Children's home run by Manchester City Council in Manchester

Inspection report children’s home: SC063683 1 SC063683 Registered provider: Manchester City Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned and managed by a local authority, and is registered to provide care for up to six children with EBD (social and emotional difficulties).

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Information about this children’s home

The home operates as part of an integrated service which provides children and staff with access to a range of accommodation options, services and outreach support. This is reflected in the home’s statement of purpose. At the time of the inspection, there were four children living in the home; three of them spoke to the inspector about their experiences of living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The current manager was registered by Ofsted on 15 March 2018.

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Information about this children’s home

Due to COVID-19 (coronavirus), at the request of the Secretary of State, we suspended all routine inspections of social care providers on 17 March 2020.

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Information about this children’s home

We last visited this setting on 24 February 2021 to carry out a monitoring visit. The report is published on our website.

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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 outstanding

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good. Inspection report children’s home: SC063683 2 Date of last inspection: 25 September 2019

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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: SC063683 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

25/09/2019 Full Good 14/08/2018 Full Good 16/02/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 31/10/2017 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC063683 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children living in the home benefit from individualised care that is child-centred and nurturing. They are supported to build positive relationships with staff, who understand them and who have high aspirations for their futures.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is a welcoming environment for children, who are included in decisions about decor and furnishings. The home is decorated and furnished to a high standard throughout. Children’s bedrooms are personalised to reflect their tastes and they are encouraged to develop a sense of belonging in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

In relation to individual starting points, most children make progress in all aspects of their social, emotional, behavioural and physical development. Professionals speak positively about the high levels of communication and consistently high standards of care provided by the team. They refer to staff going ‘above and beyond’ to meet the needs of the children in their care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children living in the home had previously experienced disruptions in their education. They are now supported to attend education regularly and are also helped to access college courses and specialist placements. Professionals note the changes they have seen in children’s educational attainment since living in the home. One professional said: ‘I only have positive things to say. The changes in [name of child] have been unbelievable. The staff are tenacious and determined and have been really creative in trying to overcome barriers to support her with her education. They really want the best for her.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s views about their experiences living in the home are mixed. One child said: ‘Staff listen and help me. We can talk about things and I feel safe here.’ Some children do not like the boundaries that are in place to keep them safe and feel that staff should not be encouraging healthier lifestyles or safer choices. Children know how to complain and feel able to raise any concerns.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are proactive in working with other agencies to reduce the number of incidents and keep children safe. They invest in relationships with families and will challenge the local authority if they believe a plan is not in a child’s best interests. They have recently approached the local authority to review a child’s plan to enable her to have safe contact with family members.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s moves into and out of the home are well managed. Two children have recently been supported to positively move on to foster placements and two children moved into the home. Children who have moved into the home benefit from detailed impact risk assessments and robust matching documents that reflect the needs of all children living in the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC063683 5 Children’s physical and emotional health needs are well understood and supported. Children have access to routine and emergency medical treatment as required. They also benefit from access to specialist mental health services and are encouraged to engage with professionals from other services, such as child and adolescent mental health services, substance misuse agencies and leaving care services.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide high levels of supervision and talk to children about issues that are affecting them. Direct work sessions are tailored to their individual needs and focus on supporting them to make safer choices.

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

Professionals are confident that children are kept safe when living in the home. They recognise the challenges faced by the team in keeping children safe outside of the home but speak positively about the action taken to manage and reduce risks. One social worker said: ‘I feel they do everything they can to keep [name of child] safe. They really go above and beyond to try and engage him.’

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

Staff understand children’s challenging and complex behaviours. Contextual safeguarding concerns are well understood and appropriately responded to. Links with partner agencies are exceptionally strong and staff use these links to further strengthen their knowledge and improve practice in the home.

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

Risk and behaviour management plans are clear and robust. Plans provide sufficient detail about action for staff to follow and, as a result, safeguarding practices are consistent. The team understands children’s vulnerabilities and is vigilant and responsive to risks inside and outside of the home.

