Children's Home run by North Lakes Children’s Service Limited in Cumbria

Inspection report children’s home: SC356907 1 SC356907 Registered provider: North Lakes Children’s Services Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The home is owned by a private company. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to eight boys who have social and/or emotional difficulties. The home specialises in providing therapeutic care for children who have experienced early childhood trauma and disruptions in their care.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has recently left her post. A new manager has been appointed and is working in the home alongside the responsible individual so that there is a smooth transition into her role. This manager has the relevant level 5 qualification.

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 good

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: 13 December 2018

p.1

outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: Outstanding

p.1

outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: None Inspection report children’s home: SC356907 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/12/2018 Full Outstanding 13/12/2017 Full Outstanding 27/02/2017 Full Good 31/10/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC356907 3

p.2

outstanding

Children at this home make good and exceptional progress from their starting points. Staff offer care that is informed by a therapeutic model and seek to fully understand what motivates children’s behaviour. This results in children feeling understood, and therefore learning to develop trust. They believe that adults care for them and will always keep them safe.

p.3

outstanding

On the occasions that children do not thrive in all areas, the reasons for this are identified and explored. Even when children do not make progress across every area, they continue to make excellent progress in other areas. For example, one young person is not managing education well. He will, however, undertake school work willingly in the home with the support of staff, and he continues to progress well in all other areas.

p.3

outstanding

All children have excellent attendance at the on-site education provision. School and care maintain close links to provide consistency. This ensures that children know what responses to expect. Clear routines and boundaries are in place that contribute to children’s experiences of feeling safe and of understanding that their environment is predictable. This is crucially important for children who come from chaotic backgrounds.

p.3

outstanding

While there have been a number of changes to the staff team, some key figures remain consistent in the children’s lives. This enables them to build secure attachments. They have a positive experience of adults providing care and meeting their needs.

p.3

outstanding

Children’s plans and assessments have been improved. They reflect the highly individual aspects of each child’s behaviours. The plans clearly illustrate the most effective way to respond to the child to meet their personal needs.

p.3

outstanding

The home itself, while a large building, is well decorated, personalised to the children, and feels welcoming and homely. A great deal of thought has been given to the decor of the communal areas and the personalisation of each child’s bedroom. The living room sofas are torn and require replacement.

p.3

outstanding

Although children say that they are listened to about most areas of their lives, they consistently express dissatisfaction about the use of their home’s dining room and lounge for the whole school each lunchtime. While there is no easy solution to address this, consideration should be given to any possible alternative arrangements in line with the children’s wishes and feelings. Inspection report children’s home: SC356907 4

p.3

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

Children display diverse risks which range from low to very high risk. Children report they feel safe. Evidence shows that children’s needs are both understood and well managed. Where children are subject to some very high risks, there are safety plans in place. One child who is at exceptionally high risk of ingesting non-edible objects, had a safety plan. This risk was not included into his placement plan and risk assessment. Staff spoken to were aware of him being at risk in this area and the plans were amended during the inspection.

p.4

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

Behaviour management plans have been replaced with ‘supporting social and emotional development’ plans. These are exceptionally well-informed documents. They give staff clear guidance on how best to respond to each child and help them regulate their emotions and behaviour.

p.4

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

Records of physical intervention are now personalised. Individual strategies are identified for each young person. Records are detailed. They describe antecedent behaviours, identify strategies for de-escalation, evaluate effectiveness and describe the measure itself. While numbers of physical interventions are high and show spikes, there is a clear analysis around this, and explanations about why children need physical intervention to keep them safe.

p.4

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

For the one child with the high level of risk around swallowing non-edible objects, managers have identified that although risk management strategies are effective, he requires a more specialist placement. They have also considered the detrimental impact he has on the other children’s bedtime routines.

p.4

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

Risks in other key areas such as missing from home, drug and alcohol misuse, police call outs and criminal behaviour are consistently low. From their starting points, this shows significant progression in risk reduction for some children.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager has recently resigned from her position. Despite this, the home continues to be managed extremely well. The responsible individual is managing the home in the interim period while the newly recruited manager settles into her post and develops solid relationships with the children.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers make good decisions about who comes to live at the home. Matching is thorough. Impact assessments clearly show why children are suitable to join the cohort of children already in the home. One admission has not been appropriate. This is due to the placing authority not providing full information about a child’s risks prior to placement. Decisive action was taken to end the placement and appropriate challenges are made to the placing authority.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff say that they are well inducted, trained and supervised. They feel confident that they have the appropriate skills for their roles. They have specific training in the Inspection report children’s home: SC356907 5 therapeutic model employed by the company. They report that this has a positive impact on their practice.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Children report they have very good relationships with the deputy manager. She has provided them with consistency through some changes to staff as well as managers.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Some key documents have been re-formatted, which improves the quality of reporting and recording. He also has stringent monitoring tools in place to ensure the smooth running of the home. This, coupled with high-quality external monitoring, means that managers have good knowledge of the home’s strengths and weaknesses.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Proactive multi-agency working is central to the ethos of the home. External agencies consistently report positive working relationships. They also report that there is excellent communication with managers and staff at the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC356907 6

p.5

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.6

Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff— assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)) 01/04/2020

p.6

Recommendations

 For children’s homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments (‘The guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9).

p.6

Recommendations

 In particular, consideration should be given to any other possible arrangements so that the school does not use the home’s dining area. Torn sofas are replaced. Inspection report children’s home: SC356907 7

p.6

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: SC356907 8

p.7

Children’s home details

Registered provider: North Lakes Children’s Services Limited

p.8

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Rayrigg Show Rooms, Rayrigg Road, Windermere LA23 3DN

p.8

Inspector

Charlie Bamber, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC356907 9 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

p.8

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 http://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.9

Inspector

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

p.9

Inspector

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

p.9