Children's home run by Manchester City Council

Inspection report children’s home: 1251073 1 Registered provider: Manchester City Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The home is an adolescent support service provided by the local authority. It provides short stays for up to four children and emergency placements for one child at weekends and bank holidays. In addition, the service provides intensive, time-limited support to children on the edge of care. This includes planned day visits for children and outreach support for their families.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The home has an established and experienced registered manager.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

p.1

outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

p.1

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.

p.1

outstanding

Date of last inspection: 14 November 2018

p.1

outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

p.1

outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1251073 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/11/2018 Full Outstanding 18/01/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 01/09/2017 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: 1251073 3

p.2

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people benefit from effective support, help and protection. Staff consistently provide a high-quality service for young people that contributes to significant change and improvement in their lives. Young people benefit from exceptionally well-planned, highly individualised care that promotes their needs effectively at crucial times in their lives.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Bespoke care packages are delivered by skilled, committed and dedicated staff in a timely and highly effective way. Outstanding practice improves the outcomes for young people and their families. Effective, high-quality support from staff enables families to stay together. Parents reported, ‘Staff have been very supportive. Communication has been very good’ and ‘The [home] has been a great thing for our children and our family. The workers are kind, caring and very professional. We couldn’t be happier with the service.’

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home provides effective edge-of-care interventions, such as planned short stays, day visits and outreach support, in addition to other specialist interventions. The home provides family group conferences, therapeutic and psychological support and aims assessments. Staff provide intensive work with the aim of empowering families to stay together. Staff ensure that young people benefit from prompt access to the best possible help and all-round support. A cohort of skilled staff work alongside young people and their families, ensuring that effective support and safety plans are in place.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Social workers reported: ‘[The home] has clearly been needed for a long time, as social workers have already become very grateful and reliant on the support provided. Staff have also been known to “go the extra mile” for families, stepping in to provide additional support when this has not been provided by other services.’

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Those who use the service do so on a voluntary basis. Right from the beginning of support packages, families are willing to engage with the service to bring about change and improvement in their lives and in the life of their child. Staff develop exceptionally positive relationships with young people and their families, and are skilled in maintaining these relationships, which are instrumental to the engagement of families and lead to improved outcomes for young people. Social workers reported: ‘Staff “go above and beyond” to build relationships. The home offers outreach support to children in need. The support offered can prevent the need for a child to come into local authority care.’

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff work closely with health professionals to ensure that the health needs of young people are consistently met. Staff maintain highly effective partnerships with social workers, schools and other professional agencies to address concerns, such as poor school engagement, to promote young people’s educational achievement. Young people are supported to overcome any educational barriers that may hinder their educational progress and learning. Staff consistently have high aspirations for young people and ensure that they are supported to achieve their full educational potential. Inspection report children’s home: 1251073 4

p.3

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

The safety of young people is reliably at the centre of staff’s practice, irrespective of the challenges that this presents. Staff develop an excellent understanding of the specific needs and emerging vulnerabilities of young people and their families and take appropriate action to address them. The use of robust risk assessments and highly effective safeguarding practices promotes the safety of young people. The ‘Signs of safety’ model underpins all aspects of staff’s practice, ensuring that risks are understood and that young people are protected from harm.

p.4

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

Staff work with a high number of vulnerable young people and complex families. The home provides highly effective interventions, utilising the vast amounts of professionalism, experience and expertise within the hub. For example, the home employs adolescent support case workers, a speech and language therapist, family group conference workers, a mental health practitioner and a psychologist to ensure that young people and their families receive the right help and support in a timely and effective way. The thresholds for working with families are understood. To ensure the safety of young people, the staff work closely with social workers to identify and address risks.

p.4

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

There have been no complaints or sanctions since the last inspection. Young people’s behaviours are managed safely and effectively by staff. The use of restraint is extremely rare and, if used at all, restraint is only ever a last resort to protect young people from harm.

p.4

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

Staff are trained in child protection and are knowledgeable in relation to their safeguarding roles. Staff ensure that young people are protected from abuse and all other forms of significant harm. Staff share significant incidents with the appropriate authorities and maintain effective partnerships with the police and other safeguarding agencies to promote the safety of young people.

p.4

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

The accommodation provided is of a very high standard and quality. A social worker reported: ‘The home is clean and well maintained, and there are ample provisions available for young people who stay there. The home has a calming environment, which is well suited to young people.’

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home employs an inspirational and ambitious team of leaders, who manage the home effectively and lead staff by example. Leaders and managers have consistently high expectations of staff and high aspirations for young people and their families. Leaders and managers exercise strong and effective leadership of the operation of the service.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home’s leadership team values its staff and ensures that all staff members are well supported, professionally managed, supervised and led. Leaders and managers stimulate the enthusiasm of staff and channel their efforts effectively. A new staff member Inspection report children’s home: 1251073 5 reported: ‘It’s inspirational, working here. The staff make this place what it is. The manager has high aspirations.’

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers have established a positive culture, and there is a sense of shared ownership of practice in which staff share and implement the home’s ethos, approach and philosophy in supporting young people and their families. A stable, well- qualified, experienced and skilled workforce is maintained. Consequently, there is consistency of high-quality practice to meet the needs of young people and their families.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Some adolescent support case workers are trained and skilled to undertake specialist assessments with young people who present with sexually harmful behaviours. This work is growing in demand. With the introduction of the home’s psychologist, there is now scope for staff to benefit from clinical supervision to formally support their practice.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home is visited by an independent professional to review the quality of young people’s care and the arrangements to safeguard them and promote their well-being. The registered manager uses the home’s internal and external monitoring activities to secure the home’s continuing improvement.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home comprehensively meets the aims and objectives as set out in the statement of purpose. The home provides an outstanding-quality service for young people and their families that contributes to significant change and improvement in their lives. Young people said: ‘I like being here. They made me part of the family. I love the calm and chilled environment. It is very relaxed, and staff are very polite’, and ‘Somewhere to go when I need to. It is calm and there are a lot of nice people. I think I am going to enjoy it here. My worker is very nice.’ Inspection report children’s home: 1251073 6

p.5

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 difference 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.

p.6

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: 1251073 7

p.6

Children’s home details

Registered provider : Manchester City Council

p.7

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Town Hall, Albert Square, Manchester M60 2LA

p.7

Inspector

Anthony Kyem, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1251073 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.

p.7

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.8

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.8

Inspector

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.8