Children's Home run by Good Foundations Limited in Wirral

Inspection report children’s home: SC486165 1 SC486165 Registered provider: Good Foundations Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This private children’s home provides care for up to four children who may have emotional and social difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been on maternity leave since January 2021. There is an interim manager in charge of the home, and she has applied to Ofsted for registration.

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Information about this children’s home

Due to COVID-19 (coronavirus), at the request of the Secretary of State, we suspended all routine inspections of social care providers on 17 March 2020.

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Information about this children’s home

We last visited this setting on 18 August 2020 to carry out a monitoring visit. The report is published on our website.

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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: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC486165 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/03/2020 Full Good 05/12/2018 Full Good 03/10/2017 Full Good 21/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC486165 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in a safe and supportive home. They enjoy warm and trusting relationships with staff. Children said that they are happy living at the home. The quality of care that children receive has brought stability to their lives and is making a significant difference to their outcomes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When children are struggling to feel at home, the manager and staff spend time with the child to find out the reasons why they are feeling unhappy. The manager and staff talk to the child to see what they can do differently to improve things.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children feel able to talk to staff and know that their views are taken seriously. Staff respond appropriately to children’s views. They help children understand when their wishes may not be in their best interests and cannot be followed. Staff help children to express their views to other adults, such as social workers. Children take part in meetings about their plans and are involved in the decisions affecting their lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s needs are considered carefully before the manager and social workers agree for the child to come to live at the home. The manager makes sure that staff have the expertise to respond effectively to the child’s needs, and that the child will be able to get along well with the other children living at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are taking part in education and are making progress. Staff encourage and support children to go to school and do well. For example, a child reads to staff every day after school, which is contributing to a significant improvement in his reading skills. Staff work with teachers and social workers effectively , to improve children’s attendance at school, deal with any barriers to learning and make sure that children’s education meets their learning needs and interests.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have opportunities to prepare for adult life. Staff encourage and support children to develop practical skills in cooking, shopping and managing money. They also encourage children’s aspirations. Together with school, staff are supporting a child to get an apprenticeship working with horses.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children get the support they need to be healthy. Staff make sure that children go to the dentist and opticians and get the help they need when they are unwell. They help children to understand and follow healthy lifestyles, including knowing how to be safe and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff manage children’s medication safely and make sure that children get the treatment that they need.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are developing a sense of emotional security. Staff understand the impact of children’s experiences on their development and relationships. They provide children with emotional warmth and clear boundaries and expectations that help children feel safe. Children are becoming more confident and sociable, and they take part in the things they enjoy, such as playing in a football team. A social worker said Inspection report children’s home: SC486165 4 that staff have helped their child ‘to stabilise emotionally by reinforcing positive messages about him as a person consistently’.

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

Children feel safe and are protected from harm. Staff understand each child’s vulnerabilities and know what they must do to keep the children safe. They understand the risks to children from going missing from home, criminal and sexual exploitation, alcohol and substance misuse, and using technology and the internet. However, the managers and staff do not always keep children’s written risk assessment and plans up to date so as to reflect what they are doing in practice.

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

The manager and staff actively and continually assess the dangers to each child and reduce the risk of harm to the child. They meet with social workers, parents, the police and other partners regularly to understand risk and to develop effective plans that protect the child.

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

Staff have the skills and confidence to help children to understand about healthy relationships and to know how to keep themselves safe. Staff always keep in touch when children go out into the community. Children said that staff call them a lot and sometimes come to check on them.

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

Social workers and the police report that the manager and staff do the right things when children go missing from home. Staff make every effort to find the child and report their concerns promptly to the police, parents and social workers. The manager and staff follow the local procedures for escalating concerns about children’s welfare. When children have been missing, they always have the chance to speak to someone who is independent of the home.

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

Children are supported to manage their feelings safely. Staff have the confidence and skills to find the best way to help children when they feel upset, angry and frustrated. Staff use clear and effective communication and their positive relationships with the children to deal with the problem constructively. A child said that ‘Staff know when I’m upset, find out what is bothering me, talk it through with me and make me feel better.’

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good

The manager provides staff with guidance and support that enables them to promote children’s welfare and safety. The manager and staff are ambitious for the children in their care. They make sure that children live in a safe home. They work hard to make sure that children always get the help they need to achieve better outcomes and lead happy and fulfilling lives.

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good

Staff are experienced, qualified and competent. They understand their responsibilities and work cohesively. They have the qualities and skills to build Inspection report children’s home: SC486165 5 positive and stable relationships with children. They think carefully about the best ways to engage with children who may find it difficult to trust adults.

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good

The staffing arrangements make sure that children receive continuity of care from a stable staff team. Recent staff changes have been managed effectively in order to reduce any disruption to children’s lives and their relationships.

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good

The manager does not always have a clear understanding of what is working well and where improvement is needed. This is because the manager’s overall monitoring and review systems need to improve so that she can evaluate the care that children are receiving. The manager has identified weaknesses in staff’s understanding of the home’s systems and the quality of children’s records. However, the required improvements in the quality of children’s records have not been achieved. This was a requirement at the previous inspection and has not been met.

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good

Children’s placement plans and health plans are not kept up to date so as to consider recent events in the child’s life and change arrangements for their care. Reports about children’s progress and records of staff’s work with children are not always clearly and accurately written. They do not provide a detailed and helpful picture of the child’s life. The records do not provide an analysis of the outcome of the work that has been done or identify what further support the child requires in the future. This is a missed opportunity to demonstrate how staff support children.

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good

The external monitoring of the home by an independent person is not providing the required level of scrutiny to help the home to develop. The independent person is not visiting the home every month, so they are not seeing the standard of care provided or the quality of the living conditions. They do not always talk to children, parents and other stakeholders to get their views about the quality of care provided. The independent visitor has not identified the shortfalls in children’s records found during this inspection.

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good

Likewise, the internal review of the quality of care does not consider the views of children and the adults involved in their lives in order to help the manager evaluate children’s experiences and identify areas for improvement. This was a requirement at the previous inspection and has not been met. Inspection report children’s home: SC486165 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—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home.

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Requirement Due date

This is specifically in relation to the manager consistently using the monitoring and reviewing systems to improve the quality of care. This is a repeated requirement. 22 May 2021

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

This relates to children’s health care plans and placement plans. 22 May 2021

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children’s home at least once each month.

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Requirement Due date

When the independent person is carrying out a visit, the registered person must help the independent person— 22 May 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC486165 7 if they consent, to interview in private such of the children, their parents, relatives and persons working at the home as the independent person requires; and

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Requirement Due date

to inspect the premises of the home and such of the home’s records (except for a child’s case records, unless the child and the child’s placing authority consent) as the independent person requires.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review, the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the manager, including feedback and opinions of children. This is a repeated requirement. 22 May 2021

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Recommendations

 The registered person should make sure that written risk assessments for each child are kept up to date to be consistent with the current arrangements in place to minimise risks to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s home’s regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should make sure that staff keep careful, clear and evaluative records of their direct work with children. These records should show how the work relates to the child’s relevant plan and be a significant contribution to the arrangements for their care and their life history. The records should include the objectives of the work, a detailed picture of the discussion, the child’s views and understanding of the issues discussed, the staff member’s analysis of the outcome of the work and what further work is required to meet the child’s needs. (‘Guide to the children’s home’s regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.5) Inspection report children’s home: SC486165 8

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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: SC486165 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Good Foundations Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 6 Tower Quays, Tower Road, Birkenhead, Merseyside CH41 1BP

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Inspector

Nick Veysey, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC486165 10 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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