Children's home run by Esland North Limited in Amber Valley

Inspection report children’s home: 1234624 1 Registered provider: Esland North Limited

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is operated by a private organisation, and is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three children. The children may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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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 good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers 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: 28 November 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1234624 2

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Key findings from this inspection

 The home now has a registered manager. She has made good progress against the shortfalls found in the last full inspection on 28 November. The manager is highly motivated and ambitious for the children.  The registered manager and senior leaders are knowledgeable about individual children and relate well to them. They understand the progress that children have made and want to make further improvements. The home is now operating in line with its statement of purpose.  The home has made good progress in developing children’s participation. They have helped with the recruitment recently and have contributed lots of ideas in other areas.  The home is now fully staffed. The staff receive good-quality supervision, induction and training. The registered manager has management systems in place to monitor this.  The registered manager has demonstrated considerable flair for reviewing and updating the home’s records. These records now provide good evidence of the

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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

 At the previous full inspection, the home’s managers did not demonstrate sufficient challenge to achieve a school place for one of the children, who had been out of school for some time. The child now has 16 hours of education each week. This is an improvement, but the home should continue to work towards achieving at least 25 hours of education each week.  At the last full inspection, the home’s managers had not made sufficient provision for the children to have therapeutic support. The children are not yet receiving therapy that meets the criteria specified in the recommendations made in their psychological assessment reports. Inspection report children’s home: 1234624 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

28/11/2017 Full Inadequate 04/05/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 08/03/2017 Full Inadequate Inspection report children’s home: 1234624 4

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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

The health and well-being standard is that the health and well- being needs of children are met; children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being; and children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff help each child to achieve the health and well- being outcomes that are recorded in the child’s relevant plans and that each child has access to such dental, medical, nursing, psychiatric and psychological advice, treatment and other services as the child may require. Regulation 10 (1)(2)(a)(i) and (c)) 15/05/2018

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Recommendations

 Ensure that children are in full-time education whilst they are of compulsory school age, unless their personal education plan contained within the care plan or other relevant plan states otherwise. The home must aim to support full time attendance at school unless the child’s relevant plan indicates this is not in their best interests. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, April 2015, page 28, paragraph 5.14) Inspection report children’s home: 1234624 5

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The registered manager and her staff provide a warm, comfortable, safe and happy home for two children, who are brother and sister.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff continue to provide warmth and nurturing care. As a result, the children have now settled into the home. They have developed positive relationships with the staff and, consequently, they have made good progress since the monitoring visit on 8 January.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children are happy, enthusiastic and positive about living in the home. During the inspection, one child enjoyed baking a cake for everyone to share. The other child was getting ready to go out to a youth club to meet his friends. Both enjoy a wide range of outside activities, including horse riding, Karate and football. The social worker commented that the variety of activities had improved in recent weeks.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children are now regularly consulted on a range of topics to help them participate in the life of their home. Advocacy is now in place for the children, to help them to express their views about their care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Both children are physically well. They are registered with doctors, dentists and opticians and attend health appointments. The children receive a varied and nutritious home- cooked diet.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Both children are now receiving education. One child attends a local school, and his attendance and achievement are both good. The other child was not in education at the last full inspection. She is now attending a local school on a part-time basis. She also attends another educational establishment, which specialises in land-based learning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The registered manager is well aware that this child still only receives 16 hours of education a week. More work is needed to ensure that this child receives 25 hours a week of education. A recommendation has been made.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The full inspection and the monitoring visit found that the children are not receiving therapy which meets their identified emotional and psychological needs. Both children have received counselling from a qualified, registered psychotherapeutic counsellor. This has been beneficial, but does not meet the criteria specified in the psychological assessment reports completed in July 2017. A requirement has been made.

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

At the time of the last full inspection on 28 November 2017, the children and staff had recently moved from another house, operated by the same company. There were also numerous allegations made against the staff, none of which was substantiated. Not all Inspection report children’s home: 1234624 6 allegations had been fully recorded or thoroughly investigated. This is no longer the case.

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

Since then, the responsible individual has carried out a full audit of all the allegations. She discussed them with the person who was, at that time, the local authority’s designated officer (DO). The former DO and the home’s managers drew up an allegations’ management plan. However, this is no longer necessary because the number of allegations has dropped considerably. Unless there are compelling reasons to have an individual protocol, the manager must respond to any new allegation in line with statutory guidance and locally agreed child protection procedures.

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

The home has now improved its system of risk assessment to identify any risks for the children. Risk assessments are now updated regularly.

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

Both children have two staff assigned to them each day. There are two staff members sleeping in overnight. Now that the number of incidents and allegations has reduced, the home should consider developing a plan for gradually reducing staffing. This would allow the children a little more personal space, which is important for development and progress.

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

Staff training in safeguarding and behaviour management has improved since the last full inspection. All the staff now have mandatory training during their induction period. The responsible individual is highly knowledgeable and experienced and carries out much of the training herself. She now ensures that all the staff are equipped to meet the children’s needs in terms of training in physical intervention and safeguarding. The home’s manager has undertaken safeguarding training at level 5 to enhance her understanding of child protection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

At the last full inspection, the home did not have a registered manager. The acting manager had inherited staff shortages and had insufficient management time to carry out her job effectively. Although action had been taken to recruit new staff, many of the new staff lacked the required skills to meet the children’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

At the monitoring visit, the acting manager still needed to work on developing knowledge of the regulatory framework in which the home operates. She worked hard to achieve these objectives.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

In March of this year, the manager had a successful ‘fit person’ interview with Ofsted. She is now enrolled on a level 5 leadership and management course. She has already completed two units towards this award. This means that the home now has a knowledgeable and capable registered manager, which is a significant improvement.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home developed an action plan which detailed all the shortfalls from the first full inspection. The only remaining shortfalls are the two areas described above, for which Inspection report children’s home: 1234624 7 recommendations have been made.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

By the time the monitoring visit took place on 8 January 2018, there were sufficient staff. They receive good-quality supervision, induction and training. The manager has continued to work on this area since the monitoring visit.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There are now good management systems in place to monitor staff training and development. For example, the staff have now received training in equality and diversity. The home has employed a person from a similar background and heritage to the children to help them to explore their cultural traditions.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

During the previous full inspection, the manager was unable to produce tangible evidence that the two children had made progress. Since then, the registered manager has reviewed all the home’s written records. These are much improved. The quality and presentation of written records, children’s placement plans and other documents are now a real strength of this home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager and senior leaders are knowledgeable about individual children and relate well to them. Managers have challenged other agencies when appropriate.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is now monitoring the home well. She is very well supported by her regional manager and the responsible individual. In spite of the distance from their operational base, these managers travel to the home regularly, so that they are visible to the children and staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Since the last inspection, the registered manager has improved the home’s development plan. The targets are now specific and measurable, with realistic timescales.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

At the last full inspection, the regulation 44 visitor was not fully independent because they were involved in delivering staff training. This is no longer the case, which means that there is now a greater degree of rigor in the monitoring of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The last full inspection found that children were not consulted about staff recruitment. Recent staff appointments have benefited from children’s involvement. For example, the prospective employees take part in shadow shifts as part of their assessment for the roles. The children help to assess the candidates and they express their views about them. They also suggest interview questions for the candidates. Inspection report children’s home: 1234624 8

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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: 1234624 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Esland North Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Esland Ltd, Suite 1, Riverside Business Centre, Foundry Lane, Milford, Belper, Derbyshire DE56 0RN

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Inspectors

Heather Chaplin, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1234624 10 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: http://www.gov.uk/ofsted

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