Children's home run by Fullwood Care Limited

Inspection report children’s home: SC066916 1 SC066916 Registered provider: Individual Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

This is a privately owned children’s home. It provides care and accommodation for up to four children and young people who may have emotional and social difficulties.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been registered since March 2011.

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: 16 January 2019

p.1

outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

p.1

outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC066916 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/01/2019 Full Outstanding 18/12/2017 Full Outstanding 24/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 12/07/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC066916 3

p.2

outstanding

Young people have extremely positive experiences living in this nurturing and supportive family home. They have safe, healthy and constructive relationships with the staff. These secure attachments have brought much-needed stability to the young people’s lives.

p.3

outstanding

Young people’s achievements from when they first moved into the home are remarkable, considering the complexity of their needs and traumatic experiences.

p.3

outstanding

Young people benefit from an exceptional standard of care that meets their individual needs, culture and identity, and improves their lives. With staff’s help and guidance, young people are making sustained progress in every area of their lives.

p.3

outstanding

Young people’s care and support are thoroughly planned. The manager only agrees to provide a home for a young person when she is confident that staff can respond successfully to the young person’s needs and improve their outcomes. She gives careful consideration of the young person’s compatibility with the other young people living at the home. Young people are actively involved in choosing to live at the home. They usually visit the home so that they can make an informed choice about whether they would like to live here.

p.3

outstanding

The manager makes sure that the right support and resources are in place for young people. The manager and staff have excellent knowledge of local resources. They can quickly find suitable education and health support for young people to fill any gaps if there are delays in the local authority identifying a service.

p.3

outstanding

The manager and staff listen to children’s wishes and feelings and respond appropriately. They make every effort to make sure that young people get support to communicate their views and take part as fully as possible in care planning and the decisions affecting their lives. The manager makes sure that young people have the support of independent advocates and, where necessary, interpreters. The manager and staff are strong advocates for young people’s views. They make sure that young people understand their rights as young people living in a children’s home.

p.3

outstanding

The manager and staff provide opportunities and encouragement for young people to have their views and experiences of being children in care heard. For example, young people are getting involved in projects with the Family Law Justice Young People’s Board.

p.3

outstanding

Young people are in full-time education and are engaging incredibly well. They are developing their skills, gaining qualifications and have ambitions for their future. A young person said that the biggest change for him since he moved in was that ‘staff had got me back into school and I’m focused and getting my head down.’ The Inspection report children’s home: SC066916 4 manager and staff show young people the benefits of learning and education. They help young people with homework, go to parents’ evenings and celebrate young people’s achievements. Staff and young people went to watch a young person perform in the school play.

p.3

outstanding

The manager and staff understand the barriers to education. They work effectively with teachers and social workers to make sure that young people get the right support to enjoy learning and do well. Staff have been instrumental in helping a young person to learn English and make excellent progress in his language skills and social inclusion.

p.4

outstanding

Young people have improved diets, physical health and emotional well-being. Staff understand young people’s health needs and the importance of healthy lifestyles. They make sure that young people get the advice, treatment, assessments, immunisations and medication that they need to be healthy. Staff monitor young people’s health and make sure that they get medical attention when they are unwell.

p.4

outstanding

Young people enjoy being active, in particular playing football, going to the gym, boxing, swimming and drama. They play an active part in the community. Some have part-time jobs and volunteer at a community project supporting children. As a result, they are developing their social and language skills, confidence and making positive friendships. They enjoy new experiences, such as going on holiday, which adds to the quality of their lives.

p.4

outstanding

Since the last inspection, three young people have moved successfully into independent accommodation in line with their plans. Each young person is in suitable accommodation where they wanted to live, taking part in education and with the ongoing support that meets their assessed needs. The manager and staff worked effectively with the local authorities to plan and prepare the young people practically and emotionally for adult life.

p.4

outstanding

The manager and staff’s excellent professional practice and parenting helps vulnerable young people to feel safe. Young people have a strong sense of safety and well-being because they live in a caring, reliable and supportive home. Young people see staff as people they can trust. They know that staff are on their side and that they always act in the best interests of young people in their care.

p.4

outstanding

Since coming to live at the home, young people have becoming increasingly safe. Young people do not go missing from home. Staff protect young people from the risks of abuse, exploitation, trafficking, extremism, crime and violence. Staff make sure that young people are protected from bullying, discrimination, harassment and marginalisation in relation to their care experience, gender, religion, ethnicity, culture, language, sexuality or mental health. Inspection report children’s home: SC066916 5 Staff recognise any signs that indicate that a young person may be at risk of harm. They always follow the safeguarding procedures and take effective action to share information with the local authority and police when they have concerns about young people’s safety.

p.4

outstanding

Staff understand and manage risk extremely well. They assess continuously the dangers to each young person and make sure that the arrangements for dealing with these risks are safe and effective. Staff work with partners and support services successfully to reduce the risk of young people using alcohol and drugs. The manager works closely with parents to help them understand the risks of young people misusing prescription drugs. She has helped parents to put safeguards in place when parents are spending time with their young person.

