Children's home run by Leeds City Council in Leeds

Inspection report children’s home: SC488679 1 SC488679 Registered provider: Leeds City Council

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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 local authority operates and runs this home. The home provides care for up to four children or young people. It caters for children or young people, irrespective of gender, between the ages of 10 and 18 years. The children and young people come here to complete a 12-week dialectical behavioural therapy treatment programme. The staff are called coaches. The coaches work with the children, young people and their families or carers to enable the children and young people to return to family-based environments. The coaches use the multi-systemic therapy and family integrated transitions model (MST-fit).

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been in post since March 2016.

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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: outstanding

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC488679 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/01/2019 Full Outstanding 07/11/2017 Full Outstanding 21/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 12/10/2016 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC488679 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children and young people make exceptional progress in a short time, following an individualised and structured therapy plan. The children and young people fully invest in the plan because the coaches fully invest in the children and young people.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The manager and coaches support children and young people in developing positive therapeutic strategies to enable them to make excellent and sustained progress within a clear structure and timeframe. The children and young people participate and take ownership of their role in the therapy and access support from coaches who are passionate and motivated to achieve positive outcomes for them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children and young people develop a deeper understanding of emotional well-being and can make better lifestyle choices, which supports the improvement of their emotional health. The children and young people all have leisure memberships, which enable them to access positive activities like the gym and swimming and other positive activities in the local community.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The care provided in this home enables the children and young people to access consistent therapeutic approaches from the coaches. The effect of the therapy enables them to have improved outcomes and develop skills, which can be life changing, to allow them to be able to manage their emotions positively. This encourages them to have successful transitions from the home to their families and foster carers in the future.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children and young people have care plans which are focused on and reflective of each child or young person’s needs. There are regular reviews of and consultations on the care plans, which enables the children, young people, key professionals and families to ensure that plans progress and remain focused and achievable. The staff celebrate the children and young people’s successes and achievements throughout the programme.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children and young people are very well supported to have positive family time with their families and key people in their lives. An older sibling of two young people living in the home was allowed to come and stay and celebrate Christmas. This demonstrates how the coaches made a special effort to promote positive family time during a sensitive period for all three siblings.

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

The home has positive rewards and incentives programmes in place, which supports the children and young people to remain focused and motivated to achieve targets. Targets are agreed in partnership with them and their coaches. This supports the children and young people in putting the strategies learned from their therapeutic interventions into practice, helping them manage their emotional and behavioural needs more effectively. Inspection report children’s home: SC488679 4 The coaches are trained in therapeutic crisis interventions and dialectical behavioural therapy, which supports them in managing any challenging behaviours positively. The home has significantly reduced incidents of physical interventions, missing from home and child sexual exploitation. This has encouraged the children and young people to express that they feel safe and to engage in their plans and gives them the confidence to make better decisions when they are unable to manage emotionally.

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

The risks to the children and young people are much reduced, as they have developed an understanding of the risks and strategies to implement to help keep themselves safe. The home strives to reduce risky behaviours for the children and young people, and the coaches complete positive direct therapeutic work with the children and young people to help them become more resilient and able to reflect and make informed choices.

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

A whole-team approach, including professionals, carers and families, enables risk assessments to be robust and regularly reviewed to support the children and young people in becoming increasingly safe. As a result, they are able to develop their independence and explore their world from a safe and secure base.

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

The coaches have a great understanding of the presenting risks of the young people. This means that they are able to understand any triggers or changes in patterns of behaviours. Focused work is actioned in group and individual sessions to support the children and young people to reflect on risky behaviours and help them to understand the consequences of their behaviour and actions.

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

The coaches access specialist training in child sexual exploitation, county lines, the ‘Prevent’ duty and internet safety and have access to consultations with the MST-fit team and specialists from America who support the development and implementation of the therapeutic intervention. This additional training gives the coaches greater skills so that the children and young people are safeguarded.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager and the deputy manager are passionate and have high aspirations for the children and young people to achieve, and they challenge other agencies or professionals to ensure that the young people are listened to and valued.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager and the deputy manager are motivated and focused on the children and young people having successful endings when their therapeutic interventions finish, and they are committed to working effectively with families, carers and other professionals to enable plans to progress without any delay.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has high aspirations for her coaches and leads by example in advocating and challenging professionals to enable the children and young people, their families and carers to have consistent and timely support throughout the programme.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

This passion and challenge continue when children and young people have successfully transitioned to family environments. When children and young people are not able to Inspection report children’s home: SC488679 5 successfully transition to family environments, the manager works with the relevant agencies to ensure that the children and young people can transition to an environment which can meet their needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager and the deputy manager support the coaches to effectively reflect on and evaluate their practice and help them to deliver a high standard of individualised care for the children and young people. This ensures that the children and young people are receiving the best care possible.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager and deputy manager provide the coaches with regular supervision. They have access to clinical supervision and shared group supervision with another home to enrich their practice and levels of care through learning. The coaches attend regular team meetings, which are focused, and use research to enable the coaches to analyse and reflect in a safe space to review interventions, which enables them to remain well planned and focused.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager empowers the coaches to work effectively with partner agencies, schools, health, social workers, carers and families to ensure that the children and young people have access to the support and the services that they, their families and carers need.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager and the deputy manager know the strengths of the home and continue to strive to improve the service they provide by working with other agencies to evolve the practice and care afforded to the children and young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

There is excellent management oversight of care and pathway plans. The manager has robust monitoring systems in place to enable the coaches to remain focused and driven to achieve the high standards and positive outcomes that she aspires to for the children, young people, their families and carers.

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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: SC488679 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Merion House, 7th Floor West, Merrion Centre, Leeds LS2 8TU

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Inspector

Noel Cooper: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC488679 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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