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

Inspection report children’s home: SC396721 1 SC396721 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 home is owned by a private company and is registered for one young person. The home provides care for a young person who has experienced adverse childhood experiences that have led to associated trauma and presenting complex behaviours.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since November 2012 and has extensive knowledge and experience.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 10 to 11 December 2019

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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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.

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outstanding

Date of last inspection: 3 December 2018

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC396721 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/12/2018 Full Good 30/01/2018 Full Good 01/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 07/12/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC396721 3

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Recommendations

 The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should have a workforce plan which can fulfil the workforce related requirements of regulation 16, schedule 1 (paragraphs 19 and 20) The plan should: – detail the necessary management and staffing structure (including any staff commissioned to provide health and education), the experience and qualifications of staff currently working within the staffing structure and any further training required for those staff, to enable the delivery of the home’s Statement of Purpose; – detail the processes and agreed timescales for staff to achieve induction, probation and any core training (such as safeguarding, health and safety and mandatory qualifications); – detail the process for managing and improving poor performance; – detail the process and timescales for supervision of practice (see regulation 33 (4)(b)) and keep appropriate records for staff in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph

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Recommendations

10.8) Inspection report children’s home: SC396721 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The young person has been living at the home for four years and will soon be 18 years old. During the time he has lived at the home he has made outstanding progress from his starting point. As a result, he has made exceptional progress physically, emotionally, socially and educationally.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The young person receives an extremely high standard of care from a dedicated and stable staff team. This consistency of care enables the young person to build strong, trusting relationships with the staff. Consequently, staff have been able to ensure that the young person continues to receive bespoke care from staff who can meet his complex emotional needs and can follow clearly defined strategies to help to manage his mental health needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff make sure that the young person lives in an extremely warm and homely environment. There are photographs of him with the staff throughout the home and certificates of achievements are proudly displayed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff work closely with specialist teaching staff to enable the young person to succeed educationally. This has involved identifying a bespoke timetable for the young person that reflects his learning style and his interests. This has allowed the young person to remain on roll at school and to continue to acquire essential skills, including social skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff help the young person to prepare for his future. Staff talk to the young person about his career options and have helped him to apply for part-time jobs. The young person has developed his life skills. Consequently, he can budget his money, help with the cooking and use public transport.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff understand the young person’s learning style. They use online resources to help him to understand key messages. For instance, staff have used an online virtual courtroom to discuss an upcoming court appearance. Staff use pictures to help the young person to talk about his feelings. Topics are revisited with the young person to test his knowledge and his level of understanding. This creative support means that the young person is helped to retain crucial information.

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

Staff and managers take their duty to safeguard the young person extremely seriously. The manager works extremely closely with social workers and the police and attends all multi-agency risk management meetings. This means that the young person experiences exceptional levels of safety and security.

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

The manager uses monitoring systems to identify antecedents to the young person’s challenging behaviours and to update behaviour management plans and risk assessments. This helps staff to deploy personalised diversion techniques to distract the Inspection report children’s home: SC396721 5 young person and help him to refocus his attention. Consequently, physical restraint has been used only once in the past year.

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

Staff follow well-developed strategies to help the young person to keep safe. They use research in meaningful key-work sessions to educate the young person about risks from knife crime, gang activity and county lines. Staff work in partnership with agencies such as youth justice and are assertive in delivering difficult messages when this is required. Messages and boundaries are clearly communicated, and the young person understands how staff will continue to keep him and others safe.

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

Staff talk with the young person openly and honestly and work in partnership with the young person to reduce the harm from self-injurious behaviours.

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

The home is safely located. The manager ensures that the location risk assessment is shared with professionals and she regularly consults the police about risks in the local community. Regular health and safety checks and fire drills mean that the young person lives in a safe and inviting home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home is led by a strong and committed manager who is dedicated to ensuring that the young person receives high-quality care. The manager has been a consistent presence in the young person’s life for eight years, moving with him when he moved into the home four years ago. Consequently, she has an excellent understanding of the young person’s needs and of his progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is a strong advocate for the young person and works exceptionally well to ensure that he has all his needs fully met.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager ensures that the young person has a strong voice in plans for his future. She has arranged for the young person to have the services of an advocate to successfully challenge the local authority about shortfalls in planning for his future care and support.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Excellent and effective attention to quality assurance means that the registered manager maintains a close oversight of the quality of care and can quickly identify when and where improvements are needed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager has a workforce plan and has ensured that the staff team has the training and skills to meet the young person’s needs and to keep him safe. Staff have regular supervision and annual appraisals. However, sometimes supervision sessions do not include time for staff to reflect on their practice. This means that valuable opportunities to develop practice can be missed. The workforce plan is not clear about the frequency of supervision for newer staff. This means that leaders and managers are not accountable for the level of support new staff receive. Inspection report children’s home: SC396721 6

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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: SC396721 7

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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: SC396721 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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