“children's homes in Cheshire West and Chester”

Cheshire West and Chester · CH1 2NP · Part of Cheshire West and Chester Council

Interim inspection report children’s home: SC413177 1 SC413177 Registered provider: Cheshire West and Chester Council Interim inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

Cheshire West and Chester · CH1 2NP · Part of Cheshire West and Chester Council

Inspection report children's home: SC413177 1 SC413177 Registered provider: Cheshire West and Chester Council

Cheshire West and Chester · CH1 2NP · Part of Cheshire West and Chester Council

Information about this children's home

 The home is run by the local authority and provides care and accommodation for up to four children with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

Cheshire West and Chester · CH1 2NP · Part of Cheshire West and Chester Council

Information about this children’s home

This local authority children‟s home is registered to provide care and accommodation for four children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

Cheshire West and Chester · CH1 2NP · Part of Cheshire West and Chester Council

Information about this children’s home

This local authority children’s home is registered to provide care and accommodation for four children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

Cheshire West and Chester · CH1 2NP · Part of Cheshire West and Chester Council

Information about this children’s home

This local authority children’s home is registered to provide care and accommodation for four children with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

Cheshire West and Chester · CH1 2NP · Part of Cheshire West and Chester Council

Information about this children's home

This local authority children’s home is registered to provide care and accommodation for four children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

Cheshire West and Chester · CH1 2NP · Part of Cheshire West and Chester Council

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home provides children with good, individualised care that is tailored to meet their complex and challenging needs. Children say this is a „really nice‟ home and is not what they expected of a children‟s home. Social workers and parents report that children are well cared for and staff do all they can to provide a comfortable and nurturing environment. For example, a social worker said: „I am pleased with everything. I have no concerns whatsoever.‟ Another said: „They got to know her really well and she had a very positive experience there.‟

Cheshire West and Chester · CH1 2NP · Part of Cheshire West and Chester Council

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children visit the home before placement and have a say in whether they wish to move there. A social worker explained: „She had a lot of anxieties before the visit. But she came out of the house and said, “I‟m well happy with that”, and she wanted to move in immediately.‟ The home makes children feel welcome. For example, their bedroom is prepared in advance and supplied with toiletries, towels and a copy of the children‟s guide. A child said: „I was proper nervous at first but I really enjoyed the visit. They welcomed me and it was really nice.‟ Another child described how staff write important phone numbers down in the children‟s guide so they always have them to hand. She said: „They definitely care about me and I can tell they want the best for young people.‟

Cheshire West and Chester · CH1 2NP · Part of Cheshire West and Chester Council

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home provides children with the opportunity to engage in a wide range of positive and enjoyable experiences. Children say they do a lot of activities, including going for walks, swimming, cycling and shopping; and they enjoy spending time with staff, cooking and using the computer. One said, „I love dancing. They have offered to take me and I‟m thinking about it. They always offer me to do whatever I want. I have friends round. It‟s really good.‟

Cheshire West and Chester · CH1 2NP · Part of Cheshire West and Chester Council

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

sensitive issues such as personal health matters. Communication within the team needs improvement. Pertinent information is not always shared at handover. For example, information relating to a child‘s health and the reason for a child missing a day at school was not clearly shared with a senior member of staff on the day of inspection. The home works in partnership with the placing authority. It provides social workers with weekly reports on children‘s progress and information relating to serious incidents. It has effective working relationships with the local authority designated officer for safeguarding, virtual head and schools that children attend. It is developing relationships with other children‘s homes and the police in the area. The home has made some progress in meeting the requirements and recommendations made following the full inspection. The statement of purpose has been reviewed and a copy has been submitted to Ofsted. While, it clearly lays out

Cheshire West and Chester · CH1 2NP · Part of Cheshire West and Chester Council

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

The home‘s progress in reviewing the rotas has not been satisfactorily addressed. The home has not taken sufficient action to ensure that staff handover times at weekends do not impede staff from engaging in activities and outings with children. This does not demonstrate that the home takes appropriate action to respond to children‘s views about how the home can improve their care, experiences and progress.

