progress in every aspect of their lives. Things that appear Inspection report children’s home: SC400880 6 small are significant achievements for individual children; for example, giving eye contact to another person, using signs, using a fork to eat with, taking turns and playing with other children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children get the help and encouragement to support their education and learning. Children go to school every day and most of them are making positive progress. When children struggle in school, the manager, staff, social workers, teachers and health professionals work together positively to understand each child’s needs and make sure that the children get the support to help them do well in school. However, the manager has not challenged a placing authority when a child has been out of education for some time.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have every opportunity to have fun and take part in beneficial activities. They enjoy walking in the countryside, going to youth clubs, soft play and sensory centres, and spending time with animals. One child has learned to swim while living at the home, and another to ride a bicycle. Children are developing their self-esteem, confidence, and social and communication skills, and are starting to make friends. However, the children’s records do not show a detailed picture of what children actually did and how they enjoyed the experience, and the impact on the quality of their lives and physical, emotional and social development.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children see their families regularly. Staff make sure that this is a safe and positive experience for them. They are helping children to maintain and improve important relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health and emotional well-being continue to improve. They have a nutritious diet and get plenty of exercise. Staff have a very good understanding of children’s specific health and emotional needs. They make sure that children are healthy, and that they always get the medical advice, treatment and support that they need. The arrangements for dealing with children’s medication are safe. Staff are suitably trained to make sure that children always get the medicines that they require. The manager and staff work closely with health professionals to make sure that medication is meeting children’s needs.

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

Children live in a safe and supportive home. Staff provide children with warm and consistent relationships. Children have the structure that they need to feel safe and emotionally secure.

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

Staff know children well and understand their vulnerabilities. They provide children with appropriate supervision. They continually assess the risks for each child and take the necessary steps to make sure that children are protected. Since coming to live at the home, children have become safer. A child’s independent reviewing officer said, ‘He is no longer putting himself in danger or running away.’

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

The managers and staff act appropriately when they are worried about a child’s welfare. Inspection report children’s home: SC400880 7 They use good professional relationships with families, social workers, schools, health services and the police to identify and understand risk and keep children safe.

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

Staff are patient and calm. They help children to communicate their wishes and feelings positively and avoid negative behaviour. When children are upset, staff are usually able to divert and reassure them to sort out the problem.

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

Staff use a range of different strategies that help children to manage their feelings and feel safe. However, staff do not have coherent and evidence-based support plans to help them understand children’s emotional and behavioural needs. Not all of the effective strategies that staff use are included in children’s plans, which means that the best ways of working with children are not being used consistently.

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

Recently, staff have had to hold some children more often to keep them safe. Staff use physical interventions safely and in the least intrusive way possible to help the child. The managers recognised that they need assistance to understand how best to support these children. They have secured support from a specialist service to introduce a positive behaviour support approach.

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

The manager’s reviews of the use of physical intervention, however, do not provide sufficient analysis to identify any learning from the incident and develop a better understanding of the child’s needs. The manager is failing to identify effective practice that helps the child. Likewise, the manager is not identifying and providing adequate challenge to areas of practice that need to improve.

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

After children have been held, they talk to staff about what happened. However, staff are not using this as an opportunity to find out what was upsetting the child or to find out from the child what staff could have done to help them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager and deputy manager provide clear and effective leadership. They lead a caring, passionate and skilled staff team. Together, the managers and staff make sure that children with complex needs receive a high quality of care and safety.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The managers and staff have an accurate understanding of the progress each child is making and the priorities for their care. They are quick to identify when children are struggling and act to make sure that children get the right help.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The managers understand what the home does well and make further improvements in children’s best interests. For example, staff have developed skills in Makaton to help them improve communication with children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The managers make sure that there are enough suitable staff to meet the individual needs of each child. The managers have worked hard to minimise the impact of recent changes in staff on children’s care and experiences. The manager is actively recruiting new permanent staff. In the meantime, the use of agency staff is carefully monitored Inspection report children’s home: SC400880 8 and reviewed to make sure that children receive consistent care. Agency staff have the right skills and experience to support the children living in the home. However, some agency staff are not trained in the home’s preferred method of physical intervention.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The managers provide staff with very good support, guidance and encouragement. Staff use regular, practice-related supervision and team meetings to reflect on children’s progress, to develop their skills and knowledge, and to consider the emotional impact of the work.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The managers identify poor performance by staff and address it appropriately. However, the performance management process does not include using a clear and detailed action plan to develop the member of staff’s learning, development and performance.

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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: SC400880 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Choices 4 Children Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: c/o Stopford & Co, 79-81 Market Street, Stalybridge, Cheshire SK15 2AA

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Inspector

Nick Veysey, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC400880 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 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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