Children's Home run by Keys Educational Services Limited in Nottinghamshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC363384 1 SC363384 Registered provider: Broadwood Educational Services 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 privately owned and provides care for up to four young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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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

Date of last inspection: 10 January 2018

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC363384 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/01/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 19/09/2017 Full Good 14/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 17/08/2016 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC363384 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 protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(v))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, ensure that staff undertake timely risk assessment reviews with clear plans for risk reduction, ensure that staff offer regular planned key-working sessions about keeping safe, and ensure that all staff are fully trained on matters relating to unauthorised absence and missing from care. 10/03/2019

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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 Inspection report children’s home: SC363384 4 15, paragraph 3.9)

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Recommendations

 All children must have access to appropriate advocacy support, and where possible this should be provided by a person that the child chooses. Looked-after children are entitled to an independent advocate to advise them and ensure they have the support needed to express their views, wishes and feelings about their care and lives. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 32, paragraph 4.16)

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Recommendations

 The Government has raised the participation in education age so that all young people from summer 2015 will be required to continue in education or training until their 18th birthday. Young people can choose how to participate. This can be through full-time education, an apprenticeship or traineeship, or by combining full-time employment with part-time education or training. Whilst the duty is on the young person themselves, it is important that children’s homes’ staff encourage the young person to continue their education or training and support them to develop the skills necessary to succeed in the option they choose. They can also direct them to the financial support that is available through the 16-19 bursary fund and to their local authority young people’s services who can advise about the options available. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.16)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people make good progress. Staff have an excellent understanding of young people’s histories and needs. Young people are supported to maintain positive and meaningful relationships with staff. This is a challenge because young people have previously experienced a number of placement breakdowns. A psychotherapist praised the progress that young people make in light of their history of placement breakdown.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff advocate very well for young people. This is particularly evident in how staff support young people’s transitions to adulthood and how staff support young people to maintain positive family contact. In some circumstances, young people may benefit from independent advocacy. This has not been fully explored by the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people, particularly those who have lived at the home for some time, become more emotionally stable and resilient. As a result, there are significant reductions in risk-taking behaviours over time.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people are well supported to address offending behaviours. They are no longer involved in the criminal justice system. Consequently, their life chances are significantly improved.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people who have previously not engaged with education have been well supported at Inspection report children’s home: SC363384 5 school. For two young people, this has enabled them to achieve qualifications. However, staff are not as effective when supporting young people in post-16 education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people’s participation in the home has improved. Staff have put in place incentives for young people to share their views, wishes and feelings. This has supported young people to engage more in young people’s meetings. However, the home is not consistently well presented and has an institutional feel. This does not support the efforts of staff to create a homely, nurturing environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Stakeholder feedback is generally positive. A social worker said, ‘The placement has been brilliant for him. He has presented as a completely different child since being at the home.’ A grandmother said, ‘He is a lot happier here. Staff are professional, truthful and caring.’

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improvement to be good

Young people have been supported to reduce their risk-associated behaviours over time. Although children are exposed to risk when they run away from the home, staff are proactive in requesting multi-agency reviews and developing strategies to reduce vulnerabilities. Work to reduce missing episodes could be further strengthened by improving the quality of risk assessments, and improving the effectiveness of direct work with young people in relation to risk.

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improvement to be good

Behaviour management systems are effective. Staff are able to de-escalate challenging behaviour in most cases so that physical intervention is rarely used.

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improvement to be good

Regular key-working sessions are taking place on an ad hoc basis. This supports the development of good relationships with young people and helps staff to address issues as they arise. However, planned key-working sessions that are designed to support young people in key areas such as risks, education engagement and expectations around absence from the home have not been taking place regularly. The registered manager has an action plan to address this shortfall.

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improvement to be good

Risk assessments are understood by staff and are fully adhered to. Staff update risk assessments following incidents, but routine and regular reviews of risk do not take place to ensure that all information is accurate and up to date.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home has had a number of changes in the last year. The registered manager is currently on maternity leave. An acting registered manager has stepped into the role and has made an excellent start. As well as the change in manager, a new recording system has been introduced. Managers have supported the staff team well through this unsettling period. The consistent staff team has provided stability to the young people. Inspection report children’s home: SC363384 6 The registered managers are experienced and knowledgeable. Clear and realistic development plans are in place. In addition, the current registered manager has identified several areas of development for the service and has started to address them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is passionate about advocating for the young people. There have been several situations in which she has intervened to promote good outcomes for young people. Managers are confident to challenge other agencies to ensure that the best possible services are available to young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager ensures that staff are well supported. Staff receive regular supervisions and are well trained.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager acts quickly to address recommendations made by the independent visitor. This is demonstrated by the recent significant reduction in the number of shortfalls identified during visits. The registered manager has also addressed most of the recommendations given at the last Ofsted inspection. However, not enough has been done to improve the knowledge of staff in relation to missing-from-home procedures.

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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: SC363384 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Broadwood Educational Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Maybrook House, Queensway, Halesowen, Worcestershire B63 4AH

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Amy Duckmanton Symone Hodson

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Inspector(s)

Bev Allison, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC363384 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.

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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