p.5

outstanding

Staff are influential in helping young people to make positive choices about managing risk and engaging with support services. Staff help young people to be aware of risks, recognise healthy relationships and manage their own safety, including when using technology and social media. The manager and staff use strong links with safety initiatives in the local community, such as Knife Savers, to raise young people’s awareness of risks and ability to keep themselves safe.

p.5

outstanding

Young people live in a nurturing environment that promotes their emotional resilience and a strong sense of belonging. Young people have the stability that they need to take part in therapy from mental health services. Young people are emotionally secure enough to talk about traumatic and extremely distressing experiences and manage the thoughts and feelings brought up safely. Staff work effectively alongside therapists to help young people to recover and find the best ways of coping with their experiences.

p.5

outstanding

Staff are exceptionally skilled at engaging with young people who have complex needs. Staff’s ability to build warm and genuine relationships with young people is making an enormous difference to young people’s lives. There is a culture of openness and trust that enables young people to tell staff when they are upset or worried. Young people feel that staff’s advice is honest, helpful and credible.

p.5

outstanding

Staff’s expertise in the positive behaviour support approach helps them to understand how young people’s experience of abuse, neglect and trauma may affect their daily lives, behaviour and relationships. Staff work positively and confidently with young people and find the best way possible to support them. Invariably, young people talk through their difficulties with staff, and manage their feelings and frustrations constructively without using negative behaviour.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager provides inspirational and highly effective leadership. She leads a well- established, passionate, kind, experienced and qualified staff team. The manager and leaders are very visible to young people and staff. They spend time with young people and staff observing practice and seeking their views about the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC066916 6 The manager and staff have created an exceptionally positive and aspirational culture. They actively promote respect, tolerance, equality and diversity. Consequently, young people live in an incredibly safe, warm, stable and fun family home that meets each young person’s needs. Young people and staff from diverse backgrounds and cultures get on extremely well.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager and staff do not allow the complexity of young people’s backgrounds and needs to be a barrier to their development. They provide young people with the experiences and opportunities that they should have at their age to enable them to enjoy life and reach their full potential.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has a clear understanding of the progress each young person is making. The manager and staff are quick to identify when young people are struggling, and act to improve things. The manager and staff reflect critically about how they can better help the young person and what needs to change.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager develops and maintains professional relationships with parents, social workers, education and health services. She is assertive and committed to making sure that young people’s views are listened to and that they get the best possible support at the right time, including education and help from mental health services.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staffing arrangements ensure that young people are always supported by people that they get to know well. As a result, young people have every chance to develop safe and healthy attachments with staff. The staff are tenacious, resilient and do not give up trying to make a positive difference to young people’s lives.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager and leaders provide each member of staff with excellent support, guidance, encouragement and training. Staff have regular opportunities, through practice-related supervision, appraisals and team meetings, to reflect on young people’s progress, their own performance, and to share new ideas and develop their skills and knowledge.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager uses team meetings exceptionally well as opportunities for reflection and learning. She is very keen for staff’s skills and knowledge to be up to date and relevant to the needs of each young person. The manager and staff routinely look at recent research and reports, including from the Children’s Commissioner for England, to develop their knowledge. They think carefully about how they can put their learning into practice and improve how they support young people.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has an extremely detailed and well-informed understanding of the strengths of the home. The manager accurately measures the effectiveness of the home’s impact and uses this information well to improve the quality of care for young people. For example, she has worked with staff to improve the quality of young people’s records.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

However, the independent scrutiny of the home does not provide a detailed assessment of the home’s arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the young people. The independent monitoring reports do not always include the Inspection report children’s home: SC066916 7 views of the young people, parents, relatives, social workers and other professionals. Furthermore, the reports do not include information about complaints, the use of restraints and sanctions, any safeguarding allegations, times when young people have been missing from the home and any accidents. The reports do not evaluate how effectively the manager and staff have responded to any of these events. Inspection report children’s home: SC066916 8

p.6

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.

p.8

Requirement Due date

When the independent person is carrying out a visit, the registered person must help the independent person—

p.8

Requirement Due date

if they consent, to interview in private such of the children, their parents, relatives and persons working at the home as the independent person requires; and to inspect the premises of the home and such of the home’s records (except for a child’s case records, unless the child and the child’s placing authority consent) as the independent person requires.

p.8

Requirement Due date

The independent person must produce a report about a visit (“the independent person’s report”) which sets out, in particular, the independent person’s opinion as to whether—

p.8

Requirement Due date

children are effectively safeguarded; and the conduct of the home promotes children’s well-being.

p.8

Requirement Due date

In particular, the independent person report should include: a detailed assessment of the home’s arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children in the home; the number of any complaints, allegations about staff, restraints, sanctions, incidents of children going missing from the home and accidents; and evaluate how the home has managed and responded to these events. Also, the report should include the views of children, parents, relatives, social workers and other professionals about the quality of care provided. 31/03/2020 Inspection report children’s home: SC066916 9

p.8

Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people, 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: SC066916 10

p.9

Inspector

Nick Veysey, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC066916 11 to 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.

p.10

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.11

Inspector

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

p.11

Inspector

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

p.11