Children's home run by Compass Children‟s Homes Limited in Charnwood

Inspection report children’s home: SC031220 1 SC031220 Registered provider: Compass Children’s Homes Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is a residential therapeutic community that provides high-quality care and substitute parenting for up to six children or young people who have problematic sexualised behaviour, aged between 10 and 17 years old. A fundamental objective of the home is to provide ongoing intensive, therapeutic, personalised care and both an educational structure and attainment. The service offers a four-week assessment programme which determines the therapeutic needs of the child or young person and their suitability for intervention. The manager of the home has over 15 years of experience of caring for children in formal settings. She has worked in residential services for eight years and was registered with Ofsted as the manager of this service in June 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: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC031220 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/06/2018 Full Good 21/08/2017 Full Good 25/11/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 04/05/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC031220 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home provides the children and young people with highly individualised care, structure and therapeutic interventions, and this enables them to make significant progress from their starting point at admission. The young people enjoy positive and nurturing relationships with the staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The therapeutic interventions are comprehensive and bespoke to each child and young person, and support them to develop an understanding of their behaviours to help to keep themselves and others safer. They enable the children and young people to develop both self-confidence and positive strategies through therapeutic programmes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The staff help the children and young people by meeting their health needs through supporting them to access their health appointments. The staff have worked in close partnership with both the children looked after nurse and the specialist nurse to meet very sensitively the complex health needs of one of the young people. This has enabled the young person to settle and begin to build peer relationships. The children and young people are supported to have a healthy lifestyle and a balanced and healthy diet, including a wide variety of foods from around the world on themed-food nights.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The staff actively encourage the children and young people so that they access education. They have high aspirations for the children and young people to achieve their educational targets. The children and young people have excellent school attendance. When children or young people are having difficulties, the staff work in partnership with the school and virtual headteacher to ensure that they continue to have access to bespoke educational plans. This approach supports their needs, and the plans are reviewed regularly. The children or young people are encouraged to access education in a school environment with their peers by being emotionally supported to manage this.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Two young people are working towards their GCSE qualifications and have already achieved functional skills qualifications. All the young people are working towards qualifications through the home’s ‘safe programme’, which supports the young people to develop their self-confidence and social skills and manage everyday practical and independence tasks.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children and young people access positive recreational activities, such as cycling, running, bowling, rock climbing, going to the cinema and trampolining, and are supported to join groups in the wider community. They also have a games room in the home which is always accessible to them. They are supported to access an excellent resource of books and DVDs, which enables them to spend lots of positive peer time together. The home has access to a wide network of other homes. Children and young people enjoy fun days, competitions and events throughout the year. This builds their self-confidence. Inspection report children’s home: SC031220 4 Two young people have pets, which they have gained by working towards and achieving targets. Another young person is supported in his love of music, and has musical instruments which he uses to manage his thoughts positively. This has enabled the children and young people to feel safe and secure and to build trusting relationships with

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

the staff. The staff have supported one young person to access a club in the community. They have worked with him so that he is able to keep himself safe in the community and allow him an agreed level of independence and free time.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children and young people have a voice and a positive influence in the home as they have their own group and community meetings. These help them to express their wishes and feelings about the day-to-day functioning of home, activities, menus and holidays and to request changes, such as having their bedroom redecorated to a theme of their choice.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home’s environment is warm and friendly and the home is well maintained throughout. Professionals said that they felt the home is welcoming and that the staff are accommodating, and that they help the children and young people to remain focused on their therapy.

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

On admission, children and young people require a high level of supervision, and this is agreed at planning meetings with them and their parents, carers and professionals. The home has a very low level of ‘missing from home’ incidents. When there are incidents of children and young people wandering off site, the staff follow local ‘missing from home’ procedures to respond promptly, locate them in the local community and provide them with positive reassurance.

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

There is a very low level of bullying. Staff are able to use effective de-escalation strategies to help the children and young people to manage their behaviours. The staff are proactive and will challenge any negative behaviours, enabling the children and young people to feel safe and secure in their home. The home uses restorative practice very effectively to support the children and young people to develop healthy relationships with each other.

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

The staff have a high level of therapeutic support from the therapist and forensic psychologist through team meetings and development days. This approach enhances the staff’s knowledge to support children and young people. The work with the therapist has empowered the staff to reduce physical intervention and improve risk assessments to enable children and young people to use the strategies that they have developed through therapy when they are struggling emotionally.

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

The staff strive to help the children and young people to develop a high level of independence through focused key work and therapy to enable them to have positive transitions when they complete the programme of therapy. They successfully return to family environments and continue to have access, over a period of time, to support from the community therapy team. Inspection report children’s home: SC031220 5 When there are incidents involving physical intervention, these are effectively recorded and the staff and young people supported by debriefings and reflection. The management undertakes oversight routinely. Learning is shared during team meetings to help the staff team to respond effectively to incidents consistently.

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

The children and young people all said that they feel safe and able to access the staff and management if they need support. They described the home as a safe and stable environment. The children and young people say that they have consistent staff support that helps them to feel safe, that the staff know them well and that the therapy helps them to keep themselves safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is experienced and aspirational for the children and young people. She is supported by the deputy manager and her senior residential workers in implementing positive therapeutic interventions in partnership with the therapist and forensic psychologist. As a result, the children and young people have thrived and show positive aspirations and outcomes at the end of the programme.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager provides the staff with a robust training and development programme, alongside regular supervision, team meetings and network meetings, to support them in delivering a high standard of care to these complex children and young people in their care. Staff have accessed specialist training, which enables them to help the young people to engage positively with the programme.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager and deputy work with other managers in the organisation to develop practice and share successes, and this improves the outcomes for the children and young people in both this and other homes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has excellent oversight of the arrangements to meet each child and young person’s care and devolvement needs. This ensures that the care afforded to the children and young people is of a very high standard. The manager leads by example and role models positive practice for the children and young people. This is evident in the practice that the staff provide.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has worked closely with the authority’s designated officer and independent visitor. She has utilised senior management and triangulation meetings with the school and the therapist to help to develop and evolve the practice at the home. The manager is proactive in accessing external support from the forensic psychologist when the staff are experiencing difficulties and need to review a child or young person’s plan.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has introduced several new protocols to support the practice of the staff, and takes action to improve staff performance and practice in order to maintain the very high standards of specialist care that she delivers to the children and young people. Inspection report children’s home: SC031220 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 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.

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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: SC031220 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Compass Children’s Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Mountfields House, Epinal Way, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 3GE

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Inspector

Noel Cooper: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC031220 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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