Children's Home run by A Wilderness Way Limited in Cumbria

Inspection report children’s home: 2526920 1 Registered provider: A Wilderness Way Ltd

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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 run children’s home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to five children who may have emotional and behavioural difficulties. There has been no registered manager in post since 4 July 2019. The home is currently being managed by a newly appointed manager who has not yet applied to register with Ofsted. The home consists of a hub property in which up to two children may be accommodated and three additional outreach properties providing solo crisis placements.

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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: Not applicable. This is the home’s first inspection since it was registered in April 2019.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: None Inspection report children’s home: 2526920 2

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children engage well once they have settled into the home, and they make good, sometimes exceptional, progress from their point of placement. They develop strong attachments to staff, enabling them to build trusting relationships in which they can be confident that their needs will be met. Changes have been made to the staff teams so that each child is provided with a ‘core’ staff team. This offers them continuity of care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children who have previously not engaged well in education or who have not attended school now take part in their programme of education. Requests for more challenging work are met. A range of educational activities and visits also help children to enjoy and achieve their educational potential.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have the opportunity to take part in a wide range of physical activities which make use of the home’s rural locations. Through achieving in education and activities, and by developing strong, positive relationships with the adults around them, children make significant progress, for example in building confidence, self-worth and self- esteem. One young person described herself as being ‘completely different, in a positive way’ to the person she was when she came into the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand each child’s individuality and provide care based around their specific needs. They celebrate each child’s successes, however small, and they understand what progress and achievement look like for each individual. Staff are particularly sensitive to children’s unmet emotional and physical needs. They understand that children may need care which is typically more suited to the care needs of a very young child because they may have missed out on this earlier in their lives. Examples of this include teaching children to swim and to tell the time, tucking them in at night and providing them with bath toys.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Good partnership working with placing authority social workers ensures that the home delivers the outcomes set out in the child’s care plan. This often means that children return either to their parents’ care or that they move into care services closer to their home area. Managers are good at developing and promoting positive relationships with social workers and parents. This helps children to build trust in those relationships too.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One senior social worker spoke in very positive terms about the home. She reported that the home is ‘providing a stepping stone to a more functional adult life’ for their placed child.

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

Children coming to this home are in a period of crisis, where their risks are unmanageable in their home areas or previous placements. They make good progress in reducing their risks and learning to understand these. Staff work intensively with them, Inspection report children’s home: 2526920 3 providing a very high level of supervision and support to keep them safe. Staff undertake regular care and support sessions to help children express their views and develop their understanding of how they put themselves at risk.

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

Children at this home often come from cities where they are at risk of gang exploitation, criminal exploitation, sexual exploitation, drugs and county lines. Staff are trained to understand these issues and to provide the right type of support and education to help break children out of the cycle of risk they were in. They also work with the police to share information about children’s risks.

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

Some children benefit from being in the outdoors, learning new skills and taking part in high-risk activities. For some children, this ‘managed risk-taking’ replicates some of the positive feelings they experienced when they were exposed to unmanaged risks prior to their placement.

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

Missing from home incidents dramatically reduce for young people placed at this home. This is in part due to the rural location of the properties, but also because of the high level of supervision provided. On the occasions that children do go missing, staff follow clear protocols and make every effort to locate and return the child. When children have influenced each other to go missing together, effective action is taken to minimize this risk.

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

Despite the challenging behaviour children often display prior to and at the beginning of their placements, staff rarely resort to physical intervention to keep children safe. When they do use restrictive physical intervention, it is necessary and proportionate. In some instances, children ask staff to remain holding them because they recognise that this helps them to be safe. The police have only been called to the home to assist in managing challenging behaviour on one occasion and the child was not criminalised in this instance.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is currently no registered manager in post. A manager has been recently recruited and is yet to make an application to Ofsted for registration. Following the exit of the former manager, the home’s records have had a complete audit and overhaul. New systems have been implemented to ensure that all management tasks are completed, and a new system of delegation has been introduced to give senior staff more responsibility and accountability, thus allowing them to develop in their roles. The new manager is highly motivated and enthusiastic about driving the service forward and achieving the best possible outcomes for children. She receives a high level of support from the deputy manager and the service manager.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff feel that they have a good level of support and supervision. They understand their roles and feel confident in meeting the children’s needs and managing their risks. They benefit from a detailed induction and an interesting and varied training programme. Most staff have the appropriate qualifications, and those who do not are working towards these. The staff team has a wide range of skills. Managers ensure that those skills are Inspection report children’s home: 2526920 4 recognised and put to best use.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children are at the centre of all planning and development. Managers have a good understanding of children’s progress, although this is not always documented as clearly as it could be. On the occasions that children do not make progress, or when their risks are not being managed, managers take effective action to end their placements as appropriate.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children are matched to the service by good pre-placement planning and information gathering. Managers take account of each child’s needs and the capacity of the staff and service to meet those needs. This ensures that, based on the evidence available at the time of admission, children are well matched.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers understand the importance of establishing positive links with external agencies. They work cooperatively with a range of services, including police, health and placing authorities to ensure that children’s full range of needs are planned for and met.

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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: 2526920 5

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: A Wilderness Way Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Manor House, Brisco, Carlisle, Cumberland CA4 0QS

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Inspector

Charlie Bamber, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 2526920 6 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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