Children's home run by Unity Residential Care Services Limited in Newcastle-under-Lyme

Assurance visit report: SC469761 1 SC469761

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Information about this children’s home

The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three children who present with complex behaviours because of their early childhood experiences. The home is operated by a private provider.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been in post since March 2020 and has applied to register with Ofsted.

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Information about this children’s home

Previous inspection date: 10 December 2019

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Information about this children’s home

Previous inspection judgement: Requires improvement to be good

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Information about this visit

Due to COVID-19 (coronavirus), Ofsted suspended all routine inspections in March 2020. As part of a phased return to routine inspection, we are undertaking assurance visits to children’s social care services that are inspected under the social care common inspection framework (SCCIF).

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Information about this visit

At these visits, inspectors evaluate the extent to which:

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Information about this visit

 children are well cared for  children are safe  leaders and managers are exercising strong leadership.

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Information about this visit

This visit was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000, following the published guidance for assurance visits.

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Information about this visit

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills is leading Ofsted’s work into how England’s social care system has delivered child-centred practice and care within the context of the restrictions placed on society during the COVID-19 pandemic. Assurance visit report: SC469761 2

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Findings from the visit

We did not identify any serious or widespread concerns in relation to the care or protection of children at this assurance visit.

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The care of children

Children enjoy trusting relationships with core staff. Children benefit from one-to- one discussion with their key workers, who display an understanding and nurturing approach to their complex needs. Positive and supportive relationships between staff and children promote children’s welfare.

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The care of children

Staff help children to keep in touch with their families. Staff have been creative with the use of technology to enable families to communicate during times of lockdown. Children are helped by staff to overcome barriers to communication. For example, one child is provided with ‘conversation starters’ to help him to engage during video calls. This enables the child to have positive experiences with his family.

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The care of children

Staff recognise and understand children’s complex needs. They have monitored children’s emotional health and have sought professional input when required, such as from the child sexual exploitation team. Children have access to specialist help swiftly when needed. This multi-team approach ensures that children’s health needs are promoted effectively.

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The care of children

All three children attend full-time education. Staff and education providers work well together. This ensures that all children continue to learn and make progress.

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The care of children

Staff and the manager respond appropriately when children share their views with them. ‘Children’s chats’ happen around the dinner table in a relaxed way. For example, children lead the conversations and plan group activities, menus and ideas for the home. The manager documents her responses to the children. Children confirmed that they are listened to and their views valued. This provides them with a degree of control over issues that affect them.

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The safety of children

Staff ensure that the children are safeguarded. Risk assessments are clear and up to date. Managers learn from previous incidents and review plans to adapt their approach. This ensures that staff understand the safeguarding risks that children face and are clear about how they need to respond to these.

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The safety of children

Staff undertake a variety of training courses to enhance their knowledge. When required training has not been completed, the manager takes action to bridge any potential gap in staff’s knowledge. For example, due to staff not yet completing missing-from-care (MFC) training, the manager sets MFC as a topic for discussion in team meetings and group supervision. This enables staff to develop the required skills and knowledge to meet the needs of the children to keep them safe. Assurance visit report: SC469761 3 A child’s plan identifies that staff need to implement the Patience, Acceptance, Curiosity, Empathy (PACE) model of parenting to support his routine. However, physical intervention reports fail to show that the agreed therapeutic strategies are used by staff to de-escalate incidents of challenging behaviour. Furthermore, when physical interventions are used to keep children safe, the staff’s recording of these

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The safety of children

incidents lacks clarity. For example, staff fail to document clearly how a child is held by two staff members. This has an impact on the manager’s ability to review the use of such measures of control to ensure that they are safe and proportionate.

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The safety of children

Staff use incentive schemes successfully to encourage positive behaviour. However, staff do not record the consequences they use to manage children’s behaviour. As a result, there are fewer opportunities to review and learn about the effectiveness of each consequence, to help children to understand how their behaviour can impact on themselves and other people.

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The safety of children

Staff receive good information about safeguarding children. Sharing important information and discussing this in team meetings and supervision enables staff to understand what child abuse is, the impact of abuse and neglect and know how to respond to potential safeguarding concerns to protect children.

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Leaders and managers

The manager ensures that children’s plans are regularly reviewed. Plans reflect the ever-changing risks for each child. For example, when one child continued to go missing from the home, the manager updated risk management plans after each episode to include changes of procedure. This enables staff to understand current plans and implement these.

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Leaders and managers

Staff benefit from effective and structured supervision. As well as regular one-on- one supervision, staff receive group supervisions where they reflect on practice as a team. This means that staff receive the support and guidance required to help them to provide good-quality care to children.

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Leaders and managers

The independent visitor has continued to provide external oversight during the COVID-19 pandemic. Visits were carried out virtually at the start of the pandemic. During these the visitor continued to receive feedback from children and professionals and provide the manager with feedback. The visitor has returned to part virtual and part on-site visits. The manager ensures that actions identified by the visitor are addressed and she has made steady progress to improve the quality of care that children receive.

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Leaders and managers

Feedback from professionals is positive. A social worker said, ‘Communication is great, the standard of the home is good, [the child] is definitely having access to more links here than she would have had previously.’ Staff and managers have established relationships with partner agencies, such as the missing-from-care coordinator who supports the staff and attends team meetings. These relationships help the staff to understand how to support the children effectively. Assurance visit report: SC469761 4 In the last six months, eight new staff have joined the home, with three of these staff then leaving within a short space of time. Managers also made a decision to move two experienced and qualified staff to a new home in the organisation. Changes in staffing led to some instability for children at this home. This has improved recently and a core team of regular staff now provides children with consistent care. However, only one staff member is qualified to level 3 in caring for

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Leaders and managers

children and young people, although three others are due to finish the course in the next couple of months.

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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 prepare and implement a policy (“the behaviour management policy”) which sets out—

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Requirement Due date

the measures of control, discipline and restraint which may be used in relation to children in the home.

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Requirement Due date

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—

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person who used the measure (“the user”), and of any other person present when the measure was used;

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure. (Regulation 35 (1)(b)(3)(a)(iv)(vi)(vii)) 15/12/2020

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Recommendations

 The registered person is responsible for leading a team which provides high quality care for all children living in the home. They must lead and manage the home in a way that delivers the ethos, outcomes and approach set out in the home’s Statement of Purpose. They should also play a key role in shaping the ethos of the home through developing a culture of high aspiration for children Assurance visit report: SC469761 5 which is demonstrated through the care, resources and opportunities offered to the children. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards‘, page 52, paragraph 10.4).

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Recommendations

In particular, ensure that staff consistently incorporate the therapeutic approach into their practice and that leaders carefully consider changes to the staff team, when possible, to minimise any disruption to children’s care.

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Unity Residential Care Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Belvoir Farmhouse, Woolsthorpe Road, Redmile, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire NG13 0GN

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Inspectors

Kev Brammer, Social Care Inspector Jackie Line, Social Care Inspector Assurance visit report: SC469761 6 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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