Children's Home run by Your Chapter Limited in Tameside

Inspection report children’s home: 2519592 1 Registered provider: Care 4 Children Residential Services 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 home is privately owned and run. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The manager is appropriately qualified and experienced and registered to manage the home in April 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: This is the first inspection since registration.

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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: 2519592 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

This is the first inspection since registration. Inspection report children’s home: 2519592 3

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person 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 must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

the privacy of children is appropriately protected; children can access all appropriate areas of the children’s home’s premises; and any limitation placed on a child’s privacy or access to any areas of the home’s premises is intended to safeguard each child accommodated in the home; is necessary and proportionate; is kept under review and, if necessary, revised; and allows children as much freedom as is possible when balanced against the needs to protect them and keep them safe.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 21 (a)(b)(c)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)) 30/10/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33(4)(b)) In particular, ensure that newly appointed members of staff receive supervision as expected within company timescales. 30/11/2019

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Recommendations

 Looked-after children are entitled to an independent advocate to advise them and ensure they have the support needed to express their views, wishes and feelings about their care and lives. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 23, paragraph 4.16)  Staff should continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5) In particular, ensure that arrangements for young people’s access to bank accounts are agreed with the placing local authorities. Inspection report children’s home: 2519592 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people receive consistent support and encouragement to help them make informed decisions, that positively affect their future life-chances and immediate safety. For example, young people now engage with, and value, education. Staff are flexible in their approach and responsive to young people’s views and feedback. From their starting points, young people make good progress and accept and adhere to the boundaries that are put in place. Staff are persistent and patient in the care that they offer. Over time, young people establish relationships with key staff who positively influence the choices they make. Young people’s identities and cultural heritages are fully respected and nurtured. Staff establish and maintain good relationships with young people’s families, and this supports the young people’s sense of identity. Additionally, staff offer strong and positive role models that young people can relate to.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Both young people currently living at the home engage with the therapeutic support that is offered and with their general health appointments. This contributes to their emotional and physical well-being. Planning for young people to join the home is done with care and with respect for their wishes and feelings. Young people are given the opportunity to visit the home and discuss openly the expectations and restrictions. They are given time to consider and reflect on the information they receive. Young people are listened to by the staff. For example, with support from the manager, one young person was able to challenge information held about him by the local authority. However, one young person has not yet benefited from an identified need for independent advocacy.

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

From their starting points of being exploited by gangs and involvement in drug-related criminal activity, young people are safer through living at the home. They are offered a secure and predictable environment that significantly reduces opportunities for others to exploit them. Appropriate restrictions, alongside healthy routines and structures, offer young people safe and stable care. As a result, incidents of missing from home and drug misuse are infrequent. Equally, there has been only one significant incident. This incident led to the only physical intervention since the home has been registered. This was dealt with by the manager in a restorative manner and avoided any criminalisation of the young person. Overall, risk assessments are clear with regards to the actions that staff must take to reduce the risks to young people and ensure their welfare. However, staff are unclear how young people’s access to bank accounts is to be safely managed.

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

The risks that young people face are understood well by the staff. When incidents of Inspection report children’s home: 2519592 5 missing from home do occur, staff are active in searching for young people and liaise appropriately with other agencies. Young people know how to complain, and any such complaints or allegations are dealt with by the manager in a timely and transparent manner. It has been the practice of staff to lock internal downstairs rooms at night without the rationale of accompanying risk assessments. This prevents young people’s free movement and access around the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is appropriately qualified and experienced and was registered to manage the home in April 2019. The home is suitably staffed and resourced to meet the needs of young people. The manager monitors the care given to young people by staff, through formal and informal systems. However, some staff newly recruited to the home have not benefited from supervision at a frequency that corresponds to company timescales. This is due to them being deployed to work in other homes within the company. As a result, the effectiveness of their early learning and experiences has not been assessed or evaluated. The manager actively and robustly challenges other agencies when their responses are considered to be inappropriate or ineffective. Adherence to agreed plans and positive outcomes for young people are priorities for the manager and her staff. The manager considers carefully the impact of admitting young people to the home. She

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

is open to learning and evaluating this system to ensure that it remains robust and continuously improves. The manager creates a culture within the home of high expectations, including that staff continuously develop their skills and knowledge base. This is supported by weekly advice and consultation provided by the home’s psychologist.

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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: 2519592 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Care 4 Children Residential Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Care 4 Children, 1 Stuart Road, Bredbury Park Industrial Estate, Bredbury, Stockport SK6 2SR

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Inspectors

Pauline Yates, social care inspector Kamal Bhamra, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 2519592 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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