Children's Home run by Good Foundations Limited in Wirral

Inspection report for children’s home: SC486165 1 SC486165 Registered provider: Good Foundations Limited

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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 home provides care for up to four children who may have social, emotional or behavioural needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager returned from maternity leave in August 2024. During the period of maternity, another manager registered and operated the home.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, there were four children living at the home. All children were supported to take part in the inspection process and encouraged to express their wishes and feelings.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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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.

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outstanding

Date of last inspection: 23 January 2024

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC486165 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

23/01/2024 Full Good 02/03/2023 Full Outstanding 20/04/2021 Full Good 02/03/2020 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC486165 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children make exceptional progress across all their developmental areas, including emotional, social, educational and physical well-being. This reflects the unwavering support and commitment of a dedicated and stable staff team.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff maintain close attention to each child’s individual needs, setting tailored goals and celebrating each success, no matter how small, along the way. The home’s structure, combined with a child-centred approach, ensures that the environment is a place where children can thrive, regardless of their past trauma and experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children’s academic performance has steadily improved, with many excelling in school and college due to the tailored educational support they receive. Staff regularly engage with education providers to ensure that children are supported in their learning and tutoring and, when required, extra curriculum support is readily provided. When children experience barriers to their learning, the staff devise creative plans to safely support children to return to education or training in a timely way. This is supporting some children’s successful transitions back into school and, for other children moving on from school to college, work placements and employment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff develop effective relationships with health professionals to promote children’s health and well-being. Children are in good health and staff help children to understand the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Children’s health needs, including support from mental and sexual health services, are requested and actioned in a timely way. This supports children to access the services that they require without delay. Arrangements for managing and storing medication are safe and effective.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children are progressively gaining essential life skills such as cooking, budgeting and managing their personal hygiene. These skills, along with vocational training and work placements, prepare children for successful transitions to independence in the future.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The manager and staff team work hard to provide extremely effective services that contribute to considerably improved outcomes for all children. All children are making exceptional progress from their starting points Children, parents and professionals all talk positively about the significant support and care provided, which is ensuring that children make progress and achieve their full potential.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children are cared for by staff who know them well. Staff speak warmly and knowledgeably about the children in their care. The staff build positive and meaningful relationships with the children. Throughout the inspection, staff were observed interacting in a positive and respectful manner with the children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The manager and staff routinely engage children in meaningful discussions and activities that enable them to influence the day-to-day running of the home and, more pertinently, Inspection report for children’s home: SC486165 4 the decisions about their care. Children are helped to prepare for and be involved in key meetings about their lives. When necessary, the manager and staff will advocate on behalf of a child, and they are willing to challenge to ensure that decisions made are in the child’s best interest.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff understand the value of including families in their children’s care. Children are supported to safely spend time with family members, including family celebrations. The work to re-establish relationships with children and their families has proven to be extremely valuable. One parent said, ‘Staff are so helpful, really caring and always go the extra mile. They are also great at keeping me informed and involved.’

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

Managers and staff understand that children take risks as part of their social development, and therefore they take a proportionate and parent-like approach when managing risk. They educate children about how to keep themselves safe through everyday reflective conversations and targeted key-work sessions. Children demonstrate an age-appropriate awareness of risk and the majority make the right choices about keeping themselves safe. When safeguarding concerns arise, these are managed appropriately and in line with each child’s relevant plan. The manager and staff are clear about their roles and responsibilities, and keeping children safe is integral to care practices in this home.

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

Managers and staff act as any responsible parent would do and they are good role models for the children in their care. They have high expectations of the children and incidents of negative behaviour are rare. This is because children are respectful of each other and the managers and staff, who set age-appropriate boundaries.

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

When children do make poor choices, staff work alongside them to recognise what they could have done differently. This empowers children to make appropriate and safe decisions in their lives. However, when consequences are given to children because of poor behaviours, these are not consistently recorded in the same format, making it difficult to understand if all measures imposed are proportionate. The manager had identified work that could be embedded into practice to strengthen the current process.

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

Managers and staff are aware of the children’s risks and vulnerabilities. These are highlighted in risk assessments that are consistently reviewed by managers. However, some of the risk assessments do not include clear strategies for staff to follow to minimise risks and historical and current risks are not made explicit. However, as the current staff team is stable and staff understand the children’s risks, this has not had any impact on children’s care.

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

The manager ensures that safer recruitment procedures are followed and has a system in place to do so. Checks have been completed to ensure that only staff who have been appropriately vetted work with the children. Inspection report for children’s home: SC486165 5 Children can identity an adult they can talk to if they are worried or upset. They understood the complaints procedures. Children who had used the system in place, talked about the responses provided at each stage of the process to help them understand that their views have been taken seriously and acted on.

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

All staff are highly skilled in safeguarding and receive regular training on safeguarding and child protection procedures. Regular refresher courses ensure that staff remain up to date with best practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Exceptional leadership and management practice ensures that this home is a safe, well- organised and nurturing environment, where children can achieve their potential and prepare for a successful future.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home’s management and senior leadership team provides strong, compassionate leadership, ensuring that the home operates to the highest standards. When the registered manager was on maternity leave, suitable arrangements were put into place to ensure that the standards in the home were maintained to a high standard.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The managers demonstrate clear vision, direction and a strong commitment to achieving the best outcomes for children. Their leadership is characterised by a high level of knowledge, experience and expertise in childcare and safeguarding children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff are highly skilled and receive ongoing training and professional development. Research-informed practice is central to care practices in the home. The management team and staff consistently consider innovative ways to make an exceptional difference to the lives and experiences of children. This research includes responses to extra- familial risks and harms that children may experience, focusing on contextual safeguarding and trauma-informed practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Regular supervision and team meetings ensure that the staff are supported in their roles, are able to reflect on their practice and are consistently equipped to meet the children’s evolving needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

A robust system of monitoring and quality assurance is in place. This is used to assess the effectiveness of the care provided and includes regular internal reviews, and feedback from children and families and professionals. The leadership team uses this data to implement improvements and ensure continuous progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The leadership team works closely with external agencies, stakeholders and the community to ensure a holistic approach to care. These partnerships provide additional resources and opportunities for the children’s progress, and support the overall success of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that all incidents of control and discipline are subject to systems of regular scrutiny to ensure that their use is fair. (‘Guide to the Children’s Home Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.36)  Where there are safeguarding concerns for a child, the child’s placement plan, agreed between the home and the child’s placing authority, must include consistently effective steps for staff to take to manage any assessed risks on a day-to-day basis. (‘Guide to the Children’s Home Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)

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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: SC486165 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Good Foundations Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 6 Tower Quays, Tower Road, Birkenhead, Merseyside CH41 1BP

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Inspectors

Michelle Edge, Senior His Majety’s Inspector Sally Croft, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC486165 8 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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