Children's home run by T-Junction Children’s Services

Inspection report children’s home: 1252023 1 Registered provider: T-Junction Children’s Services 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 is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three children who have social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. It is operated by a private provider. The manager has been registered since February 2019. The manager is currently undertaking the recognised qualification for residential managers.

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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

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: 1252023 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/07/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 18/10/2017 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1252023 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 leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that—

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

(a) lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 13(b) and (2)(a)) 15/05/2019

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Recommendations

 Staff skills for safeguarding should include being able to identify signs that children may be at risk, and support children in strategies to manage and reduce risks. Staff should encourage children to express their views about whether they feel safe both within and outside the home. Staff should support children to understand how to ask for help to stay safe and that the home is an environment which supports this. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.10)  The behaviour management strategy should be understood and applied at all times by staff, and must be kept under review where appropriate. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.34)  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

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Recommendations

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 is most helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4) Inspection report children’s home: 1252023 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Both of the children residing in this home attend a local school and have excellent attendance. They have made good progress, both academically and behaviourally. Children are comfortable in the school environment. They enjoy learning and spending time with their friends. Staff also promote education at home. They encourage reading, educational trips and discussions about interesting topics.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Managers and staff prioritise children’s health and emotional well-being. Children are registered with primary healthcare services and attend all of their routine appointments. Staff are attentive to children’s health and recently acted quickly when one child unexpectedly developed epilepsy. Children receive the psychotherapy that they need to help them make progress emotionally and behaviourally. The manager also ensures that children have access to other mental health specialists when required. The manager advocates on behalf of the children to ensure that they have the right therapeutic, physical and mental health support.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from a wide range of activities, including football training, Girl Guides, going to the cinema and ice skating. Because staff engage well with children during activities, relationships between children and staff have greatly improved over recent months. There have been fewer incidents of concern and a greater stability in the staff team. Children now want to spend time with staff. They are increasingly confident to confide in staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in a comfortable and well-maintained home environment. Managers and staff are proud of the home and ensure that, if there is any damage to the home, repairs are carried out immediately. The children decide how they want their rooms to be decorated and there are a great many photos of the children throughout. This is a home that children can be proud to live in.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff undertake detailed and thoughtful individual work sessions with children. This work helps children to talk about any worries or concerns they may have. These sessions have also helped children manage their feelings and emotions better because they know that they can talk openly about issues instead of resorting to aggressive or destructive behaviour.

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

Staff have shown determination and perseverance when faced with some extremely challenging behaviour. This has resulted in children developing trusting relationships with staff. In turn, children have felt safer and well cared for. Children have become settled.

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

Staff have managed incidents of challenging behaviour appropriately. There has been a high number of physical interventions because children have displayed violence towards Inspection report children’s home: 1252023 5 others. These interventions have been proportionate to the circumstances and carried out in accordance with approved methods of physical intervention. However, strategies to manage challenging behaviour, as set out in the children’s relevant plans, should be improved so that there is greater clarity for staff.

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

The manager understands the importance of recruiting new staff in adherence to safer recruitment processes. She undertakes a broad range of checks to ascertain prospective new workers’ backgrounds. This helps to minimise the risk to children from those caring for them.

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

Staff receive training in safeguarding children. This starts during their induction, with several courses including ‘reducing the risk of exploitation’ and ‘managing confrontation’. All staff undertake refresher safeguarding training. This keeps their knowledge and skills up to date.

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

Children have gone missing from the home after becoming upset, frustrated or angry with staff. This is very often over apparently trivial matters. Staff have tried to calm children and return them to the home immediately. Staff will undertake debriefs with children when they return home or following incidents. This helps to raise children’s awareness of the triggers to becoming overly upset and the risks of going missing. The manager and staff could analyse this information better to identify signs that the children’s behaviour is escalating. This may help them take earlier action to prevent situations becoming unmanageable.

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

The registered manager is still relatively new to the home. On taking up her post, she immediately implemented an improvement plan. This plan, although very positive, is not yet fully effective, especially in relation to the manager’s oversight of significant incidents. For example, the manager failed to identify that during a physical intervention the child expressed concerns over the actions of staff. It is imperative for the welfare of children that the manager implements a robust system for reviewing such incidents.

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

Staff are not yet recording information on children’s files clearly or in enough detail. This limits the ability of managers and safeguarding agencies to understand events that have taken place in children’s lives. This is especially important following significant incidents, so that the actions of staff and managers can be evaluated.

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

The staff team has access to good training and developmental opportunities. The manager and leaders of the organisation have acted quickly to stabilise the staff team and improve staff retention. The recruitment of permanent staff is now complete. This has significantly improved consistency of care.

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

The manager ensures that staff receive the help, support and oversight that they require to provide a good level of care to children. Staff receive individual monthly supervision that provides them with the opportunity to discuss any concerns they may have. Staff say that they feel valued and listened to by managers. Inspection report children’s home: 1252023 6 Staff benefit from and enjoy regular team meetings as well as a monthly clinical meeting with a psychotherapist. These meetings are well attended, and the care practice of staff is improved as a result. The opportunities provided to staff to reflect on their practice, share ideas and develop joint solutions to problems constitute a strength of the service.

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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: 1252023 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: T-Junction Children’s Services Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 3 Field Leys Way, Birstall, Leicester, Leicestershire LE4 3EL

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Inspector

Phillip Morris, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1252023 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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Inspector

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