Children's home run by Supporting Futures Limited in Sefton

Assurance visit report: SC381667 1 SC381667

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Information about this children’s home

A private company owns this home. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four young people who may have emotional or behavioural difficulties and/or a learning disability.

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Information about this children’s home

The current manager was registered with Ofsted in June 2015.

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Information about this children’s home

Previous inspection date: 12 February 2020

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Information about this visit

Due to COVID-19 (coronavirus), Ofsted suspended all routine inspections in March 2020. As part of a phased return to routine inspection, we are undertaking assurance visits to children’s social care services that are inspected under the social care common inspection framework (SCCIF).

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Information about this visit

At these visits, inspectors evaluate the extent to which:

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Information about this visit

 children are well cared for  children are safe  leaders and managers are exercising strong leadership. This visit was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000, following the published guidance for assurance visits.

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Information about this visit

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills is leading Ofsted’s work into how England’s social care system has delivered child-centred practice and care within the context of the restrictions placed on society during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Findings from the visit

We did not identify any serious or widespread concerns in relation to the care or protection of children at this assurance visit. Assurance visit report: SC381667 2

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The care of children

Young people have positive relationships with staff and speak highly of them. One young person commented, ‘I give this home 10 out of 10 and the best thing is the staff.’

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The care of children

Young people receive well planned, consistent care. As a result, they are making positive progress and growing in confidence. A parent spoke of her son’s progress and said, ‘They understand him and what he needs. This is why he has come on so much. He struggled to communicate but as he is getting more confident, his speech has improved.’

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The care of children

Young people receive a good level of support to maintain contact with their loved ones. One parent was very happy to report that staff had invited her to spend Christmas Day at the home with her son and had arranged her transport.

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The care of children

Staff work well with education providers to ensure that young people continue to learn and achieve in education. One young person has struggled to settle in further education and staff continuously encourage him to explore courses, in line with his interests. The young person has a daily planner to support learning at home. However, this could be more individualised.

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The care of children

Young people are encouraged to take part in positive activities, which supports them to have fun and achieve. A young person spoke proudly about his recent achievement of learning to ride his bike. Community participation is also encouraged. At the time of this visit, young people were returning from a shopping trip where they had bought a large number of provisions for the local food bank.

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The care of children

One young person is due to move to an adult service. He has a clear transition plan in place which demonstrates that the manager has worked closely with external professionals to ensure that the next service meets his needs. The young person has a support plan to prepare him for increased independence. This plan could be improved to detail the young person’s individual strengths, needs, and progress, and as such, identify areas where additional support is required, more effectively.

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The safety of children

Young people express confidence in staff and say that this makes them feel safe. One young person said, ‘I always feel safe because the staff are here to look after us and take good care of us.’

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The safety of children

Staff have a good understanding of the risks to each young person and are able to describe the strategies in place to manage these risks. However, in some examples risk assessments lack relevant information and do not always clearly identify areas of concern. This could result in inconsistent practice or staff not being fully aware of the actions required to safeguard young people. Assurance visit report: SC381667 3 Young people do not go missing from this home. There have been no such incidents since the home’s last inspection in February 2020. There is clear guidance in place for staff should the situation occur in the future.

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The safety of children

Young people have some complex behaviours. Individualised guidance is in place, which helps to ensure that staff respond to young people’s distressed behaviours in a consistent manner. Consistently low numbers of physical interventions demonstrate that staff are skilled in de-escalating challenging situations.

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The safety of children

Records of incidents requiring staff to physically intervene are completed and appropriately monitored by the manager. The manager completes de-briefs with young people and staff following physical interventions. The format used for young people’s de-briefs could be adapted to be more accessible and child-friendly.

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The safety of children

At times, staff use consequences as a way of helping young people understand the impact of their behaviours. These tend to be repetitive and are not evaluated for their effectiveness. This area would benefit from review, in terms of how consequences could be more relevant and restorative in nature.

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Leaders and managers

There is an experienced manager in place who registered with Ofsted in June 2015. The manager demonstrates a strong commitment to improving outcomes for young people.

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Leaders and managers

External professionals are highly satisfied with the service and speak positively about the leadership of the home. They describe good levels of communication and an approachable and supportive team who advocate strongly for young people.

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Leaders and managers

There are good processes in place to ensure that young people’s progress is evaluated and that their care plans are continually reviewed and updated. This helps to ensure that young people’s changing or emerging needs are addressed.

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Leaders and managers

There is a stable staff team in place, which provides consistency for the young people. Staff express satisfaction with the training and support they receive. One staff member said, ‘Everything is discussed as a team and everyone’s thoughts are always taken on board. It is a very positive place to work.’

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Leaders and managers

The manager uses internal monitoring effectively to identify areas for development. He demonstrates a positive approach to external feedback, viewing this as an aid to ongoing improvement. Although the manager does seek external feedback regularly, this feedback is not analysed for the purposes of the six-monthly quality of care report. This should be rectified as analysis of feedback may be helpful in identifying areas for development. Assurance visit report: SC381667 4

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

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Requirement Due date

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.

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Requirement Due date

This relates to the need to ensure that young people’s assessments include all the necessary and relevant information required to identify current areas of risk. 15 January 2021

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that young people who are not in education or training should be engaged in suitable structured activities relevant to their individual needs and interests. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.15)  The registered person should ensure that young people receive practical, individualised support to prepare for their move away from the home. This support should take into account the young person’s individual strengths and needs. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 17, paragraph 3.27)  The registered person should ensure that any young person who has been restrained is given the opportunity to express their feelings about their experience of the restraint as soon as is practicable, ideally within 24 hours of the restraint incident. This process should take into account the age and needs of the young

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Recommendations

person. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 50, paragraph 9.60) Assurance visit report: SC381667 5  The registered person should ensure that any sanctions used to address poor behaviour are restorative in nature, to help young people recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other young people, the staff caring for them and the wider community. In some cases, it will be important for young people to make reparation in some form to anyone hurt by their behaviour and the staff in the home should be skilled to support the young person to understand this and carry it out. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38)  The registered person should ensure that the home is maintained to a standard that provides good quality and comfortable accommodation for young people. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page

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Recommendations

15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should undertake a review, every six months, that focuses on the quality of the care provided by the home, the experiences of young people and the impact the care is having on outcomes and improvements for the children. This review should include the feedback and opinions of young people and other stakeholders. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.2)

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Supporting Futures Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Sinclair, 300 St Marys Road, Garston, Liverpool, Lancashire, L19 0NQ

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Inspector

Marie Cordingley, Social Care Inspector Assurance visit report: SC381667 6 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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