Children's Home run by Oracle Care Limited in Staffordshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC368982 1 SC368982 Registered provider: Oracle 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

This home is owned and operated by a private company. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three children aged eight to 18. The children may have complex social, emotional and behavioural needs, and require attachment-aware, trauma-informed care and support.

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Information about this children’s home

The current manager successfully registered with Ofsted in May 2016.

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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 outstanding

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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: 23 January 2018

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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: SC368982 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

23/01/2018 Full Good 15/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 21/11/2016 Full Good 15/12/2015 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC368982 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 education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

that each child has access to appropriate equipment, facilities and resources to support the child’s learning. (Regulation 8 (1)(2)(b)) 25/02/2019

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the children’s home is a nurturing and supportive environment that meets the needs of children, and is a homely, domestic environment. Children’s homes must comply with relevant health and safety legislations; 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 15, paragraph 3.9)

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Recommendations

This is with particular reference to the timely redecoration of the home following necessary repairs and maintenance work.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress in all areas of their development. Their day-to-day experiences are positive because staff focus on children’s individual needs and deliver personalised care to meet these needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff make sure that internal care and support plans reflect the aims and objectives of the placing authorities. They regularly review these plans to identify children’s progress Inspection report children’s home: SC368982 4 and highlight where they may need additional or specialist support. This approach helps children to recognise and celebrate their achievements.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Relationships between children and staff are positive. Staff continually encourage children to express their views, wishes and opinions. Children say that they are fully aware of the content of their care plans, and the targets and goals within them. One child said, ‘Staff go through my plans and stuff with me, so I get to say what I think.’ This means that children are involved in decisions about their care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from quick and easy access to in-house therapy sessions. These take account of their complex and often traumatic backgrounds and experiences. This bespoke work supports children’s emotional well-being and teaches them strategies to manage their feelings. As a result, children receive good quality healthcare that supports their development.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Managers and staff work with children to help them to understand how good educational attendance and attainment supports their development. Children attend the organisation’s own independent school. However, despite the efforts of the registered manager, the registered provider does not ensure that this service works with the home to address the barriers to learning that children may face. This hinders children’s educational progress. For one child, this means that they do not have a suitable education plan.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy regular time with their families when this is appropriate to their circumstances. Staff understand how important this is for children. They provide emotional and practical support so that children can make the most of these visits. This means that children are not isolated from their families and are able to benefit from positive relationships with people who are important to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When children are ready to move towards adulthood, staff devise bespoke independent living plans. These plans incorporate a mix of practical tasks and supportive one-to-one sessions. This approach enables children to build both the functional skills and emotional resilience needed to live more independently.

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

Managers and staff compile detailed risk assessments that reflect children’s individual needs, risks and vulnerabilities. These provide staff with strategies to manage and reduce known risks.

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

Staff use one-to-one sessions to encourage children to take responsibility for their behaviours. Through these sessions, children begin to recognise how their actions may be symptomatic of their anxieties and frustrations. Staff use a mixture of incentives and sanctions to support children to make positive choices. This helps them to understand the impact that their actions may have on others. Children say that this approach means that they ‘think about what they’re doing before they do it’. Inspection report children’s home: SC368982 5 The use of physical restraint remains rare. Staff only use this measure of control as a last resort to prevent children from harming themselves or others. They make sure that records of these incidents include all relevant details. Staff undertake reflective debrief sessions with children after these incidents. They use children’s feedback and comments to review risk assessments and behaviour plans. This enables the registered manager to

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

evaluate, review and monitor these events effectively, and ensure that appropriate strategies are in place to support children.

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

There are a few occasions when children go missing from the home. In these circumstances, staff work with local police teams to quickly locate children. Staff facilitate welfare checks and missing-from-home return interviews. They use information from these meetings to regularly review missing-from-home risk assessments. This ensures that these assessments continue to reflect children’s vulnerabilities and the emotional triggers for this behaviour.

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

Children have a good understanding of their own risks and work with staff to reduce them. For example, all children attend workshops relating to cyber and internet safety. This helps children to take age-appropriate responsibility for their own safety.

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

Managers and staff undertake safeguarding and child protection training. This includes sessions relating to the referral and management of allegations. The registered manager works with the designated officer for the local authority to make sure that any allegations are quickly investigated. This good practice promotes children’s safety and welfare.

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

The home environment is safe. Staff regularly undertake health and safety checks, and fire checks. Staff are quick to action any repairs that are the result of damage to the home. However, general maintenance and redecoration is not a priority. This means some communal parts of the home are not as comfortable or welcoming as others.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager uses her immense skills and experience to continually develop and improve the service. Her focus and her vision for the home centre on her understanding of children’s individual needs, and now she can support the staff team to meet these needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager uses internal audits to collect information about children’s progress. This oversight is excellent. Monitoring systems enable her to identify and assess links between the quality of care provided by the service and the impact on positive outcomes for children. She highlights any patterns or trends relating to staff performance that may hinder children’s progress, and uses this information to improve practice in the home. This fluid and constant service review means that staff can respond effectively to children’s changing needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff receive regular, practice-related supervision, which is excellent. The format of these sessions encourages staff to identify their own learning needs and reflect on their Inspection report children’s home: SC368982 6 practice. The registered manager facilitates continued learning through staff consultations with therapeutic practitioners, and through regular team meetings. She incorporates this learning into the review of children’s support plans. This means that staff understand how their actions and responses may influence children’s behaviours, based on their backgrounds and previous experiences.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager makes sure that staff hold qualifications at a suitable level for their role, or have the time and support they need to complete these qualifications. Staff undertake a range of training courses. These reflect children’s individual needs. The courses provide staff with the skills and competencies that they need to support children and to help them to make sustainable developmental progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Partnership working arrangements with placing authorities and other external professionals are strong and effective. The registered manager is unwavering in her expectations of others. She is confident and tenacious in challenging others when their actions or inactions impact on children’s development. Because of this approach, children receive integrated care that supports their development.

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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: SC368982 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Oracle Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 54, Wrest Park, Silsoe, Bedford MK45 4HS

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Inspector

Jo Stephenson, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC368982 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

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Inspector

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Inspector

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