Children's home run by The Partnership of Care Today

Inspection report children’s home: SC044745 1 SC044745 Registered provider: The Partnership of Care Today Children’s Services

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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 home is owned by a private company. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for six young people who may have experienced childhood instability, resulting in trauma and associated complex behaviours. The registered manager holds a level 5 qualification.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 19 to 20 September 2019

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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: 5 February 2019

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: declined in effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC044745 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

05/02/2019 Interim Declined in effectiveness 03/10/2018 Full Good 19/09/2017 Full Good 14/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC044745 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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(i)) 04/11/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there; a child protection enquiry involving a child is instigated; or concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40(4)(c)(d)(e)) 04/11/2019

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Recommendations

 Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Recommendations

In particular, ensure that internal plans are up to date and reflect the needs and progress of each child.  The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2) Inspection report children’s home: SC044745 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff know the children well and invest time and effort to help each child to become settled. Children speak positively about the staff and the good care they receive. One child told the inspector, ‘We [children] can talk to staff when we need to. They are really good at supporting us.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children build strong and trusting relationships with staff. This enables children with complex histories and trauma to stabilise and to make good progress. For example, incidents of challenging behaviour and going missing from the home have significantly reduced over time. One parent told the inspector that there had been a ‘massive turnaround’ in her child’s behaviour.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Two of the children attend the on-site school and have excellent attendance records. A third child, who recently moved into the home, has also commenced his education in the school. Staff work closely with teachers to share information on each child’s progress. This provides children with consistent care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A therapist is employed by the home. She provides a good oversight of the care that children receive. The therapist attends staff meetings and offers staff consultations. She supports staff to reflect on their practice and learn from challenging incidents. Some children attend therapy sessions and make good progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home has recently been refurbished. The registered manager has purchased new settees, new flooring and has had all the children’s bedrooms and bathrooms redecorated.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Weekly children’s meetings and ongoing consultation help to provide children with opportunities to share their views about their care. Staff take these views seriously and where possible will make changes as a direct result of requests made by children. For example, the staff have recently purchased a new football goal and have introduced new foods to the menu because of children’s requests. This response makes children feel respected and valued.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy a range of activities. These include regular trips to local towns, going to trampoline parks and the cinema. Staff promote a healthy lifestyle that includes nutritious meals and seek general and specialist health support when necessary.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to spend quality time with people who are important to them. This involves significant travel to help children to maintain their relationships with their family. Inspection report children’s home: SC044745 5

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

Staff support children to develop new strategies to manage difficult feelings and emotions. For example, children learn to spend time in their bedroom or go for a walk when they are anxious or distressed. Physical restraint is rare. Clear boundaries and consistent care help children to sustain this progress.

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

Risk assessments are detailed and up to date. They contain clear guidance for staff to manage risk. The registered manager reviews and updates risk assessments regularly. Consequently, staff understand the risks associated with each child.

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

Staff are, overall, responsive when children go missing from the home. Staff will actively search for children and will contact the police in a timely manner. Effective partnership working helps to ensure that children return home safely. The registered manager also ensures that children are offered an independent visit when they return home. On one occasion, a child managed to go missing from the home and not enough was done by the staff to keep the child safe. As a result, the staff lost sight of the child and the child was exposed to unnecessary risk.

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

The registered manager contacts key partner agencies to share information and agree plans to keep children safe. Responses to children’s complaints and allegations are open and transparent. However, records of one incident did not contain information about the role and decision-making of the designated officer. This is a recording shortfall, as email correspondence clearly demonstrates that all safeguarding agencies were consulted.

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

Children receive verbal praise and rewards for meeting their behaviour targets. Children also receive rewards for good behaviour in school.

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

The registered manager ensures that staff recruitment processes are robust. This helps to protect children from exposure to unsafe adults.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

An experienced and skilled staff team offers children a good quality of care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff feel supported by the registered manager. He is keen to develop staff and actively encourages them to pursue specialist roles and internal promotions. The registered manager is innovative and introduces new ideas to improve staff practice. For example, he plans to introduce an internal audit tool so that staff can scrutinise the quality of care children receive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff benefit from access to a good training programme. They receive supervision on a regular basis. However, the quality of these records is variable.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has effective monitoring systems in place. This is supported by his strong knowledge of each child. He uses his intuition to assess when a child needs additional support. Recently, a child became unsettled after spending time with a family Inspection report children’s home: SC044745 6 member. The registered manager worked closely with the child’s social worker and family to address the concerns. In addition, the registered manager compiles monthly reports which identify children’s progress and areas of development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Relationships between staff, families and professionals are strong. Family members feel involved in their child’s care. Staff share information with social workers and teachers frequently. This joined-up approach means that children receive consistent care and make good progress. A social worker told the inspector, ‘I am always kept informed of any issues and staff always attend meetings for him [child]. His behaviour has much improved as a result of the stability, consistency and security provided to him.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The inspection identified some shortfalls in the quality of recording. For example, some information in children’s plans is not relevant and is out of date. In addition, the registered manager has not notified Ofsted of all significant events relating to children.

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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: SC044745 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Lansdowne House, 85 Buxton Road, Stockport, Cheshire SK2 6LR

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Inspectors

Gareth Leckey, social care inspector Karol Keenan, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC044745 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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