Children's Home run by N H Care Limited in Birmingham

Inspection report children’s home: SC365366 1 SC365366 Registered provider: Nh Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The home is registered to provide care for three children and young people who have learning disabilities. It is privately owned. The manager has been registered with Ofsted since October 2018. The manager is undertaking a level 5 diploma in leadership and management for residential childcare, with an expected completion date of March 2020.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 22 to 23 November 2018

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

p.1

good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

p.1

good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

p.1

good

Date of last inspection: 1 February 2018

p.1

good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

p.1

good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC365366 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

01/02/2018 Full Good 24/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 25/10/2016 Full Good 24/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC365366 3

p.2

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.

p.3

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. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(2)(d)) 28/01/2019

p.3

Requirement Due date

The registered person must keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it and notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (3)(a)(b)) 28/01/2019

p.3

Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (‘case records’) for each child that include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3. The records must be kept up to date. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)) 28/01/2019

p.3

Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain in the home the records in schedule 4. (Regulation 37 (2)(a)) 28/01/2019

p.3

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. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9) This is with reference to ensuring that the dining chairs are clean and well maintained.  The registered person must ensure that staff have the relevant skills and knowledge to be able to respond to the health needs of children. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 34, paragraph 7.12) This is with specific reference to ensuring that staff are competent in administering medication. Inspection report children’s home: SC365366 4  Ensure that the registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations

p.3

Recommendations

including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)  All staff must have their performance and fitness to carry out their role formally appraised at least once annually. This appraisal should take into account, where reasonable and practical, the views of other professionals who have worked with the staff member over the year and children in the home’s care. As part of the performance management process, poor performance should be addressed by a timely plan to bring about improvement. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.5)  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. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to children.

p.4

Recommendations

(‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children and young people make good progress because they receive personalised and nurturing care from a committed staff team that knows their needs well. One social worker told the inspector, ‘What I love about the home is that they know [name of child] really well. They know his needs and anticipate them. I am confident in the care. He has made real progress and it’s down to the staff.’

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Good relationships between staff and schools ensure that children and young people enjoy their school experience and have positive outcomes. A deputy headteacher told the inspector, ‘It’s like a home from home. He has some challenging behaviour, and this has improved over time. This is because we are all consistent. We definitely can’t speak highly enough of them. One of our strongest connections. They need to hear our appreciation of them as it’s a strong partnership.’

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children and young people to enjoy their lives. Children and young people are encouraged to continue with established hobbies such as film-making, going swimming and walking but have also had the opportunity of some first-time experiences. For example, one young person has been to the cinema and now enjoys day trips to farms.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work closely with health professionals to ensure that children and young people receive the healthcare that they need to achieve good physical and emotional health.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children and young people are encouraged to communicate in their preferred method. For example, one young person prefers to use widget and has an electronic device to Inspection report children’s home: SC365366 5 help him to extend his vocabulary. Consequently, he is fully contributing to the running of the home.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children and young people are encouraged to stay in touch with people who are important to them. One parent told the inspector, ‘I like that they feel that I’m important as a parent.’

p.5

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, the organisation has made significant improvements to the rear garden of the home. A previously steep grassed area has been tiered to make flat areas where children and young people can relax and play outdoor games. Further plans for the space include creating a barbecue area and a fruit and vegetable patch where children and young people can grow their own food.

p.5

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that the house is clean, warm and tidy. Pictures of children and young people are proudly placed on the walls and new sofas in the lounge make the house feel like a home. Children and young people have chosen the decoration and items for their bedrooms, which gives a personal feel. However, the fabric of the dining chairs is dirty.

p.5

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

Staff undertake periodic work with children and young people about stranger danger, bullying and how to complain. This helps to raise children’s and young people’s awareness of how to keep themselves safe.

p.5

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

Staff pay attention to praising children and young people for positive behaviour. This means that incidents are rare. When staff have needed to hold a young person, good record-keeping by staff and oversight by the registered manager ensure that learning from practice occurs.

p.5

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

Children and young people benefit from the support of a staff team that is mostly permanent. To ensure that there is consistent care, gaps in staffing are covered by staff working additional hours and by using regular bank and agency staff. Staff employed by the organisation are subject to thorough vetting before they start work. However, suitability of agency staff who work in the home is not adequately tested. For example, managers had not seen a full reference or sought scrutiny of the employment history for one agency member of staff. This leaves managers without enough information to decide whether staff are suitable to work with children and young people.

p.5

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

Staff receive regular supervision that helps them to reflect on their practice. One member of staff shared with the inspector, ‘Supervisions are useful. We talk about the approaches that we are using and if we are meeting children’s needs. We are different in character and the young people pose different challenges to different people. We work within the same principles and we know what works.’ However, managers have not ensured that all staff have had a prompt annual appraisal. This reduces opportunities for staff to understand what they are doing well and how they can professionally develop. Inspection report children’s home: SC365366 6 Children and young people benefit from the care of a staff team whose members have completed a wide variety of training to equip them with the knowledge necessary for their roles. This includes online training on handling medicines. However, the registered manager has not assessed the practical competency of all staff in the administration of

p.5

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

medicines as required by the organisation. This means that it is unknown if staff are proficient in practice.

p.6

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

The registered manager’s oversight of staff records and the staffing rota is weak. For example, there are not always enough staff on duty to meet the needs of children and young people. Furthermore, rotas are not clear about the times that staff are on duty and managers cannot show that they have the required records about staff who have previously worked in the home. This means that in the case of an allegation it is unclear which staff have been caring for children and young people.

p.6

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

Children’s and young people’s records do not hold all the statutory documentation that staff need to inform the children’s and young people’s care. For example, one young person’s record did not hold a copy of his review health assessment, his personal education plan or the minutes of his looked after review. In addition, the home’s plans are lengthy, and records are not always current and child-focused. This makes it difficult for children and young people to easily understand the information that is held about them.

p.6

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

The statement of purpose has not been updated by the registered manager to reflect recent changes to the service. A previous version was not sent to the regulator. This means that current information about the service is not available.

p.6

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.

p.6

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: SC365366 7

p.6

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 3 Shetland Close, Birmingham, Warwickshire B16 0RF

p.7

Inspector

Alison Cooper: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC365366 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

p.7

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.8

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.8

Inspector

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

p.8