Children's Home run by Stoke-on-Trent City Council in Stoke-on-Trent

Inspection report children’s home: 2538287 1 Registered provider: Stoke on Trent City Council

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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 is run by the local authority and offers care and accommodation for two young people who have experienced early childhood instability that has led to trauma and/or associated complex behaviours. A new manager started working at the home in September 2019 and has applied to Ofsted to be the home’s next registered manager.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 12 to 13 November 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 requires improvement to be 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: not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 2538287 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

This is the home’s first inspection since registration Inspection report children’s home: 2538287 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 must comply within the given timescales.

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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— helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b)(2)(c)(h)) 03/01/2020

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33(4)(b)) 03/01/2020

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that— within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes— details of the child’s behaviour leading to the use of the measure; the date, time and location of the use of the measure; a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure. Regulation 35(3)(a)(ii)(iii)(viii)) 03/01/2020 Inspection report children’s home: 2538287 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

This is the home’s first inspection since registration in July 2019. Since this time, one young person has lived at the home. The young person benefits from being cared for by a team of staff who know her individual needs well. The young person has a personalised care plan that staff keep under review. This plan considers the young person’s daily support needs. The young person is registered with primary healthcare services. She attends her routine health appointments with encouragement from staff. Consequently, the young person has access to the services that she needs to promote her emotional well-being. Medication is stored and administered safely by trained and competent staff. The young person is supported to attend school. Staff encourage her to have high aspirations and to work hard towards achieving her academic goals. Staff support the young person to keep in touch with her family. Because of this

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

support, the young person continues to maintain strong bonds with people who are important to her.

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

Staff work hard to safeguard the young person. They ensure that the young person is supervised inside and outside of the home to reflect her vulnerability. The young person’s behaviour is generally good. Staff use the quality of their relationships with her to manage challenging situations. Because of this, the use of physical intervention is infrequent. However, there are deficiencies in how staff record interventions. For example, records do not capture the details leading up to the behaviour, location of incident, or injuries arising from the incident and there is no evidence to show that any learning is captured. This denies staff and the young person the opportunity to reflect and learn from incidents. The young person lives in a physically safe environment. Regular health and safety checks on electrical, gas and fire safety equipment help to make sure that they remain in good working order. Staff carry out regular fire drills so that the young

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

person knows what she needs to do in the event of an emergency. The young person is protected by the organisation’s recruitment practice. This ensures that staff are suitably vetted before they start work in the home. This protects the young person from unsuitable individuals gaining access to the home. Inspection report children’s home: 2538287 5

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good

The registered manager has recently left the home. A new manager started in September 2019. Ofsted is currently processing her application for registration. The manager is currently working towards gaining a level 5 national vocational qualification in leadership health and social care. Not all staff receive regular supervision. This means that staff miss out on having regular opportunities to reflect on their practice. Team meetings are not regularly held. This hinders the staff and managers in having regular opportunities to discuss as a group the young person’s care. Not all staff training is up to date. For example, one member of staff has not received training to improve their awareness of online safety and the risk of child sexual exploitation. Consequently, not all staff are knowledgeable about the risks that young people can face. Most of the staff have completed the level 3 diploma in residential childcare. The

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good

remaining members of staff are all enrolled on the course and are on track to complete the qualification in the required timescale set by regulation. Monitoring visits from someone independent of the home take place every month. Independent monthly monitoring reports review the home’s performance and the young person’s progress and identify areas for improvement. Regular consultations with the young person, parents and other professionals influence the progress of the home and ensure that the quality of care provided is monitored. The manager and staff maintain good relationships with teachers, the police and the young person’s social worker. The manager and staff challenge other professionals when necessary, to secure appropriate services for the young person. This collaborative working helps to promote the young person’s welfare.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: 2538287 6 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: 2538287 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Swann House, Boothen Road, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire ST4 4SY

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Inspector

Dave Carrigan, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 2538287 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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