Children's home run by Unity Residential Care Services Limited

Inspection report children’s home: 2508456 1 Registered provider: Unity Residential Care 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

A private provider opened this children’s home in April 2019. The registered manager, the core staff team and two children transferred to this home from another children’s home within the company. A third child has now moved in.

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Information about this children’s home

This home provides care and accommodation for up to three children who have experienced childhood instability, resulting in trauma and associated complex behaviours.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager holds a suitable management qualification.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 11 to 12 December 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

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 2508456 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

This is the home’s first inspection. Inspection report children’s home: 2508456 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 must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

details of the child’s behaviour leading to the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person who used the measure (‘the user’), and of any other person present when the measure was used;

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (‘the authorised person’)—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person 31/01/2020 Inspection report children’s home: 2508456 4 or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(b)(i)(ii)(c)(iv))

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children live in a beautifully presented house which they have proudly invested in as their home. Staff create an exceptionally nurturing home. Children and staff spend their time together having fun and celebrating achievements and events such as birthdays. Staff welcome family and friends into the home. Children feel safe living in this home and make significant progress from their starting points. In particular, children’s health, hygiene and diets have all improved.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff facilitate opportunities for children, which help them to develop and enhance their life experiences. Staff encourage children to build confidence and push themselves out of their own comfort areas. Children attended a firework display and more recently a pantomime together, which represents considerable progress from their starting points. Children feel proud and motivated by this success.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff advocate for children’s inclusion in activities which expand their experiences and social skills. All children participate in several community activities such as troupe dancing, youth club and drama. One child attends an equine course weekly, where she has made friends and enjoys looking after the horses. The children have also facilitated a Macmillan’s coffee morning. They baked cakes, prepared invitations for neighbours who attended and raised money, which they donated to the charity. The children showed the inspector photographs from the coffee morning and continue to speak positively of the experience and their contribution to society.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff work exceptionally well as a team. They use research-informed models of care, which ensures consistency for children. Staff have a good understanding of behaviour and they reduce opportunities for conflict between children. Staff have considerable levels of relevant experience and make themselves available to support children. They treat children with dignity and respect. Social workers and teachers commented on high levels of skill which staff have in managing behaviour and maintaining routines and boundaries. Children feel settled, have their individual needs met and are making exceptional progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

All children have 100% school attendance. All children are making significant progress in their school work. Staff work in partnership with school. They help children with their reading every day, which improves their confidence, ability and comprehension. Staff support children with education worksheets every week. Because of this additional education support, one child has reached her target and is no longer having her reading monitored in school. Children enjoy learning with staff. Another child asks staff to help Inspection report children’s home: 2508456 5 her learn her spellings and now she is consistently getting full marks in her spelling tests.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff support children to self-regulate, which leads to children making exceptional progress. Staff anticipate situations and behaviours while proactively teaching children the skills that they need to self-regulate. Staff help children to develop daily routines which keep them calm. Children now have excellent routines and sleep patterns. For some children, this has resulted in a reduction of medication to manage their behaviour. This represents exceptional progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children access local and specialist resources for support with their mental health and emotional well-being. These include groups for children who have been young carers and a bereavement counselling service. When children require specialist assessments, for example for dyslexia testing and autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, the registered manager advocates for their completion. This ensures that children have access to the correct levels of support in school and the community and that there are services in place for their transition into adulthood.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff help children to learn new skills and to become more independent. Children take turns cooking for each other on a Saturday. They ensure that their rooms and clothes are clean. Children take responsibility for caring for their pets. Staff help prepare children for their futures.

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

Positive and proactive staff practice in this home brings sustained improvements in children’s behaviour and subsequently reduces their levels of risk. Staff advocated for a parent to visit the home to help a child, with a history of frequently going missing, to settle. This creative intervention allowed the child to see her parent and staff working together, which permitted her to invest in being in the home. The level of risk for this child has reduced significantly because of this work. There have been no further missing episodes for this child, which is remarkable progress from her starting point.

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

Staff work in a planned and coordinated way. Staff skilfully manage risks to ensure not only that children are safe but that they have positive experiences and opportunities to learn. Staff effectively prepare children. For example, staff planned how they would take the children to see Blackpool illuminations. Children have trusting relationships with staff and positive relationships with each other. Because of the planning and confidence in relationships, children took age-appropriate risks and enjoyed experiences that they would not have previously been able to manage.

