Children's Home run by Pathway Care Solutions Ltd in Nottinghamshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC390190 1 SC390190 Registered provider: Pathway Care Solutions 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

The home is operated by a private provider and is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three children and young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 19 to 20 November 2019

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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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: 10 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: SC390190 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/10/2018 Full Outstanding 02/01/2018 Full Outstanding 07/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 28/09/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC390190 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The progress that children make at this home is exceptional. Children enjoy long-term, stable placements. For example, one child has lived at the home for five years. The resilience and commitment of the stable, experienced staff team are central to placement stability. Staff are exceptionally positive about the children in their care and are extremely nurturing. As a result, children feel cherished and form very strong relationships with staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home environment reflects the very nurturing care that staff offer children. Children and staff are looking forward to Christmas and have already decorated the home. Children have had great fun turning the staff office into a festive grotto.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children have access to a wide range of books and one child has become an avid reader. He looks forward to reading books each evening with staff and by himself. Staff have encouraged and facilitated his love for reading by ensuring that they are always available to listen and read with him. The child’s vocabulary and general literacy skills are now greatly improved.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

All children are in full-time education and are making great progress. The children had additional education needs when they moved to the home. They are now achieving national age-related expectations. One child has made three years’ academic progress in the last year. Another child required 2:1 staffing ratios when he joined his school but is now receiving education in small group learning environments. A deputy headteacher said: ‘The children have made incredible progress.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children are encouraged to have high aspirations. One child has consistently stated that he wants to join the police force or become a PE teacher. He has chosen subjects that relate to his chosen career paths and is being supported to attend cadets’ workshops alongside informal discussions with professionals in this field.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children have been supported extremely well with their emotional health and well-being needs. Children are receiving and fully engaging in bespoke therapeutic interventions. These support children to address previous trauma and insecure attachments in a safe and playful way. Staff have received regular training updates on the therapeutic model, alongside regular consultations with a therapist who visits the home each week. The therapeutic values of the home are now embedded into staff practice. A staff member said: ‘It has even helped me in understanding my own parenting.’ . Children are supported to lead healthy lifestyles. For example, a child who has been in the home for less a year has transformed his eating habits. He now has a healthy, balanced diet. This is likely to have long-term, positive health implications for him. In addition, staff have advocated robustly to ensure that another child has access to a health assessment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Inspection report children’s home: SC390190 4

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

Risk assessment and risk management processes are of the highest quality. Staff know children well and identify potential risks and triggers. Plans to reduce risks are detailed and highly effective. The therapeutic approach is at the centre of behaviour management and risk management.

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

Children are supported to feel safe and be safe. Children have been carefully and sensitively supported to become more independent. Children feel proud to have achieved the trust of staff. This trust enables them to enjoy unsupervised free time in the community. Over time, children develop much-improved social skills and learn to view themselves as positive members of their community.

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

Allegations against staff are rare but, if they do take place, they are well managed. When children do raise issues, these are taken seriously by managers and a robust response is given. Children understand that staff will listen to them.

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

Multi-agency working is excellent. This ensures that strategies to reduce risks are highly effective. The therapeutic approach promotes the full involvement of the ‘network around the child’. This is evidenced with daily communication between the home and school as well as effective communication with social workers. A social worker said: ‘Staff’s communication is brilliant. They are fantastic and are the best children’s home that I work with.’

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

Incidents are well managed and recorded. Each incident is carefully reviewed and evaluated by managers. This ensures that lessons are learned so that future incidents can be avoided.

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

Due to the exceptional diligence of the staff and the secure relationships that children have with staff, children do not go missing.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager is passionate, motivational and nurturing. She has utilised her knowledge, skills and experience to promote excellent outcomes for children. She and a dedicated assistant manager have led the staff team extremely well so that they deliver exceptional outcomes for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff morale is exceptional. Staff work well together and share the core values of the service. Practice is clearly child-focused. Staff have considerable experience of working with children who have experienced trauma and disorganised attachments. Staff celebrate children’s achievements. Children value the fact that staff take so much pride in their progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers and staff are continually striving for improvement and to find new ways to provide children with stimulating, enriching experiences. Staff take and keep a large number of photographs. They use these to create photo stories of young people’s positive experiences. In this way, they support children to have good memories of their time at the home. Managers have secured funding for additional training for staff that is bespoke to the needs of the children in their care. Inspection report children’s home: SC390190 5 Staff retention is very good. Some experienced staff who had left the home to progress their careers have now returned. Staff talk consistently about the strong caring ethos of the home. Staff receive regular and good-quality supervision. Staff complete self-evaluation, appraisals and extensive training. The manager and deputy have attended advanced attachment training and are able to train staff on this subject.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager and assistant manager robustly advocate for children in their care. For one child, this has involved persistently pursuing therapy. This has eventually been agreed. The child appreciates the commitment of staff in doing all they can to support him.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The managers carry out diligent monitoring of the home’s systems. They analyse and evaluate the progress of children and quickly identify areas of weakness. External monitoring of the home is also strong, providing constructive challenge to the staff group. Performance management is highly effective, ensuring that staff are always looking for opportunities to improve.

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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: SC390190 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Pathway Care Solutions Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 1 Merchants Place, River Street, Bolton, Lancashire BL2 1BX

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Inspector

Bev Allison, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC390190 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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