Children's home run by Keys KIN Ltd in Wealden

Inspection report children’s home: 1226495 1 Registered provider: Kingdom Care 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 children’s home provides care and accommodation for up to five children. The home changed ownership in February 2018, and it is now run by a large national organisation.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has not had a registered manager since July 2018. An application to register a manager has been submitted.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 12 to 13 September 2019

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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: 6 February 2019

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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: 1226495 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/02/2019 Full Good 18/07/2017 Full Good 24/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 06/09/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1226495 3

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs, and should understand the key role they play in the training and development of staff in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11) In particular, ensure that staff receive additional training including fire setting behaviour awareness and foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, so staff are better informed of how these can impact on children’s lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children build trusting and secure relationships with the staff who are looking after them. The staff know the children well, listen to them, invest time in them, protect them and promote their welfare. As a result, the children develop an appropriate sense of belonging. They make good progress and have a range of positive experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children experience a highly nurturing environment where they can express their emotions and feelings freely. The staff are focused on working with younger children and know that they need nurturing, such as having fun bath times, having a bedtime story read to them and being tucked in at night-time. The staff team has a good level of combined experience in delivering this level of nurture. Risk assessments ensure that both child and staff member are protected when these care tasks are delivered.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children attend school. They are learning and making good progress from their starting points. The staff are ambitious for children and support the children to attend and do well in their education. There is effective liaison with schools. Education is continued in the home with educational trips and access to many games and books enjoyed by both the children and staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children are in good health. Their health needs, including mental health needs, are identified. They have access to local health services when they need them. The arrangements for managing medication are safe and effective. The staff develop effective relationships with health professionals to promote good health.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children are enjoying a new focus around being eco-friendlier. This includes areas such as recycling, not using a tumble dryer, community rubbish collection, and minimising the use of plastics. In addition, the staff are championing good food choices, making tasty meals and teaching the children how food is grown and cooked. They are Inspection report children’s home: 1226495 4 working towards a national accreditation for this work.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children are treated with dignity and respect. They experience care and help that is sensitive and responsive to their identity and family history, including age, disability, ethnicity, faith or belief, and gender. Their day-to-day needs are met, such as routine, privacy, personal space, nutritious meals and enjoyable mealtimes. The children have appropriate, suitably assessed, supported contact with their family, friends and other people who are important to them, such as previous carers.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children who are new to the home are welcomed sensitively and with careful and considered planning. When children leave the home, staff promote positive endings and help with building children’s ‘life story’. The manager will challenge professionals about future placements if necessary and if in the best interest of the children.

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

There are clear and effective safeguarding arrangements in place to protect children. Arrangements meet statutory guidance. Leaders and managers are experienced in managing safeguarding matters.

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

The staff have all received comprehensive safeguarding training and recognise the risks faced by children in their care. Careful consideration is given to the location of the service and the impact that this has on current and future placement decisions. In particular, there are concerns about the closeness to a main road and county lines activity.

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

Due to their age, no child currently has free time in the community. They are always supervised by a member of staff. The staff are aware of the risks to the children in the local and wider community.

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

Staff ensure a consistent and proactive approach to managing risk that reduces the risk of harm to children. This includes regular and effective contact and planning with both the child’s allocated social worker and their family, where appropriate. The children say that they feel happy and safe at the home and with the staff team. They say that they feel comfortable in talking to the staff about any concerns that they may have. This is supported by the very good relationships developed with the staff, which are trusting, warm and respectful.

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

The children are supported to take age-appropriate risks as part of their development. Taking the younger age of the children into consideration, the staff have a good balance between encouraging age-appropriate risks and allowing the children to develop a self- awareness of risks as they get older. These include the risks that the use of the internet and social media may pose. There are strict and robustly implemented protective factors in place around the use of all forms of social media, while regular one-to-one sessions with staff teach the children safe and age-appropriate use. The children are extremely well informed about safe usage. Inspection report children’s home: 1226495 5 The children receive help and support to manage their behaviour and feelings safely. Staff respond with clear boundaries about what is safe and acceptable, and understand the triggers for behaviour. Positive behaviour is consistently promoted. Staff use effective

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

de-escalation techniques and creative alternative strategies that are specific to the needs of each child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home has had no registered manager since July 2018. The home underwent a change of ownership in February 2018, followed by a period of voluntary closure for refurbishment until October 2018. There has been a change of manager since the home’s reopening, with one manager leaving prior to completing the registration process. The current manager has been in post since April 2019. The current manager submitted an application to register in June 2019. Leaders have acted quickly to fill the manager’s role.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The responsible individual is very involved in the oversight and development of the home. She is highly supportive of the manager and, together, they have implemented a clear plan for improvement which is being closely monitored. Leaders and managers are able to identify areas of strength and areas for development, and take effective action.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is properly staffed and resourced to meet the needs of the children. The staff are suitably vetted and qualified and deliver good-quality services to children and their families. Arrangements for recruitment and appraisals are robust and include children as appropriate.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home has a team of staff who have experience of working with children in previous roles. The manager has identified those staff who have the skills and ambition to develop their career by giving them additional responsibilities. There are clear plans in place to further develop their knowledge and skills, however, training needs to be developed to include fire starting awareness and foetal alcohol spectrum disorder. This will enable staff to be better informed of their impact on the children’s previous, present and future lives.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and the staff team understand the plans for the children and actively drive the achievement of important milestones and goals. Milestones and goals include success in losing weight and becoming more active, moving on successfully to another placement with older children at the child’s request, attending school every day, and having positive overnight contact with family. Leaders and managers monitor the progress that individual children make and can demonstrate the positive impact that living at the home has on individual children’s progress and life chances.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Child-centred decisions are made about children coming to live at the home, including giving consideration to the needs of children already living at the home. Placement matching has improved significantly in the last year. Inspection report children’s home: 1226495 6 The statement of purpose, which is kept under review, clearly sets out the ethos and objectives of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and responsible individual ensure that the physical environment is maintained to a high standard, meets the needs of the children and feels and looks like a family home for children. Any damage or wear and tear is quickly and regularly repaired.

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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: 1226495 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Kingdom Care Children’s Homes Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2nd Floor, Maybrook House, Queensway, Halesowen, Worcestershire B63 4AH

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Michelle Callard

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Inspector

Liz Driver, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1226495 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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