Children's Home run by Bryn Melyn Care Limited in Shropshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC372619 1 SC372619 Registered provider: Bryn Melyn Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The service is owned by a private company. The home is registered to accommodate one young person. Young people come to live at the home as a result of family or placement breakdown.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager of this home has been in post since 2010. She holds both a national vocational qualification at level 4 in care and management and a therapeutic childcare degree. She also manages another home located close by.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 19 to 20 December 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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC372619 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

05/07/2018 Full Good 18/09/2017 Full Outstanding 19/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 08/06/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC372619 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

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff–

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Requirement Due date

seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs; and

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This is with reference to escalating concerns that a child’s health needs are not being promoted by the placing authority. 31/01/2020

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff–

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Requirement Due date

help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to attend education or training in accordance with the expectations in the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 8(1), (2)(a)(i)(iii)(x)) 31/01/2020 Inspection report children’s home: SC372619 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young person in placement benefits from trusting relationships with staff, who are very sensitive and caring. Experienced, child-focused staff provide him with consistent care, which has enabled him to experience his longest and most stable placement. Staff provide him with boundaries and routines that enable him to feel secure and to focus on his own needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff listen to the young person and involve him in decisions about the home. He has recently helped the staff to choose the colours to redecorate the home. He has grown in confidence and is able to express his views, wishes and feelings, both verbally and in writing, in the knowledge that staff will respond positively to him and advocate on his behalf.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff know the young person well and are aware of his anxieties as he faces independence. Staff are highly skilled at enabling him to become increasingly independent, while supporting his emotional well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young person has made excellent progress in developing positive family relationships, after a lengthy period of not seeing his family.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young person has made significant progress in his social development. Dedicated staff have encouraged and enabled him to make positive friendships in the community with other young people who are good role models. Staff communicate regularly with his friends’ parents to ensure that there are no problems. They collect his friends from their homes and take them out with the young person to enjoy activities like going fishing, to skate parks and on bike rides. The young person benefits hugely from caring staff being involved with his friends, as a parent would.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work with the young person to address his anxieties and develop self-confidence and self-esteem. As a result of this work, the young person has been able to sit his exams at school this year and has engaged with staff to try to identify work experience that he can enjoy. However, despite sitting his exams, he is still struggling to attend school daily. This is having an impact on his longer-term future. He is also experiencing a high level of anxiety about attending health appointments. He has not attended a ‘looked-after medical’ for over a year, and has refused to go to the dentist.

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

Highly trained staff keep the young person safe. Staff are skilled at allowing the young person his independence yet, at the same time, providing him with the support and strategies that he needs to keep himself safe.

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

Staff have access to detailed, regularly updated risk assessments and behaviour management plans. They discuss their safeguarding practice in team meetings and Inspection report children’s home: SC372619 5 supervision to ensure that they are aware of the young person’s safeguarding needs and can respond to them effectively.

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

The positive relationships that the young person has with staff are key to him regulating his own emotions and behaviour and reducing the risk of incidents occurring. The young person has not gone missing from care since the last inspection, and he is not at risk of child exploitation or radicalisation.

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

When incidents do occur, staff are able to calm the young person down and help him to reflect on his behaviour afterwards. Staff do not have to use physical interventions or sanctions. This is a measure of the significant progress that the young person has made since the last inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The highly experienced, child-focused registered manager works closely with her stable, qualified and skilled staff team to provide the young person with consistent care that meets his needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff speak highly of the registered manager and benefit from regular, reflective supervision and team meetings. Staff value the support that the registered manager and the team provide and the trust that the manager places in them to understand and carry out their roles. The registered manager has a good understanding of the strengths in her team and the areas for practice development. She is strongly focused on providing staff with up-to-date research on the fundamental issues of trauma and attachment to support the way that the staff work with the young person, using the house’s model of care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the young person’s needs and how to meet them. The staff consult with the in-house clinical psychologist to understand and address issues of importance to the young person. They are in constant dialogue with his social worker, teachers and family members to ensure that they have up-to-date information with which to plan their work.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager uses a wide range of management tools to monitor the running and effectiveness of the home in meeting the needs of the young person. She reviews the service and uses feedback from the young person, staff and other professionals to identify targets to drive up standards even further. The home is well run, and staff know what the registered manager expects of them and have access to up-to-date information in the young person’s plans to support their work. Staff are up to date with training that is relevant and enhances their practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager and staff have asked the social worker to help them to enable the young person to attend a ‘looked-after medical’. The social worker’s response to this has been minimal, yet the registered manager has not escalated the matter higher within the placing authority to give it the priority that it needs. Inspection report children’s home: SC372619 6

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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 difference 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: SC372619 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Bryn Melyn Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Edward James House, Hadley, Telford TF1 6QJ

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Inspector

Louise Whittle, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC372619 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 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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