Children's Home run by A Wilderness Way Limited in Westmorland and Furness

Inspection report for children’s home: 2688398 1 Registered provider: A Wilderness Way Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home provides care for up to six children in up to four buildings within this single registration. This a multi-building children’s home.

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Information about this children’s home

A multi-building children’s home allows the provider, in agreement with the placing authority, to make child-centred decisions about where each child lives and to ensure that their individual needs are met.

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Information about this children’s home

These homes offer short-term intensive stays, typically lasting for 17 weeks in duration. One child resides in each home and is supported by two carers.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2688398 2

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making positive progress from their starting points. The children living in the home have individual complex needs. The risks for most children have reduced since living in the home. One professional said, ‘The purpose of the home is to keep the child safe, and they have achieved this to a high level. Staff really do care.’ Staff were observed to be interacting with children in a warm, respectful and child-centred manner. This has enabled children to build trusting and positive relationships in a short space of time.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home has a therapist who provides children with weekly individual therapeutic support. This support helps children to develop better strategies to regulate their feelings more positively. Effective partnership working between the therapist and staff supports children’s emotional well-being. Children spoke highly of the therapist.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to maintain and celebrate their cultural identity, such as attending places of worship and adhering to specific dietary requirements. Children are supported to see their friends and family. Families are welcome to visit the home where appropriate. Children benefit from this family time, which helps children to maintain a sense of their identity.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy access to a range of social activities and educational and recreational opportunities, including activities in the local community. For example, one child attends a local rugby club and another child is in a local football club. This helps children to develop their social skills and confidence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is furnished to a high standard. Children’s bedrooms are personalised and decorated to their preference. There are locks on some of the downstairs rooms, kitchen, laundry, lounge and games room. This prevents the home from being a welcoming and homely environment.

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

Children are safe, well cared for and protected. Risk assessments and behaviour management plans provide clear and effective strategies for managing risks to individual children. Staff and the therapist coordinate a joint approach to ensure that children recognise these risks through direct work. This helps children to understand and reduce their risk-taking behaviours. One child said, ‘I now have a better understanding of how to keep myself safe.’

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

The home has clear boundaries and routines in place, which contribute to providing safe, reliable and predictable care to children. Praise, rewards and incentives are used to celebrate and promote positive behaviour. Children are educated about their Inspection report for children’s home: 2688398 3 choices and responses and what the natural consequences may be. This helps children to develop their skills in relation to making better choices.

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

Leaders and managers ensure that robust checks are in place when recruiting new staff to the home. This ensures that all staff are suitably vetted. Staff receive safeguarding training, which has provided them with the skills and knowledge to care for children safely. For example, staff were able to discuss the safeguarding process and procedure to follow if a child made an allegation.

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

Children know how to make a complaint and have adults who they trust to talk to when they are unhappy. Children also have access to an independent advocate to share any worries or fears that they have. Children’s concerns are taken seriously and resolved quickly.

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good

The home has a permanent manager. The manager holds the relevant qualification. The home is staffed and resourced to the meet the needs of the children. Staff told inspectors that they feel supported by managers. Staff said that they enjoy their roles and spending time with the children. Staff said that there is high morale in the home. Children benefit from this positive environment.

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good

New staff experience a positive induction. There is a training programme in place to ensure that staff have the necessary skills to meet the complex and challenging needs of the children in their care. Staff are committed to this training. Supervisions are taking place regularly. However, there needs to be consistent evidence of practice reflection.

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good

There are shortfalls in the manager’s monitoring and reviewing of the home. Managers are not always using learning from practice and feedback to improve the experiences and care for children. For example, staff debriefs are not always taking place, which provide staff and the manager with an opportunity to reflect on incidents and consider ways for them to prevent incidents from happening again. A plan is in place to address this shortfall.

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good

Robust monitoring and review systems are not in place. This means that the manager and staff do not always identify and act on shortfalls to improve the quality of care that children receive. For example, there is a lack of consistent evaluation of records by the manager. Record-keeping is not always clear or accurate. For example, some records have the wrong dates and times. Local authority documents are missing for some children.

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good

The manager works well with external stakeholders and birth families, which is evidenced by positive feedback from professionals and birth families. Inspection report for children’s home: 2688398 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 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 promotes their welfare.

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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

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

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Requirement Due date

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(f)(g)(i)(h))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, managers should consistently ensure that debriefs are undertaken with staff and children to provide an opportunity to reflect on incidents and consider ways to prevent incidents from happening again. The manager should also improve monitoring and review of the home to have full oversight of staff practice and record-keeping, and identify any lessons learned. Also, managers should ensure that there are clear, concise and accurate recordings. 24 March 2023

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Requirement Due date

children can access all appropriate areas of the children’s home’s premises. (Regulation 21 (b)) 24 March 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2688398 5 This relates specifically to the children having full access to the lounge, games room and laundry.

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Recommendation

 Staff supervision must enable staff to reflect and act on how their own feelings and behaviour may be affected by the behaviour of the children who they care for. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 39, paragraph 8.15)

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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 for children’s home: 2688398 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: A Wilderness Way Ltd

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Inspectors

Nicola Clements, Social Care Inspector Dawn Walker, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2688398 7 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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