Balmore Children s Unit Care Home Service

Transcription

1 Balmore Children s Unit Care Home Service 27 Eriboll Crescent Glasgow G22 6NG Telephone: Type of inspection: Unannounced Inspection completed on: 15 March 2018 Service provided by: Glasgow City Council Service provider number: SP Care service number: CS

2 About the service The Care Inspectorate regulates care services in Scotland. Information about all care services can be found on our website at The service was registered with the Care Inspectorate on 13 July Balmore Residential Children's Unit is a newly purpose built house located between the Ruchill and Milton Park area of the city. The service is owned and managed by Glasgow City Council. The service provides care and support for children and young people who are Looked After and Accommodated by the local authority. The service is registered to accommodate up to eight children and young people and at the time of this inspection, it was at full capacity. The property comprises two floors, with spacious and bright accommodation throughout. The quality of the environment is of a high standard, with large lounges on the ground floor, well equipped kitchen/dining room and bedroom and bathing facilities. There is also office space for staff. On the upper floor there is a further complement of individualised bedrooms with ensuite facilities. Although outside space is limited, it is well maintained and provides for some privacy. The mission statement includes : "We strive to provide an open, honest and safe environment for young people, giving them the opportunity to have experiences that will encourage them to develop and grow into independent young adults. All young people will be respected, valued and included in the decision making process. All young people will be encouraged and supported to make informed choices about their own lives". What people told us We spoke with five young people who were happy to talk about their experiences of living at the service. We spent time speaking with young people about the quality of their care and support. We were told by most young people, that they had good relationships with most staff and that they felt supported in their daily lives. Some spoke about attending college and school and how they liked what they were doing and that they had friends outwith the service. Young people chatted about what activities they did with staff, while others spoke of being more independent and spending time going into town to explore their interest in forms of transport. Most young people were aware of the range of supports and agencies available to help them make progress and how their personal plans encouraged their involvement in decisions affecting them. Some young people were less satisfied with aspects of their support and we discussed at length, what their concerns were and how these might be resolved. We also heard about some of the complaints they had made about the quality of the environment, however we advised young people that we did not agree with all aspects of their concerns and offered them our rationale for having a different opinion. For young people who had more recently arrived at the service, we were told that "staff seem nice. They're friendly but I'd like them to spend more time with me". We asked those young people if they had discussed their feelings with staff. They said they had not, but agreed to do this. Overall, young people seemed happy with the support they received and appeared to value the relationships they had with staff. for Balmore Children s Unit page 2 of 8

3 Self assessment The provider was not required to submit a self assessment document for this inspecting year. From this inspection we graded this service as: Quality of care and support Quality of environment Quality of staffing Quality of management and leadership 5 - Very Good not assessed not assessed 5 - Very Good What the service does well During this inspection, we considered the quality themes relating to Care and Support and Management and Leadership. Further to speaking with young people, staff and others who use the service, we concluded that a grade of very good was achieved for both themes. We found that young people living at the service had continued to make good progress in their lives. We sampled personal plans for four young people and found that these focused on helping young people to develop positive relationships, both with staff, friends and with their families, where appropriate. For young people who had been resident for some time, we noted that the service had been proactive in ensuring that they spent time engaged in meaningful activity and this had encouraged them to participate in courses, aimed at preparing them for a future in employment. We spoke with young people who told us that they were enjoying their courses and felt that they were developing an important understanding of how they might support themselves after moving on from the service. Others spoke of how their interest in drama continued to offer them opportunities to attend a weekly performance course at a national performing arts school and meet up with friends outwith the service. By promoting such involvement, the service helped those young people to develop their skills and knowledge and in turn increase their confidence in their own abilities. For other young people who experienced difficulty in sustaining involvement in structured activity, we again found that the service offered reassurance and guidance, to support their choices. In one instance, we found that a young person, with a sustained interest in transport systems, was encouraged to explore how work experience could be realised, to provide them with learning opportunities to support their life beyond the service. We spoke with the young person's former social worker to further appreciate the supports in place and to determine their views on the quality of care for the young person. We were pleased to confirm that the service had worked closely with other departments, through the provider's formal meeting arrangements, to implement safe and supportive interventions which allowed for the appropriate planning of a future placement. We also noted that where young people were supported on an outreach basis, the service worked extremely hard to provide a positive daily routine for young people, by supporting their attendance at school and offering leisure opportunities which helped to develop their relationships with staff. For one young person, this support had reduced their risk taking behaviours and had improved their relationships with family members. The service had also been critically involved in supporting one young person to return home, further to extensive work with parents and this had allowed the family unit to rebuild relationships and develop more positive ways of coping. for Balmore Children s Unit page 3 of 8