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

Incidents are well managed and appropriately reported. However, decision-making around what is considered a serious incident is not always clear.

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

The number of incidents of children going missing from home is high. The team works consistently as part of the wider system to regularly review risk assessments and plans. Missing-from-home panel meetings are attended by the management team to explore preventative strategies and risk reduction. As a result of strategies suggested by the team, incidents of going missing from home and self-harm are reducing. Management oversight of incidents has improved since the monitoring visit on 24 February 2021.

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

Physical interventions are used as a last resort. However, there has been a recent increase in the number of physical interventions used and on occasion interventions have not been effective due to children’s individual needs. This has led to emergency services being called to keep everyone safe. The severity of incidents is reducing, and records reflect that work has been undertaken with specialist services to provide the team with additional strategies to use when children are struggling to regulate their emotions and behaviours. Inspection report children’s home: SC063683 6 Complaints and allegations are dealt with appropriately in line with the organisation’s policies and procedures. Records reflect clear outcomes, and any learning from incidents is shared across the team.

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

Staff work consistently and creatively to overcome barriers and support positive relationships between children and their families. For example, staff have recently supported children and their parents to go on holiday, providing them with the opportunity to have positive experiences together.

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

It is practice in the home for internal downstairs doors to be locked for safeguarding reasons and at night-times as a security measure. This restricts children’s movement in and around the home and has not been thoroughly risk-assessed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home is managed by an experienced and suitably qualified manager. She is supported by an assistant manager and service manager. Together, they have strong oversight of the home and provide effective leadership and guidance to the team. They have consistently high expectations of staff and are passionate about achieving positive outcomes for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Morale is high and staff feel supported and valued. Staff benefit from regular, purposeful supervision and team meetings. They have access to mandatory and bespoke training and are suitably skilled and qualified to meet the diverse needs of the children living in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The team has a can-do attitude to supporting children to fulfil their potential. Handovers are detailed and communication across the team is excellent, ensuring that all staff are kept informed and are able to work consistently with children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Agency staff are regularly used to cover long-term vacancies and staff sickness. The manager has taken steps to maintain consistency by contracting agency staff to work at the home on a temporary basis. This has meant that children are cared for by people who know them well as the manager has developed a cohesive team where it is difficult to differentiate between agency and core staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

When higher staffing ratios are required, staff from another part of the integrated service, who know the children, are used to support the team. This ensures that there are enough staff on shift to meet children’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager uses effective internal and external monitoring systems to maintain close oversight of the home and to continuously develop the service. Records are comprehensively detailed and reflect children’s individual needs, experiences and progress. Minor shortfalls identified during the inspection were swiftly addressed and did not have a direct impact on the care of children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home is visited as required by an independent person. They scrutinise the performance of the home but, due to their other roles within the authority, there is Inspection report children’s home: SC063683 7 potential for boundaries to become blurred. This is something the management team is taking action to address.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The requirement made at the monitoring visit has been met. Inspection report children’s home: SC063683 8

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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, the 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

children can access all appropriate areas of the children’s home’s premises; and

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Requirement Due date

any limitation placed on a child’s privacy or access to any areas of the home’s premises—

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Requirement Due date

is intended to safeguard each child accommodated in the home;

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Requirement Due date

is kept under review and, if necessary, revised; and

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Requirement Due date

allows children as much freedom when balanced against the needs to protect them and keep them safe.

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person reviewing and risk-assessing the use of locks on internal communal doors. 6 August 2021

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that recordings are individualised, and that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  The registered person should ensure that the approach to judging whether an incident is sufficiently serious to make formal notifications is consistent and not based solely on the outcome of the incident. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 14.17)  The registered person should ensure that the independent person appointed is able to make a rigorous and impartial judgement of the quality of the home’s Inspection report children’s home: SC063683 9 care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’,

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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: SC063683 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Manchester City Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Town Hall Extension, Albert Square, Manchester M60 2LA

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Christine (Esther) Smith

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Inspector

Caroline Bertram, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC063683 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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