Children's home run by Progress Children’s Services Ltd in Wolverhampton

Inspection report children’s home: SC020859 1 SC020859 Registered provider: Progress Children’s Services

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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 one of a number of homes operated by a private company. The home provides care and accommodation for up to six young people who have learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered since 2018.

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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 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: 14 December 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: SC020859 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/12/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 17/04/2018 Full Good 21/02/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness 06/06/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children’s home: SC020859 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 quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)(2)(c)(i))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that children’s bedrooms are well presented and maintained. 05/08/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (‘case records’) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are kept up to date. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that key-work sessions are targeted and of consistent quality. In addition, ensure that children’s files contain all key documents. 05/08/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC020859 4

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Recommendations

 Staff should continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. Where there are safeguarding concerns for a child, their placement plan, agreed between the home and their placing authority, must include details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risks on a day to day basis (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5). In particular, ensure that children’s risk assessments fully reflect their risks and are kept updated.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children feel happy and settled in their home. They build trusted relationships with staff who know them well and invest in them. This helps children to develop a strong sense of belonging in the home. This positive ethos helps children to make progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress with their education. Their school attendance is excellent. Staff and teachers work closely together to provide children with seamless and consistent care. This helps children to make academic and social progress. For example, one child is now able to read some words, and another child has been made ‘star pupil’ by his school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children play a key role in the day-to-day decisions about their care. Recently, they helped to choose the decor of the home during its recent extensive refurbishment. Children also built new garden furniture and helped to redesign an area of the garden. The registered manager gives children responsibility for the upkeep of the home. This helps children to invest in their environment. As a result, there are fewer incidents of damage. However, some children’s bedrooms are unkempt and in need of redecoration. The registered manager plans to address this shortfall imminently by redecorating them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that children spend time with those who are important to them. They work hard to develop positive relationships with parents and carers. When appropriate, staff advocate on children’s behalf, so they can spend safe and enjoyable time with their families. This helps children to repair fractured relationships and provides them with a positive sense of identity.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide children with specialist help when necessary. They work closely with partner agencies to offer support on a range of issues such as anger management, sexually inappropriate behaviour and identity. This gives children increased knowledge and skills with which to manage and make sense of difficult emotions and feelings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy a range of activities and enjoyable experiences. They visit local parks and enjoy trips to the cinema and swimming pool. Some children enjoy going to the gym, and others have music lessons. Staff are keen to broaden children’s experiences by Inspection report children’s home: SC020859 5 introducing them to community-based activities. For example, there are plans to involve a child in a local boxing club and a music club. These varied opportunities help to build children’s self-esteem.

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

Staff follow clear procedures to keep children safe. They offer children targeted key-work sessions to help them understand and address their risk-taking behaviour. Staff also provide children with a high level of supervision and support. As a result, children feel safe and settled in their home.

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

Staff support children to develop new strategies to manage their emotions. These strategies are consistently reinforced by the staff. For example, children have learned to go for a walk in the garden to help them to become calm.

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

Staff know children well and use their intuition to recognise and manage the triggers to children’s challenging behaviour. In the main, risk assessments contain key information and clear guidance for staff on how to manage risk. However, some risk assessments lack information and do not reflect the risks that children are exposed to.

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

Children can seek support from trusted members of staff when they feel anxious or troubled. They feel that staff listen to them and take their concerns seriously. This open and supportive ethos helps children to feel safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is aspirational and ambitious for the children in his care. He is central to the ongoing improvements in the quality of care that children receive. Staff practice is increasingly reflective and intuitive. This provides children with individualised care that helps them to make progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is supported by an experienced and skilled staff team that is passionate about children’s care. Staff continue to develop their practice by undertaking specialist lead roles, organising internal workshops and sharing their expertise with others. New staff receive good inductions and settle quickly.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager uses an extensive range of graphs to collect data on children’s progress. This data is used to develop and improve the quality of care that children receive. For example, the registered manager scrutinises incident reports to establish triggers and then takes the necessary steps to address any potential shortfalls.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive good-quality and regular supervision, which supports them to reflect on their roles and helps to challenge their practice. Staff also benefit from a comprehensive training programme that covers specialist areas of care. Their team meetings are detailed, with a key focus on children’s progress and developing practice. This healthy Inspection report children’s home: SC020859 6 learning environment continues to improve the quality of care that children receive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children’s internal plans comprehensibly identify their needs. The registered manager and staff work closely with social workers and a range of other professionals to secure positive outcomes for children. Overall, the quality of children’s records is improving. However, some shortfalls remain. For example, some key-work sessions are not targeted and lack detail. Some children’s files are also missing key documents. The registered manager is planning to organise a further workshop for staff to help to improve the quality of key-work sessions.

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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: SC020859 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Progress Children’s Services

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Progress Childrens Services Ltd, Progress House, 127 Millfields Road, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire WV4 6JG

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Yasser Madugu Kpabia

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Inspector

Gareth Leckey, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC020859 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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