Children's home run by Northern Community Pathways Children’s Residential Services Ltd

Inspection report for children’s home: 2664326 1 Registered provider: Northern Community Pathways Children’s Residential Services Ltd

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a privately run children’s home that offers care for up to three children who may have social and emotional difficulties. At the time of the inspection, three children were living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

One child was not present during the inspection, but all three children were spoken with.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in November 2023.

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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.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2664326 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/08/2023 Full Good 12/10/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2664326 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from positive relationships with staff. Children value the support offered to them and feel they are listened to by staff. Children feel that this is their home and that they have their needs met. Children actively keep in touch with the staff when they move on from this home because of these relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to re-engage in education when they have not been attending school. Bespoke plans and targets are in place for each of the children to encourage engagement and attendance. When children are not in education, they are provided with numerous opportunities to develop their learning and life skills. The manager advocates for educational services to be put in place promptly to ensure that children receive an education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Relationships with children’s families and friends are valued by the staff team. Children have been helped to rebuild relationships with family by staff, and benefit from stronger family ties. The views and opinions of children’s families are important, and they are involved in planning the care their children receive from the staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A wide range of activities are available to children to enable them to develop interests and hobbies. Staff go to great lengths to ensure that children take part in important childhood experiences such as Christmas. Happy memories are made and captured in photo albums for the children to take with them when they leave.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Child-friendly care plans are in place to capture each child’s progress as well as any areas of development. Children take part in any meetings about their care, and staff ensure that children’s overall goals and achievements remain the focus of these meetings. Children’s care plans that direct staff on how to best meet children’s needs contain all pertinent information. However, plans also contain unnecessary and generic prompts and information, which detract from the child-centred approaches of staff.

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

Staff know the children well and have done extensive work to help educate children and give them skills to manage any emotions they might experience. Staff use their experience to identify and respond to children’s needs, which has led to minimal incidents occurring in the home. There have been no physical interventions, as staff know the children well and skilfully de-escalate tricky situations.

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

Any missing from home episodes are managed well and staff respond quickly. One child no longer goes missing from home at all. For another child, staff understand the triggers for the child, and missing from care incidents are for minimal lengths of time. Efforts are made to prevent children going missing and locate them when they are missing. All children are made to feel welcome on their return to the home. Inspection report for children’s home: 2664326 4 There is a focus in the home on reinforcing positive behaviour, which encourages children to make improvements. Any consequences in response to any negative behaviours are fair and proportionate. All consequences are initially reviewed by the manager to check their appropriateness. Consequences are reviewed again later to assess their effectiveness.

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

The manager reports and shares any safeguarding concerns with external professionals involved with the children, such as children’s social workers, the safeguarding team and the emergency services. This ensures that all professionals have the information they need and that they can work together to keep children safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is experienced, appropriately qualified and has extremely high aspirations for children and the staff team. He has embedded an ethos of providing the best levels of care possible to the children. Staff have an unwavering commitment to children and work exceptionally well together to ensure that children are encouraged and supported to succeed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff feel well supported by their manager. They value staff supervision sessions and the support provided to help them develop in their roles. The manager is adept at identifying the strengths and areas for improvement of individual staff members. Staff are then encouraged to improve their practice in a supportive way. The manager regards casual staff as integral to the team and ensures that they have the same level of support as full-time members of staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff are equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to meet the needs of the children. Systems in place are effective in identifying the training needs of staff. The manager is quick to ensure that staff are provided with the right support when new needs are identified for children. The manager then ensures that this support is personalised to individual children who live in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Team meetings are well attended and are used as an opportunity to discuss the children and help identify any changes that need to be made. Staff’s opinions are valued and are acted on to implement change. The manager shares any new guidance and research during these meetings to help keep the staff up to date with their knowledge and understanding.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager knows the strengths and weaknesses of the home and staff well. He has amended numerous policies, systems and ways of working to improve things for the children and the staff team. He has recognised and advocated for more staffing in the home to enable them to meet the needs of the children more effectively. The quality of care review report is modestly written. The report fails to capture the excellent work and improvements made in the home. Therefore, the action plan is not a realistic reflection of where additional approvements in the home can be made. Inspection report for children’s home: 2664326 5

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that care plans are relevant to the child and that any irrelevant or unneeded information is removed. This is particularly important should children access their records, either now or in the future. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.5)  The registered person should ensure that the regulation 45 report captures the strengths, weaknesses and actions to take to improve, based on the findings. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.4)

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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: 2664326 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Northern Community Pathways Children’s Residential Services Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Northern Community Pathways Ltd, 321 Red Bank Road, Bispham, Blackpool FY2 0HJ

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Inspector

Debra Boldy, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2664326 7 and inspects 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.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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