Children's home run by Reflexion Care Group Limited in Shropshire

Inspection report children’s home: 1213416 1 Registered provider: Reflexion Care Group Limited

p.1

Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

This privately owned home is registered for two young people who have social and emotional and/or learning difficulties. Education and therapeutic services form part of this home’s statement of purpose. The registered manager has been in post for 20 months. She has a level 5 qualification in leadership and management.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

p.1

outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

p.1

outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

p.1

outstanding

Date of last inspection: 15 November 2018

p.1

outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

p.1

outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1213416 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/11/2018 Full Good 31/01/2018 Full Good 14/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 27/07/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1213416 3

p.2

Recommendations

 A record of supervision should be kept for staff, including the manager. The record should provide evidence that supervision is being delivered in line with regulation 33(4)(b). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.3) Inspection report children’s home: 1213416 4

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children make excellent progress in all areas of their development. Children who have experienced significant childhood trauma now feel safe and reassured. This is because staff consistently deliver nurturing care which focuses on identifying children’s individual needs. As a result, children said that they feel at home and that staff feel like ‘family’.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff work with families and placing authorities to facilitate regular family visits and social occasions. When appropriate, this includes inviting families into the home. This welcoming approach helps children to maintain these important relationships and to ensure that they are not isolated from their families.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff are committed to helping children to achieve academic success. Staff identify the physical and emotional barriers to learning that children can face, and they work closely with specialist teaching staff to enable children to succeed. This includes identifying bespoke timetables for children that reflect their learning styles and their interests. This has allowed one child, who has had an extensive period of being a non-school attender, to now attend a mainstream school on a full-time basis. An education professional commented that the child now sees education as something to be valued rather than tolerated.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff help children to prepare for their future. Staff talk to children about their career options and they encourage children to aspire. Children participate in voluntary work, which helps them to acquire transferable skills and to increase their self-confidence. Children develop independence by doing age-appropriate independence tasks. These include planning and cooking healthy meals from scratch, which are then enjoyed by all the children and the staff. This helps children to acquire independence skills and is a valuable opportunity for children and staff to enjoy one another’s company.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children take part in a wide range of social, leisure and educational activities. Staff continually encourage children to try new things and to make the most of opportunities and facilities in the local community. This outstanding support helps children to develop new hobbies and interests, grow in confidence and develop their social skills.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff manage children’s moves in and out of the home extremely well. Children who leave the home have exceptionally positive endings. They keep in touch with staff and share news about their progress. Staff encourage children who are new to the home to display family photographs and to personalise their bedrooms. Children are given a children’s guide, and staff sit with children and talk with them about what is in the guide and the day-to-day routines of the home. This nurturing approach helps children to re- orientate and to quickly settle.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Some children arrive at the home with a history of smoking cigarettes and tobacco. The home operates a bespoke smoking reduction programme with the aim of helping children to reduce the amount they smoke over time. This has proved to be effective for Inspection report children’s home: 1213416 5 some children.

p.4

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

Children are safe and protected from harm. Managers work with the clinical psychologist and education professionals to devise comprehensive risk assessments. These emphasise children’s vulnerabilities and positive behaviours rather than their challenging behaviours. They guide staff on how to best support children when their anxieties increase and highlight the strategies that children find useful to help them to manage their own behaviours and risks. This exceptionally attuned care helps children begin to recognise risk triggers that can influence their actions, and they start to manage their own behaviours. As a result, physical intervention has not been used in the home since the last Ofsted inspection.

p.5

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

Staff promote positive behaviour by talking to children in a way that encourages personal responsibility, tolerance and kindness. Meaningful key work sessions, day-to- day discussions and house meetings all help children to explore their emotions and tensions. Thoughtful matching when new children move into the home and close staff supervision ensure that there are no concerns about bullying, which helps to create a warm and accepting environment.

