Children's home run by Beacon Childcare Ltd in Cheltenham

Inspection report children’s home: 1230415 1 Registered provider: Beacon Childcare

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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 for four young people up to the age of 18. The home offers care for young people who have social and/or emotional difficulties. The home is privately owned.

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Information about this children’s home

There is a manager in post. The manager is not yet registered with Ofsted.

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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: sustained effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

Since the last full inspection, a compliance notice was issued twice relating to the safer recruitment of staff. Inspectors judged the notice to be met at a head office monitoring visit on 4 April 2019. Inspection report children’s home: 1230415 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/03/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 30/08/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 02/11/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 05/06/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children’s home: 1230415 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 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)) 02/08/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that any individual who works in the home in a care role has achieved the appropriate qualification by the relevant date. The relevant date is, in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls two years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home; or in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1st April 2014, 1st April 2016. (Regulation 32 (4)(a)(b)(5)(a)(b)) 04/11/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees undertake appropriate continuing professional development. (Regulation 33 (4)(a))

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Requirement Due date

This is in relation to training to raise staff awareness of county lines, gangs, criminal exploitation and the ‘Prevent’ duty. 02/08/2019

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating the quality of care provided for children; the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it. The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (2)(a)(b)(5)) 02/08/2019

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Recommendations

 Beyond local authorities, there are other people, bodies and organisations that have responsibilities towards children in children’s homes. Many of these are referenced specifically in the Regulations and Guide. They might include health and education services, Local Safeguarding Children Boards, leaving care Inspection report children’s home: 1230415 4 services, IROs, voluntary agencies, the police and youth offending teams. This list is not exhaustive. The important thing is that homes take the initiative in identifying others who must play a part for their children and engage with those relevant people proactively, advocating for the children in their care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 12, paragraph 2.7)  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

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Recommendations

environments. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9) This is with specific reference to ensuring that the garden is an inviting space for children.  The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. Professionally qualified staff employed by the home, e.g. teachers or social workers, should be provided with relevant professional or clinical supervision by an appropriately qualified and experienced professional. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)  Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Staff should

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Recommendations

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

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children quickly form positive relationships with staff and enjoy each other’s company. They happily share meal times together and help each other with daily chores. These positive bonds help children to feel secure and to make good progress in all areas of their development.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that children experience good daily routines. They have positive relationships with teachers and use these relationships to ensure that children sustain good school attendance. Staff have brought in an award system for one child. This new system has helped him to improve his school attendance. It has been so successful that he has managed to achieve a full-time school placement.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children to attend routine health appointments and to access more specialised services when needed. Children enjoy a balanced diet and take part in a range of leisure activities. They make the most of local facilities, including going swimming, visiting the Inspection report children’s home: 1230415 5 parks and going to the youth club. Consequently, children enjoy good physical health and have fun.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff show an awareness of the children’s cultural needs. Discussions at children’s meetings enable children to plan activities that help to celebrate culture. For example, children have planned menus for theme nights.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff try hard to ensure that the home is clean and tidy and that there are pictures of the children around the home. However, the garden requires attention. For example, the grass is patchy due to overhanging trees. This means that it is not an inviting space for children to play.

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

Professionals are positive about the care and support that children receive from staff. One independent reviewing officer told the inspector, ‘[name of child] is contented and this is the safest place he has been.’

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

Children are encouraged to get involved in choosing their rewards and consequences. This helps them to improve their behaviour. Staff carry out direct work with children that is part of their care plan. This work has helped some children to increase their safety. For example, one child has received support from staff on managing their anger. As a result, incidents involving the child have significantly decreased.

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

Managers have reviewed the location risk assessment for the home and have identified that child sexual exploitation and gangs may present an issue in the local area. Staff are aware of the signs and symptoms of child sexual exploitation. However, staff have not had the opportunity to receive training that will help them to understand and identify the risks and signs associated with gangs and county lines. In addition, two members of staff have not had training about the ‘Prevent’ duty. This leaves staff with a potential gap in their safeguarding knowledge.

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

Managers have acted to ensure that the premises are safe. The sluice machine and tumble dryer are now located in a laundry room. The fire risk assessment has been reviewed and new fire doors have been fitted to ground floor doorways as required.

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

Since the last full inspection, managers have ensured that the recruitment and vetting of new staff now helps to safeguard children.

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

The current manager has applied to Ofsted to be the home’s next registered manager.

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

The manager has been committed to making improvements. He has taken swift action to meet all the requirements and recommendations raised at the last inspection. One child told the inspector, ‘It’s the best home I have ever lived in. The manager has really changed everything around. The laundry is better now, and he has made this happen.’ Inspection report children’s home: 1230415 6 Children’s records now hold their placing authority’s care plans. Children are now encouraged to write in their own plans. This has helped to increase their influence in their day-to-day care. However, staff do not always make sure that records are legible. These shortfalls in records limit the children’s ability to fully understand their experience and progress.

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

The frequency of staff supervision has increased, and staff describe the manager as having a genuine interest in them and in the children. However, one member of staff does not have any evidence of reflective practice in their supervision record. This means that an opportunity to develop a staff member’s professional practice has been lost.

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

Senior staff have attempted to establish better links with the local police force. However, the manager has not chased up the lack of response by the police. This represents a missed opportunity to forge a positive relationship with a key partner.

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

The manager has brought the home’s statement of purpose up to date. However, he has not sent the revised statement of purpose to the regulator.

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

The manager has carried out a review of the quality of care. However, he has recognised that the systems currently used by the organisation to support this review do not help him to fully understand the overall impact of the quality of care for children. In addition, there is no system in place to help the manager to gain the feedback of key stakeholders as part of the review. This limits the manager’s ability to better understanding the service’s areas of strength and where further development is needed.

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

One member of staff has still not managed to achieve a level 3 diploma in residential childcare within the regulatory timescale. The manager has brought in better oversight to ensure that the member of staff achieves the required qualification in an agreed time period.

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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: 1230415 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Hazlewoods, Windsor House, Bayshill Road, CHELTENHAM, Gloucestershire GL50 3AT

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Inspector

Alison Cooper, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1230415 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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