Children's home run by Time-Out Children’s Homes Limited in Calderdale

Inspection report children’s home: SC378407 1 SC378407 Registered provider: Time-Out Children’s Homes 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

This is one of several children’s homes operated by a private company. The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to two children and young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

If required, children and young people can access the organisation’s school and therapy department.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since July 2014.

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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: Outstanding

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Good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC378407 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

31/05/2018 Full Outstanding 31/07/2017 Full Good 14/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 14/09/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC378407 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 outcomes it seeks to achieve for children; and

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Requirement Due date

Use this understanding to deliver care that meets the 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 meet the needs of each child.

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, ensure that any damage caused by the children is fully repaired to a good standard. 19/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are located so that children are effectively safeguarded.

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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

helps children aspire and fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

promotes their welfare. 19/09/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC378407 4 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home.

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, review and improve monitoring activity and ensure that these systems are sufficiently robust for the registered manager to identify and address shortfalls relating to the environment.

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Recommendations

 Staff should seek to meet the child’s basic needs in the way that a good parent would, recognising that many children in residential care have experienced environments where these needs have not been consistently met – doing so is an important aspect of demonstrating that the staff care for the child and value them as an individual. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.7)

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Recommendations

Specifically, ensure that good standards of cleanliness are maintained in children’s bedrooms.

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Recommendations

 Records must be kept of the administration of all medication. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.15)

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Recommendations

Specifically, ensure that staff maintain administration of medication records in accordance with the homes recording procedure.

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Recommendations

 Any sanctions used to address poor behaviour should be restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community. In some cases, it will be important for children to make reparation in some form to anyone hurt by their behaviour and the staff in the home should be skilled to support the child to understand this and carry it out. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38)

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Recommendations

Specifically, ensure that when imposing financial reparations children can see what the money taken from them has been used for. Inspection report children’s home: SC378407 5

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from the care and support of a manager and staff team who prioritise their individual needs. Staff work in a determined way and deliver a programme of individualised care and support that enhances children’s progress and life experiences. A social worker said: ‘There are so many positives about this home. [Name] is very complex and the support from staff has been exceptional. [Name] has achieved so much and has enjoyed many memorable experiences, including a holiday to Disneyland, which is an amazing achievement.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff promote a collaborative and inclusive approach to care planning. They work closely with social workers, family members, therapists and education staff to ensure that obstacles to progress can be overcome. This ensures that children receive the levels of support they need to succeed. The effectiveness of this collaborative approach is evident in the good progress that children make relative to their time in placement.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One child has been supported well to prepare for and successfully transition to semi- independent living. Staff worked closely with leaving care professionals to ensure that the right accommodation, training placement and family support was in place. This, combined with the general support given during the child’s time in the home, has provided a positive platform on which they can prepare for life as an adult.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One child has been admitted recently to the home. The manager has made every effort to carefully match the needs of this child to those of the child already living there. Relationships are developing as staff work hard to establish a sense of belonging for this new child. The child’s social worker said, ‘I cannot speak highly enough of staff. It is early days, but staff are providing [name] with the boundaries and unconditional support he needs. They are persistent in this despite his efforts to test things.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Care planning and care practice are highly influenced by the therapeutic input provided by the organisation’s therapists. Staff demonstrate an insightful understanding of each child’s therapeutic plan and are effective in their efforts to implement this. A therapist said, ‘The team are good at following plans. They focus on helping children to realise their potential.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The procedures for managing medication are generally good. However, not all staff are following the home’s medication recording procedures. This caused a significant amount of confusion during the inspection when staff tried to account for missing medication. It was later confirmed that this had been safely disposed of by staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged to make this their home. They have contributed to choosing colour schemes and have helped decorate some rooms. Staff encourage and support Inspection report children’s home: SC378407 6 children to keep their bedrooms tidy. However, good levels of cleanliness are not always being maintained in children’s bedrooms.

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improvement to be good

A range of health and safety procedures, risk assessments and routine checks are used to ensure that the environment is safe for children and staff. However, staff are not always thorough in the application of these checks. For example, the inspector saw an alarm panel missing its front cover. Wires were exposed and some of the panel was lit, suggesting that it was live. This presents a potentially significant risk to staff, who sleep in this room, but also to children, who could easily reach the panel when the staff bedroom door is open. The manager was unaware of this issue but took immediate steps to have the panel removed and made safe.

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improvement to be good

Children are protected by a range of safeguarding measures, such as systems for dealing with safeguarding concerns and allegations. The manager and staff are trained in safeguarding. Links with external agencies and professionals are in place and can be used if required.

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improvement to be good

Staff provide a suitable level of supervision that is reduced over time to allow children to take age-appropriate risks, and to promote personal growth. Care plans and risk assessments are detailed, regularly reviewed and consistently implemented to reduce and manage children’s risks and vulnerabilities.

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improvement to be good

Staff know what action to take when children go missing. This is an increasing concern for one child, and the manager has been quick to identify this. She has sought to bring together a range of professionals to develop a collaborative response to managing this behaviour and addressing some of the concerns.

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improvement to be good

Staff act as positive role models and encourage children to behave in a positive way. They make good use of rewards to recognise when children have done well and reinforce good behaviour. Negative and challenging behaviour is responded to in a calm, supportive and respectful way that encourages children to reflect and moderate their own behaviour. When sanctions are imposed, they are proportionate and restorative in nature. For example, children have on occasions helped repair damage that they have caused. However, when imposing financial reparation, it is not always clear that the money taken from the child has been used for the stated purpose, for example, purchasing air fresheners for a bedroom in which the child has been caught smoking.

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improvement to be good

Staff are trained in and have had to use physical restraint on 38 occasions since the last inspection. Detailed records are maintained of these incidents and they provide good evidence of how staff have tried to avoid the use of this measure and how they have been caring and proportionate in their approach. Children and staff are given the opportunity to reflect on and learn from these incidents.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Inspection report children’s home: SC378407 7 Children benefit from living in a well-run home. The registered manager and senior staff work well together and provide good leadership for this team of caring and enthusiastic staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There have been several changes to the team since the last inspection. The manager has been careful to ensure that rotas are planned in a way that minimises the impact of this change and maintains some level of continuity of care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

New staff have been inducted well and have been given the opportunity to learn from the more experienced staff. Team meetings, handovers, formal supervision and regular performance reviews ensure that all staff have time to reflect and develop their practice. This is further supplemented by a range of mandatory and needs-led training that is purposeful and relevant. This ensures that staff are equipped to meet the individual needs of the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Suitable action has been taken to address one of two requirements and both recommendations from the previous inspection. The views of external stakeholders are more frequently gathered and represented in the independent visitor report. Staff have completed training in working with children who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and restraint records are better coordinated to ensure that all information can be easily accessed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

One requirement has not been sufficiently addressed. Children continue to cause damage to the home, which is generally repaired to a better standard than previously noted. However, it is not custom and practice to repaint doors when they have been damaged or replaced, and some doors appeared grubby and dirty as a result. This continues to detract from what is essentially a pleasant home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Internal monitoring and quality assurance are of variable quality. There is a good focus on monitoring children’s progress and ensuring that staff practice is responsive to meeting each child’s individual needs. Conversely, the manager has not been diligent in checking matters relating to the home environment, evident in the fact that she was unaware of issues relating to safety and cleanliness. Inspection report children’s home: SC378407 8

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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: SC378407 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Time-Out Children’s Homes Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 2, Ripponden Mill, Mill Fold, Ripponden Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire HX6 4DH

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Dominic Macauley

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Inspector(s)

Paul Scott, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC378407 10 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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