Children's home run by Aspireone Care Ltd

Inspection report children’s home: 1276911 1 Registered provider: Aspireone Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned home provides care for up to two children with social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

Due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, 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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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 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: 5 February 2020

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1276911 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

05/02/2020 Interim Improved effectiveness 22/07/2019 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1276911 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Two children are currently living at the home. Both children have lived at the home for over 20 months and are making good progress from their starting points. Professionals who are involved in the children’s care are complimentary about the care children receive, and praise the way that staff communicate and work with them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to attend routine health appointments. The manager and staff work closely with the company’s clinician and external agencies to ensure that children receive all the support they need to promote their physical and emotional well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work in partnership with children’s families. Staff help children to maintain important relationships by transporting them to spend time with their families. One parent told the inspector: ‘They always make you welcome when you visit the home and there is nothing the home could do better.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children attend school and are making good academic progress. Staff talk with children about their future career plans and encourage them to be aspirational. Both children are working towards their GCSEs and have identified what they would like to do in college once they leave school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported by staff to develop their independence skills in accordance with their needs. Staff help children to develop essential life skills, which they incorporate into the children’s day in a natural way. For example, staff encourage children to cook, go to the shops and to travel independently by using public bus services.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff regularly update children’s internal placement plans. However, staff do not always remember to consult children about their plans, or set targets for children to achieve. As a result, staff miss out on opportunities to involve children more in decisions about their care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Daily records are not always written in a way that helps children to understand their life stories. Some staff complete children’s daily records in a way that is impersonal and jargonistic. This can include staff making negative judgemental comments about children’s behaviours. This means that children do not have a balanced record of their time in the home that they can look at in the future and which may help them to build resilience.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff share children’s hobbies and interests, such as gaming and kick-boxing. This enables children to develop meaningful relationships with staff based on shared interests. Inspection report children’s home: 1276911 4

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

Staff have a good understanding of children’s backgrounds and needs. Staff work closely with children to help them to understand their behaviours and vulnerabilities that are a cause for concern. For example, staff have worked with children to help them to understand risks around online and social media, and to recognise what constitutes a safe and healthy relationship. Risk assessments and plans are regularly updated. Staff implement the strategies outlined in these plans to keep children safe from harm. However, risk assessments do not include children’s views about their own triggers, and strategies that staff can use to de-escalate situations. Consequently, the staff are missing an opportunity to involve children in key aspects of their care.

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

On the rare occasion when children go missing from the home or are absent without consent, staff follow children’s risk assessments and missing-from-care protocols. When necessary, the staff will consult with and involve the police. When a child returns, staff talk with the child and arrange for an interview to be conducted by an independent person. This offer of an independent interview helps the staff to receive beneficial information about the child’s triggers and the reasons why the child decided to go missing from the home.

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

There are no concerns about bullying at the home. Staff are good at giving children verbal praise and rewards for acts of kindness and for being polite and pleasant. Consequently, the home has a calm atmosphere and physical intervention is rarely used. Staff support children to get along with each other. This helps to create a positive and safe living environment for children.

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

When children are at risk from self-harm, staff act quickly to keep them safe. Staff use their knowledge of children and their strong relationships to calm them and to help them to relax. Staff then ensure that children receive care and support that respond to their individual needs. This means that children feel confident about asking staff for help when they need it.

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

Managers ensure that the home’s location risk assessment is regularly updated with information from the local police. As a result, staff are constantly updated on known and emerging risks to children that are within the vicinity of the home. Regular health and safety checks and fire drills ensure that the home is a safe environment for children to live in.

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

The registered manager ensures that staff who are recruited to work in the home are the subject of thorough recruitment checks. This means that staff working in the home are suitable to work with children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has recently left the home. This was a planned move and a new manager is now managing the home. The manager has received a well-planned Inspection report children’s home: 1276911 5 induction into the role, and therefore has maintained the quality of care for the children living in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have either obtained a level 3 diploma in residential childcare or are enrolled on the course. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, children have been cared for by a familiar staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular supervision. Managers use supervision to talk with staff about their development and performance. They also use these opportunities to listen to the staff’s views and to have reflective discussions about children’s needs. The staff have an annual appraisal and new staff receive a good induction. As a result, staff feel supported and valued.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers ensure that staff receive necessary training to keep children safe. This includes face-to-face training in first aid, safeguarding and ‘Prevent’ duty. However, some training has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff have completed online behaviour management training but, despite their best efforts, managers have been unable to secure the face-to-face element of this training. At the time of the inspection, this shortfall had not had an impact on children. Managers expect to secure a date in the near future.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Management oversight is sometimes weak. For example, managers do not always review incident reports or the appropriateness of rewards for positive behaviours, or comment on negative sanctions. Children are not always afforded the opportunity to comment on their records and managers do not have a strategy in place to address this shortfall. This is a missed opportunity to review staff practice and to improve the quality of care for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Partnership working is strong. The social workers and education professionals describe communication with staff as being ‘excellent’. Social workers praise staff for the support they give children with preparing for independence. One education professional told the inspector that ‘there was nothing extra the home could do to support a child with his education.’ Inspection report children’s home: 1276911 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 children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from—

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Requirement Due date

take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives. (Regulation 7 (1)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to managers consulting with children about information in their risk assessments and internal placement plans. 27 June 2021

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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 promotes their welfare.

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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. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to managers needing to review and comment on incident reports as well as positive rewards and sanctions that have been given to children. 27 June 2021

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff are 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 Inspection report children’s home: 1276911 7 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)

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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: 1276911 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Aspireone Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 4 Lyme Drive, Lyme Vale Court, Parklands, Stoke- on-Trent, Staffordshire ST4 6NW

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Inspector

Karen Gillingwater, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1276911 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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