Children's home run by Leeds City Council in Leeds

Inspection report children’s home: SC406505 1 SC406505 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

The home is operated by a local authority. The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to 12 children or young people who have learning disabilities, which may also include physical disabilities and/or sensory impairment. Children and young people stay at the home for short breaks and on a shared-care basis. The experienced registered manager has been in post since January 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

Date of last inspection: 18 December 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: SC406505 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

18/12/2018 Full Outstanding 19/12/2017 Full Outstanding 20/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 24/01/2017 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC406505 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children and young people develop extremely positive relationships with the staff and experience an individualised nurturing and therapeutic approach, which enables them to express themselves and become safe in all their environments. They have very positive experiences and their progress is exceptional and sustained. The staff have an excellent understanding of the complex care and developmental needs of the children and young people and are consistent in their practice. The consistent approach enables the children and young people to respond constructively to the boundaries in the home and staff develop positive strategies to help safeguard the children and young people. The children and young people experience positive activities in the home, such as water play in the new jacuzzi bath. In the wider community, they go cycling, walking, trampolining and swimming, which enables them to enjoy and develop positive peer

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

relationships and experience new opportunities that they otherwise may not experience and can continue to enjoy them with their own families. The children and young people have enjoyed a holiday to Alton Towers. The holiday was requested by the young people and supported by the staff. This allowed children and young people to experience a holiday. This was the first holiday some of the children and young people have ever experienced. The children, young people and their families access positive family support from staff. This additional support enriches the relationships between staff, children, young people and their families and this provides extra consistency of care for them. The staff work very effectively in partnership with families, professionals, schools, health and other agencies to fully meet the holistic care needs of each child and young person. The staff support the children and young people to make a positive contribution to the

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

home by accessing a local charity shop and attending local community events, where they take part in fundraising for the home and local charities. This enables the children and young people to develop their social skills and self-confidence. The home has developed very effective communication systems to ensure that all the children and young people have individualised communication aids to enable them to express themselves. Staff have an excellent understanding of the children and young people’s preferred communication styles and can capture the children and young people’s voice in their plans and empower them to make choices during their stays and in the development of the home. The children and young people feel that they have a say in the running of the home, and this is expressed in the newsletters, care plans, children and young people’s meetings, youth council and in recruitment, where they are encouraged to help recruit new staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Inspection report children’s home: SC406505 4 Staff are very knowledgeable about the complex health needs of the children and young people. Staff support them to have their health needs effectively met by working in partnership with specialist health professionals and families, and by developing their own knowledge base through research and training. This additional knowledge helps to safeguard the children and young people during their stays as the staff development increases the security, stability and safety of the children and young people during their stays.

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

The home has had no safeguarding incidents since the last inspection and has continued to improve systems to fully safeguard the children and young people during their stay. The staff manage new admissions positively and complete robust risk assessments. The staff challenge professionals to ensure that they have the right information about the children and young people to fully safeguard them in the home and in the wider community. Transitions are managed very well. The staff visit young people in all their environments before they are admitted. Staff are starting to build trusting relationships with the children and young people, their families, schools and other professionals at the very earliest opportunity. This enables the staff to have robust risk assessments already in place prior to a child or young person’s first stay. The assessments are reviewed prior to each stay to keep the children and young people safe.

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

The matching of young people during their stay is considered very carefully. This enables the home to support children and young people to have stays alongside their peers from other environments, as requested by the children and young people. This means that they are surrounded by familiar and consistent staff during their stays. The staff are very experienced and well-motivated. They are extremely resilient and, together with the manager, they work to find solutions to help keep children and young people safe during their stays. Risks assessments are continually improved and very clear and have effective management oversight. The staff can respond quickly and appropriately when the children and young people become unable to emotionally regulate. The staff team is trained in therapeutic crisis intervention, which enables the staff to support the children and young people to begin emotionally regulating. When the

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

children and young people experience a high level of challenge, the staff are supported by the manager who responds quickly by introducing extra staffing at short notice. The staff use appropriate physical intervention when all other strategies have been exhausted and the welfare of the children and young people and staff are at risk. The staff use their individual knowledge, experience and understanding of the triggers of the children and young people’s behaviours to enable them to work restoratively with the young people, which allows them to be effectively redirected and kept safe. Inspection report children’s home: SC406505 5 The staff have accessed specialist training in county lines, safeguarding, health and safety, autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy and medication. All of this additional knowledge enables staff to safeguard effectively and follow safeguarding procedures. The home environment is adapting and responding to the needs of the children and

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

young people and they all have individual personal emergency evacuation plans. These plans are detailed and have clear instructions and contingency planning. The plans are reviewed and updated as the children and young people’s needs changes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager of the home is inspirational and aspirational for the service, children, young people and his staff, and leads by example in role modelling positive leadership qualities for his staff team. He encourages his staff to be resourceful and take ownership of decision-making, which improves the children and young people’s stays at the home. The manager provides the staff with specific training and individual development opportunities and uses monthly supervision and team meetings as areas to strengthen the knowledge and experience of the staff. The staff have tailored development plans. These promote the children and young people receiving individualised care and attention, which allows them to enjoy their time at the home and achieve targets that enable them to be more independent. The manager has a bespoke training and development plan and oversees a comprehensive training matrix. He works in partnership with specialist services to deliver

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

specific training to the staff team to support staff in responding to the diverse complex care and health needs of the children and young people. The manager is resolute in ensuring that care plans are updated systematically by his senior residential practitioners. He uses the whole staff team to help ensure that care plans are robust and reflect the evolving care needs of each individual child and young person. All the children and young people have clear development targets in their care plans and these are supported by effective key-work sessions. Success is routinely celebrated for children and young people during their stay by using seasonal newsletters which reflect their positive experiences during their stays. The manager ensures that his staff work effectively in partnership with all agencies. He provides opportunities for staff to experience other roles in other agencies to enrich their experience and understanding of other professional roles. This innovative way of

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

development of staff enriches the quality of care afforded to the children and young people. The manager works in partnership with other local authorities and has developed links with other short-break services to help improve the service and raise the standards. This improves outcomes for young people to enables them to remain within their families. The manager actively challenges senior managers and other professionals when there are resource shortfalls or clear needs to help safeguard the children and young people in his care. This approach has enabled children and young people who have high-risk Inspection report children’s home: SC406505 6 behaviours to become increasingly safe and secure in the home and able to continue to access the service safely. The manager and the staff team will go over and above to support the children, young people and their families. The manager provides his staff with the flexibility to access

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

reviews, meetings, home visits and network meetings to support the progressions of care plans for the children and young people. Professionals and families say that the manager and the staff are children and young people-centred and that they are ‘fantastic’. The manager and the staff communicate effectively and are knowledgeable about the children and young people, and care about them passionately.

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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: SC406505 7

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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: SC406505 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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