Children's home run by Shropshire Council

Inspection report children's home: 2584908 1 Registered provider: Shropshire Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

This local authority home provides care for two young people who have social and/or emotional difficulties or learning disabilities. The registered manager has been in post since the home was registered in October 2020 and has the suitable qualification, skills and experience.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

p.1

outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

p.1

outstanding

The children's home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children's home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

p.1

outstanding

Date of last inspection: 6 February 2023

p.1

outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

p.1

outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children's home: 2584908 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/02/2023 Full Outstanding 11/01/2022 Full Outstanding Inspection report children's home: 2584908 3

p.2

outstanding

There are two children living in the home. One child has been living in the home for over three years, another has lived in the home since August 2023. One child has moved into the home and one child has moved out. Children feel incredibly settled and well supported. They say they like living in the home and get on well with staff.

p.3

outstanding

Children leaving the home have extremely positive experiences. For example, when one child’s plan was to return home to family, staff ensured that they worked closely and effectively with the child and professionals to implement a plan to re-engage them in education and reduce their presenting risks. Specific targeted work was completed with the child and additional support was put in place for their parent. This exceptional support has helped them to return home and increased the chances of both the child and parent having a sustained positive experience. The success around the planning and work delivered by managers and staff has resulted in significant impactful changes made within the local authority. They are now using this plan as a benchmark across the wider organisation, where the plan is to reunify children with their family.

p.3

outstanding

Children make exceptional progress from their starting points. Children who have had adverse childhood experiences now feel safe, supported, and reassured. They make sustained progress in all aspects of their lives due to the high levels of nurture and trusting relationships with staff. Additionally, staff provide consistent and individualised support to meet children’s needs. The quality of the relationships and support significantly enhances children’s life chances.

p.3

outstanding

Staff undertake high-quality, reflective, and purposeful work to ensure that the voice of each child is heard. Through informal and formal conversations and monthly newsletters, , staff sensitively help children to be open and talk about their wishes and feelings. Children said that they feel listened to and can speak to staff about any concerns. Interactions between staff and children are warm, nurturing, playful and natural.

p.3

outstanding

Staff encourage children to develop their independence skills and prepare them for the future. For example, one child is receiving in-depth support from professionals around their transition into adulthood, in line with their needs. The child is also supported to maintain employment, working in a local charity shop. In addition, independence plans set realistic, measured targets to allow children the opportunity to learn life skills such as cooking, and budgeting. This individualised support means children develop confidence regarding practical skills, ready for when they move on.

p.3

outstanding

Staff meet children’s health needs exceptionally well and ensure children are registered with local health services and attend routine health appointments. Staff also recognise the importance of a healthy lifestyle and incorporate this into Inspection report children's home: 2584908 4 children’s daily routines. Children are educated about the benefits of maintaining good health through discussions with staff. Furthermore, staff seek the support of specialised professionals to help children with managing and understanding their emotions. This approach helps children to make or sustain excellent progress with their health and well-being.

p.3

outstanding

Staff encourage children’s hobbies, interests, and talents. They facilitate attendance at local clubs. One child is playing for the local professional football club, another child is a season ticket holder and attends home and away matches. Children also enjoy several activities with staff. Staff capture these moments with photographs which are placed around the home and in children’s journals. In addition, staff encourage and support children to make a positive contribution to the local community. For example, one child has recently completed a charity bike ride and cold-water swim to raise money for two local charities.

p.4

outstanding

The manager and staff take their safeguarding responsibilities very seriously. Children experience exceptional levels of safety planning and stability, due to effective, personalised, and child-centred risk assessments. The manager and staff use research-informed practice to identify, assess and plan to reduce risk. For example, leaders and managers have delivered development workshops around harmful sexualised behaviours and internet safety. These are centred around children’s presenting risks and inform staff practice to ensure that they know how to keep children safe.

