Children's home run by Outbound Care

Inspection report children’s home: 2516349 1 Registered provider: Outbound Care Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is one of a number operated by a private provider. It is registered to care for two young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The current manager has managed the home since it was registered in August 2019.

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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: 2516349 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

This is the home’s first inspection. Inspection report children’s home: 2516349 3

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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

16: Statement of purpose The registered person must compile in relation to the children’s home a statement (‘the statement of purpose’) which covers the matters listed in Schedule 1. (Regulation 16 (1)) 31/03/2020

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Requirement Due date

44: Independent person: visits and reports The registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children’s home at least once each month. 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 children are effectively safeguarded; and the conduct of the home promotes children’s well-being. The independent person’s report may recommend actions that the registered person may take in relation to the home and timescales within which the registered person must consider whether or not to take those actions. (Regulation 44 (1)(4)(a)(b)(5)) 31/03/2020

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Recommendations

 Children’s homes staff should encourage children to take a proactive role in looking after their day to day health and well-being. When a child needs additional health or well-being support, staff should work with the child’s placing authority to enable proper and immediate access to any specialist medical, psychological or psychiatric support required, and challenge them through regulation 5 – Engaging with the wider system to ensure children’s needs are met, if this doesn’t happen. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 34, paragraph 7.10)

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Recommendations

 Staff should continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. Where there are safeguarding concerns 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. This includes a comprehensive impact risk assessment when new young people are being considered for placement within Inspection report children’s home: 2516349 4 the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs, and should 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)

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Recommendations

In particular, this relates to training for staff on children’s mental health and attachment training.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and make best use of information from independent and internal monitoring (including under regulations 44 and 45) to 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)

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Recommendations

In particular, ensure that actions for team meetings are progressed, recording of fire drills are accurate and robust medication procedures are in place.

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Recommendations

 Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people receive effective and responsive care from a consistent staff team that knows them well. Staff take time to understand the young people’s needs and develop individualised care plans. This supports young people’s positive progress and general well-being. A social care professional wrote, ‘It is a very nice and well- organised home. There is good at communication and the staff really care about the young people.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One young person is progressing well in education. He is now attending school daily, from a starting point of minimal engagement in education when admitted to the home. This will improve his chances of employment in the future. Inspection report children’s home: 2516349 5 There is good evidence that young people are encouraged to share their thoughts, wishes and feelings. Key working sessions take place regularly with the young people and cover a wide range of areas such as self-harm, knife crime, independence skills and the importance of education and diet. This has led to reductions in risk-taking behaviour.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support young people to maintain good physical health. During the inspection, some shortfalls were identified in relation to the recording of young people’s medication. Although there have been no medication errors, a more robust procedure would reduce the chance of mistakes occurring in the future.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people do not have timely access to psychological interventions. One young person is currently on a six-month waiting list for psychological input, which is delaying the essential support he requires. This inhibits the progress he can make while living in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people have the opportunity to engage in fun and fulfilling activities including go karting, quad biking, boxing and spending time in a music studio. Their talents and hobbies are supported. For example, one young person who enjoys music recorded a song that he wrote in a professional studio.

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

Safeguarding practice is effective. Staff are fully aware of young people’s individual risk assessments and their responsibilities to protect young people from harm. Concerns are promptly identified and referrals made to relevant agencies.

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

Risk assessments are detailed and regularly updated. Individualised risk management plans ensure that staff have clear guidance about how to maintain young people’s safety. However, on occasion a critical incident has been omitted from the risk assessment, reducing its effectiveness.

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

Impact risk assessments help to inform the decision about admitting new young people into the home. However, the current procedure is not sufficiently robust to ensure the compatibility with those already living in the home. On one occasion, this led to one young person leaving the home in a crisis situation. Furthermore, the timing of this placement at Christmas time had a negative impact on a young person.

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

Effective partnership working with external agencies promotes young people’s safety and well-being. There is evidence of the manager ensuring that a young person received the necessary support from the local youth offending team when he moved into the home.

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

Staff have a good understanding of young people’s behaviours and emotional responses. Staff are able to de-escalate most challenging situations and, as a result, numbers of incidents of physical intervention are low. Any incidents that do occur Inspection report children’s home: 2516349 6 are appropriately recorded and monitored. An effective reward system is in place, which helps to motivate the young people to demonstrate positive behaviours.

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

Procedures when young people are missing from the home are adhered to and managed appropriately. Recording is generally sound. However, on one occasion, the actions taken by staff were unclear when a young person was absent from the home. There was also an error in the recording of a date in one record, creating confusion about how many times there had been a serious incident.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is led by a suitably qualified and experienced registered manager who has been in post since the home was registered in August 2019. The manager demonstrates a strong commitment to ensuring that young people in his care experience good outcomes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

External professionals spoke highly of the home and expressed satisfaction in the care and support provided. A social work professional commented in feedback requested by the home, ‘The home is welcoming and homely. The staff advocate well for the young person. The young person is settled and stating he likes it and wants to stay.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff demonstrate a good understanding of their role. They are well motivated and reported good levels of support. One staff member new to the role said, ‘We are a close-knit team. I have never felt such a part of a team, and the manager’s door is always open.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular structured supervision from suitably qualified managers. Managers do not always ensure that written supervision records are completed in a timely way. Therefore, records of each supervision session were not readily accessible during the inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff reported a high standard of induction and training. All staff have completed or are currently enrolled on an appropriate level 3 qualification. One staff member suggested that the training on offer was ‘extensive and the home constantly encourages progression.’ However, training in children’s mental health and attachment would help the staff to provide more effective care to the young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager uses quality assurance systems effectively to ensure that young people’s progress and care standards are consistently monitored. Monthly independent visits take place. However, the standard and quality of these reports do not effectively support the home’s development. Serious incidents are not adequately detailed in these reports and the visits have failed to highlight areas for improvement since the home opened.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home operates in accordance with its statement of purpose. However, this document does not contain detail in relation to the electronic surveillance used in the home. The registered manager is aware of the home’s strengths and Inspection report children’s home: 2516349 7 demonstrates commitment and openness to constant development. This means that young people benefit from a constantly improving service.

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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: 2516349 8

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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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Inspectors

Suzanne Birchall, Social Care Inspector Mandy Williams, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: 2516349 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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