Location Assessment

Location Assessment

Farnworth Road

Contents page

Introduction – legislative background

Accessibility of local services

Map of local services

Collection of publicly available local data

Consultation with appropriate local services

Safeguarding concerns

Risk assessment & Risk management strategies

Annex 1 Consultation

Annex 2 Young people feedback

Introduction – legislative background

All children, whether they are looked after by the state or their parents, need to feel safe in the area surrounding their home. Just as any parent would want to their child to live in a safe area so too will a corporate parent who places children in a children’s home. Recent public and media attention has focused on the physical environments of children’s homes. However, it is not always straightforward to define a ‘safe’ area. Whether a location is safe can change rapidly, and may depend on the vulnerabilities of particular children. Indeed some individual children may themselves heighten risks in an area if they have particularly risky behaviours.

A home may be located in an area with some local risks, and still be ‘safe’, if these are managed well, arrangements are made to keep children safe, and placement decisions take account of these risks. Consideration of risks in a local area, and what steps should be taken to mitigate these, should be part of the care planning and placement decision process. Placing social workers should be responsible for assessing local risks and making judgments about safe locations before placing the child. The availability of support and services in the local area (e.g. education, health, CAMHS), as well as risk factors, should be considered before the placement is made. There has been in the past a lack of clarity about who must take responsibility for ensuring children’s homes are located safely – including the roles of placing LAs, host LAs, LSCBs and providers themselves.

Role of the provider

Better equipping children’s home staff to make judgments about local risks, manage challenging behaviour, and keep children safe is an important element. Workforce training, support and knowledge is therefore critical to the success. It is acknowledged that there are limitations of mapping in capturing a ‘dynamic picture’ but considers that such mapping could play a useful part in the wider assessments of risk. The home’s location assessment should be kept under review and amended to take into account any new risks as these are identified. The annual update will need to be proportionate and will not usually need to be carried out at the level of the initial assessment. Ofsted inspectors may take into account the quality of an existing home’s manager’s location assessment when evaluating the effectiveness of the home’s approach to safeguarding and promoting children’s welfare. It will be essential to talk with children in the home’s care about the quality of life in the area to establish whether they feel safe and how to manage any risks they identify. Children will also be able to offer homes’ managers valuable insights about the quality of local services.

The Children’s Homes and Looked after Children (Miscellaneous Amendments) (England) Regulations 2013 introduced the following changes to the Children’s Homes Regulations 2001 and the Registration Regulations:

Regulation 31(1A) and (1B) of the Children’s Homes Regulations 2001 as amended introduced a requirement in January 2014 for providers or managers to:

·  ensure that premises used for the purposes of a children’s home are appropriately and suitably located so that children cared for by the home are:

(a) effectively safeguarded, and

(b) able to access services to meet the needs identified in their care or placement plans;

·  review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises at

least once in every calendar year.

Location assessments will need to address two issues:

1. Safeguarding concerns

2. Accessibility of local services

It is important for the manager or a potential new provider to have a broad understanding of the characteristics of the area where a home is or may be located. Looked-after children placed in deprived areas, perhaps far away from the authority responsible for their care, may face disadvantage and lack opportunities to enjoy and achieve in these communities. The considerations a home manager will need to take into account, as they carry out a location assessment, may include:

• whether the location of the home influences the potential for an already vulnerable child to be a victim of crime, such as being targeted for sexual exploitation;

• whether there is a likelihood of children placed in the home becoming drawn into gang crime or anti-social behaviour in the local area;

• the suitability of the local neighbourhood as a location to care for children who may have already been victims of abuse and neglect; and

• whether there are environmental factors that would represent a hazard to children, such as locations near level crossings or busy roads.

Location assessments should also take into account any positive features in a local community that would offer benefits to children living in a children’s home. For example, assessments could include evidence about opportunities for children to participate in leisure, sporting or cultural activities, or links with services that could support the child’s ethnic or religious identity.

