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

Inspection report children’s home: SC460973 1 SC460973 Registered provider: Reflexion Care Group 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 private children’s home provides care and accommodation for up to three children who have social and/or emotional needs. The home has recently transitioned, from being a home that provides a 12-week assessment period to support the children to their next placement, to a home that provides long-term care for children.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has been without a registered manager since 2 July 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

Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC460973 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/08/2019 Full Inadequate 04/03/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 19/09/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 19/09/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children’s home: SC460973 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 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 that staff assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)) 29/11/2019

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Recommendations

 It is good practice for a note of the content and/or outcomes of supervision sessions to be kept and to ensure that both the person giving the supervision and staff member have a copy of the record. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.4)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Leaders and managers have taken swift and effective action to address shortfalls identified in the last full inspection. This progress means that the safety and quality of care for the child living in the home have significantly improved.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff now ensure that the child lives in a nurturing and homely environment. Repairs have been carried out to the home and old and damaged furniture has been replaced. Staff have consulted with the child about her preferred colour scheme before redecorating. Some windows have been replaced. The child now has access to all areas of the home and has the choice of two warm and inviting lounges and the large farmhouse kitchen to relax in and to enjoy spending time with staff. Inspection report children’s home: SC460973 4 Staff support the child with her education. Once a school place was found, staff encouraged her to attend. Because of this support, the child is exceeding expectations for school attendance.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff hold regular key-working sessions with the child to support her welfare and to help her keep safe. For instance, staff have talked to the child about the dangers of child sexual exploitation, the importance of doing well in education, and self-harming behaviours. Staff also encourage the child to develop age-appropriate independence. For instance, staff cook the evening meal with the child and they sit and eat this together. The child is therefore beginning to develop warm and trusting relationships with staff because staff are creating opportunities to spend time with her.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work with the child’s family and placing authority to facilitate regular family visits. When appropriate, this includes inviting the family into the home to spend time with her in a warm and comfortable environment. This welcoming approach helps the child to maintain important relationships and to ensure that she is not isolated from her family.

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

Staff now supervise the child in line with her plans and are aware of the need to know where she is at all times. When she does go missing from the home, staff immediately respond and quickly find her. Because of this increased vigilance, the child has not gone missing from the home for the past eight weeks.

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

Detailed behaviour management plans provide staff with information about the child’s triggers. This enables staff to act swiftly to calm the child when she is anxious or agitated. As a result, physical restraint has not been used since the last Ofsted inspection.

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

When incidents occur, the triggers to the child’s behaviour and the actions that staff take are recorded in detail.

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

Staff have carried out work with the child and work in partnership with other agencies to increase her understanding of risk. For example, a fire officer visited the home to talk to her about the dangers of fire setting.

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

Safety standards have improved. Food in the fridge is now stored correctly and is in date. The home’s locality risk assessment now includes the risk from a nearby pond. However, risk assessments have not been updated quickly enough. On two occasions, the child has acquired the keys for the home. On the second occasion, this led to the child causing significant damage to a member of staff’s car. This delay in updating risk assessments leaves staff without essential information.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Since the last inspection, the acting manager has left the company without notice. Inspection report children’s home: SC460973 5 Leaders and managers have acted swiftly and redeployed an experienced manager to support the staff, and to oversee improvements to the home environment. Leaders and managers have identified development areas for the staff team and have ensured that the child is happy and settled. They do not have plans to admit any more children to the home this year.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers use monitoring systems to improve the quality of care. The most recent quality of care review has an action plan for future development of the service. The acting manager also quickly acts to address any shortfalls identified by the independent visitor. This means that the quality of care for the child living in the home is improving.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is now fully staffed. The child is now cared for by a consistent and stable staff team. This means that the child is now building relationships with familiar adults.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Four of the five staff have a level 3 diploma in residential childcare. All staff have completed the company’s mandatory training programme, which includes training in the company’s therapeutic model of care, ‘Prevent’ duty and child sexual exploitation. Staff have also received additional training in self-harm. Consequently, staff working in the home have the skills to meet the child’s complex needs and to keep her safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers ensure that staff receive regular supervision and a yearly appraisal. However, staff supervision sessions are not always recorded in detail. This compromises the ability of managers and staff to reflect on discussions and to have an audit trail that shows that staff practice is formally reviewed.

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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: SC460973 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Reflexion Care Group Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Black Birches, Hadnall, Shrewsbury, Shropshire SY4 3DH

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Inspector

Karen Gillingwater, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC460973 7 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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Inspector

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