Children's home run by Good Foundations Limited in Wirral

Inspection report children‟s home: SC067771 1 SC067771 Registered provider: Good Foundations 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 privately owned children‟s home provides care for up to four children and young people who have social and/or emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been in post since April 2019 and has made an application to Ofsted to be registered.

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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: SC067771 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/10/2018 Full Good 03/05/2017 Full Good 02/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 11/10/2016 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children‟s home: SC067771 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 registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

Also, 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. 31/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (“a quality of care review”) at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating— the quality of care provided for children; the feedback and opinions of children about the children‟s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must— supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed. (Regulation 45 (1)(2)(a)(b)(c) and (4)(a)) 31/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises used for the purposes of the children‟s home at least once in each calendar year taking into account the requirement in regulation 12(2)(c) (the 31/07/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC067771 4 protection of children standard).

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Requirement Due date

When conducting the review, the registered person must consult, and take into account the views of, each relevant person. (Regulation 46 (1)(2))

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Recommendations

 Develop staff‟s knowledge, skills and understanding to enable them to play an active role in helping children to understand who they are and where they come from, through undertaking life-story work and other direct work. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 16, paragraph 16)

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Recommendations

In particular, ensure that staff are able to help children to manage the emotional impact of finding out about their backgrounds and to make sense of what has happened in their lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in a friendly and supportive home. Staff provide children with the warmth and understanding that they need to feel at home and safe. An independent reviewing officer said: „[The child] is at the right setting for him. He is happy and thriving there. He is showing maturity and resilience. He has responded to the staff‟s calm and respectful approach.‟

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The standard of professional care and support that children receive is making a positive difference in their lives. Children are making important progress in education, health, emotional well-being, personal safety, social skills, making friends and improved family relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children take part in meetings and the decisions affecting their lives, including about seeing their family and the plans for their education and future. Staff spend time with children to prepare them for meetings and find out their views. They support children in meetings to express their views and to understand what is going on.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff listen to children‟s wishes and feelings and respond appropriately. The manager and a child‟s social worker have worked together to support a child‟s wish to see more of his family each week. This has improved the child‟s safety because he is no longer going missing from home. Inspection report children‟s home: SC067771 5 Children are rebuilding important relationships with their families. The manager and staff have positive relationships with the children‟s families. They are working together effectively to make sure that children are safe and that seeing their families is a positive experience. The manager also provides funding for families to take the children out on activities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff have created a positive home learning environment. They support each child‟s learning and development. They understand the barriers for each child‟s learning and are working with the virtual school and education providers to improve their education outcomes. When children are out of full-time education, staff work hard to get them back into school as soon as possible. They support and encourage children to engage with tutors and alternative education programmes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage children‟s skills and talents, including in computers, music, art, sport and creative writing. The staff seize on every opportunity for children to take part in learning activities to build their skills and knowledge. For example, when a child wanted to do „horticulture‟ to tidy up the yard, the staff got him the equipment and plants he needed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are working with social workers to help children to find out about their experiences and backgrounds. The staff need to develop expertise in life-story work, including understanding how best to share information with children, help children make sense of what has happened in their lives, and support them to manage their feelings about what they have found out.

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

The manager and staff have created a home where children feel safe and are protected from harm. Children have a strong sense of safety and well-being. They see the manager and staff as people that they can trust and talk to when they are worried or have a problem.

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

The staff‟s knowledge and safe, professional practice protect children from harm. Guided by up-to-date and well-informed risk assessments and plans, staff act to reduce the dangers to children‟s safety. The quality of care that children receive has helped them to become increasingly safer from the risk of criminal exploitation, social media and inappropriate use of technology, drug use, violence in the community, and from going missing from home.

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

Staff recognise when children are at risk and take decisive action. They use well- established partnerships with children‟s services, the police and support services, such as Catch 22, to identify and understand the dangers and follow the plans put in place to keep children safe.

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

The manager and staff help children to be aware of risks and how to manage their safety. Children‟s behaviour has changed after talking to the community police officer and Catch 22 about knife crime and criminal and sexual exploitation. Children are making good choices about their safety and keeping away from trouble. They are Inspection report children‟s home: SC067771 6 keeping in touch with staff and coming home on time. They understand about dangerous and exploitative relationships and know that these may include family members, friends and other people outside of the home.

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

Staff have the skills and confidence to help each child to manage their feelings and frustrations safely. They know each child extremely well and treat them with warmth, understanding, kindness and respect. The staff give children the time and space to talk through what is upsetting them. Some children use creative writing and rap to express their feelings. When children struggle with strong emotions, staff work with them successfully to avoid aggressive and threatening behaviour and to prevent children causing damage to the house.

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

However, the manager‟s review of the home‟s location does not provide an evaluative assessment of the suitability of the local area to support children‟s safety, well-being and personal development. It does not show any risks presented by the home‟s location and the protective measures for managing these risks. Also, the review does not include the views of other agencies, including the police, about the suitability of the location.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is an effective and methodical leader. Her child-focused and supportive approach has brought stability and direction to the management of the home. The manager has created a working environment that enables and supports staff to provide children with a high quality of care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is also the manager of another children‟s home and demonstrates the capability to manage both homes appropriately.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager leads a caring, experienced, knowledgeable and qualified staff team. Staff have the confidence and skills to meet the children‟s individual needs. The manager and staff work hard to make sure that children live in a safe and nurturing home. The staff provide children with the continuity of care necessary for children to build secure and healthy relationships with the adults looking after them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and staff have a detailed understanding of the progress each child is making and the priorities for their care. They identify when children are struggling and have a strong commitment to understand and work through the difficulties to improve things.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager actively brings the wider support network together to deal with the problems that children are experiencing. She works effectively with the other professionals to make sure that children receive the best possible support to achieve better outcomes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager uses thorough monitoring systems to make improvements in the quality of care that children receive. This work had led to a number of improvements, including ensuring that the home has up-to-date and accurate information about children from Inspection report children‟s home: SC067771 7 social workers, education services and health services; children‟s records provide a detailed picture of their experiences and progress; and the rewards system is now easy for children to understand, with clear and achievable targets and that are outcome- focused.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

However, the latest review of the quality of care report, completed in March 2019, was not supplied to Ofsted. The report did not evaluate the impact that the quality of the care was having on children‟s experiences and how it was making a difference in their lives. The report did not include children‟s views about living in the home or show the improvements that were required and how they would be made.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have not been receiving practice-related supervision each month as set out in the statement of purpose. The records of staff supervision and performance reviews do not include plans 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.

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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: SC067771 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Good Foundations Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 6 Tower Quays, Tower Road, Birkenhead, Merseyside CH41 1BP

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Post vacant - Jennifer Healy

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Inspector

Nick Veysey, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC067771 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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