Children's Home run by Blue Mountain Homes Ltd in Nottinghamshire

Inspector Caroline Brailsford

There has been good progress made since the last monitoring inspection, as appropriate action has been taken to address the two compliance notices that were set. The remaining requirements and one recommendation have not been monitored at this visit and will be carried over to the next inspection.

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Inspector Caroline Brailsford

Procedures for keeping young people safe and protected have improved. Two young people have left since the last inspection and there have been no new admissions. This has led to a much more settled period, with only one significant event. The manager has used this more settled period as an opportunity to develop the home. She has acknowledged that staff are not all sufficiently experienced to be able to make important day-to-day decisions about young people’s safety. She has made arrangements for them to have learning opportunities and experiences over the last four weeks. The less experienced staff have been to work in other homes to widen their experience in a number of areas, such as working with young people with mental health issues and challenging behaviour. She has used feedback from other registered managers in the company, and her own period of reflection on individual staff’s practice, to inform

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Inspector Caroline Brailsford

her decision-making when planning the rota. She has made sure that the rota has been altered accordingly, so that there is always a more experienced staff member on each shift. In addition, she has formally supervised every staff member individually, which has opened up communication channels. Staff have been invited to tell her if there are any concerns about young people’s progress or safety and there have been honest and frank dialogue and reflection about what has gone wrong in the past.

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Inspector Caroline Brailsford

Team meetings have been used effectively to improve staff learning and development. One example of how this has worked well is when senior staff from within the organisation delivered a training session. In this session, staff were able to reflect on their actions during incidents before the last Ofsted visit. The home’s staff have been helped to think about how they could have managed situations better and how to transfer their new knowledge to delivering safer care to young people in the future. Young people are safer because staff understand their responsibilities in protecting their welfare.

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Inspector Caroline Brailsford

Young people are safer as the registered manager is monitoring events in the home more effectively. The manager has fully reflected on, and monitored, the one significant event since the last Ofsted visit. She is very clear that staff did all they could to protect the young person. A more robust risk assessment process enables young people’s risks to be more thoroughly scrutinised. Also a new risk assessment pro forma ensures that risks will be suitably identified, progressed and monitored in the future. All risks are rated against a traffic light system. Where risks are identified as amber or red, there is a new procedure to escalate concerns to the manager, senior staff within the organisation and other relevant professionals. The manager ensures that patterns and trends in behaviours are now identified. Consequently, action can be taken to escalate concerns to relevant senior staff within the organisation and professionals.

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Inspector Caroline Brailsford

All staff spoken with confirm that there have been improvements to processes relating to young people’s safety and welfare. They feel that the manager has made good progress. One staff member reported ‘she is a lot more on it’ and ‘it feels like a better place’. The one young person at the home told the inspector that they felt safe, and indeed young people have been considerably safer since the last inspection.

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Inspector Caroline Brailsford

The manager plans to admit more young people steadily and only after a very robust risk assessment in relation to her staff’s capabilities. This means that young people will be able to settle in well and will be cared for by staff who have the knowledge and skills to keep them safe.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is privately owned and is registered to care for four young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that must be taken so that the registered person(s) meets the Care Standards Act 2000, Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

12: In order to meet the protection of children standard, the registered person must: (2)(a)(v) ensure that staff understand their roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. 10/03/2017

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Requirement Due date

13: In order to meet the leadership and management standard, the registered person must: (2)(c) ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. 10/03/2017

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Requirement Due date

13: In order to meet the leadership and management standard, the registered person is required to: 2(f) understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home, with particular reference to decision-making and reflection in relation to placement matching. 10/03/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records for each child which are kept up to date. This is with particular reference to ensuring that risk assessments are promptly updated after significant incidents and that the recording of daily logs is detailed. (Regulation 36 (1)(b)) 10 March 2017

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation:  Ensure that the home is a homely and domestic environment. This is in particular relation to decoration to the annex in the back garden and the main building entrance, landing and hallway. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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Information about this inspection

The purpose of this visit was to monitor the action taken and the progress made by the children’s home since its last Ofsted inspection. This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000. out in the guidance ‘Raising concerns and making complaints about "Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of this guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234 or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

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, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It inspects services for children looked after and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234 or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team,

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Information about this inspection

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

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Information about this inspection

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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