p.4

outstanding

Regular consultation with clinicians is used well and is effective in improving and developing staff practice. The appointed therapist works alongside the manager and staff to help them understand the reasons behind children’s behaviours. The therapist also provides advice and guidance about implementing different strategies to meet children’s needs. This ensures that staff make continuous improvements to their practice, which contributes towards a nurturing and stable environment for children.

p.4

outstanding

Leaders and managers ensure effective partnership working with safeguarding agencies. For example, they have worked closely with police in managing one child’s extreme levels of aggression. Through collaboration they have ensured that the child has the appropriate support from partner agencies, who are educating the child about the impact of their actions. This approach has reduced the number of aggressive incidents and means the child is receiving support to provide them with greater life chances after leaving their care.

p.4

outstanding

Episodes of children going missing are rare. On occasions where one child has gone missing, staff have taken appropriate action. They understand and follow the child’s missing-from-care protocol extremely well and make every effort to locate the child and report them missing to police. In addition, the child is supported to have a Inspection report children's home: 2584908 5 positive return and provided with a return home interview to help staff better understand what happened while they were away. This proactive approach ensures that children are quickly located and returned safely.

p.4

outstanding

Staff always use a variety of de-escalation strategies to help children manage their big emotions. However, on occasions this has led to staff physically intervening to keep children and others safe. Use of restraints are always proportionate and are a last resort. Incidents have been recorded in a timely manner. Additionally, leaders and managers have excellent oversight and ensure that staff and children are consulted with afterwards. Reviews are completed by the manager to highlight any areas for learning, which are then embedded into practice moving forward.

p.5

outstanding

Recruitment of new staff is thorough and ensures that all necessary background checks have been carried out. This means that only adults who have been appropriately vetted are able to work with children.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager is confident, tenacious, and ambitious. She has high expec- tations of staff and children and continues to drive forward standards within the home. She understands the needs of children and advocates on their behalf when needed. She is incredibly child focused and is proud of the experience’s children are provided with and the progress children make. Children have an active voice regard- ing their experiences, and she implements change, based on feedback they share. The ongoing positive impact the manager has is recognised by children, professionals, and staff.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The care that children receive, and their outcomes are excellent because of the support that they receive from staff. Staff practice is built on an in-depth knowledge, resilience, and commitment to understand and support children’s needs. Staff practice is reinforced through effective training, annual appraisals, and focused team meetings. In addition, staff receive supervision which is reflective and empowers their ongoing improvement. The manager ensures that all staff have the capability to perform tasks and provides resources to support their practice and ongoing development.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

In addition to the above, leaders and managers promote continuity of care for children. The home has a core staff team who are experienced and highly skilled. Turnover of staff is minimal. Staff morale remains high, and they are positive about the nurturing support they receive from the manager. The stability and expertise of the staff team contribute to achieving excellent outcomes for children.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has strong oversight of the effectiveness of the care being delivered. She has implemented robust monitoring systems which allow managers and staff to review the quality of care provided to children effectively. She also welcomes additional monitoring from external agencies. This approach ensures that managers can quickly address any issues and improvements are continually made to enhance Inspection report children's home: 2584908 6 children’s experiences. Furthermore, the manager is well supported by the responsible individual; they share aligned views on ensuring the highest standards of care are sustained for children.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is integral to planning the care for children. She has developed excellent relationships with family members and partner agencies. Professionals speak incredibly positive about the care children receive and the commitment from the staff to improve children’s life chances. Feedback received was exceptionally positive. One professional said, ‘The staff are so supportive of children and the care they provide is outstanding, they always want the best for children and aim to achieve this for them.’ Another professional said, ‘Staff are incredible they understand my child so well and are so committed to them.’ A third professional said, ‘It’s brilliant working with staff from this home, they have genuine relationships with children and want the best for them.’

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

No requirements or recommendations were made at this inspection. Inspection report children's home: 2584908 7

p.6

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: 2584908 8

p.7

Children's home details

Registered provider address: Shropshire Council, Shirehall, Abbey Foregate, SHREWSBURY SY2 6ND

p.8

Inspector

Carl Wilton, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 2584908 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

p.8

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.9

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.9

Inspector

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.9