Children's home run by Aspris Homes Limited in North Northamptonshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC413085 1 SC413085 Registered provider: Castle Homes 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

This children’s home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three children who have complex difficulties. It is owned by a large private provider. The manager has been registered with Ofsted since May 2010.

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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: 13 December 2017

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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: SC413085 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/12/2017 Full Good 24/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 02/06/2016 Full Good 18/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC413085 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 that— helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b)(2)(h)) In particular, ensure staff reflect and learn lessons from serious incidents and when placements end. 31/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the care planning standard, the registered person must ensure that children— receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home. (Regulation 14(a)) In particular, ensure that care plans are reviewed regularly, and staff are aware of their roles and expectations 31/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience and have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33(4)(b)(c)) 31/08/2018

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Recommendations

 It is essential that homes understand what will be required of them before they accept responsibility for a child’s placement, to avoid disruption and instability for the child in future and for other children in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.5) Inspection report children’s home: SC413085 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive good individual care and support and this helps them to progress. Managers allocate an individual key worker to each child, to coordinate and plan the child’s care. All staff meet with children regularly to consult with them and to guide and support them. Staff ensure that the requests children make at these meetings and at children’s meetings are heard and, wherever possible, that these requests are met. Where this is not achievable, reasons are provided.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have helped one child to improve his behaviour through key-work sessions and effective direct work. The support provided for this child has increased his resilience by helping him to learn about more socially acceptable behaviour and to reflect on his emotions and the impact he has on others. This has led to a reduction in incidents of severe challenging behaviour.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff, supported by the education coordinator, identify suitable schools for children who move into the home. Supported by staff, one young person who is not attending school accesses work experience, tuition and structured activities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage children to be healthy. Managers have agreed funding for a room to be converted into a gym to improve the children’s fitness levels. Staff ensure that children eat a varied and balanced diet.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to see their parents, relatives and those who are important to them. When needed, they supervise these meetings and advocate for the children. Parents are very positive about the service. One parent said, ‘They went above and beyond for my son.’ Another said, ‘Staff engage well with him, he is much calmer.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Some children have struggled to settle. This has led to an unstable period, which has affected their experiences of living here. Other children have made progress and have developed positive relationships with staff. Staff have worked hard to support the children through this period, and have taken decisive action to keep them safe.

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

Staff demonstrate a good knowledge and understanding of safeguarding practice. In the event of children going missing, or putting themselves at risk, staff search extensively for them. For example, one child who recently moved in went missing after one night. Staff proactively searched for him and successfully located him, despite him being in an area some distance away.

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

Good relationships with placing authorities support an integrated approach to identifying and responding to risks. One child went missing and subsequently returned to live with Inspection report children’s home: SC413085 5 his parents. Staff undertook outreach work to maintain a relationship with him and to support the family to manage his challenging behaviours.

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

Staff only use physical interventions for the safety of children and/or staff. Staff demonstrate a good understanding of the events that preceded any physical interventions that have been necessary. The registered manager evaluates all of the records of physical interventions and seeks the children’s views following these interventions. Staff use restorative justice and reparation to help children to learn to take responsibility for their actions. When staff have called the police, this has been as a last resort.

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

Children are encouraged to record anything they are not happy with as a complaint. The registered manager follows these up formally, and informs children about any further actions they can take if they are not happy with the response.

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

Staff read and sign risk assessments, and follow them in practice. However, managers did not review care plans following a serious incident in which lessons were learned. This reduces the ability of staff to respond effectively if such incidents reoccur.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager demonstrates a strong commitment to ensuring the safety and welfare of all the children living at the home. When a child’s safety is at risk, the manager takes decisive action and works with the placing local authority to reduce the risk to staff and children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Supervision with staff is generally regular. However, there were no supervision sessions during a particularly difficult month, and therefore the opportunity for managers to formally support staff on an individual basis during this period was missed. In addition, the registered manager has not had any formal supervision during the inspection period. She has therefore not had sufficient support, guidance and reflection time to help her to review the decisions she has made and to consider how to develop the service further. Team meetings are held regularly and are informative and useful to staff. However, staff have not had the opportunity to reflect on and share lessons learned.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has effective working relationships with other professionals, in particular children’s social workers and the missing-child coordinator. Professionals were very positive about the registered manager and staff, a number saying that staff ‘go the extra mile’ in their care and support of children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff training is responsive to the needs of the children who move into the home. Impact risk assessments are completed and managers hold placement-planning meetings. However, managers have not collated all the necessary information from those who know the children well, in order to obtain an accurate picture of all of their needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Five new staff have started working in the home since the last inspection. Staff with Inspection report children’s home: SC413085 6 more experience have mentored these newly appointed staff. The new staff who spoke to the inspector were positive about their induction experience, and said that they enjoy working in the home.

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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, 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: SC413085 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Castle Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Fifth Floor, 80 Hammersmith Road, London W14 8UD

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Inspector

Suzy Lemmy: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC413085 8 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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