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

Staff follow the principles of restorative practice. This helps children to understand the impact that even their low-level behaviours have on others. Staff mediate for children. This allows children to repair their relationships with each other and staff. As a result, children resolve their complaints, and staff manage incidents effectively and without escalation. Inspection report children’s home: 2508456 6 Staff have not used physical intervention to manage behaviour to keep children or others safe. Staff manage inappropriate behaviour through natural consequences, which helps children to take responsibility and learn from their behaviour.

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

Staff support children to learn alternative strategies to settle at night. This leads to children having improved sleep, which helps them to concentrate in school and manage their emotions and behaviour at home. The registered manager keeps these strategies under review; however, the recording and monitoring of methods of control to manage night-time routines by turning off the television’s electricity socket are not in place.

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

Staff recognise children’s positive behaviour with verbal praise and rewards. Children enjoy working towards incentives, which include trips out with their keyworkers for a milkshake. Positive reinforcement creates an environment in which children take pride and responsibility for their own progress.

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

Staff ensure that children live safely together in this home. Children have not reported bullying in the home, school or during their community activities. There have been no significant incidents, allegations or incidents of self-harm. This demonstrates how children feel settled and protected.

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

Staff have exceptional understanding of how to use a research-informed model of care to meet the emotional needs of children living in this home. Staff embed its principles into risk assessments and behaviour management plans. This provides consistency in care, which promotes improved outcomes for children.

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

Staff recognise the importance of children seeing family members and facilitate regular and positive time together. One family member told the inspector that staff are doing an amazing job stopping his granddaughter from running off, where others have failed: ‘She is well looked after and is making great progress.’

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

The registered manager safely recruits staff who have a range of experiences, skills and qualifications which makes them suitable to work in this home. Children participate in the recruitment process by designing questions which candidates write responses for. Children also give written feedback to the registered manager about staff, which she considers within the appraisal process.

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

The children live in a safe house and location. Staff complete daily health and safety checks, ensuring that they maintain the house, cars and environment to keep everyone safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager is inspirational in her challenge of professionals to influence decision-making for the children in her care. She advocated for one child to remain in her current school despite a concern that the location was a risk. The registered manager provided additional staff support initially for some activities to ensure that this Inspection report children’s home: 2508456 7 was a success. There is a consensus among professionals that the decision to maintain this school placement, which includes significant memories and friendships for this child, was the correct decision. Academic and social progress continues for this child, and there have been no missing episodes from school.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager is visible for the children and staff. She models positivity and high aspirations for children in her care and her staff team. This results in staff fighting for children’s inclusion. For example, staff successfully challenge when clubs want to exclude one of their children. They complete restorative justice work and negotiate a transition back into the club. Attendance continues, and progress is sustained with improved behaviour and social interaction.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager and senior staff model child-focused practice to the staff team. Staff do not spend time in the office and will complete paperwork and handovers in the large open-plan kitchen. This promotes staff remaining alongside children in the house, which encourages interaction and relationship building. As a result, children spend limited time in their bedrooms and instead are playing or talking with staff and each other. This demonstrates how staff build the principles of the research-informed model into every opportunity and exchange that staff have with children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager is proud of her strengths and achievements. She effectively managed the move for two children and her staff team from one settled house to this house. There has been minimal disruption to the two children, as they were fully prepared and secure with staff moving with them. Staff have continued to implement the systems and routines that worked previously to ensure that they maintain the outstanding standards of care. Children are progressing because of the skilled and consistent care delivered by staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager discusses service improvement in team meetings. This promotes ownership and a common drive to achieve best outcomes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Professionals, including a local authority quality assurance officer, social workers and teachers, praised the quality of care provided by staff. They all commented on the exceptional level of communication and reports that they receive from staff, stating that it far exceeds standard practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Family members recognise the additional efforts that staff put in to enable visits to take place and for them to have positive family time together. The registered manager influences and oversees this superior level of staff performance through effective supervision, training and team development. Inspection report children’s home: 2508456 8

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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: 2508456 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Unity Residential Care Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unity Residential Care Services Ltd, 98 Lancaster Road, Newcastle under Lyme ST5 1DS

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Inspector

Joanna Warburton, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 2508456 10 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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