Children's home run by Pathway Care Solutions Ltd in Nottingham

Inspection report children’s home: SC357077 1 SC357077 Registered provider: Pathway Care Solutions Ltd

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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 registered to accommodate up to four children and young people who have learning disabilities. The service is owned and operated by a private company.

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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: 11 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: SC357077 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/12/2018 Full Outstanding 23/01/2018 Full Outstanding 13/12/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 18/08/2016 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC357077 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children make exceptional overall progress in all aspects of their lives. Staff offer a nurturing and extremely supportive environment that is embedded by trusting relationships. Staff show a great deal of empathy and playfulness with children. This, combined with a comprehensive understanding of individual needs and histories of children, contributes to excellent outcomes for children. A staff member said: ‘This is not a job for our staff team. It is our role to replicate a family environment, which means staff offering love, affection, and holding children in mind.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The staff team communicates effectively and, working together with other agencies, has often secured great outcomes for children. Stakeholder feedback is exceptional. A social worker said: ‘We are really very pleased with this placement. Staff go above and beyond and [name] loves it here.’ Professionals report what fantastic work the home has achieved with children and the significant progress that children make.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The consistency and stability of this staff team reflect the strength of the service. The team has experienced considerable challenge in the last year and has been able to rise to this, while remaining focused on the welfare of children in its care. The team has also benefited from having a number of extremely long-serving staff, which enables and promotes stability in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

All children are supported to engage in fun activities and access a number of community- based activities. This is significant progress for all children, who have previously experienced a degree of isolation and a lack of social integration within their communities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Gaining children’s views and participation is central to this home. There is pictorial evidence of children’s participation in and around the home and throughout all documentation, even down to the home’s development plan. Children are truly at the centre of practice in this home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Key-working sessions are creative, regular and child centred. They cover a number of key areas that contribute to children’s development and ensure that children are central to their plans. When children hit sticking points with behaviours, staff respond quickly and creatively to address these. Staff regularly think ‘outside of the box’ to support children with any episodes of anxiety or changes in behaviours.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

All children’s health needs are met and monitored. Health promotion is a strength. Staff identified a long-standing condition for one child and ensured that he received the appropriate health intervention in a timely manner. This was sensitively managed and in line with his complex needs and level of development. This has led to positive longer- term health outcomes for him. Inspection report children’s home: SC357077 4 The home does effective work to reduce children’s dependence on anti-anxiety medications. Children have been supported to reduce medications and/or cease taking medication completely. This is clearly due to the strong emphasis on stabilising children by using appropriate and safe boundaries, routines and structures. In addition, children who have previously been in receipt of child and adolescent mental health services no longer require this as their mental health has improved significantly.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children are engaged in full-time education, attendance is excellent, and they have benefited from long-term placements. For one child, his education placement had been unsuccessful and was not able to meet his needs. Staff acted as powerful advocates for the child. Excellent joint working took place in a timely manner with the virtual head to secure an alternative educational provision. The staff team has worked tirelessly in supporting the new educational placement in order to meet this child’s needs. For all children, there is exceptional progress from their starting points in relation to educational attendance, engagement and achievement.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Family connections are central to the care that is offered to children. Where appropriate to do so, staff include parents and people who matter to children in their day-to-day living arrangements. Staff support relatives in improving family time arrangements for themselves and the children. The staff show commendable tenacity in engaging family members. A parent said: ‘Staff have the time, patience and the know-how, and support my child to be the best person he can be. Staff support me and we are a tag team.’ Relationships between children and families are rebuilt over time, and families are incredibly grateful for this.

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

Staff have an excellent understanding of safeguarding processes. Where any concerns are raised these are responded to and referred on to appropriate agencies. Incidents of concern are well managed, and there are effective management systems in place. When incidents do increase, managers act to ensure that children remain safe, and they reflect on, evaluate and review processes.

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

Staff work tirelessly to ensure that children are safe and keep safe. Effective planning of risk assessments and behaviour support plans contributes to reductions in risky behaviours. Plans are thorough and are regularly reviewed using a whole team approach. Children’s risks are well known, shared and documented. Staff work hard to respond to known risks, behaviour management incidents and violence towards staff and others. As a result, physical interventions reduce over time.

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

The registered manager has completed a statement that has supported the application for a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards order for a child. She is clear about the care needs of the child and the care arrangements that are in place that respect the dignity of children while keeping them safe. The manager and the staff team have a sound understanding of legislative requirements and they ensure that children’s rights are paramount. Inspection report children’s home: SC357077 5 Keyworkers and managers track children’s progress on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Social workers receive comprehensive monthly update reports that are pictorial and evidence what children have engaged with and achieved. Communication with key agencies is exceptional.

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

The management monitoring and oversight of all incidents are excellent. Staff and managers use supervisions, team meetings and debrief sessions to consider all risks posed to children. They are proactive and flexible, and adapt practices to support children. There is excellent staff consistency in their practice. This is underpinned by nurturing care practices and a theoretical model of practice alongside other research- informed methods.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is an exceptionally strong manager. She has utilised her knowledge, skills and experience to promote positive outcomes for children and to lead a strong, dedicated staff team. The staff team is aspirational and ambitious for children. Managers lead by example and embed a highly effective and positive culture in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

When the team experiences challenging periods, staff are highly resilient. The manager recognises the importance of staff support, and a number of additional support mechanisms are put in place. Staff have been able to access support from a company therapist which has been highly beneficial to them in their roles. Staff are supported emotionally by open and transparent team meetings and supervisions, support and training by the company therapist, and the employee of the month and daily debrief meetings. Staff morale is consistently high. Despite a very challenging period, only one staff member has left the home since the last inspection. The stability of this staff team is a major factor in the positive outcomes being achieved for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager makes difficult decisions that are in the best interests of all children in her care. She does this after exploring all possible avenues of support to children and the staff team. Staff report feeling outstanding support from the management team in the home. A staff member said when referring to the manager: ‘She is an inspiration.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Continuity of care is considered essential for the children at this home. Children are supported to have long-standing relationships with people who matter to them. This is often carefully engineered to overcome resource constraints. For example, a child who had long-standing sessions with a therapist has recently had funding stopped. The manager and therapist have creatively agreed a plan to move forward to ensure that continuity is maintained.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Training, staff supervision and team meetings are structured, regular and well recorded. Staff respect the registered manager and feel able to share their experiences. The ethos of the home is embedded by a strong, nurturing approach for both children and staff. A commendable observation is the close and positive relationships within the staff team. A member of staff said: ‘The manager is everyone’s friend but at the same time everyone knows their place and expectations. She has a magical power. She is very clear about Inspection report children’s home: SC357077 6 what needs to be done but will then ensure everyone is OK.’ It is apparent that staff feel valued and are well cared for within this team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager is a strong advocate for children, seeking the best possible outcomes for children at critical times. For one child, this meant challenging the local authority regarding placement decisions in the child’s care plan. The manager was successful in securing a longer-term placement for this child, and he continues to thrive and make excellent progress in this home.

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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: SC357077 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Pathway Care Solutions Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 1 Merchants Place, River Street, Bolton, Lancashire BL2 1BX

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Inspector

Bev Allison, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC357077 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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