Children's Home run by SOLID GLOBAL LIMITED in Birmingham

Inspection report children's home: 1259178 1 Registered provider: Solid Global Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home provides accommodation and therapeutic care for two young people aged up to 18 years who are affected by mental ill health. It is owned and operated by a small private company.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager was registered with Ofsted in October 2019.

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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 21 and 22 October 2020 to carry out an assurance 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

Date of last inspection: 28 September 2018

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not judged

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children's home: 1259178 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

28/09/2018 Interim Not judged 05/06/2018 Full Inadequate Inspection report children's home: 1259178 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

No young people have moved in or out of the home since the assurance visit. One young person continues to live in the home. This young person is making good progress because of the attentive support she receives from the staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young person enjoys a range of activities including regular physical activities. This is helping with her physical and emotional health. The opportunity to carry out these activities with staff is helping the young person to feel less anxious, and this has reduced the frequency and severity of incidents.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are successfully supporting the young person with her education. Encouragement from staff means that the young person is engaging well with the home tutoring that she is receiving. Furthermore, the young person is currently preparing for her exams.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A key strength of the home is the work that staff undertake with the young person to promote her emotional well-being. Staff consult with the art therapist and discuss the best ways to support the young person. This helps staff support the young person to manage her feelings of anxiety. The young person shared with the inspector that this support has helped her with her confidence and self-esteem. As a result, incidents of self-harming behaviour have become less frequent.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work with the young person in a person-centred way to help her understand some of her behaviours. Staff promote positive routines that help the young person to feel secure and give her a sense of stability.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff recognise the religious needs of the young person. Since the easing of the COVID-19 restrictions, the young person has been supported by staff to attend church every Sunday. This has helped with her understanding of her identity and her emotional well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The registered manager ensures that the young person is consulted with daily. For example, the young person gives feedback about her day to the registered manager and staff and discusses what has gone well and what has not gone well. Staff provide positive feedback to her as a way to encourage and motivate her. This helps her to feel valued and know that her views are listened to.

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

Staff understand the individual risks and vulnerabilities of the young person in their care. Staff take appropriate action to reduce the potential risks to the young person. In the main, risk assessments and behaviour management plans provide staff with clear guidance on how to support the young person and keep her safe. Despite this, recent changes made to the young person’s deprivation of liberty and consent Inspection report children's home: 1259178 4 orders have not been included in these documents. This administrative shortfall could result in staff not having access to the most up to date information to inform them on how to manage known risks.

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

Staff have the required skills and experienced to be able to identify and respond to signs that the young person maybe at risk of harm. Staff undertake relevant training to maintain and develop their safeguarding knowledge and skills.

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

Staff have supported the young person to develop an understanding of her personal safety. This has included the young person completing a programme of online learning in areas including personal safety, bullying, child sexual exploitation and fire safety. As a result, the young person has developed a better understanding of how to keep herself safe.

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

The young person has created a poster for staff, to give guidance to them on how she thinks they can keep her safe. This includes the triggers to her anxiety and how staff should support her when she is feeling anxious. The young person is also given the opportunity to quiz staff, to check that they have read and understood the poster, which is displayed in the office. This approach empowers the young person to contribute to the planning for her safety.

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

The young person has completed fire marshal training and takes part in the fire drills. This helps her to know how to respond in an emergency.

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

The registered manager ensures that the home is safe and well maintained. Regular checks of electrical, gas and fire safety equipment are carried out by the staff team.

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

In most instances, staff are successful at managing young people’s behaviours. However, on one occasion, staff did not recognise the signs that a young person was struggling to cope. This had an impact on the effectiveness of staff’s responses to the young person’s subsequent behaviour. As a result, staff needed to request police assistance. This incident is not typical of staff response to behaviour management.

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good

The registered manager knows the young person well and has a good understanding of her needs. The registered manager supports the staff team to improve their practice and get good outcomes for the young person.

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good

Staff speak positively about the registered manager. A member of staff told the inspector that she receives regular supervision, and this helps her improve her practice. Staff also receive support through regular team meetings. The registered manager uses these meetings to improve staff practice and provide guidance on how to meet the young person’s needs. This gives staff the opportunity to improve on the quality of care provided to the young person. Because of the support provided by the registered manager, staff are developing confidence in their roles and responsibilities. Inspection report children's home: 1259178 5 Since the last monitoring visit there has been a high turnover of staff. There are vacancies in both senior and care staff roles. Although the home is registered to care for two young people, there are currently only enough permanent staff to look after one. The young person currently living in the home told the inspector that she

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good

has not been affected by the changes in staff or the current staff vacancies. Furthermore, she was clear that she feels that there are enough staff to care for her and she is happy with the care that she receives.

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good

When young people are restrained by staff, the registered manager ensures that there is appropriate oversight of such incidents. However, when the registered manager is directly involved in the restraint, there is no oversight from the responsible individual or any other suitable individual. This means that these incidents are not adequately reviewed to ensure that the use of the physical restraint was proportionate and necessary. This also means opportunities to fully consider any learning from these incidents have been missed.

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good

The registered manager ensures that Ofsted are notified of all serious safeguarding incidents. In some isolated incidents, there has been a delay in these notifications being sent to Ofsted. The registered manager has recognised this shortfall and has put steps in place to reduce the likelihood of this happening again.

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good

The registered manager has ensured that there is a risk assessment in place to consider any risks associated with the location of the home. However, this assessment does not include the registered manager’s knowledge of other children’s homes that are located nearby. There is no indication that this has had an impact on young people’s safety. However, this is a missed opportunity to be proactive in considering all known potential factors that may influence young people’s welfare and safety.

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good

The arrangements to safely administer medication are appropriate. However, the written guidance for staff about when to give prescribed medication to the young person is not clear. This is a recording matter that has not directly compromised the safety of the young person. Inspection report children's home: 1259178 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

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1) (2)(d)(f))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered provider ensuring that there is a stable staff team of sufficient number to meet the needs of the young people. Furthermore, that management oversight is used to identify and continually improve the quality of care provided to young people. 29 August 2021

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so ("the authorised person")—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate. (Regulation 35 (3)(b)(i)(ii)) 29 August 2021 Inspection report children's home: 1259178 7 This specifically relates to the registered provider ensuring that all the physical interventions, including those involving the registered manager, are reviewed, and that those individuals involved in the physical intervention are spoken to and debriefed by an appropriate person.

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Recommendations

 The registered provider should ensure that the child’s risk assessment provides clear guidance to staff with accordance to the child’s mental capacity consent order and deprivation order of liberty. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5).  The registered provider should ensure that staff have clear guidance in relation to the administration of medication. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4).  The registered provider should ensure that there is a system in place so that all serious events are notified, within 24 hours, to the appropriate people. This particularly applies when it is not possible for the registered manager to send the notification. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.13).  The registered provider should ensure that the location risk assessment is

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Recommendations

updated with information known by the registered manager or staff, particularly in relation to any children’s homes local to the home, and consider how any risks may be managed. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.1).

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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: 1259178 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Solid Global Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Suite G, Eldon House, 24 Central Square, High Street, Erdington, Birmingham B23 6RY

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Octovus Muchemenye

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Inspector

Sam Dulay-Kainth, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 1259178 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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