p.5

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

When children go missing from the home, staff follow children’s missing from care protocols. Staff use a wide range of methods to contact children, including speaking with their friends and searching all known places where children may have gone. When children return home, staff ensure that they are given a warm welcome. This is followed by talking with children about why they went missing. Children are offered a return home interview, which ensures that they have even more opportunities to explore their behaviours. This exceptionally caring and nurturing approach means that children are given many opportunities to think about their actions and to reflect on their behaviour. As a result, children rarely go missing from the home and they quickly develop safe coping strategies for the future.

p.5

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

Staff have training in online safety and they follow well-developed strategies that help to keep children safe when using social media. This includes educating children about online risks, including the dangers of online grooming. This helps children’s understanding of the risks of child sexual exploitation, radicalisation and gang culture. Risk assessments are age appropriate, and staff are highly vigilant when children have access to the internet through their mobile phones. Staff will soon be undertaking child exploitation and online protection (CEOP) training to further strengthen their skills and knowledge.

p.5

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

Staff have strong working relationships with the local police to help to support and protect children. Regular updates from the police and the exchange of soft intelligence enable staff to be kept well informed about any criminal activity, including gang-related activity, in the local area. Staff use this soft intelligence to keep children safe, particularly children who have unsupervised contact with friends in the community. Inspection report children’s home: 1213416 6 Children live in a warm and welcoming home. Staff complete regular health and safety and fire safety checks and quickly address any concerns. The home is safely located, and staff are vigilant to risks in the local area. This creates a comfortable and relaxing home for children.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Partnership working between the home and external agencies is exceptionally positive. This is a considerable strength of the service. A virtual school headteacher praised the registered manager’s calm approach and ability to advocate for a child and at the same time understand the school’s point of view. This helped a child to maintain her placement in a mainstream school. The registered manager and staff have supported a young person to work positively with health professionals. As a result, the young person now lives independently with her baby in the community. A social worker described communication with staff as being ‘perfect’. The impact of this excellent practice is that children make significant progress in all areas of their lives.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers promote continuity of care for children. The home is fully staffed, and cover staff are only used when necessary. The home will soon be going through a period of change as the registered manager is moving to another home in the company. Leaders and managers have recognised the impact of this on the children and they have arranged for the new manager to begin working in the home three months before the move. They have also offered the children and the staff team the opportunity to move with the registered manager. This considered forward planning means that children can adjust to these significant changes and have a choice about this crucial aspect of their care.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager and staff promote equality and diversity in all aspects of children’s care. They advocate for children and ensure that children have the necessary resources to meet their needs and to achieve. Staff celebrate children’s heritage by listening to music and eating food with children that reflects their culture and reminds them of their families. Staff help children to celebrate important religious festivals and to attend places of worship. Friends come to the home to visit, and this helps other children in the community to understand children’s lived experiences. Staff record children’s daily experiences and they take photographs which help children to understand their journeys. In this way, children living in the home experience constant acceptance and encouragement.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff are given regular good-quality supervision and they have an annual appraisal. New staff have a comprehensive induction which includes training in the company model of care and twice-monthly supervision. However, staff do not always have access to their supervision records. This limits staff from referring to their records to help their ongoing development and practice.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Management monitoring and oversight of the home are extremely robust. The registered manager continually reviews the quality of care and acts when improvements are required. Inspection report children’s home: 1213416 7 The registered manager supports staff in ensuring that children’s views are central in decisions that affect them. Staff involve children in regular reviews of their plans, which help staff and children to identify the progress that children are making and any resources that are needed. Children contribute to the home’s development plan and to their daily records. This enables children to feel a sense of ownership of their progress and a sense of belonging in the home.

p.6

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.

p.7

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: 1213416 8

p.7

Children’s home details

Registered provider: Reflexion Care Group Limited

p.8

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Reflexion Care Group Ltd, Black Birches, Hadnall, Shrewsbury, Shropshire SY4 3DH

p.8

Inspector

Karen Gillingwater, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1213416 9 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.

p.8

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.9

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.9

Inspector

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

p.9