Children's Home run by Platinum Services for Children (Residential Care) Ltd in Stoke-on-Trent

Inspection report children's home: 1222089 1 Registered provider: Platinum Services For Children (Residential care) Ltd

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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 cares for up to four children. It is one of three homes within an independent organisation, caring for children who display challenging behaviours and supporting their emotional needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has extensive experience in children’s residential care. He has level 4 and 5 qualifications in leadership and management of children’s residential care.

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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 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: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children's home: 1222089 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/08/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 04/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 27/04/2016 Full Good Inspection report children's home: 1222089 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 registered person must ensure that within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure.

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Requirement Due date

Within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so ("the authorised person") has spoken to the user about the measure, has signed the record to confirm it is accurate and within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(vii)(b)(i)(ii)(c)) This is specifically in relation to recording sanctions. 31/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(vi)) 31/08/2018

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy spending time with staff and said that they can talk to them if they have a problem. They are especially positive about their key workers. Excellent systems are in place to gain children’s views. Key working meeting records are detailed and show discussions about life at the home and about how children are being supported. Staff are fully aware of children’s regularly updated plans and develop a good understanding of young people’s needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff enthusiastically promote different activities. These help to develop children’s self- Inspection report children's home: 1222089 4 esteem and encourage a healthy lifestyle. Regular visits to health professionals are completed, and therapy is used well to examine children’s backgrounds and support their development.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children attend school. This has been a significant step forward for some, due to the challenges that they have had with education in the past. A member of school support staff explained, ‘Staff have gone above and beyond what you would expect any parent to do to help support [the child’s] education.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is a pleasant environment, with children having a say in the decor of their rooms prior to coming to the home. Children enjoy a new animal area and are looking forward to collecting eggs from chickens.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff go to great lengths to make sure that children moving into the home will get on well with those already there, and the move will not negatively affect anyone’s development.

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improvement to be good

Staff have a good awareness of how to keep children safe. However, some allegations made by a child have not been fully recorded. Records do not show the discussions with the social worker or the way in which issues have been assessed. Consequently, it is unclear whether effective action has been taken or that the child’s comments have been taken seriously. Incidents when the designated officer in the local authority is involved are more clearly recorded.

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improvement to be good

Staff promote good behaviours well, with individual targets, which encourage children to improve. These have helped children to decrease challenging behaviours and encouraged them to help around the house more. Sanctions are clearly recorded, but records are not monitored by the registered manager regularly enough to make sure that the measure is appropriate, or to ensure that the record has been completed in a timely way. Recording of sanctions was a shortfall raised at the last inspection and is an area of continuing weakness. Restraint records are detailed and include discussions with staff and children afterwards. These consider whether the behaviour could have been dealt with in a different way. This helps children to reflect on their behaviours.

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improvement to be good

Risk assessments for children and for the local area are good. The staff make sure that all health and safety checks around the house are completed regularly. These measures ensure both staff’s and children’s safety.

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improvement to be good

Staff offer good support to children who display concerning behaviours such as going missing or self-harming. Staff are aware of what to do if incidents of this nature occur and talk with children afterwards about how to decrease these behaviours. Inspection report children's home: 1222089 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is experienced and suitably qualified for the role. He has a strong awareness of the home and the children. Planning for the development of the home and the staff team is good and involves children, who have their own development plan for the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Overall, monitoring systems are effective (with the exception of reviewing sanction records in a timely way). The registered manager considers patterns and trends in young people’s behaviours and their progress in education. The registered manager uses external monitoring well, responding swiftly to independent visitor reports. All but one of the previous requirements and recommendations have been met, showing an eagerness to improve.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager responds well to complaints. The staff work well with a range of professionals. Staff make sure that other professionals are well informed about children’s progress and development. One social worker described the staff team as ‘knowledgeable’ and ‘always able to answer questions’. Staff have good links with health and education professionals. Staff ensure that children attend necessary appointments, and staff attend school performances and parent/teacher evenings. This helps them to support children well.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are well supported by the management team. They receive regular supervisions and appraisals, which give staff clear direction. A good range of training courses are made available for staff, and an effective matrix is in place to check all training is kept up to date. Induction arrangements are appropriate and show that new staff are well supported.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Good-quality staff meetings are regularly held to share information about the home and the children. Children are invited into some of these meetings to give their opinions about different aspects of the home. This helps to improve the care that they receive.

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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 Inspection report children's home: 1222089 6 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’.

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Children’s home details

Inspection report children's home: 1222089 7 Unique reference number: 1222089

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Platinum Services For Children (Residential care) Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2 Sheriffs Orchard, Coventry, West Midlands CV1 3PP

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Leonard Pattinson

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Inspector

Andrew Hewston, social care inspector Inspection report children's home: 1222089 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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