Children's Home run by The Partnership of Care Today in Rochdale

Inspection report children’s home: SC049189 1 SC049189 Registered provider: The Partnership of Care Today Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides care and accommodation for a maximum of three children and young people who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties and/or learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has applied to Ofsted for registration for this home.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC049189 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/03/2019 Interim Improved effectiveness 16/07/2018 Full Good 29/01/2018 Interim Improved effectiveness 24/05/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children’s home: SC049189 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

From their starting points, young people who currently live in the home have made very good progress in terms of their emotional and behavioural development. The team has worked hard to build trusting and nurturing relationships with young people. As a result, young people feel happy and safe in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people spoke highly of their home and the staff team. Young people recognise that the manager and staff will challenge others involved in their care to secure good outcomes for them. One young person who is due to move out of the home said, ‘The home is the best. I would give it 10 out of 10. There is nothing I would change about it. The staff make me happy and I will miss them.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff team works well with young people and their families to stabilise and support relationships. Staff have a good understanding of young people’s backgrounds, which has been key in working with family members. A good example of this is the thorough planning, transition and upcoming move for one young person to return to her parent.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Consultation with young people is excellent. Young people’s meetings take place regularly. Young people engage in regular conversations with staff, to talk about developments in their lives and how they aim to progress. Staff use keywork sessions to work through factors that can affect young people’s development. The sessions have educated young people, who have made better choices about their safety and future.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people have made significant improvements in their education and learning. One young person has successfully fast tracked her way through her college course in beauty therapy to allow her to prepare for the arrival of her baby. The other two young people are successfully working towards vocational and academic qualifications. Their attendance is good, and they are enjoying making positive friendships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work with young people and their local authority to ensure that routine health appointments are up to date and young people are in good health. Staff make referrals to specialist health services when needed, including the company’s own therapist. Staff have been proactive in supporting a young person through her pregnancy. The team has helped prepare her for the birth and helped her to develop childcare skills. This includes supporting her to complete a paediatric first aid course. Inspection report children’s home: SC049189 4

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

On one occasion when a concern was identified, the manager took suitable action to safeguard the young person. However, the manager failed to communicate effectively with the designated officer, about the outcome. As a result, opportunity to review and risk assess practice was missed. A requirement has been made to ensure that this practice is not repeated, despite there being no impact on the young people’s safety.

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

The manager and staff have a thorough understanding of risks for young people. Risk assessments are updated regularly to ensure that they contain current information. The staff team works with agreed strategies to minimise risks and maintain young people’s safety. Staff regularly talk to young people to negotiate safe boundaries and, because of this, risks to their safety and well-being have reduced over time.

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

The manager ensures that all staff have a good knowledge of safeguarding and missing from home protocol. This enables staff to respond quickly when young people go missing or try to go missing from home. Risks to one young person have significantly reduced, as he has not been missing for eight months, which is excellent progress.

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

The home has experienced a turbulent few months, with local youths targeting the home and causing concerns in the local neighbourhood. The manager and the team have worked effortlessly with young people living in the home, to deter them from getting involved in the anti-social behaviour. In addition, they have worked proactively with the police to monitor and report concerns. As a result, problems caused for the home and the community have reduced.

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

The neighbours have logged many complaints against the home and the young people living in the home. On rare occasions, the complaints were related to the young people living in the home and so the manager ensured that she responded to these suitably to help stabilise relationships with neighbours. The home and police worked together to help the neighbours acknowledge that the young people from the home were not causing most of the disturbance. As a result of this, positive relationships with neighbours are being once again established, and the complaints have stopped.

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

There is effective partnership working with external agencies to safeguard the young people. Where concerns for young people arise, the home communicates with the right professionals, and strategies are agreed at multi-disciplinary meetings. Professionals involved in young people’s care have provided extremely positive feedback about the work undertaken with young people. A social worker said, ‘[Name of young person] was a little unsettled before coming to the home. She has come on leaps and bounds since being there. [Name of staff] as keyworker, has worked with her phenomenally.’ Inspection report children’s home: SC049189 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is a suitably qualified manager in post who is going through the process of registration with Ofsted. The manager is passionate about her role, has an excellent understanding of the young people and acts as a good role model for staff and young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager encourages the team to develop in their roles, their knowledge and their practice. All staff said that they feel very supported by the manager and each other. A staff member said, ‘[Name of manager] is nice to work for, so I enjoy working at the home and with the kids. I am pleased I have been trained up by this manager.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular supervisions and have their performance appraised at set timescales throughout the year. Some staff are completing the level 3 qualification and will obtain it within the timescales set by regulation. Staff have received training specific to young people’s needs, to help support young people to achieve the best outcomes. The manager also uses regular team meetings as an opportunity for staff to deliver research and guidance to address key issues that affect young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is a strong advocate for young people and works hard to ensure that young people receive the services and support they need to progress. The manager has shown that she will confidently challenge professionals or decisions that she does not feel are in the best interest of the young people, including escalating concerns if other professionals do not address them, for example, sourcing a suitable education provision for a young person and challenging a local authority when there had been no allocated social worker in place to make decisions about a young person’s care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has failed to notify Ofsted of an incident under regulation 40. This information should be shared with the regulatory agency so that the inspector can assess the actions and outcomes via the notification and any further update notifications. A requirement has been made to address this shortfall.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager’s monitoring of the quality of care in the home is reflective and shows that the she is always looking for ways to improve the service and the knowledge of the staff team. For example, the manager has used lessons learned with respect to admitting young people to the home, ensuring that she is confident that the team can meet a young person’s needs prior to agreeing to their admission. Inspection report children’s home: SC049189 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

Specifically, where young people make allegations of abuse concerning staff members, the manager should take suitable action to ensure that investigations conducted through the designated officer are concluded, and final outcomes documented clearly on the young person’s file. This follow-up practice is essential to safeguard all young people living in the home. Equally, it ensures that staff have their practice reviewed and risk assessed by the manager to ensure that they are working safely with young people and to safeguard staff against further allegations. 16/04/2020

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there.

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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: SC049189 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Lansdowne House, 85 Buxton Road, Stockport, Cheshire SK2 6LR

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Inspector

Cheryl Field, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC049189 8 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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