Children's Home run by Abbey Green Therapeutic Children’s Services Ltd in Nottinghamshire

Inspection report children’s home: 2508525 1 Registered provider: Abbey Green Therapeutic Children’s Services 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 by a private company. It provides therapeutic care and accommodation for up to four children who have experienced traumatic events in their lives and may subsequently present with a range of attachment, behavioural and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has a suitably qualified manager who is 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 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: this is the home’s first inspection

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report children’s home: 2508525 2

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Recommendations

 Staff need the knowledge and skills to recognise and be alert for any signs that might indicate a child is in any way at risk of harm. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.12)

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Recommendations

This is in relation to all staff receiving training in respect of e-safety, and in relation to all staff developing skills to alert them to risks associated with wider contextual safeguarding.  Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Recommendations

This is in relation to managers always completing and recording debriefs with all staff involved in significant incidents and physical interventions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All of the children who have come to live at this newly registered children’s home have made very good progress in all aspects of their lives. Having experienced significant trauma and placement breakdowns previously, the consistent, nurturing care provided has helped children to settle and form relationships with carers. As a result, children’s lives stabilise, and they start to feel more secure. One child reported how happy he was and stated that ‘there is nothing that I would change’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

After periods of inconsistent engagement and attendance at school, children re-engage in individualised full-time education plans. Carers actively support children and work closely with education providers to give children the best opportunity to learn and progress educationally.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Carers have high aspirations for children and support them to develop hobbies and interests within the local community. For example, one child’s talent in basketball has been nurtured and this has resulted in him recently attending a residential basketball camp and playing at a county level. The high level of praise and encouragement all children receive for their achievements, no matter how small, helps them to develop confidence and feel good about themselves.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Carers meet children’s physical and emotional health needs well. Carers provide children with high levels of emotional warmth, clear routines and boundaries. Children and their carers are provided with regular support and guidance from in-house and external clinicians. This is helping children to start to make sense of their past experiences, start Inspection report children’s home: 2508525 3 to trust, develop empathy and form more positive relationships with others.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Carers support children to maintain and enhance their relationships with family members and those important to them, when it is safe to do so. Carers actively promote family time and help children to reflect on their feelings about their family members. This helps to enhance their sense of identity.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are highly respected and valued. Their wishes and feelings are listened to and acted on. For example, when a child asked to have a pet, the prospect of this was fully explored. It resulted in the child having a guinea pig, which has provided the home with much happiness and has given the child a positive sense of responsibility.

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

Relationships between children and their carers are positive and this provides the children with a sense of security and safety. A child explained that it was the carers looking after him that made him feel safe.

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

Detailed and regularly updated risk assessments and risk management plans are implemented by carers. This helps to keep children safe.

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

Since the opening of this home in March 2019, no children have gone missing. The risk of this occurring is significantly reduced through high levels of supervision, children engaging in a wide range of activities that keep them occupied and motivated, and carers engaging children in key-work sessions. An example of this is direct work in relation to ‘stranger danger’.

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

Safe recruitment practices help to ensure that only those adults that have been assessed as suitable to work with children are employed at the home.

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

Carers provide good support to children who, due to past trauma, struggle to regulate their emotions. Carers provide high levels of praise and reward. The use of physical intervention decreases as children get to know staff, learn to trust them, and develop an understanding of the boundaries and routines within the home. However, a lack of recording of detailed debriefs with carers following significant incidents and physical interventions limits management oversight. Opportunities to learn from incidents, to ensure that they are consistently well managed, are limited.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The passionate and aspirational manager, who is very well supported by like-minded directors, knows the children living at the home well. He is ambitious for them. The manager and directors lead by example and are an effective management team. Their enthusiasm and commitment to making a difference to children’s lives cascades down to the team of carers. Carers like working at the home. Morale is good. The atmosphere in the home is one of happiness and warmth. Inspection report children’s home: 2508525 4 Before admitting children into the home, the manager and directors very carefully consider whether the carers have the right skills to meet the specific needs of each child, and whether a new admission will be a suitable match with children already living in the home. As a result of this, followed by carefully planned introductions to the home, children settle quickly and feel very welcomed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The therapeutic approach used within the home is having a positive impact on the quality of care provided. Weekly sessions with a clinical supervisor, as well as day-to-day support from the home’s psychotherapist, are helping carers to develop insight and skills in relation to the chosen model of practice. This is becoming embedded, resulting in children receiving consistent, nurturing, therapeutic care from increasingly confident carers.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

In addition to the above, carers receive regular supervision from their manager. Carers have undertaken a range of mandatory training to help develop their understanding of the children living in the home. However, it would be beneficial for all staff to complete some additional training in relation to e-safety. Staff also need training to help them to be alert to other potential risks that could emerge in the future, such as radicalisation, criminal exploitation and county lines.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Partnership work is effective. Professionals spoken to during the inspection were unanimously positive about levels of communication between them, the manager and the carers. Effective partnership working is helping to ensure that children’s plans are progressing, and that children make very good progress.

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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: 2508525 5

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Abbey Green Therapeutic Children’s Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 51 Abbey Green Road, Leek, Staffordshire ST13 8SA

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Inspectors:

Rachel Griffiths, social care inspector Caroline Walsh, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 2508525 6 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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Inspectors:

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Inspectors:

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Inspectors:

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: http://www.gov.uk/ofsted

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