Children's Home run by ISW CSC LIMITED in Tameside

Inspection report for children’s home: 2726823 1 Registered provider: ISW CSC 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 home is operated by a private provider. It provides care for up to 4 children, who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

Four children were living at the home at the time of the inspection. All children were spoken with.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager is registered with Ofsted since June 2023.

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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 good

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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: 10 December 2024

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: Outstanding

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2726823 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/12/2024 Full Outstanding 22/11/2023 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2726823 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children experience exceptional care that is highly individualised to their needs. Staff know each child well and their nurturing and trauma-informed practice creates an environment, where children feel loved, valued and secure. This enables children to make excellent progress with their social, emotional and educational development. Children are extremely settled and enjoy the nurturing environment, where they truly feel at home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children are helped to make significant educational progress. Some children who were not previously attending education now have 100% attendance. For others, when they have struggled to attend school, staff are proactive, sensitive and creative in the support they provide to children and in helping to identify alternative support that is available. Staff build excellent relationships with education professionals with one professional stating that the staff are ‘probably the best I have worked with’. These relationships help to ensure that everyone works together to support the children’s education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children’s progress in their health and wellbeing has been astounding. Staff work to understand children’s health conditions, as well as how children’s previous experiences have impacted on these. This helps staff provide tailored and individualised support. For one child, this has contributed to clear improvements in a health condition, leading to a significant reduction in the medication they need to take. A health professional said that the progress for the child ‘has been amazing and could not have been achieved if not for the understanding, care and support staff have provided’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff help children to understand the importance of developing long-term independence skills. Staff are creative and forward thinking in their practice and adapt the support they provide children to ensure that this is at a pace reflective of the children’s individual needs. This helps prepare children successfully for independence and adulthood.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Family members, friends and multi-agency professionals praise staff for their fantastic communication and the support and care provided to children. These effective working relationships help ensure that children experience consistent, well-coordinated care that enhances their day-to-day lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff excel in advocating for the children’s wishes, feelings and best interests. This informs the care they receive and has contributed to positive change that has made children feel important and valued. For example, one child has been supported with an advocate to make a complaint, which resulted in them staying at the home for longer, in line with their wishes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children are provided with a wide range of enjoyable activities, both in and outside of the home. When children struggle socially, staff provide them with sensitive Inspection report for children’s home: 2726823 4 encouragement and support, helping them to engage more with others. Children also regularly undertake charity work, which helps them understand the importance of helping other people. Children’s experiences are thoughtfully reflected in personalised memory books for them to look back on. This has enhanced children’s sense of identity, community connection and self-worth.

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

Staff work hard to keep children safe. They promote children’s psychological, physical, and emotional safety and use therapeutic care with the support from the home’s psychologist.

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

Staff have a good understanding of the risks, and their consistent care enables them to proactively respond to any emerging risks children face. In particular, any risks concerning exploitation, missing from home and self-harm are fully understood with effective strategies in place to manage them. Staff are skilled at responding positively to children and de-escalating any concerning behaviours, avoiding the need for any physical intervention.

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

Staff invest time in forming positive relationships with children. They take coordinated action with children, multi-agency partners and children’s wider networks to ensure that children are safe. Children’s risk assessments and safety plans are reviewed and updated regularly. Staff work in line with strategies in these plans, providing consistent responses to children.

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

Staff are tenacious in their approach to locating children who are missing from home, although incidents are rare. They work proactively with relevant agencies, and this helps ensure that children are found quickly and kept safe.

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

Children are helped by staff to understand appropriate behaviours. Staff focus on rewards and incentives to motivate and encourage children’s progress and celebrate success. However, on occasions some consequences have been used which have not been restorative in nature. This does not consistently support children to learn from incidents.

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

Door alarms are used on children’s bedrooms. However, the necessity of these is not reviewed in line with care planning for children. This means it is not clear as to whether their use remains proportionate to children’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers have a motivational, positive and highly visible presence in the home. They provide hands-on support to staff and role model their high standards and expectations for staff practice. This embeds a culture of high aspirations and achievement for both the children and staff, where everyone feels valued, listened to and respected. Inspection report for children’s home: 2726823 5 Children benefit from high-quality integrated care and planning, supported by close partnerships with wider professionals and children’s families. Children’s voices are central to managers’ practice and managers are tenacious in advocating for children. They challenge external agencies, when their actions do not meet the children’s needs or the manager’s high expectations. This is particularly evidenced in the work undertaken to secure the right educational provision for one child and supporting another child moving

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

on from the home. The manager’s tenacity and leadership were key in driving progress on these occasions.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff receive regular and high-quality supervision sessions and appraisals. These are reflective, child centred and focused on developing staff skills. There is an ethos of high achievement and children’s feedback contributes to staff appraisals. Staff said they feel valued and they are committed to providing exceptional care to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager demonstrates high levels of professional curiosity and is confident in addressing any shortfalls in practice. Staff are also confident in raising any practice worries to management. This ensures that the staff working in the home have the right skills to care for children and promote a professional, open and transparent culture.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers and staff at all levels embrace children’s views and wishes in their day-to-day care and ensure that these are considered in all aspects of children’s care. Managers also use research to help develop staff practice and help children better understand their own needs. This helps further improve the care that children receive and the progress that they make. Inspection report for children’s home: 2726823 6

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recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that any sanctions used to address poor behaviour are restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community. (‘Guide to the Children’s Home Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38)  The registered person should ensure that the home maintains as far as possible a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression. In particular, the registered person should ensure that the need for bedroom door alarms is kept under regular review to ensure their use is necessary. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15 paragraph 3.9).

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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: 2726823 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2 Waterside Lane, Rochdale OL16 2YD

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Charlotte Larkin

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Inspectors

Amey Henry, Social Care Inspector Mark Cryer, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2726823 8 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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Inspectors

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