Children's Home run by 3 Dimensions Care Limited in Somerset

Inspection report children‟s home: SC060758 1 SC060758

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Registered provider: 3 Dimensions Care 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 owned by a private company. It is registered to provide care for up to five children who have emotional and behavioural difficulties and/or learning difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is situated next door to an independent special school owned by the same company.

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Information about this children’s home

The school was inspected at the same time as the children‟s home.

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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 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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: SC060758 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/10/2017 Full Good 21/12/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 23/08/2016 Full Good 26/01/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children‟s home: SC060758 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

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children‟s home

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 13 (1)(2)(c) and (h)) 31/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children‟s home if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

The requirements are that the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform.

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Requirement Due date

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) (“the Level 3 Diploma”); or a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma.

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Requirement Due date

The relevant date is in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls 2 years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 32 (2)(a)(3)(b)(4) and (5)(a)) 22/08/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC060758 4 The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development;

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year.

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Recommendations

 For children‟s homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. Children‟s homes must comply with relevant health and safety legislations (alarms, food hygiene etc.); however in doing so, homes should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than „institutional‟ impression. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  Staff should be familiar with the home‟s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from meaningful and respectful relationships with the adults who care for them. Children feel safe and learn to trust the staff, who understand their needs. Children have found stability and acceptance in this home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The adults are ambitious for the children. Children‟s strengths and aspirations are promoted and no achievements are considered beyond their reach. The adults are proud of all of the children‟s achievements and celebrate their success. The home currently has two accomplished musicians; one child has been playing in a band and another is taking part in a prestigious music event.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children attend school or college. One child has recently been reintegrated back into a mainstream school following three years of specialist provision. The focus in the home is to build children‟s confidence and self-esteem. Positive activities and community Inspection report children‟s home: SC060758 5 engagement are fundamental to this success. Children spend time with their friends and family where this is of benefit to them. Children are developing the social and emotional skills needed for successful independent living as adults.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Tolerance of others is promoted and modelled successfully by the adults, as are positive aspects of equality and diversity. Staff continually assess and attend to what is important to children. During the inspection, staff and children were preparing an evening meal linked to countries playing in the World Cup. In addition to promoting interest in the football matches, these activities also broaden the children‟s knowledge of other cultures.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children move out of the home in a planned and considered way. They are provided with a detailed life story of their time at the home. Adults maintain contact with children who have moved on. Adults are keen to find out how children are getting on, sometimes visiting them in their new home and inviting them back to the home for barbecues and other social events.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children‟s bedrooms are decorated and furnished to their preferences. One child had several different combinations of beds, including a bespoke built-in bed, before settling on a futon. Other beds include dens or dark spaces, at the request of children who have autistic spectrum disorder.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Some communal areas of the home have an institutional look, such as the main bathroom and office. Damage is not always repaired quickly. These issues detract from what is otherwise a welcoming and homely space for children.

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

Children feel safe in this home. The adults have clear expectations of behaviour and enforce appropriate boundaries to keep children safe. Children who, at first, often test boundaries learn to trust the consistent adult responses. Incidents of difficult behaviour gradually reduce over time.

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

Behaviour management focuses on a clear understanding of children‟s historical experiences and responses. Plans are detailed, offering useful information for those who need to manage behaviour. Many incidents are avoided because adults know the children well and intervene quickly, empathising with the child and demonstrating an understanding of their feelings. Positive reinforcement is used. Since the last inspection, only four sanctions have been issued for difficult behaviour, as opposed to more than 200 rewards.

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

Risk is managed well so that the children can take part in everyday events and learn from making mistakes, just like other children. Risk management plans are sufficiently detailed and updated when needed. These plans include actions the adults should take if a child were to go missing. Incidents are rare and there are no recent reports of children going missing from the home. Inspection report children‟s home: SC060758 6 Physical intervention is sometimes used to avoid injury to children or adults. The numbers of interventions used have reduced over time. The provider has just commissioned an alternative facilitator to provide this training in the hope that incidents can be further reduced.

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

Children benefit from access to a range of specialist professional support agencies. These include those provided by child and adolescent mental health services, speech and language therapists and counselling services.

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

A suitably qualified and experienced registered manager has been in place since December 2017. Although leaders and managers have a clear understanding of the strengths and weakness of the service, they have yet to implement development plans fully and address shortfalls completely.

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

Physical intervention records lack clarity and consistency of detail. The information needed can be found in records but is not in the log provided for the purpose. This makes monitoring and analysis of events to reduce interventions difficult.

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

Supervision is not provided consistently to all staff by leaders and managers. The quality of supervision differs and use of reflective practice is variable so that some staff are missing opportunities for personal development and practice improvements.

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

Insufficient monitoring and action have been taken by leaders and managers to ensure that staff complete the required childcare qualifications within expected timescales.

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

The ethos of this home is evident. Children matter, staff are interested in them and speak highly of their achievements. Empathy and understanding are apparent when staff are dealing with any issues presented by the children. Leaders, managers and staff are not afraid to tackle poor decisions made by other professionals; they readily advocate on behalf of children who, in turn, feel valued and listened to.

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

The staff team members work together cohesively. Communication between staff is of a good quality. Staff try to pre-empt and address any problems which may cause problems or unnecessary anxiety for children.

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

Training is provided regularly. Good use is made of both in-house and online training alongside specialist external providers. Staff understand and apply learning, particularly in relation to safeguarding protocols. Induction programmes and shadowing experiences offer new staff opportunities to observe effective practice and equip them to do a good job.

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

Engagement with other providers and attendance at workshops also improve practice. For example, plans are in place to make the office more child friendly. However, some staff lack a good understanding of education legislation. This is potentially restricting appropriate challenge to education providers when full-time provision is not offered or Inspection report children‟s home: SC060758 7 children are sent home from school.

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

Children influence the development of the home. They are involved in regular residents‟ meetings and individual support sessions which identify some improvements needed. Children choose meals, activities, sanctions and rewards and are involved in the recruitment of staff.

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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: SC060758 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: 3 Dimensions Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Hendrik Van Schalkwyk

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Inspector

Janice Hawtin, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC060758 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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