Cheshire West and Chester · CH1 2NP · Part of Cheshire West and Chester Council

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

person had a successful transition home after a positive experience of living in the home. During her time at the home, she became increasingly safer. She learned how to stay safe in the community, and her dangerous, risk-taking behaviour and self-harm stopped. She became less vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Her self- esteem and confidence rose, and she began to take better care of her own health and welfare. Immediately following the last inspection, the home worked swiftly and effectively with the virtual school to enable her to sit GCSE examinations at the home, and this enabled her to attain five good GCSE passes. This further boosted her confidence and has provided her with a good springboard for future education and employment. The home supported increasing levels of contact, which contributed to a successful transition home. Another young person moved to an adult placement after making extremely good

Cheshire West and Chester · CH1 2NP · Part of Cheshire West and Chester Council

What the inspection judgements mean

An outstanding children’s home provides highly effective services that contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help and protection and care. Their progress exceeds expectations and is sustained over time. A good children’s home provides effective services that help, protect and care for children and young people and have their welfare safeguarded and promoted. In a children’s home that requires improvement , there are no widespread or serious failures that create or leave children being harmed or at risk of harm. The welfare of children looked after is safeguarded and promoted. Minimum requirements are in place, but the children’s home is not yet delivering good protection, help and care for children and young people. A children’s home that is inadequate is providing services where there are widespread or serious failures that create or leave children and young people being

Cheshire West and Chester · CH1 2NP · Part of Cheshire West and Chester Council

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Regular key-worker sessions and children‟s meetings offer children the opportunity to share their wishes and feelings, to seek and receive advice and to comment on the quality of their care. Children‟s records demonstrate the many and varied discussions that staff hold with children, many of which are tailored to meet their specific needs at that time. The manager and staff advocate well for children if they are not getting effective and appropriate support from other professionals. Children express confidence in the staff team and recognise their commitment to them. Inspection report children's home: SC413177 5 The quality of impact risk assessments and matching children has improved over time. The home ensures that it has all the information it requires before a child is placed, and this is given careful consideration before a placement is agreed. The needs of children already in placement are considered, as well as the needs of the referred child. Staff

Cheshire West and Chester · CH1 2NP · Part of Cheshire West and Chester Council

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

The home makes children welcome on their return and staff encourage them to talk about where they have been and why, although children rarely say. The home has worked with the placing authority and others to ensure that children are offered independent return interviews when they return from being missing. Although these are now being routinely offered, children rarely engage with the independent person and seldom share information about why they went missing or with whom. This means that despite the efforts of professionals, children continue to be at risk in the community.

Cheshire West and Chester · CH1 2NP · Part of Cheshire West and Chester Council

Requires improvement

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

Cheshire West and Chester · CH1 2NP · Part of Cheshire West and Chester Council

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

possible, in what were difficult situations. This helped children to feel that staff care about them and want the best for them. In the main, allegations of a child protection nature have been appropriately referred to the relevant authorities. However, it is not clear that the home did everything possible to address safeguarding concerns in relation to the child whose placement disrupted. For example, records do not show that the home took robust, protective action in response to information supplied by a partner agency. Consequently, within that episode, the arrangements for safeguarding children were not strong. The home has not recognised and evaluated the shortfall in safeguarding practice and whether a more robust response could have averted the disruption of the placement. The home has developed impact risk assessments for use with children referred for placement. These reports focus on matching children‘s needs and interests to

Cheshire West and Chester · CH1 2NP · Part of Cheshire West and Chester Council

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

matter needs improvement. Children who need to use the computer for school work are unable to do so. Where possible, children access the office computer, supervised by staff, but this arrangement is not wholly satisfactory as children are receiving mixed messages about entering the staff office. The manager has gathered information about criminality and the safety of the local area to inform the location assessment. She is in the process of updating this document to provide a better assessment of the suitability of the home‘s location, in particular, in relation to children‘s safety.

Cheshire West and Chester · CH1 2NP · Part of Cheshire West and Chester Council

and young people since the most recent full inspection

This home was judged good at the last full inspection. At this interim inspection, the home was ‘not judged’. The home has been closed since June 2017. The home is not providing care or accommodation for any young people. Consequently, the home was not judged on this occasion. Interim inspection report children’s home: SC413177 2