Children's Home, Residential special school run by Overley Hall Limited in Telford and Wrekin

Inspection report children’s home: SC020558 1 SC020558 Registered provider: Overley Hall School 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 provision is registered as a children’s home to accommodate up to 22 young people who have severe learning disabilities and/or sensory impairment, challenging behaviours or autistic spectrum disorder. Young adults may stay beyond the age of 18 to complete their education. The children’s home is situated on the same site as a special school. A separate residential home for young adults, registered with the Care Quality Commission, also operates in the school grounds.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager holds two level 4 NVQs, one in care and the second in management. She also holds a BA with honours in therapeutic child care, and was registered with Ofsted on 14 June 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: 4 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: SC020558 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

04/09/2018 Full Good 09/05/2018 Full Inadequate 03/10/2017 Full Good 27/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC020558 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 undertake appropriate continuing professional development; and receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33(4)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

providing staff with regular, good-quality supervision in keeping with their supervision contracts.

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Requirement Due date

ensuring that staff have personal development plans with clear aims and objectives. 31/10/2019

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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. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child; and ensure the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13(1)(2)(d)(e)) 31/10/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must, and must ensure that staff 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(d)) 31/10/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC020558 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress in all areas of their lives. For example, one young person is now continent throughout the day and night, he is enjoying a wide range of new activities within the home and local community, he is eating a wider variety of food and consequently a much healthier diet, his sleep pattern has improved, incidents of aggression towards others have significantly reduced and he is no longer needing to take medication. Because of this sort of progress, children have increased opportunities when they move on into adulthood.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have positive relationships with children. They ensure that children are challenged, but not beyond their realistic potentials. Children enjoy their successes being praised and celebrated by staff and parents.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff listen to children and understand their needs and anxieties. They work at each child’s pace to support them to make choices and reassure them. When necessary, staff involve other professionals, including speech and language therapists, to design tools and social stories. They use these to overcome children’s worries, such as going to the doctors for a blood test.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Communal spaces are welcoming, homely and child-friendly. All bedrooms are personalised and reflect the interests of the child. The grounds are well maintained and resourced and enjoyed by children. For example, children see fruit and vegetables grow in the garden and then used in the kitchen for their meals.

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

Children learn skills to cope with situations that they have historically found difficult. Staff are skilled at using strategies and anticipate the need to reassure and support children. As a result, there continues to be a significant decrease in incidents and physical interventions.

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

When incidents do occur, staff respond well. They follow procedures and risk assessments to minimise further risks. They use supervision sessions to reflect on their actions and develop their practice. They use a ‘talking mat’ with those children who are able to, to discuss incidents. Staff learn from children’s, and their own, reflections and develop strategies that prevent events from happening again.

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

Managers and staff are quick to identify when a child needs additional support. A multi- disciplinary team will meet to understand the change in the needs of the child. They then introduce new strategies, which will be monitored and reviewed to ensure that good progress is made.

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

Managers promote children’s safety and well-being. They promptly refer concerns on to Inspection report children’s home: SC020558 5 partner agencies. When requested, they undertake thorough internal investigations and share the findings and outcomes. Effective actions are taken to review and address shortfalls in systems or practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager and deputy are child-focused and passionate about the service. They are aspirational for children and staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager knows the service well and continues to make improvements to drive up standards for staff and children. For example, she has just employed a member of staff who leads on outdoor and forest school activities in the evening and weekends. This increases the activities on offer in the grounds of the home and the opportunities for children to socialise with each other.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Some parents feel increasingly involved in the home because of initiatives introduced by the new registered manager. For example, the majority of children and their families have just returned home after being supported by staff to go on a family holiday to Disneyland Paris. However, a minority of parents still feel anxious about long-standing staff leaving, new staff starting and some practice issues. Providing opportunities for all parents to understand change, help identify solutions for problems and be better informed in the future are key.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has given good focus to the recruitment of new staff. During this period, she has sought to ensure consistency for children. This has been maintained by the use of existing staff and newly recruited middle managers. This has meant that senior staff and team leaders have not been able to focus on other tasks of staff development, such as induction, probation and supervision. The retention of staff has now improved, and remaining vacancies have almost been recruited to. This has started to give managers additional capacity.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The majority of staff feel increasingly well supported by managers and colleagues. A significant improvement is now being made to the timeliness and quality of recordings of staff supervisions. However, more work needs to be undertaken to ensure that 100% of staff receive good-quality supervision every cycle. A lack of regular supervision, particularly for new staff and staff teams, reduces opportunities for staff to learn, develop and communicate their views to managers. For all staff, these opportunities are significant because of the changes to the management of the home, the high number of newly recruited staff and new developments in practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are supported to develop their practice and learn new skills through a programme of mandatory training. They now also receive annual appraisals, which result in a personal development plan. However, these plans are not focused. They do not give staff measurable objectives that will improve their practice or outcomes for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has made significant progress towards developing an open and transparent service in line with current practice and requirements. She continues to drive Inspection report children’s home: SC020558 6 change and raise standards of care.

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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: SC020558 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Overley Hall School Limited

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Inspectors

Dawn Bennett, social care inspector Joanna Warburton, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC020558 8 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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