Accessibility of local services

Farnworth Road is located in Penketh in the west area of Warrington. Warrington is a busy town in the county of Cheshire; it is 18.5 miles east of Liverpool, 16 miles west of Manchester and 8 miles south of St. Helens, with a population of approx. 202,000.

Popular attractions in the town include;

·  £120 million ‘Golden Square’ shopping centre (Debenhams, JD Sports, River Island, New Look, Scott’s Sports)

·  The many local parks and nature reserves

·  Multi-million pound Halliwell Jones Warrington Wolves Rugby League stadium

·  Manchester Ship Canal, Bridgewater Canal, Lymm Dam, the Mersey Way, Sankey Canal and the many miles of country footpaths

·  Parr Hall and Pyramid Centre for the Arts (http://www.pyramidparrhall.com/whats-on/) Pyramid is home to many different classes, workshops and sessions. The perfect opportunity to have fun, get fit, meet new friends and learn new skills. Parr Hall offers different shows, plays, music concerts, and events.

·  Warrington Peace Centre (http://www.thepeacecentre.org.uk/) which offers counselling, youth club, girls group and the National Citizens Award. There are also disability groups and independent living skills group held here.

·  Gulliver’s World

·  Gemini retail park (IKEA, Marks and Spencer, Toys R Us)

·  LA Bowl

Farnworth Road located just off a main road in Penketh. It is an end terraced home in a row of approx. ten houses. It has an upholstery business next to it and at the other end of the terrace is a pub, ‘The Crown’. Across the road a residential development for retired people is being built which will incorporate apartments and supported living. It has a Co-Op across the road, an Indian take-away, a Beauty salon and within walking distance a chippy, hairdressers, barbers, pizza/ kebab take-away, and other local shops. There is a bus stop a short walk away that can take you straight into the center of Warrington in approx. 15-20 minutes on the 32A bus. The home has an upholstering shop next door that can be busy during the day-time. The business and the home are separated by an alleyway that leads to the back of the house; this is a well-used path as other residents and visitors to the street, park at the back of the houses and uses this path to get to the front of their homes.

Other local services at Honiston Way, less than 2 miles away, include a swimming pool based at Penketh Pool and Community centre, where as well as a pool they have fitness classes (http://www.penkethparishcouncil.co.uk/swimming_pool.html) and Local Library (http://www.livewirewarrington.co.uk/library/using-livewire-libraries/find-a-library) as well as other shops including a Yoga Centre, this is all within walking distance. The Olive Tree community center, less than 3 miles away also offers community classes, including Scouts /Brownies and dance classes (http://www.theolivetreecommunitycentre.co.uk/whats-on/for-children/). There are also opportunities locally to play amateur rugby, football, skate-board Park, Warrington Sport for all (http://sportforallcentres.co.uk/) offers netball and basketball clubs less than five miles away.

Health Services located near Farnworth road include Dentists, Opticians and GP’s Surgeries; Warrington Hospital is less than 3 miles away. There is a local GP surgery and a dentist less than two miles. The GUM clinic and teenage Sexual Health Clinic (YAS clinic) are located in the town centre and accessible via bus. The clinic is also held every Wednesday 6-8pm at Honiton Way – Penketh Clinic which is within walking distance to the home. Honiton Way also has a GP surgery, an opticians and a Pharmacy, all within walking distance. A CAMHS service is available within 6 miles.

Education services nearby include Primary and High Schools, Penketh High School is judged as requiring improvement. St. Gregory’s Catholic High School also requires improvement. Great Sankey High School is judged as Outstanding, a previous young person from the home has attended here. Grappenhall Hall School is a provision for children with Emotional and behavioral needs, six miles away, and this is judged as being a Good School. Across Warrington there are a number of high schools which have a school sixth form, two special schools with sixth form provision, a sixth form College and a further education college. There are also a variety of training providers that provide opportunities to gain qualifications, the local careers service provide support in accessing education and/or training including local apprenticeships.

