Children's Home run by Nottinghamshire County Council in Derbyshire

Inspection report children‟s home: SC051513 1 SC051513 Registered provider: Nottinghamshire County Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a local authority home providing care for up to four children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties and/or a hearing impairment.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: SC051513 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

05/06/2018 Full Good 10/07/2017 Full Good 12/10/2016 Full Good 20/01/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children‟s home: SC051513 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 health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

the health and well-being needs of children are met;

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Requirement Due date

children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being; and

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Requirement Due date

children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

achieve the health and well-being outcomes that are recorded in the child‟s relevant plans; and

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Requirement Due date

understand the child‟s health and well-being needs and the options that are available in relation to the child‟s health and well-being, in a way that is appropriate to the child‟s age and understanding.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(i)(ii)) 28/06/2019

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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 that staff—

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Requirement Due date

help each child to achieve the child‟s education and training targets, as recorded in the child‟s relevant plans.

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on— 28/06/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC051513 4 mutual respect and trust;

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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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

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child‟s behaviour, in accordance with the child‟s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

communicate to each child expectations about the child‟s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child‟s age and understanding; and

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child‟s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(iii)(v)(vi))

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Requirement Due date

An individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained—

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Requirement Due date

the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) (“the Level 3 Diploma”); or

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Requirement Due date

a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 32 (4)(a)(b)(5)(a)(b)(6)(a)(b)) 29/11/2019

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people build positive relationships with a stable team of carers. Care staff support young people to develop good routines and independence skills. The development of skills, such as travelling independently and budgeting, has enhanced young people‟s self- Inspection report children‟s home: SC051513 5 esteem and confidence. One young person said: „I like living here. Staff respect you. They are friendly, funny and sound.‟

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A strength of this home is the difference that staff make in supporting young people to repair family relationships. Staff understand the importance of promoting contact with families and carers. As a result, there have been more successful visits with family. One social worker said: „Staff have gone above and beyond to support this plan to work out for this young person.‟

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Each young person has education arrangements in place and they have made progress from their starting points. Some young people were not engaging with education prior to coming to this home. Although there have been some setbacks, staff are very good at liaising with the virtual school and directly with education settings to ensure that any difficulties are resolved. One education professional said: „There is excellent information sharing with the staff… we have daily telephone calls and we share how his day has been here.‟ In this way, achievements and positive behaviour are reinforced. For one young person, attending full-time education has made a signficant difference to his confidence and his social skills. This has helped him to form better relationships with his peers.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There is useful information in education, health and care plans. However, this information is not being used well by staff to help young people to achieve their education targets. Managers should ensure that staff are familiar with the detail of education plans. They should also ensure that there are mechanisms in place to closely monitor and escalate concerns if education plans are not received in a timely way from placing authorities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people have detailed health plans that identify their healthcare needs and promote good health. Young people have benefited from consistent health monitoring. However, there is a need for a more robust response to young people smoking tobacco. The records show that there have been some incidents of smoking in the home, which presents risks. Young people have also influenced each other‟s behaviours, leading to an increase in smoking.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One young person is prescribed glasses and is refusing to wear them. Staff need to find out more information about the impact of this for the young person and to develop a more effective strategy to address this.

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improvement to be good

There have been a number of signficant incidents of violence and threats to staff. The levels of challenging behaviour make it difficult for staff to maintain a consistently nurturing and stable environment. Managers have limited the number of young people living in the home in order to improve stability. In recent weeks, there has been significant progress, particularly in meeting the needs of one young person. Inspection report children‟s home: SC051513 6 Although there have been fewer incidents of concern recently, the records show that staff are not consistently addressing potentially harmful behaviours well. These behaviours include going into each other‟s rooms at night, bringing illegal substances into the home and smoking in the home. Managers need to review behaviour management approaches so that they are supporting young people to change behaviours and sustain change. They also need to ensure that ground rules about living

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improvement to be good

together in the home are explicit from the start, and are consistently enforced.

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improvement to be good

There has been a signficant reduction in young people running away from the home since the last inspection. When there have been incidents, staff have taken all necessary actions to minimise risk. They have also spoken constructively with young people to prevent further incidents.

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improvement to be good

Training to raise awareness about sexually harmful behaviours and risks associated with the use of digital technology has been delivered to staff. This has improved the capacity of staff to recognise and respond to concerns.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is experienced and qualified. The staff group members are resilient and committed. Staff report that they have opportunities to share their views and receive regular supervision. Team meetings include consultation about young people. Managers are in the process of introducing group supervision to support effective practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Since the previous inspection, an experienced assistant manager has been appointed. This strengthens management arrangements. The assistant manager has led a review of quality assurance and has introduced monthly case management meetings with key workers. These meetings are used well to review placement plans, to evaluate what is working and to set targets for young people. Planned key-work sessions with young people are linked to these targets. This means that there is improved tracking of young people‟s progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There has been some very effective multi-agency working that has improved young people‟s outcomes and safety. The manager has improved information sharing systems with a range of specialist services so that effective strategies are developed to support young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has also repaired relationships that were affected by some incidents of anti-social behaviour in the community. This means that young people enjoy more opportunities for social activities in the community.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There has been some delay in a small group of staff completing their care qualification. The local authority has addressed the reasons for this. However, the delays mean that one member of staff will not be qualified by the relevant date. Inspection report children‟s home: SC051513 7

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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: SC051513 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Nottinghamshire County Council, County Hall, Loughborough Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham NG2 7QP

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Helen Daft (Interim)

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Inspector(s)

Cathey Moriarty: social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC051513 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 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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