Children's Home run by Keys Educational Services Limited in Somerset

Inspection report children’s home: 1239953 1 Registered provider: Broadwood Education Services

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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 children’s home is operated by a private organisation and is registered to provide care and accommodation for four children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 21 to 22 February 2018

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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Good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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Good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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Good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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Good

Date of last inspection: 16 November 2017

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Good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Inadequate

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Good

Enforcement action since last inspection: None

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Key findings from this inspection

 Children have positive experiences and make significant progress in their emotional and educational development. Inspection report children’s home: 1239953 2  Children enjoy living at this home and feel that staff listen to them.  Children live in a homely environment and enjoy a good rapport with staff.  Children’s behavioural needs are responded to effectively by staff without the need to use restraint or from staff calling the police.  The manager had addressed all of the shortfalls identified at the previous inspection and demonstrates considerable learning that now underpins his practice.

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Key findings from this inspection

The children’s home’s areas for development:

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Key findings from this inspection

 Staff do not support all of the children to learn how to use the internet and social media safely. Restrictions are in place to stop some children from accessing the internet in the home. As a result, this does not enable them to learn how to use the internet safely.  Children do not receive sufficient guidance on choosing safe relationships and about their own sexual health. Informal discussions do take place, but this area is not included in the children’s care plans.  A new member of staff has not been effectively supported during his probationary work period. The manager does not have effective oversight of this member of staff’s probationary review reports and supervisions.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/11/2017 Full Inadequate 14/11/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1239953 3

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet 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

11: The positive relationships standard (1) The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on— (a) mutual respect and trust; (b) an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and (c) positive responses to other children and adults. (2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— (a) that staff— (vi) help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful. (Regulation 11(2)(a)(vi)) In particular, ensure that all children are helped to use the internet safely and provided with guidance to learn about healthy relationships and their sexual health. 31/03/2018

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Requirement Due date

33: Employment of staff (4) The registered person must ensure that all employees— (a) undertake appropriate continuing professional development; (b) receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and (c) have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33(4)(a–c )) In particular, ensure that staff in their probationary period have supervision in line with the company’s policy and that their probation period is effectively reviewed to provide them with the necessary support. 31/03/2018 Inspection report children’s home: 1239953 4

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Recommendations

 Children should be encouraged by staff to see the home’s records as ‘living documents’ supporting them to view and contribute to the record in a way that reflects their voice on a regular basis. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 58, paragraph 11.19.) In particular, this refers to the home’s care plans and risk assessments being specific and individualised for each child.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive particularly good individualised care and support in relation to moving in and out of the home, as well as with their education and with their behaviour. Fundamentally, children have good experiences living at this home and are making good progress. All social workers are very positive about their child’s experience and the support provided by staff. Children have excellent relationships with their carers. The interactions between them are positive, caring and good humoured. The manager and staff team work well with the local authorities and are instrumental in helping children’s relationships with their families to develop. Children make good progress in relation to their health, education, emotional and psychological well-being. All children have good attendance at school and/or college. Educational placements are tailored to meet the children’s specific needs. Children have positive, unsupervised time with their friends and are supported well by staff to help

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

them cope with difficult decisions in their life. Since living at this home, some children are settling better at night time and are feeling safer. Children’s views are well understood by staff and taken into account in the running of the home. Staff help to ensure that children’s rights and entitlements are met. Children have advocates and are helped to put forward their views and feelings to their local authority. They attend and contribute to their care review meetings. Staff prioritise group discussions around the dinner table to gather children’s views as a more informal way of finding out what is happening for children, rather than at a more formal meeting. Children engage well in discussions with staff to talk about their personal thoughts and feelings. Children’s daily experiences are very good. They live in a clean, warm and well-kept home and said that they enjoy living here. Staff create a homely atmosphere that is

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

supportive as well as light hearted. One staff member reported that they, ‘Laugh with the children, cry with them and smile back at them. We do things together, like going for a walk and picking flowers.’ Children learn practical life skills and develop their emotional resilience. Staff recognise that preparing to leave the home is clearly an anxious time for the children, which may at times be exhibited as difficult behaviour. The staff respond to this form of Inspection report children’s home: 1239953 5 communication appropriately and help the children to prepare by taking them to look at their new accommodation and discussing their options together. Children who live a long way from the home have their needs suitably met. Staff support the local authority’s arrangements for children staying in touch with their family. Children have their own phone and email accounts so that they can communicate with their

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

friends and family. Children who want to remain in the home’s local area when they leave care are supported to do so.

