Children's Home run by Stoke-on-Trent City Council in Stoke-on-Trent

Inspection report children’s home: SC403895 1 SC403895 Registered provider: Stoke on Trent City 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

This children’s home is run by the local authority and offers care and accommodation for two young people who have experienced early childhood instability that has led to trauma and/or associated complex behaviours. The manager has been registered with Ofsted since February 2018.

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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

Date of last inspection: 18 September 2018

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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: SC403895 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

18/09/2018 Full Good 12/09/2017 Full Good 15/03/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness 07/06/2016 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC403895 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. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(d)) 22/08/2019

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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)) 22/08/2019

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people benefit from good-quality care that ensures that their individual needs are met. Young people have made good progress and demonstrate increased maturity, self- worth and confidence. This level of good progress enables young people to aspire for their future. Staff support young people to lead healthy lives. Staff work well with local health professionals to ensure that young people know how to access health appointments and obtain the treatment and health advice that they need, including sexual healthcare and emotional support. This close partnership working means that young people’s health needs are well met. However, staff do not always ensure that medication is safely and effectively managed. For example, staff dispose of excess medication by flushing the medication down the toilet. This practice is not following the service’s policy and procedures for medication disposal. Staff maintain regular links with young people’s teachers and proactively support each

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

young person’s learning. Staff attend meetings and visit young people’s schools regularly. This enables the staff to share information with the young people’s teachers. As a result, a consistent approach is implemented with regards to communication methods and behaviour management strategies. Inspection report children’s home: SC403895 4 Staff work hard to improve and sustain relationships between young people and members of their family even when there are challenges. This helps young people to sustain important relationships, supports their cultural and identity needs and keeps them connected to the people who they care about. The home is mainly well maintained and decorated. However, some areas of the garden are unkempt and have potential hazards. For example, there are large pieces of concrete and old fencing piled up at the rear of the garden shed. This is not conducive to creating a homely and well-cared-for environment where young people feel valued.

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

Young people feel safe and are settled living in the home. Staff receive safeguarding training as part of their induction to the home and are familiar with the procedures to follow in the event of any concerns. Staff understand each young person’s individual risks and how to keep them safe. Risk assessments are detailed and show the progress that young people make during the time that they live at the home. Over time, young people learn to make positive choices, which increases their safety and well-being. Behaviour management incidents that require physical restraint still occur. However, these are reducing in their frequency and intensity. All incidents are monitored and evaluated by the manager. Debrief meetings held with young people and members of staff who have been involved in an incident help to see whether lessons can be learned and whether any incident could have been handled differently. Most young people rarely go missing from the home. However, the home has a clear

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

protocol for responding to and managing these incidents to secure the safe return of young people if they do go missing. The manager and staff work with the police and the local safeguarding team to ensure that information about young people is appropriately shared so that they can be protected in the community. The home provides a safe environment for young people to live in. Environmental safety checks are routinely carried out to promote the safety of young people in the home. Young people and staff take part in regular fire drills to ensure that they know how to safely evacuate the home in case of an emergency. When appointing new members of staff, managers ensure that they follow safe recruitment practice guidelines. This means that only staff who are deemed suitable get to work with young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home has an appropriately qualified registered manager in place. The manager has been in post since February 2018 and holds a national vocational qualification in leadership, health and social care at level 4. Staff receive good support and guidance from the manager. They receive regular supervision and confirm that their supervision supports and challenges their performance to improve. Regular staff team meetings and daily handovers help to keep staff informed Inspection report children’s home: SC403895 5 about young people’s daily activities and progress. Training records show that staff benefit from a diverse range of appropriate training to develop their knowledge skills and professional practice. New staff receive an induction and move to completing a level 3 diploma in residential childcare. This means that staff are well trained and suitably qualified to meet the needs of young people in their care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Effective and meaningful partnerships between the staff, police officers and other safeguarding professionals help to promote young people’s safety and welfare. Suitable action has been taken to address the two requirements raised at the last inspection. This has resulted in improvements being made to the management oversight of sanctions and the bathroom being redecorated, which has improved the overall appearance.

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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: SC403895 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: City of Stoke-On-Trent, Swann House, Boothen Road, Stoke-On-Trent, Staffordshire ST4 4SY

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Inspector

Dave Carrigan, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC403895 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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