Children's Home run by Good News Nwk Ltd in North Northamptonshire

Inspection report children’s home: 1277479 1 Registered provider: Good News Nwk 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 is a privately operated children’s home providing care and accommodation for up to two children and young people aged between eight and 17. Children and young people have learning disabilities within the autism spectrum. The manager was registered by Ofsted in April 2018. The manager is currently undertaking the required qualification for registered managers.

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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

Date of last inspection: 27 February 2019

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

27/02/2019 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1277479 2

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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 registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. The registered person may only— employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home, if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3). The requirements are that— the individual is of integrity and good character; the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform; the individual is mentally and physically fit for the purposes of the work that the individual is to perform; and full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2.

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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— In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— Use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(2)(h)) This is in relation to records for young people being relevant to the home where they live. 04/03/2020 Inspection report children’s home: 1277479 3

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Recommendations

 The children’s home must produce a children’s guide. The children’s guide must be available to all children when their placement in the home is agreed (or on arrival at the home if the placement is made in an emergency) and must be age appropriate, provided in an accessible format and explained to each child to make sure they understand it. (‘Guide to children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 4.21)  Children’s homes should work closely with the placing authority to understand the child’s relationship history and the impact that the child’s arrival may have on the group living at the home. Staff should understand, for each child, what the placing authority has recorded in the relevant plan as an appropriate level of contact with family and friends. (‘Guide to children’s homes regulations including the quality standards,’ page 38, paragraph 8.3)  The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and

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Recommendations

make best use of information from independent and internal monitoring (including under regulation 44 and 45) to ensure continuous improvement. They should be skilled in anticipating difficulties and reviewing incidents, such as learning from disruptions and placements breakdowns. They are responsible for proactively implementing lessons learned and sustaining good practice. (‘Guide to children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24) This is in relation to all incident records requiring management oversight.  Staff should continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5) This is in relation to risk assessments that require additional detail to effectively assess risk.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

This home provides good-quality care for children and young people. At the time of the inspection, one young person was living at the home. The home itself is a small, but homely, environment. Staff generally support young people well to make progress and reach their potential. Staff training is tailored to meet the needs of the young people. Staff have undertaken training on autistic spectrum disorder, on managing behaviour and on young people with attachment disorders. Staff develop the skills and knowledge they need to better understand the young people they care for. Inspection report children’s home: 1277479 4 The young person at the home is starting to attend a new school. Although securing a school place has been slow progress, in the interim managers have organised a home tutor to develop the young person’s skills in mathematics and English. At present, there is no dedicated study area in the home, without distractions, for young people

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

who are not attending school full time. Young people are involved in choosing and planning activities and planning meals. However, these plans are not always followed by the staff team. This means that there can be inconsistency in the care provided and it can undermine the value of involving young people in this activity. Young people make good progress in developing their social skills through engaging in sports and leisure activities. Admission processes require improvement. One young person’s admission was problematic as there had been limited assessment by managers of the young person’s needs. Their placement was challenging, with difficulties in the local community. While the situation improved for this young person, managers have reflected on this experience and lessons have been learned in relation to improving the admission process.

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

Safeguarding arrangements are good. When incidents have occurred, staff have acted in young people’s best interests. Staff worked quickly and with help from the police, and ensured that young people are safeguarded. Multi-agency working is effective. Young people can express their concerns and worries to staff. They know how to make a complaint. The manager ensures that complaints are acted on quickly and that young people are informed of the outcomes of their complaint. This helps to develop trust between young people and staff. Staff understand their safeguarding responsibilities and their safeguarding knowledge is good. They have received training on how to keep young people safe. They know how to escalate their concerns and are aware of whistle-blowing procedures. This provides a safer environment for the young people. The manager recognises the importance of meeting young people’s individual needs.

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

The manager ensures that the staff recruited to work at the home have the knowledge and skills to provide a good service, which includes a sound understanding of young people’s cultural needs. The risk assessments used by staff are not robust and they require improvement. The risk assessments lack sufficient detail and they are not helpful to staff making decisions about how to keep young people safe. Inspection report children’s home: 1277479 5

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good

The manager is currently studying towards the relevant qualification for registered managers. This course of study should be completed by the end of this year. Quality assurance processes are being developed but improvements are needed to ensure that the manager has better oversight of the quality of care provided. Recording is not yet good enough. There are numerous records which do not reflect the care provided at this home. Some records relate to young people’s previous placements rather than this home. The manager has not ensured that safe recruitment practice can be evidenced. There are examples where some agency staff may not have appropriate skills and experience to care for young people. Despite the home now being more established, there is not an efficient method of monitoring the strengths and weaknesses of the home. There is no home development plan and overall the management monitoring of the home is not

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good

effective. Staff feel supported by the manager. They receive regular supervision and they value this. The training needs of staff are met through a programme of induction, as well as ongoing learning and development opportunities.

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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: 1277479 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 5 Pippin Close, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire NN8 2DN

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Nokuthula Mangwendeza

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Inspector

Simon Hunter, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1277479 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 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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