Children's Home run by Keys Stepping Stones Limited in Stockport

Inspection report children’s home: SC008490 1 SC008490 Registered provider: Keys Stepping Stones Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home provides care and accommodation for up to four children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home is privately owned and managed.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager is very experienced and appropriately qualified.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: 11 September 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: SC008490 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/09/2018 Full Good 05/07/2017 Full Good 28/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 26/07/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC008490 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children who live in this home are happy. They said that they like their rooms and they seemed to enjoy spending time with staff. One child excitedly showed off all his new clothes. Another proudly showed the doll’s clothes she has made, with the help of staff, from odd socks.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress in terms of their behaviour, education, independence skills and personal appearance. A social worker said:

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

My young person has and continues to make very good progress overall. He is learning to manage and regulate his emotional outbursts. He is also learning to manage his personal care. Most importantly, he is learning to communicate appropriately with peers and adults.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff build warm and nurturing relationships with children. This helps children to settle into life in the home and make good progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff talked passionately about the children and are very child focused as well as therapeutically minded. They encourage children to participate in a range of activities in the home and the local and wider community. They join clubs such as football, gymnastics and dance. They enjoy watching films, doing arts and crafts, trampolining and going for walks and bike rides, among the many other activities they do.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children all go to school and engage with learning while they are there. One child also enjoys going to breakfast and after-school club. Children usually start in alternative education, but often transfer, when the time is right, to mainstream schools.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children mostly move out of the home in a planned way, usually into foster care or back to their parents. Some children move on to semi-independent living. Children are given the skills to enable them to move back into family life or successfully transition to adulthood.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have regular access to a pet dog. The dog is very popular with the children and has helped them during their times of distress. For example, children said that the dog knows when they are sad because he cuddles up to them. Also, when a child was refusing to enter the home on his first day, the dog met him in the car park and then ran into the house. The child followed the dog and was welcomed into the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC008490 4

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improvement to be good

Staff have not fully understood their roles and responsibilities in regard to safeguarding children, after a child made a disclosure. This could have corrupted a police investigation. The poor safeguarding practice has not been identified or challenged by the registered manager or senior managers within the organisation.

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improvement to be good

Staff take photos of children on their personal mobile phones. They are clear about the procedure of emailing the photos to the home and then deleting them from their own phones. However, this practice does not protect children or staff.

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improvement to be good

Staff understand the importance of building warm and supportive relationships with children. They also know the importance of applying firm, consistent rules and boundaries. These help children to feel safe and secure. Consequently, children do not go missing from the home and their behaviour improves significantly over time.

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improvement to be good

Risk management plans are clear and help staff to reduce risks for children. Staff consider specific risks for the activities the children participate in, but these are not recorded. However, other individual risk assessments help staff to reduce risks for the children while they are participating in activities.

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improvement to be good

Consequences are appropriate and tend to be restorative in nature, such as a child writing a letter of apology or writing their worries down to give to their worry monster. Staff help children to reduce their anxieties and anger with good de- escalation techniques such as humour and redirection. Adults only use restraint when children’s behaviour becomes dangerous. The frequency of restraint reduces over time for each child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is very experienced and appropriately qualified. She is very child focused. There are good outcomes for children because the registered manager has a therapeutic approach, ensuring that children feel loved, valued and respected. Children move back into family life and attend mainstream schools. This significantly increases the children’s life chances.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager provides strong and supportive leadership. She has a good understanding of the home’s strengths and weaknesses, and has child-focused plans to further improve the home. Poor safeguarding practice was not identified after one isolated incident. However, other incidents have been managed well.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Most staff are qualified and very experienced. New staff complete a good induction programme that prepares them well for working with the children. Staff know the children well and are passionate about helping them. They have access to a good training programme that provides them with the skills and knowledge they need to support the children effectively. Inspection report children’s home: SC008490 5 The registered manager seeks to establish close working relationships with external professionals, and forge positive relationships with children’s families. On the whole, she achieves this. A social worker said she thought communication could be improved. The registered manager immediately ensured that communication was better for this social worker. The good partnership working supports the health, safety and well-being of children. Inspection report children’s home: SC008490 6

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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 protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff— understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(v)) 30/04/2020

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(e)) 30/04/2020 Inspection report children’s home: SC008490 7

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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: SC008490 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Keys Stepping Stones Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Maybrook House, 2nd Floor, Queensway, Halesowen, Worcestershire B63 4AH

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Inspector

Joanne Vyas, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC008490 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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