Children's home run by Nottingham City Council

Inspection report children’s home: 1277041 1 Registered provider: Nottingham City Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is operated by a local authority. It is registered to provide care for up to two children who may have emotional or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is led by an experienced and registered manager.

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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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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: 1277041 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/08/2019 Full Good 21/11/2018 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1277041 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children like where they live and have good relationships with the staff. Children have regular conversations with staff about their emotions and feelings and how these affect their behaviour. When children are anxious, staff recognise the triggers and respond effectively to meet children’s needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health needs are understood by staff. Although some children struggle to attend medical appointments, staff encourage children to do so. All the children are taking part in some form of fitness activity and they are encouraged to eat healthy meals. This demonstrates that the staff have developed a positive culture in the home towards healthy lifestyles.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When children have been bullied at school, staff have advocated on their behalf to keep them safe. Some children struggle with anxiety. The staff have worked with education providers to make certain that education is delivered at the child’s pace, to prevent them from becoming overwhelmed. Overall, children are making good academic progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported by staff to engage in activities in the community. For example, one child joined the police cadets and boxing classes run by the police. Consequently, children make friends and become less isolated.

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

Children become safer after moving into this home. This is because the staff understand the complexities of each child’s history, and this helps the staff to manage behaviour in a safe and consistent manner.

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

Staff support children to engage in therapy when this is required. This helps children to understand and manage their feelings and emotions and regulate their behaviour. The staff work effectively with involved agencies to ensure that the right services are provided to the child to safeguard them and help them progress.

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

Staff have recently had some additional training in physical intervention to ensure that they have the knowledge and skills to manage children’s behaviour effectively. Physical interventions are rare. However, when this has occurred the manager has not always recorded the incident accurately. There has been a lack of reflective learning and follow-up action by the manager. For example, a staff member was involved in a restraint, and subsequently there was no formal supervision session for some three months to review the incident. This is a shortfall.

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

Overall, children are safe because the staff are always committed and work well to ensure children’s safety. There have been few incidents and so, overall, the home has remained settled. However, one incident was not reported to Ofsted. This Inspection report children’s home: 1277041 4 prevents Ofsted from being able to evaluate the actions of staff and the manager and to be assured that children are being effectively safeguarded.

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good

The manager is not always evaluating individual meetings between children and staff and so it is difficult for the manager to assess what interventions are working and what progress is being made by children.

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good

Training for the manager in contextual safeguarding is not up to date, however overall staff do receive some good training. For example, the deputy manager has disseminated good training resources that they have sourced from the police. However, the manager does not yet have a system in place to assess whether staff have undertaken and understood the content given to them.

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good

Although, staff consider team morale to be good, the staff have not benefited from any team meetings this year. This hampers the coordination of care practice and the development of working relationships between staff.

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good

Most staff receive regular professional supervision however this is not the case for all staff. For example, there was no evidence of one member of staff having received supervision for four months. This prevents staff from talking about crucially important matters to them. Despite this shortfall, staff feel supported by managers.

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good

The manager has resorted to utilising agency staff, at times, during the COVID-19 pandemic. This has been well managed. Agency staff members have been supported by an established staff team that the children know well. New staff have now been appointed and have undertaken an induction programme. Due to the staff team being established and diverse, new staff can learn within a skilled, supportive environment.

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good

Partner agencies reported that communication from the manager and staff is good. Agencies work together effectively, including using good and transparent communication, which helps to coordinate approaches to children’s care. Inspection report children’s home: 1277041 5

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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 staff work as a team where appropriate;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of 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;

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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

Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(c)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to management oversight of the progress and incidents involving children. The manager should take steps to ensure that team meetings and supervisions take place regularly and are recorded. The manager should ensure the all the staff, including he, undertake relevant training and development and have a system to evaluate the effectiveness of learning and development undertaken. 30 August 2021 Inspection report children’s home: 1277041 6

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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: 1277041 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Nottingham City Council, Loxley House, Station Street, Nottingham NG2 3NG

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Inspector

Andi Lilley-Tams, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1277041 8 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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