Children's home run by Phoenix Children’s Homes Limited in North Devon

Inspection report children’s home: SC368137 1 SC368137 Registered provider: Phoenix Child 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 registered to provide care and accommodation for up to two children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.  The home is operated by a private provider of education and social care. The manager has been registered with Ofsted since June 2012.

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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

Date of last inspection: 25 October 2017

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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: SC368137 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

25/10/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 03/01/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 20/04/2016 Full Good 10/12/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC368137 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

5: Engaging with the wider system to ensure children’s needs are met

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Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff— (c) if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that there is clear evidence of challenge made to a placing authority. 31/12/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees— undertake appropriate continuing professional development; receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that records of the supervision and appraisals reflect the discussion that takes place and record any required actions to be taken. These actions need be reviewed regularly to assess progress. 31/1/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC368137 4 37: Other records (1) Schedule 4 sets out the other information that the registered person must keep in relation to a children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

Schedule 4 Other records with respect to children’s homes Staff, staff rosters, persons residing or working in the home, visitors 3. A copy of the staff duty roster of persons working at the home, and a record of the actual rosters worked.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that staff rosters include the time of each shift worked. 31/12/2018

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Requirement Due date

45: Review of quality of care The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (‘a quality of care review’) at least once every 6 months. In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating— the quality of care provided for children; the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children. After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review (‘the quality of care review report’). The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for

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Requirement Due date

ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the report needs to be more evaluative, including the feedback from children and others. The actions set in this report need to be more inspiring and/or challenging. 31/1/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC368137 5

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Recommendations

 Under regulation 46, the registered person should review the appropriateness and suitability of the location and premises of the home at least once a year. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.1) In particular, ensure that the evaluation of identified risks is recorded consistently and includes the actions that staff should take to reduce the risks.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are receiving good-quality, individualised care and support from a well-trained and consistent staff team. Staff are guided well in their work, using detailed, bespoke plans that the children are involved in creating. These plans are kept up to date to reflect the children’s known and emerging needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making good progress from their starting points. Most notable is a decrease in behaviours that previously placed the child and others at risk.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Despite challenge from the staff and a child’s parent, suitable education provision has yet to be established. However, the child has worked very well with a tutor and at the child’s request this work continued throughout the summer holiday.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Consultation with children is very good. Staff ensure that children feel valued and listened to. The organisation provides a ‘council for children’ to encourage them to voice their ideas and views. A good example of the impact of the council relates to a complaint made by a child about being unable to watch certain films and play certain computer games due to the age rating. Staff supported the child in taking forward this complaint to the council. This included a significant amount of research completed by the child. The child presented a paper to senior managers and an appropriate compromise was reached. This level of consultation improves children’s self-confidence and self-worth.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff prepare children well for the next stage of their lives. Excellent work was undertaken with a child who recently moved to adult services. This included staff from the child’s new home working in this home to get to know the child in an environment where he felt safe. In addition, when the move took place, staff from this home continued to support the child to provide continuity of care and maintain important relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are helped to understand the importance and benefits of a healthy lifestyle. Staff encourage them to take up physical activities and to eat healthily. Children’s healthcare needs are managed well by the team.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from living in a comfortable and well-furnished home. Staff place Inspection report children’s home: SC368137 6 children at the centre of their practice and provide them with a nurturing environment in which to thrive. Staff ensure that children have access to a range of activities, both in the home and in the community. These activities link effectively to children’s interests and also give them new experiences and memories.

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

Safeguarding systems are strong and used effectively. Staff demonstrate a good working knowledge of the actions they must take to protect children. Records of safeguarding events are comprehensive and clear.

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

Since the previous inspection, there have been no restraints and no incidents of children going missing. Staff manage children’s behaviour well and work effectively with children to enable them to understand their behaviours and develop self-management strategies. Parents and social workers praised the staff for the improvements they have seen in children’s behaviours.

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

Records relating to behavioural incidents are of a good quality. These documents are clear and tell the story of events as they happened. Staff manage children’s behaviour well. Good discussions are held with children after an incident, which helps the child to develop their understanding of what happened and understand the impact of their behaviour.

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

Staff have a good understanding of risks and manage them effectively. This has led to a reduction in risk-taking behaviours including a reduction in self-harm and physical aggression. In addition, children learn how to identify risk and develop the skills to keep themselves safe.

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

Staff are receiving regular supervision and annual appraisals that are reflective and provide them with feedback on their performance. However, records of these sessions require improvement. They do not consistently record the actions and/or targets set for staff by their supervisor. Despite this shortfall, staff reported that they feel well supported by senior staff and their co-workers. Team meetings are regular and benefit staff because they include the involvement of a psychologist.

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

The children are cared for by a stable, well-trained staff team that understands the child’s needs and how to meet them. The team is led by an experienced and appropriately qualified manager. Currently, the staff roster does not specify the timings of each shift worked. This does not allow for clear identification of who is on duty at a specific time.

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

Leaders and managers do challenge placing authorities when they feel that the child’s needs are not being met. However, leaders and managers do not consistently escalate these concerns when they are not addressed. Neither do they maintain good-quality records of the discussions that have taken place. Inspection report children’s home: SC368137 7 The locality risk assessment requires improvement. The evaluation of identified risks is not recorded consistently, nor are the actions the staff will take to reduce the risks.

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

The manager’s report of the six-monthly quality audit is overly descriptive and lacks detailed evaluation. This report does not include feedback from children or other professionals. These shortfalls do not help the manager in developing practices within the home.

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

The manager does understand most of the strengths and areas for improvement. Information from her monitoring is used to further develop the home.

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

The independent visitor visits the home as required. Their report contains a lot of useful information for the manager to use in developing the home. The leaders and managers have recently reviewed the format for recording these visits to ensure that it meets the regulation.

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

Parents and professionals gave very positive feedback on the staff and the quality of care they provide. They praised the staff and the manager for their work.

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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: SC368137 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Phoenix Child Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Phoenix Learning And Care Ltd, First Floor, Rolle Quay House, Rolle Quay, Barnstaple, Devon EX31 1JE

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Inspector

Wendy Anderson, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC368137 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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