Children's Home run by Progressive Futures Care Limited in Sefton

Inspection report children’s home: SC061924 1 SC061924 Registered provider: Progressive Futures Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This private children’s home is registered to provide care and accommodation for three children with social and/or emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been absent from work since 30 May 2019. An interim manager is in charge of the home and is not yet registered with Ofsted.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: 19 November 2018

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC061924 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/11/2018 Full Good 23/08/2017 Full Good 11/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 08/11/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC061924 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in a friendly, nurturing and very comfortable home. Children feel at home and able to be themselves. They are treated with warmth, understanding and affection. Children who struggle to trust adults have developed healthy and very positive relationships with the interim manager and staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The quality of parenting and support provided has brought stability to children’s lives. Children are making important progress in their education, health, emotional well-being, personal safety, social skills, managing their feelings and in building positive relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The interim manager and staff listen to children’s wishes and feelings and respond appropriately. They help children to develop the skills to manage difficult feelings and to express their views in a mature way. Staff support children to take part in meetings and make decisions affecting their lives. The interim manager and staff are honest with children. They help children understand the reasons when sometimes their wishes cannot be followed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children feel listened to and that their views are taken seriously. A child said that he wants to see his family and he knows that staff are trying their best to help him. He said, ‘If things can’t get sorted out, I know that they’ve done everything they can.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to see their families, where this is possible. Staff make sure that spending time with their family is a safe and positive experience for children. Staff understand and follow the arrangements and any restrictions on seeing families that have been agreed by the local authority and court.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are in full-time education and doing well. The interim manager and staff enable children to go to school every day. They know each child’s education targets and progress. Like any good parent, the interim manager works effectively with teachers and the local authority to deal with any problems or barriers to children’s learning. They make sure that children get the right support at home and in school to reach their full potential.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support and encourage children to study and develop their skills and knowledge at home. They provide children with opportunities to gain additional qualifications by completing relevant online training courses at home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children’s physical health and emotional well-being. They encourage children to play a role in looking after their own health. Staff help children to recognise the importance of healthy lifestyles, a nutritious diet and being active. Children get good health advice and guidance. This means that they can make informed choices about their own health needs and care. Staff make sure that children always get the treatment and help they need to be healthy. Inspection report children’s home: SC061924 4

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

The interim manager and staff have created a home where children feel safe. Children have a strong sense of safety and well-being. They see the staff as people they can trust. They talk to staff when they are worried or have a problem. Importantly, staff recognise when children are upset and help them. A social worker said that staff ‘have helped a child through a very difficult period of his life’.

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

The quality of care that children receive from staff protects them from harm. Staff understand children’s vulnerabilities. They identify and manage risks to each child very well. Since coming to live at this home, children have become increasingly safer. The risks to children from abuse, neglect, bullying, drugs, alcohol, exploitation and going missing from home have reduced significantly.

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

Staff recognise any signs that indicate that a child 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 children’s safety.

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

Staff help children to have positive relationships with other children and make friends. They help children to understand what makes a healthy and supportive relationship. The interim manager and staff try to get to know children’s friends and their parents so that positive relationships can be supported. Staff spend time talking with children to understand the things that children like about their friends and the nature of these relationships.

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

Staff take reasonable precautions to enable children to take risks that support their development, such as travelling independently and spending time with their friends.

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

The interim manager and staff provide children with secure and consistent relationships, which are helping children to become resilient. Staff know the children very well and how best to help them to manage their feelings and frustrations. Staff are calm and patient. They help children to develop the skills to understand and manage their emotions safely. Staff help children to understand the impact of their actions on other people and to learn the skills to sort out disagreements constructively. For example, a child went into another room to speak to her friend on the phone so that she did not disrupt another child’s game.

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good

The registered manager has been absent from the home since 30 May 2019. The responsible individual has taken effective and timely steps to appoint an appropriate interim manager. The interim manager is a suitably experienced manager and has started the level 5 diploma in leadership and management for residential childcare. She is now applying to Ofsted for registration. Inspection report children’s home: SC061924 5 The interim manager is providing effective day-to-day leadership and management. She knows the children and staff extremely well. The interim manager has a clear understanding of the progress each child is making and acts when children are struggling. She has worked effectively with children’s social workers and teachers to improve children’s safety and learning opportunities.

