Children's Home run by Outbound Care in Blackpool

Inspection report children’s home: 2523036 1 Registered provider: Outbound Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned by a private organisation. It provides care for one young person who may have emotional and/or social difficulties and/or learning disabilities. The former registered manager resigned his registration in December 2019. A new manager has been appointed and is in the process of applying for registration.

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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

Date of last inspection: This is the home’s first inspection.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 2523036 2

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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(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard The health and well-being standard is that the health and well- being needs of children are met. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)) 09/03/2020

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard The care planning standard is that children have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose. (Regulation 14 (1)(b)(2)(a)) 09/03/2020

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Recommendations

 Ensure where children placed in the home are not participating in education because they have been excluded or are not on a school roll for some other reason, the registered person and staff must work closely with the placing authority so that the child is supported and enabled to resume full-time education as soon as possible. In the interim, the child should be supported to sustain or regain their confidence in education and be engaged in suitable structured activities. If no education place is identified by the placing authority, the registered person must challenge them to meet the child’s needs under Regulation 5 (engaging with the wider system to ensure children’s needs are met). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.15)  Ensure that staff continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. Where there are safeguarding concerns

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Recommendations

for a child, their placement plan, agreed between the home and their placing authority, must include details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risks on a day-to-day basis. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5) Specifically, that staff are familiar with these documents. Inspection report children’s home: 2523036 3  Ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs, and understand the key role they play in the training and development of staff in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11) In particular, provide training for staff on attachment and internet safety.  Ensure that the registered person makes best use of information from independent and internal monitoring (including under Regulations 44 and 45) to

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Recommendations

ensure continuous improvement. They should be skilled in anticipating difficulties and reviewing incidents, such as learning from disruptions and placement breakdowns. They are responsible for proactively implementing lessons learned and sustaining good practice. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)  Ensure that the recruitment of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

This is a small family home. Young people benefit from living in a homely environment, which they can personalise to reflect their interests. This helps them to feel comfortable and relaxed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people receive consistent and reliable care. Consequently, they develop trusting relationships with staff. Young people benefit from a great deal of individual time with staff. Staff have meaningful conversations and offer sound advice to young people on a daily basis.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Only two young people have lived in the home since it was registered. Outcomes have been variable, with the first young person leaving the home in a crisis without any preparation, due to her high level of need. However, the current resident is making good progress in a number of areas of her development. There are improvements in her sleep pattern. She has quit smoking and she is able to budget and cook for herself confidently. However, she has not engaged in any formal education, employment or training for over a year. While staff have put educational incentives in place, and these have had some limited success, the young person is only engaging in online training that can be completed in the home and on her own terms. This will have a negative impact on her future employment prospects.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young person is registered with a range of routine health professionals. However, staff have yet to confirm if the current resident has received all her immunisations, choosing to believe the young person’s account that these are up to date. The young person is reluctant to engage with specialist services, who may be able to offer advice Inspection report children’s home: 2523036 4 on addressing some of her anxieties about spending time in the community. Consequently, the young person spends a lot of her time in the home, needing encouragement by staff to engage in activities outside of it. This is limiting her progress and experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support young people to have regular contact with their families and friends. Despite her anxieties, the current young person was able, with the support of staff, to take a flight to her home town to spend time with her family over Christmas. Staff appreciate the significance of these relationships and will go the extra mile to maintain these.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are mindful to take photographs and keep mementos of young people’s achievements or activities enjoyed together. Staff produce lovely memory albums with photographs and text that young people take with them when they move on from the home. This ensures that these memories are not lost.

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

The positive relationships that staff have with young people enable them to de-escalate most challenging situations. There has only been one incident requiring a physical intervention since the home opened in July 2019.

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

Good staffing levels ensure that staff are on hand if young people need them. The current resident has not engaged in any self-injurious behaviour since she moved into the home despite this being a feature previously. She is learning more effective ways to express her emotions. On occasion, when she has felt that she may be tempted to harm herself, she has felt able to talk through her feelings with staff, preventing an incident. The young person said, ‘I like the staff here. I am able to talk to them if I need to. I haven’t hurt myself since I’ve lived here.’

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

Medication is stored and administered as prescribed. However, one young person who was thought to have an allergy to penicillin was prescribed a related antibiotic without staff raising concerns about the suitability of this. On this occasion, there appears to have been no adverse effect on the young person. However, potentially the outcome may not have been a positive one.

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

The current resident does not engage in risk-taking behaviour. She does not go missing or misuse drugs and alcohol. However, risk assessments do contain pertinent historic information and strategies for staff to implement to reduce risk. They are also subject to frequent review. However, it is unclear if all staff are familiar with these documents, as they have not signed the documents to confirm this. This is of particular significance as staff are frequently working on their own.

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

Young people feel listened to. They are regularly consulted about routines in the home and have easy access to the manager, if they are unhappy about anything. They know that they will be taken seriously. Inspection report children’s home: 2523036 5 Staff recruitment is generally sound. However, further exploration does not always take place when there is a discrepancy between employment dates given by the applicant and that confirmed by the referee, even when this results in a potential gap in employment. Such additional scrutiny would ensure the integrity of those employed to work in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The previous registered manager resigned his registration in December 2019 and is managing another home in the organisation. However, he made himself available for part of this inspection. The current manager has experience as a deputy manager elsewhere in the organisation. She is in the process of registering with Ofsted. She is currently studying for a leadership and management qualification.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The decision to admit the first young person to the home was made with a degree of naivety. Although additional staff training in self-harm was commissioned, staff did not have the necessary skills or experience to care for a young person with such a degree of mental health concerns. While there were many positives in the few weeks of her placement, ultimately the placement was disrupted following a serious safeguarding incident and the young person was moved to another setting with no preparation or support. Managers have reflected on this placement, appreciating that they had concentrated on the positive factors, rather than the risks. Pleasingly, the same concerns are not evident in relation to the subsequent admission.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Core training which includes safeguarding is completed during induction. Staff have also recently completed mental health training. However, staff would benefit from training on attachment issues and internet safety. This would ensure that they are best able to meet the needs of the young people in their care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager provides frequent, formal and informal support to the staff. Staff work collaboratively to provide consistency for young people. Staff speak highly about the level of support they receive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Records are organised clearly, with evidence of regular management oversight. Debriefs with staff and young people take place following a serious incident. However, there was little reflection following the serious incident that resulted in the former resident leaving the home in an emergency. Learning from such incidents may help to inform staff practice in the future.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff meetings take place weekly and good use is made of these to enhance the knowledge of staff. Topics such as the role of the local authority designated officer and the inspection framework feature regularly.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Social work professionals are complimentary about the home. One commented, in feedback requested by the home, ‘There is excellent communication from staff. My young person has settled really well and has good relationships with staff.’ Inspection report children’s home: 2523036 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: 2523036 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Outbound Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 2, Metropolitan Business Park, Preston New Road, Blackpool, Lancashire FY3 9LT

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Inspector

Mandy Williams: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 2523036 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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