Collection of publicly available local data

Warrington is in the County of Cheshire which has a population of over 1 million people of which 51.3% of the population were male and 48.7% were female.

Of those aged between 0–14 years, 51.5% were male and 48.4% were female

Ethnic white groups accounted for 97.3%, 1.7% Asian, 0.6% Black and 0.4% White Other

Local information on the demographics of the Penketh Ward of Warrington where can be seen here;

http://www.warrington.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/7294/2014_penketh_and_cuerdley_ward_profile

The ward of Penketh, where Farnworth Road is located, shows the crime rate and the rate of anti-social behaviour is falling and is below the Warrington Average. According to data from the Warrington Community Safety Partnership the crime rate for Penketh stood at;

19.1 incidents per 1,000 local residents, compared with a Warrington rate of 47.7 incidents per 1,000 residents.

The antisocial behaviour (ASB) rate in Penketh show;

23.5 incidents per 1.000 local residents compared with a Warrington rate of

44.9 incidents per 1,000 residents.

The Penketh area shows significantly lower crime and anti-social behaviour incidents than the rest of Warrington.

Between April 2012 and March 2013 there were 158 children or young people in Cheshire that were identified as being at risk of or being sexually exploited. They were provided with a holistic support plan and targeted intervention to reduce the risk of harm (Pan Cheshire CSE strategy 2015-2017).

Over 300 children in Cheshire go missing on at least three occasions a year. Many of these children are children in care; these include children’s care homes operated by Local Authorities as well as by private care providers. It is also important to note that the majority of looked after children do not experience missing episodes. Moreover, most children in residential care do not go missing (Missing from Home Protocol April 2014).

In 2011, 71.6% of pupils living in Penketh achieved at least 5 GCSE passes at grades A*-C.

This compares with a Warrington average of 64.8% and a National average of 58.3%.

The Penketh area has higher levels of GCSE passes A-C, which is higher than the Warrington average and almost 20% higher than the national average.

39.50% of Penketh residents aged 16+ were employed full-time at the time of the 2011 Census, compared with 42.70% for Warrington.

A total of 2.80% were unemployed in Penketh, compared with 4% for Warrington;

2.60% were long-term sick or disabled within Penketh compared with 4.10% across Warrington.

In Penketh 23.50% of residents were retired, 14.80% in Warrington.

Although there is a slightly lower average in Penketh of 16+ in full-time employment this figure will be affected by the almost double rate of retired people in the Penketh area compared to Warrington. There is significantly lower than average level of unemployment and sickness/disability in Penketh than in the rest of the borough of Warrington.

In 2010 there were 61 children in Penketh living in income-deprived households and 583 people were living in households dependent on means-tested benefits. Across Warrington 5,477 children were living in income-deprived households and 22,849 people were dependent on means-tested benefits.

Under the National Child Measurement Programme a child is classed as obese if they fall within the top 5% for Body Mass Index on the 1990 national child growth charts for a child of their sex and age. According to the Programme, 8.9% of reception year children measured in Penketh between 2009/10 and 2011/12 were obese, compared with 8.4% across Warrington. Amongst year 6 children measured, 19.7% were classed as obese in Penketh compared with 18.3% for Warrington. However, further data shows that Warrington as a whole performs above the National Average for children of a healthy weight and levels of obesity. (http://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/national-child-measurement-programme/data)

Information from the Dept. of Local Government and communities (http://opendatacommunities.org/showcase/deprivation) give a ranking order from 1-10 (a lower rank meaning that an area is most deprived) of deprivation in a postal area based on different data available.

The area of Penketh that the home is based is ranked overall as an 8.

All Domains 8

Income Domain 8

Employment Domain 6

Health and Disability Domain 6

Education, Skills and Training Domain 7

Barriers to housing and services Domain 8

Crime Domain 6

Living Environment Domain 7

Consultation with appropriate local services

The Children’s home already has links within the local authority in order to consult about any local issues or individual issues with young people.

The key links for local services are detailed below and their responses to consultation on the location report.