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good

The interim manager and staff provide children with a positive and extremely caring and welcoming home. They actively promote respect, tolerance, equality and diversity.

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good

The interim manager leads an experienced and cohesive staff team. She makes sure that staff have the right support, skills, qualities and training to provide children with a high standard of personalised care that meets their needs.

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good

The interim manager understands what is working well, identifies weaknesses and deals with them. The interim manager and staff have improved the quality of records of direct work with children. These records now show a detailed picture of children’s experiences and views, the support they receive from staff, and what needs to happen next to help the child.

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good

However, children’s case files do not always include the information that staff should have about each child. Staff do not have the local authority’s care plan, the outcome of the review of the plan and an up-to-date personal education plan for every child.

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good

Children’s written risk assessments and behaviour management plans are not personalised to each child’s circumstances. The plans do not show the specific steps that staff should take to support each child and manage any assessed risks on a day-to-day basis. Also, plans do not always contain important information about each child, including identity, gender and sexuality. The plans do not reflect the good work that staff are doing to help meet children’s needs.

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good

The written assessments used to consider the impact of a child moving into the home do not clearly show the potential risks to each child, how these risks will be managed safely, and the reasons for the interim manager’s decision about the child’s placement.

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good

Staff supervision records do not show evidence that staff have reflected critically on their work with children, children’s progress and staff’s training and professional development.

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good

The independent visitor providing the external scrutiny of the home does not regularly see children and ask their views about the home. Also, the independent visitor does not seek the views of parents, relatives, social workers and other people supporting the children, to understand how well staff are safeguarding children and meeting their needs.

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good

The review of the quality of care report does not clearly identify what needs to be done to tackle any weaknesses over the next six months. Introducing a clear action Inspection report children’s home: SC061924 6 plan to the reports would help the interim manager and responsible individual use the reports as tools to make improvements.

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good

Some minor repairs and redecoration are needed to maintain the usual good standard of the accommodation. Inspection report children’s home: SC061924 7

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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

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that promotes children’s welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(b)(2)(h)) 31/03/2020

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which— include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation for each child. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, children’s case records must contain up-to-date plans and reports relating to each child, including: personal education plans; a copy of any plan for the care of the child prepared by the child’s placing authority; and the date and result of any review of the placing authority’s plan for the care of the child, or of the child’s placement plan. 31/03/2020

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Requirement Due date

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

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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. (Regulation 44 (2)(a))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that the independent visitor seeks regularly the views of children, their parents and relatives, social workers, independent reviewing officers and other relevant people working with each child. 31/03/2020 Inspection report children’s home: SC061924 8

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Recommendations

 The registered person should make sure that the decoration of the house is always maintained to a good standard and that repairs are always carried out promptly. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 14, paragraph 3.3)  Staff should continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5) In particular, risk assessments and behaviour management plans must be kept up to date, individual to each child’s circumstances, and include the specific steps staff will take to support each child in different situations and manage any assessed risks on a day-to-day basis.  The child’s plan should form the basis of their care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.1) In

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Recommendations

particular, the home’s placement and health plans should include all the relevant information about each child’s identity needs, including gender and sexual identity, and the arrangements for promoting each child’s understanding of sexual health and well-being and appropriate relationships.  The registered person should only accept placements for children where they are satisfied that the home can respond effectively to the child’s assessed needs as recorded in the child’s relevant plans and where they have fully considered the impact that the child will have on the existing group of children. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.4) In particular, ensure that the impact risk assessment clearly shows any potential risks to each of the children, how these risks will be managed safely and the reasons for the decision about the child’s placement.

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Recommendations

 The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2) The record of supervision should provide evidence that staff have reflected critically on children’s progress, their work with children, and staff’s training and professional development.  The review of the quality of care (under regulation 45) should enable the registered person to identify areas of strength and possible weakness in the home’s care, which will be captured in the written report. The report should clearly identify any actions required for the next 6 months of delivery within the home and how those actions will be addressed. The whole review process and

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Recommendations

the resulting report should be used as a tool for continuous improvement in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.4) Inspection report children’s home: SC061924 9

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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: SC061924 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Progressive Futures Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: C/o 18a London Street, Southport, Merseyside PR9 0UE

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Inspector

Nick Veysey, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC061924 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.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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