Children's home run by Resilience North East Limited

Inspection report children’s home: 1254371 1 Registered provider: Resilience North East Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is run by a private organisation and is registered to offer short-break care to up to seven children or young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties or learning disabilities. The manager was registered with Ofsted when the home opened in August 2017.

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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: improved effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1254371 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/03/2019 Interim Improved effectiveness 06/12/2018 Full Good 23/01/2018 Interim Not judged Inspection report children’s home: 1254371 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, the 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 registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children’s home at least once each month. The independent person must provide a copy of the independent person’s report to HMCI. (Regulation 44 (1)(7)(a)) 07/02/2020

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Recommendations

 Staff should encourage children to share any concerns about their care or other matters as soon as they arise. Children must be able to take up issues or make a complaint with support and without any fear that this will result in any adverse consequences. Regulation 39 sets out the requirements on the registered person to have a complaints procedure. Children must be aware of this procedure and be reminded of it as necessary. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.13) In particular, the manager should ensure that there is a system in place for recording complaints in a timely manner.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children and young people accessing this service receive a very good standard of care. Care plans are tailored to each child or young person’s care needs. Targets are regularly reviewed to ensure that they remain relevant and up to date. This means that children and young people are benefiting from an effective level of support when they require it and are making progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Carers recognise the importance of working collaboratively with families and other professionals to ensure a positive experience for children and young people. Feedback from a range of family members was extremely positive. ‘Excellent communication’, ‘support us’ and ‘well informed’ were phrases commonly used to describe the service. A Inspection report children’s home: 1254371 4 professional commented, ‘This is a very professional team that are experts at what they do well. They are very supportive of [Name’s] plan and this is supporting the excellent progress that [Name] continues to make. We are well informed and have a great working relationship. I trust the manager completely. She takes onboard our advice as we do hers. The team [members] are so skilled, and they know how to manage [Name]. We are seeing the benefits from that. This is the best residential setting I have ever worked with.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children and young people are sensitively welcomed into the home. They have pre-stay tea time visits as well as spending time with carers doing activities out in the community before they have any overnight stays. Carers understand the value of building relationships with children and young people to reduce any anxieties when introducing overnight stays. This means that children and young people are happy to attend for their break and make very good progress in all areas from their starting points.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children and young people receive safe and consistent care from a group of known and trusted adults. Staffing levels are based on the individual assessed needs and vulnerabilities of children and young people. This consistency enables supportive relationships to develop to help children and young people feel safe, comfortable and happy during their stays.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children and young people access activities of their choice. These vary from engaging in sensory play, games or arts and crafts in the home. Additionally, children and young people enjoy the community-based activities on offer such as trips to theme parks, museums or swimming baths. This enhances their ability to develop independence skills, to participate and to have fun. Memories are captured in photographs so that they can be enjoyed and celebrated with their families.

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

Children and young people continue to be protected by staff and are learning how to maintain their own safety in line with their individual risk assessments and level of understanding. There have been no serious safeguarding incidents, no episodes of going missing from the home and no incidents of bullying. This helps children and young people to enjoy their stays in a safe environment.

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

Behaviour is well managed in the home. Physical interventions are rarely used and only as a last resort to safeguard children and young people. Recordings clearly document the steps taken to safeguard children and young people and the support offered to them following any intervention. Additionally, there is good management oversight to ensure that practice is in line with relevant protocols.

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

Sanctions are not necessary to manage low level disruptive behaviour. The use of positive praise, rewards, clear boundaries and positive relationships that develop between children, young people and carers is effective at managing disruptive behaviours and risks. Inspection report children’s home: 1254371 5 Risk assessments identify the known individual risks for children and young people. They detail the strategies that carers should follow to keep children and young people safe. Risk assessments are shared with relevant parties to ensure that there are clear and agreed expectations on how children and young people will be kept safe. Family members spoken to say that this reassures them that safeguarding protocols are robust and appropriate to ensure that all children and young people are safeguarded.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has been in post since the service was registered in August 2017. The manager recognises the importance of strengthening and developing her new staff team before she can expand the service. The home is currently not operating at full capacity. There is a real focus on settling children and young people before introducing new admissions. This helps children and young people to feel valued and to develop a sense of belonging.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Training, staff supervisions, team meetings and staff development days have been an area of focus for the manager to help drive improvements forward. Her staff team feels valued and motivated as a result. This is strengthening the stability of the team and benefiting children and young people, as they receive consistency of care from a skilled staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has a very good understanding of the families she engages with, as well as the strengths and areas of development for the home. She has clear plans in place to strengthen the staff team’s practice in the home with the aim of further improving outcomes for children and young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has good monitoring systems in place and this is supported by regular feedback from her independent visitor. Several reports from those visits have not been shared with Ofsted in a timely manner. Although this does not affect the care provided to children and young people, it inhibits the regulator’s ability to monitor practices between inspections.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There have been no complaints or allegations made since the home was registered. The manager and her staff team understand the home’s complaints policy, and this is shared with families, children, young people and other professionals. However, the manager has no system in place to record and review complaints should any be made. This means that there could be delays in addressing complaints and learning from the issues raised. Inspection report children’s home: 1254371 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 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: 1254371 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Resilience North East Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Fellingate Care Centre, Fox Street, Felling, Gateshead NE10 0BD

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Inspector

Jacqueline Tate: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1254371 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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