Children's home run by Young Foundations Limited in Wirral

Inspection report children’s home: 1183911 1 Registered provider: Young Foundations Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is privately owned. It provides care for up to twelve children with learning disabilities, autism and/or challenging behaviour aged 11-19. Ten children currently live in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in February 2022 and is suitably qualified.

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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

Date of last inspection: 21 November 2022

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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: 1183911 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

21/11/2022 Full Good 04/05/2021 Full Good 04/03/2020 Full Good 06/03/2019 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1183911 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have positive experiences living in the home. Families and professionals say that children make good progress from their starting points and are enabled to take part in a wide range of activities. Photographs around the home and embedded into children’s care plans show them having fun and enjoying new activities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff know the children well and listen to them. Staff are reassuring and give time to the children using their preferred communication methods. The home’s children’s guide and complaints procedure are available in a variety of formats to meet children’s communication needs. Staff capture the children’s views through house meetings and through discussions with children. This supports children to share their views and influence decision making.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children attend school regularly. The school is on site and connected to the home. Children are supported into school by staff from the home and school staff. There is good communication between the two teams. Children engaged positively with both staff teams during this transition, and this helps children to separate home life from their time in school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children do not all have free access to the shared areas of their home. The main lounge is accessed via two doors which are operated by a fob system. The front door and dining room are also operated by this kind of system. Landing lounges have thumb turn locks to lock them. This detracts from the homely feel and restricts children from being able to move freely around their home. This prevents children from helping themselves to drinks and snacks without staff support.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is decorated in a way that makes it feel homely. The bedrooms are personalised to each child’s taste. Children’s en-suite bathrooms are modern and tastefully decorated. However, children’s bathrooms were not all clean and some had pools of water on the floor around the toilet. Staff took prompt action to remedy this as soon as it was brought to their attention.

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

Staff understand their roles and responsibilities around safeguarding children and know how to raise concerns through whistleblowing procedures. There are reminders of this procedure placed in staff toilets and on notice boards. Safeguarding children is discussed regularly in team meetings. All staff spoken to explained how they would raise any safeguarding concerns should they need to. This gives staff confidence and skills to help keep children safe.

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

Staff use a variety of strategies to help children if they are upset. The number of times staff have needed to hold children has reduced. After any incident managers and staff reflect on what happened and any antecedents. This is to identify new Inspection report children’s home: 1183911 4 ways of working with the children to prevent further occurrences. Electronic documents have been developed to guide staff to reflect and learn after incidents of physical intervention. The current training around physical intervention may not meet the needs of all children at this time. A review of the scope of the training could meet children’s needs and keep children safer.

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

Staff receive mandatory training on a regular basis. Safeguarding training covers numerous risks faced by children. This broadens staff knowledge and skills. Staff are also trained to administer first aid to children.

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

Children’s health needs are well met overall. However, staff in the home have not been trained to meet the individual health needs of one child. The child’s care plan and risk assessment do not contain sufficient information for staff to recognise signs of health complications effectively. This limits staff’s ability to support the child when they might require medical help.

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

Children’s risk assessments, protocols and care plans are reviewed regularly but such review does not extend to every incident that occurs in the home. Out of date information is not always removed from the children’s plans when it is no longer relevant. Risks around depriving children of their liberty have not been kept under review and the registered manager has failed to ensure that they hold the most current and up to date records. Lack of clarity in these records does not give clear direction to staff as to how best to reduce risks for each child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager and deputy manager promote a positive culture within the home. They are focussed on the needs of the children and support a reflective and learning environment for the team and children. They have plans to develop the home and staff team. This offers staff a clear direction and child centred focus.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Strong working relationships exist with families and professionals. The staff are reflective and seek out feedback from them. Families and professionals say that communication with the home is good. Important people in children’s lives are encouraged to visit the home. If children are involved in an incident the registered manager requests that a social worker visit the child. This promotes transparency, accountability, and opportunities to learn.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children receive support from staff who know them well and there is little use of agency workers. The manager has been recruiting regularly and recognises the importance of trusted relationships for the children. Managers follow safer recruitment processes to reduce the risk of unsuitable people working with children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Supervisions and appraisals take place regularly and are well recorded. Team meetings are child focussed, reflective and promote staff development. Minutes from these meetings are recorded with clear actions so staff are responsible. Staff have learning opportunities through these forums. This promotes accountability and clear direction to staff. Inspection report children’s home: 1183911 5 The registered manager and deputy manager track staff training and supervision. They support senior staff to induct newer staff. The managers work closely with an assessor to identify any delays in completing mandatory qualifications and support is put in place to help staff achieve this in a timely way. Despite this some staff have not achieved their diplomas within set timescales. This means some staff have not yet demonstrated the skills and knowledge required.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home’s statement of purpose is well written but does not have staff qualifications detailed in it. This prevents families, social workers and other professionals from being able to assess whether they think the home would be a suitable place for a child to live. Inspection report children’s home: 1183911 6

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered persons 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 persons must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that— the privacy of children is appropriately protected; children can access all appropriate areas of the children's home's premises; and any limitation placed on a child's privacy or access to any area of the home's premises— is intended to safeguard each child accommodated in the home; is necessary and proportionate; is kept under review and, if necessary, revised; and allows children as much freedom as is possible when balanced against the need to protect them and keep them safe. (Regulation 21 (a)(b)(c)((i)(ii)(iii)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

In particular that children should have free access to shared areas of the home and documentation relating to deprivation of liberty is kept under review and revised as necessary. 23 June 2023

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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

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

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13 (1) (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular that staff should complete level 3 diploma within specified timescales and health care training relevant to individual children's needs. 23 June 2023

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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. 23 June 2023 Inspection report children’s home: 1183911 7 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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

In particular that risk assessments are reviewed regularly and the body of the report is reviewed to include all current information.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must compile in relation to the children's home a statement ("the statement of purpose") which covers the matters listed in Schedule the registered person must— keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it; and notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (1) (3)(a)(b)) 23 June 2023

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that those commissioning training in restraint for children's homes staff should be satisfied that the training fits with their approach to restraint or existing restraint system, and is appropriate to the needs of the children the home is set up to care for. They should see evidence that any restraint techniques the training advocates for have been medically assessed to demonstrate their safety for use in a context of caring for children who are still developing, physically and emotionally. The registered person should routinely review the effectiveness of any restraint system commissioned. In particular, they should check the medical assessment of the system remains up to date.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the children's homes is a nurturing and supportive environment that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. In particular, ensure that all repairs are addressed in a timely way. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 15, paragraph 3.9) Inspection report children’s home: 1183911 8

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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: 1183911 9

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Children’s home details

Provision sub-type: Residential special school

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Young Foundations Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Alexander House, Highfield Park, Llandrynog, Denbighshire, Wales LL16 4LU

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Inspectors

Carol Jagger, Social Care Inspector Honor Hamshaw, Social Care Inspector Shirin Khan, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1183911 10 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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