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improvement to be good

The support provided to children to help them become increasingly safe requires improvement. A blanket approach of not allowing children access to the home’s wi-fi, or consenting to them using social media on the home’s computer, does not help them to learn how to use the internet and social media safely, especially as two children have smartphones on which they can access the internet by themselves. Key-worker sessions for one child show that they are receiving support in this area; however, this is not consistent for all of the children. Some children do not receive sufficient guidance about choosing safe relationships and about their own sexual health. These developmental areas are not provided for in the home’s care plan. Informal discussions about relationships with the children do not sufficiently prioritise this important area for helping adolescents to develop. Children have not gone missing from the home since the previous inspection. The

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improvement to be good

frequency of going missing has been reduced because staff have listened to children’s request to have some time by themselves or with their friends. Staff have appropriate measures in place to ensure that they know where the children are and how to contact them when they are away from the home. Staff satisfactorily respond to bullying concerns that are raised by the children. Safeguards are put in place to address the risk, which staff understand and children are satisfied with. All complaints are recorded along with their outcome and the complainant’s views. The manager ensures that children are spoken to as part of an investigation into any complaint they raise. Staff effectively respond to children’s behaviour without the use of restraint or by calling the police. The manager and staff now understand the reasons for not calling the police unnecessarily to children’s homes. Staff do not use sanctions regularly; instead, they

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improvement to be good

reward children’s positive achievements and address seriously unacceptable behaviour through restorative work. Careful recruitment and regular monitoring of staff help to prevent unsuitable people from being recruited. The manager has effective links with local authorities and designated officers. There is good communication about safeguarding issues, such as allegations against staff, complaints made by children, bullying and historical abuse. Inspection report children’s home: 1239953 6

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager has successfully addressed all of the requirements made at the previous inspection and, overall, is providing better monitoring of staff’s practice. He has received good support from senior leaders that has helped to improve his safeguarding knowledge and develop his understanding about the importance of having clear safeguarding processes in place. Leaders and managers are on an improvement journey with the staff team. However, many of the new processes and theories that have been devised are not yet fully embedded and need more time to develop. The leadership and management of the home requires improvement to be good because, despite the positive work already completed since the previous inspection, there are still areas for development. A new staff member currently completing their probationary period is not receiving the necessary support and supervision he should be provided with. The manager has not been fully involved in assessing the member of

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

staff’s performance. As a result, his understanding of the support that the member of staff needs is weak. Improvements can also be made in children’s case records and risk assessments. Often, these documents contain general statements without actually giving staff specific, clear instructions. Overall, the manager leads the staff well using team meetings to explain his expectations. Most staff receive sufficient professional supervisions to help develop their practice. The manager is now demonstrating a good evaluation of staff’s behaviour management responses and addresses identified areas of concern with the team. He has advised staff to stop and reflect before giving a sanction and not to respond in the heat of the moment. Pioneering work to decrease the importance of the staff’s office and to allow children in this room has already seen a favourable decrease in incidents. The manager has a clear understanding of the progress that children are making and he

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

can clearly demonstrate the achievements that they have made since living at this home. Children are now being helped to prepare to leave the home in a well-planned way. The manager uses monitoring systems adequately and completes recommendations for improvement promptly. He has devised a senior management team in the home that now meets more regularly and in addition to scheduled team meetings. This ensures that, when the manager is not at the home, the shift leaders are clear about the expectations on them and about maintaining acceptable standards of care. Staff take part in good training opportunities. A staff member comments that by far the most useful training they have received recently is training in understanding attachment. This has taught the staff to never give up on children and to constantly reassure them. The manager has the required qualification for the role. One staff member who has not

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

completed the necessary childcare qualification has almost completed this, after having experienced many difficulties with changing assessors. There are sufficient staff on the team to ensure that children receive a consistent response and that they know the person who is supporting them. There have been no agency staff used. Staff said that they feel well supported in their role. They feel that things are going well at the home, they know the children well, and talk confidently Inspection report children’s home: 1239953 7 about the progress that children have made.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the differences made to the lives of children and young people. They watched how professional staff work with children and young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care provided. Wherever possible, they talked to children and young people and their families. In addition, the inspectors have tried to understand what the children’s home knows about how well it is performing, how well it is doing and what difference it is making for the children and young people whom it is trying to help, protect and look after.

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Information about this inspection

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 children’s home: 1239953 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Broadwood Education Services

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Maybrook House, 2nd Floor, Queensway, Halesowen, Worcestershire B63 4AH

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Inspector

Guy Mammatt, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1239953 9 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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