4 When reviewing the quality of management and leadership within the service, we found that additions to the management team had positively impacted the work of the service and we spent some time discussing young people, with a newer member of the team. They advised that in their role as senior practitioner, they supported social work students in placement at the service. Also as a Practice Teacher, the senior staff member was responsible for overseeing the work of students and we found that this contribution had led to life story work being done with young people. This meant that young people were supported to explore their past experiences and to develop their understanding of their early life. To ensure that all staff understood the importance of this work, managers ensured that it was shared through team meetings and this meant that those providing daily supports were better informed of supports required. Proactive management was also demonstrated by the successful completion of a professional development award for the manager, in Promoting Positive Behaviour. As the first within the local authority to achieve this award, the manager ensured that positive approaches to helping and responding to young people remained central to everyday practices. This was further supported by two staff members becoming accredited trainers and therefore providing an enhanced complement of experienced practitioners. Development planning continued to provide the focus for improvement and we noted that the priorities relating to promoting positive opportunities for young people to learn and develop, had been supported through meetings with the children's rights worker and external manager to the service. Meetings with young people, to explore how appropriate WiFi could be facilitated to support their learning and leisure time, demonstrated the importance of access to this digital network. Although this matter remained unresolved, we found that young people had been given the opportunity to discuss how significant, better access to WiFi, would be to them and how it would allow them to keep in touch with friends and be able to access the national digital environment for learning. We considered that the service continued to provide a very good standard of care and support for young people overall and that young people were achieving in ways most suited to their needs and abilities. What the service could do better During our discussions with people working at the service, we found that there was inconsistent understanding of the needs of specific young people. Whilst we were satisfied that all young people's broad needs were being met, we asked the service to ensure that where some young people's specific needs had been recorded, that everyone working at the service was fully aware of these. We also found staff would benefit from revisiting their learning around known conditions impacting young people's lives. This will help to ensure a consistent understanding across the staff team and will promote further insight around best practice. Again we believed that the service provided very good quality of care and support for young people. However we found in one instance, that the assessment of support required for one young person attending hospital, had not fully taken account of how this young person should have been supported. We discussed this matter with the manager, who agreed to reflect on practice and consider how the service may respond in future. We spoke with five young people, some of whom commented that they did not always like the way some staff responded to situations involving them or others. Again we discussed this with the manager and asked that they explore this further with young people and staff. for Balmore Children s Unit page 4 of 8

5 The access to WiFi for young people remained an issue and although we could see that this was in the process of being explored and addressed, we advised that an appropriate solution is found in a timely manner. Like all young people, those living at the service believe they rely on the service that the internet provides, for their social connection to others, their learning and leisure opportunities. Requirements Number of requirements: 0 Recommendations Number of recommendations: 0 Complaints There have been no complaints upheld since the last inspection. Details of any older upheld complaints are published at for Balmore Children s Unit page 5 of 8

6 Inspection and grading history Date Type Gradings 16 Mar 2017 Unannounced Care and support 10 Mar 2016 Unannounced Care and support 23 Mar 2015 Unannounced Care and support 27 Mar 2014 Unannounced Care and support 21 Jan 2013 Unannounced Care and support 7 Mar 2012 Unannounced Care and support 24 Jan 2012 Re-grade Care and support for Balmore Children s Unit page 6 of 8

7 Date Type Gradings 10 Jan 2011 Unannounced Care and support 23 Aug 2010 Announced Care and support 23 Mar 2010 Unannounced Care and support 3 - Adequate 9 Feb 2010 Announced Care and support 3 - Adequate 14 Jan 2009 Unannounced Care and support 23 Jun 2008 Care and support 3 - Adequate for Balmore Children s Unit page 7 of 8

8 To find out more This inspection report is published by the Care Inspectorate. You can download this report and others from our website. Care services in Scotland cannot operate unless they are registered with the Care Inspectorate. We inspect, award grades and help services to improve. We also investigate complaints about care services and can take action when things aren't good enough. Please get in touch with us if you would like more information or have any concerns about a care service. You can also read more about our work online at Contact us Care Inspectorate Compass House 11 Riverside Drive Dundee DD1 4NY enquiries@careinspectorate.com Find us on Facebook Other languages and formats This report is available in other languages and formats on request. Tha am foillseachadh seo ri fhaighinn ann an cruthannan is cànain eile ma nithear iarrtas. for Balmore Children s Unit page 8 of 8