Children's home run by Future Focused Ltd

Inspection report children’s home: 2495397 1 Registered provider: Future Focused Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is run by a private company and is registered to provide residential care for up to two children with social, emotional and/or mental health difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager post has been vacant since 29 January 2021.

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Information about this children’s home

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

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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: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 2495397 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

04/06/2019 Full Good 21/03/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children’s home: 2495397 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are cared for by a committed and empathic team. Staff have a good understanding of the home’s therapeutic approach and use this to support children effectively. Children are supported well when they move into and on from the home. Staff help children to develop trust. Children therefore feel able to share any worries they may have with staff. One child commented that ‘all the staff are very kind’ and described the house as ‘very chilled’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand children’s individual needs. This is shown in the detailed support plans in place for children. The therapeutic support provided to the home helps to inform these plans. Staff help children develop new ways to deal with things that may have previously been difficult for them to deal with. Staff regularly undertake direct work with children which helps them to develop their emotional resilience.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s emotional and physical health needs are promoted well. Staff actively engage in sports and exercise with the children. Children enjoy all the activities staff support them to take part in, both individually and together. Staff organised a trip away to a holiday park which the children very much enjoyed. Children enjoy spending time in the new therapy room, which provides a space for them to relax in.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff focus on supporting children’s education, which helps children to engage positively in their learning. This includes staff supporting one child in the school environment when this is needed to help them to feel settled. Through their enthusiastic approach, staff helped another child to return to mainstream education following a period away from school. Positive feedback from the school showed how effective communication between the staff team and the school was key to this outcome.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to spend time with their families. This has been difficult through the COVID-19 pandemic. However, staff have worked hard to ensure that children maintain these important relationships, where this is possible. This helps children to make sense of their lives and their developing identity. Children’s artwork and photos of activities they enjoyed are displayed throughout the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to contribute their views and suggestions about the home through the regular children’s meetings. Children know how to make a complaint. However, the guide to the home does not provide all the information children need to know. This includes information which explains what advocacy is and how to access an independent advocate. One child did not have an understanding of advocacy or, importantly, how they could seek this support if needed. Inspection report children’s home: 2495397 4

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

Staff have a good understanding of individual children’s vulnerabilities. They know the identified risks for each child and how to address these. However, risk management plans are not always up to date. This means staff do not always have all information about emerging risks. However, these assessments of risk are reviewed regularly.

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

Staff engage children in focused work to help them understand risks outside of the home. Children told the inspector they feel safe and understand how staff support them to keep themselves safe. This includes staff responding effectively to concerns identified when a child has been missing from the home.

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

When children are missing from the home, staff response shows a clear focus on their welfare. Staff persistently search for children and complete detailed records of missing-from-care episodes. They demonstrate their concern for children through their empathic response to them when they return home. Staff spend time with children to understand the reasons for them going missing. Children are supported to talk with an independent person when they return from being missing.

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

The effective communication between the home and relevant professionals contributes to children being safeguarded. Staff immediately share any concerns they identify with statutory agencies. Staff work collaboratively with specialist support services to ensure children receive help when emerging risks are identified.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home’s manager is in the process of making an application to become the registered manager. The manager leads by example, demonstrating the home’s therapeutic approach in caring for the children. They are supported well by a committed deputy manager. Together, the manager and deputy manager ensure good-quality staff practice is consistent across the team. Staff feel very well supported by the management team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Systems for monitoring the quality of care have been embedded well by the home’s manager. This includes regularly seeking the views of children and staff to help shape development of the home. Staff supervision is effective and helps the home’s manager to maintain effective oversight of practice and the therapeutic approach.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Individual supervision provided to staff is supported by helpful group consultations with the independent psychologist attached to the home. There is a comprehensive learning and development programme for all staff. However, there are gaps in training for some staff. Although this is in part due to delays relating to the pandemic, this is important, as the training relates to children’s needs and identified risks outside of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home’s manager has a good understanding of the strengths and areas for development of the home. The manager responded immediately to the maintenance Inspection report children’s home: 2495397 5 issues identified during inspection. The home’s development plan is comprehensive. The management team reviewed this to ensure that all maintenance issues can now be identified.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The responsible individual provides regular supervision to the home’s manager, which helps to support them to develop in their new role. The responsible individual ensures that additional support and resources are provided to help meet the individual needs of children. This included ensuring that one child continued to receive an increased level of support over an extended period, which was over and above what was expected of the home. Inspection report children’s home: 2495397 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 children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

develop positive relationships with them;

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Requirement Due date

take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives.

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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

keep the children’s guide and the home’s complaints procedure under review and seek children’s comments before revising either document;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that an explanation is given to each child as soon as reasonably practicable after the child’s arrival about—

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Requirement Due date

what advocacy support or services are available to the child, how the child may access that support or those services and any entitlement the child may have to independent advocacy provision. (Regulation (7)(a)(b)(c) (2)(c)(d)(iii)) 31 October 2021

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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—

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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 31 October 2021 Inspection report children’s home: 2495397 7 necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i))

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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—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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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

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, ensure that the monitoring of maintenance issues in the home is effective in enabling staff to identify issues which need addressing. 31 October 2021

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)) 31 October 2021

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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: 2495397 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Future Focused Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Office 1, Crows Nest Business Park, Ashton Road, Billinge, Wigan, Lancashire WN5 7XX

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Inspector

Maria Lonergan, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: 2495397 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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