Children's home run by Timeout Children’s Homes Limited in Calderdale

Inspection report children’s home: 1233981 1 Registered provider: Time-Out Children’s Homes 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 children’s home is operated by a private provider. It provides a specialist residential therapeutic service for up to two children or young people who may have social, emotional and behavioural problems.

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Date of last inspection: 17 October 2018

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1233981 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/10/2018 Full Outstanding 02/08/2017 Full Good 25/01/2017 Full Good 02/11/2016 Interim Not judged Inspection report children’s home: 1233981 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home provides an excellent place to live and grow up for children who have had troubled early life experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children are routinely placed at the centre of the way the home operates. This empathetic style has a highly positive impact on their progress. The home employs a range of measures to ensure that children are listened to and that their wishes and feelings are acted on whenever it is reasonable to do so.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home’s staff team is very good at recording children’s needs and drawing these into clear and comprehensive placement plans. This significant strength promotes consistency and ensures safe practice, for example where important changes are made in a child’s medication regime, when daily consistency between staff is critically important.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

People and professionals who are in touch with the home remark on the excellence of the staff’s communication skills. One parent said that she is immensely grateful and that she appreciates everything that the home has done for her child. A therapist who works closely with the home said that the staff team is ‘a robust, challenging, sensitive and thoughtful team’ and that the children are in a ‘much better place psychologically’ when they leave than they were when they arrived, because of the home’s highly responsive approach.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

One particularly positive indicator of progress is in the children’s school attendance and attainment. From their starting points, the children now attend very regularly, and they are behaving and concentrating well. This means that one teacher has been able to report ‘amazing progress’ in the child’s educational achievement. In another case, the child has successfully completed GCSE courses. This excellent level of progress for children who have not always found school easy to cope with is testament to the staff’s understanding and empathetic approach to meeting the children’s needs.

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

Given the children’s prior life experiences, it is to the home’s credit that safeguarding issues have reduced to zero. The home’s move to a restorative, rather than a punitive approach to caring for the children, means that there have been no recent missing-from- home episodes. No child currently at the home is at risk of criminal exploitation. This is exceptional progress, as this has been a feature of previous placements of other children in this home and of these children in other homes. To reduce reported incidents to zero is a significant achievement of the staff group.

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

No physical restraint has been used since the last inspection. A requirement regarding debriefing the children following physical intervention is therefore untested, but it has Inspection report children’s home: 1233981 4 been fully accepted and understood by staff and managers at the home. There has been one complaint, which was not a safeguarding matter and was informally resolved.

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

Disclosures of historical abuse have been dealt with sensitively and appropriately in close collaboration with social workers. Social workers said that the home and its providers have been ‘impressive’ in their approach to the issues.

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

The small number of sanctions used to control the children’s behaviour have been restorative and have appropriately involved the children in repairing any damage they have caused to the fabric of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

A broad range of positive factors lead to excellent management of the home. A competent and committed leadership team embodies the home’s ethos and the team creates a child-centred environment that is run according to a clear model of therapeutic care. The home’s registered manager is undertaking the necessary management qualifications and is due to complete the course six months earlier than statutorily required.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Changes to the staffing complement have been supported by robust recruitment and induction processes. This means that the current staff group operates effectively as a team. The staff adhere rigorously to agreed plans for children’s day-to-day care and this provides stability and continuity in the lives of children who have not been consistently parented in their early lives and who evidently benefit from it now.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff receive comprehensive training, supervision, appraisal and mentoring. These support systems are informed by research and support the home’s therapeutic model of care effectively. As a result, staff provide a very high level of care to the children. Managers ensure that there is an open learning environment, for instance by acting swiftly on any recommendations from regular independent visits under regulation 44 by an independent visitor who closely monitors the way the home is run.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Significant value is added by the provider’s dedicated therapeutic team. Close collaboration with that team by staff has resulted in the development of therapeutic care packages that make an evidently transformative difference to the children’s lives. Admissions are well-managed. There is careful consideration of the needs of children resident and those coming to live in the home and this minimises disruption and promotes stability.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: 1233981 5 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: 1233981 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Time-Out Children’s Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 2, Ripponden Mill, Mill Fold, Ripponden Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire HX6 4DH

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Dominic Macauley

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Inspector

Ian Young: HMI Inspection report children’s home: 1233981 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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