Children's Home run by Doncaster Children‟s Services Trust Limited in Doncaster

Inspection report children’s home: SC481444 1 SC481444 Registered provider: Doncaster Children’s Services Trust Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

A children’s trust operates and runs this home. It provides care for children and young people whose plan is for them to live in medium- to long-term residential care. The experienced and qualified manager has been registered since August 2018. She has been managing the home since October 2017.

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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 good

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC481444 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/08/2018 Full Outstanding 20/04/2017 Full Good 21/12/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness 10/05/2016 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC481444 3

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outstanding

The children are making ongoing and sustained progress. This is partly a result of the stability and consistency that they receive at the home. The staff have an excellent understanding of the children’s past experiences and the potential impact of these. Children’s care is sensitive and nurturing, allowing them to cope with past adverse experiences. The staff support children unconditionally through the difficult times and invest all their time and attention to enable the children to flourish.

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outstanding

The children’s lives are enriched during their time at the home. Children continue to gain new experiences and are routinely involved in hobbies and activities with the staff and with their peers. This engagement is developing the children’s social skills and self-esteem, and this has a positive impact on their confidence. One child was supported to join a hockey team and is excelling, using his natural talent. The staff have helped another child to improve their coordination to a degree that the child can now play football for a local team. Children are regularly attending dancing and football, which has really boosted their confidence and their health outcomes. In addition, they all enjoy regular holidays and camping adventures.

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outstanding

The children are in full-time education. The staff work hard to remove the barriers that may prevent the children’s school attendance. The staff advocate strongly to support children to attend good schools where they can thrive and make continuous progress. When children are transitioning to secondary school, the staff research and apply to schools that they know can meet the children’s complex social and learning needs. This means that the children are supported to achieve social and academic success. The children’s exceptional achievements are celebrated by staff and children. This includes one child who was ‘beaming’ during the inspection as she was the only child, out of 50 fellow students, to achieve full marks in a mathematics test. Children live in a home where there is a strong culture of celebrating success. This is having a very positive impact on children’s outcomes.

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outstanding

A ‘voice champion’ has been appointed within the staff team, and their creative approach helps the children to become more involved in group discussions. The children feel heavily involved in decisions about their home and their lives. The children’s input is very clear in the design and decoration of the home. Their photographs are proudly on display, and each child speaks highly about their bedroom, which is bespoke to them.

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outstanding

The children’s awareness and ability to manage their health needs continue to grow. The staff support the children to attend all routine and specialist health appointments and enable the children to manage their own personal care. The children receive guidance and support around subjects such as sex education, relationships and health education, which ensures that they are fully informed of the risks and concerns. The children’s engagement in these discussions develops their learning and understanding. Inspection report children’s home: SC481444 4 Staff embrace and promote family relationships. A professional said: ‘The staff go above and beyond to try and get parents to engage with their child.’ Parents report that the care their children receive is excellent.

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outstanding

The manager makes safe and informed decisions about children living together at the home. Children experience planned moves into the home and gain a positive first impression, as the atmosphere is both warm and welcoming. The manager has purposely kept the number of children in the home below capacity to ensure that only suitable matching takes place.

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

The staff know the children and understand their individual vulnerabilities well. The staff take proportionate measures to maintain the children’s safety. The staff are not risk-averse and are open to children taking age-appropriate risks that can help children to develop insight, such as around road safety and online safety. Children are encouraged and supported to attend social groups and they spend time with their friends. One child’s development of trust and confidence has enabled her to meet with friends without staff being present. Safety plans are clear and identify how staff should minimise risk for children, but the written records do not evidence the changes that staff make to the children’s free time. This means some records are not up to date or an accurate reflection of the current circumstances.

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

The children do not go missing from home. High supervision levels and quality time spent between the staff and the children reduce the opportunity for children to go missing. Staff are aware of the process to follow should children go missing, and there are clear procedures to promote children’s safety.

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

The children are vulnerable to various risks, including exploitation, but the staff are clear about the action needed should risks arise. The staff take immediate action to create a sense of safety when children present in crisis. Physical intervention is a last resort but is used appropriately to promote children’s safety and well-being. Regular debriefs promote reflection between the staff and the children after incidents, and these are usually well-documented. However, it is not always clear when the debriefs have taken place with the staff. These discussions help the children to self-regulate, but these strategies are not always transferred into the children’s risk assessments. Although this error does not impact on children’s outcomes, it reflects negatively on the effectiveness of the home’s monitoring processes.

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

The children benefit from clear routines and boundaries. They learn how to keep safe through extensive individual work with the staff. When children experience periods of crisis, the staff show compassion and relentlessly try to understand the children’s struggles. The manager prioritises the safety of children and, where appropriate, this has resulted in some children’s placements ending. Inspection report children’s home: SC481444 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The child-focused manager is visible to the staff and the children. The manager and her staff are nurturing and sensitive and use therapeutic care practice to help the children to overcome difficulties. The manager clearly understands the progress that the children are making, and effective care planning and staff engagement ensure that the children’s outcomes are reached.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The quality of relationships between professionals and the staff is very good and supports good information sharing. The manager empowers the children to make choices and decisions about their lives. The children’s advocate is a regular visitor at the home and the children have developed the confidence to raise any concerns.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There has been some staff turnover, which has impacted on the children forming positive and trusting relationships with the staff. The staff use their access to clinical support to develop their strategies to help the children to manage these changes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has clear monitoring procedures and oversight of the home. She is aware of the strengths and areas of weakness. Comprehensive reports prepared by the home’s external visitor contribute towards the manager’s internal monitoring processes. These systems enable the manager to identify the children’s individual progress and where continued staff support is necessary. Inspection report children’s home: SC481444 6

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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 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 the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(e)) 08/05/2020

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Recommendations

 Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4) In particular, risk assessments should be accurate and kept up to date. There should be clear evaluation to support amendments within the risk assessment, and any insight from the child about strategies should be included within the document.  Records of restraint must be kept and should enable the registered person and staff to review the use of control, discipline and restraint to identify effective practice and respond promptly where any issues or trends of concern emerge.

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Recommendations

The review should provide the opportunity for amending practice to ensure it meets the needs of each child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.59) In particular, restraint records should identify when debriefs with the staff are undertaken. Inspection report children’s home: SC481444 7

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Information about this inspection

Ofsted is aware of the challenges that Covid-19 is currently posing to those we regulate. During this visit, the inspectors took into consideration the impact of any measures being taken to slow the spread of Coronavirus by the setting. This has included the effect these have had on staffing arrangements.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people, 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: SC481444 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Doncaster Children’s Services Trust Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Colonnades House, Duke Street, Doncaster, South Yorkshire DN1 1ER

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Inspector

Jennifer Fenlon, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC481444 9 to 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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