Children's Home run by St Hill Establishments Ltd in Kingston upon Hull

Inspection report children's home: SC385633 1 SC385633 Registered provider: St Hill Establishments Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

A private provider owns and manages this home. The home is registered to provide care for up to five children who may have social, emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in July 2014 and holds the appropriate qualifications for this role.

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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 March 2021 to carry out a monitoring visit. The report is published on the Ofsted 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: SC385633 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/07/2019 Full Good 27/11/2018 Full Good 23/01/2018 Full Good 09/11/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC385633 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s overall experiences are good. This is because staff know and understand children’s needs well. However, statutory care plans for one child are not up to date. This means that staff cannot be assured that the care they provide is in line with the aims and objectives of the child’s placing authority. This may hinder the child’s progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to attend their routine health appointments. This helps children to maintain their overall health. When children require specialist support from emotional and mental health services, the registered manager ensures they can quickly access these. As a result, for one child, incidents of self-harming behaviour are happening less often. This means that the child is becoming increasingly safe.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children attend education and are making good progress. For one child, this means that they are now at an age-appropriate reading level when previously they were a year behind their peers. With the support of staff, children are moving on to college placements and now have aspirations for their futures.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children take part in a variety of activities, such as visits to the beach, bicycle rides and trampolining. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they have spent time helping staff convert a garage into a workshop for woodwork. This means that children are learning new skills with the support of staff, and this helps them to grow in self- esteem and confidence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The registered manager and staff know how important it is for children to spend quality time with their family. Staff support and supervise these visits, when needed, to make sure that children get the most out of this time. This means that children are able to maintain good relationships with the people that mean the most to them.

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

Some of the children’s risk assessments do not include actions for staff to follow to manage and reduce risks to children’s safety. For one child there are no strategies for staff to follow when, or if, the child self-harms. Although staff were able to verbalise their actions, this potentially leaves the child at risk of harm.

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

The use of physical restraint is rare. Children respond well to the nurturing approach used by staff in the home. Incidents are addressed quickly, and staff use de- escalation and distraction techniques to help children to calm and settle when they are upset or frustrated. Children said they feel safe living in the home and are able to speak to staff when they feel sad or worried. Inspection report children’s home: SC385633 4 Staff are attuned to changes in children’s behaviours and demeanor that may indicate that they are upset or anxious, or that they may self-harm. In these circumstances staff increase the amount of time they spend with children and arrange relaxing leisure activities. Staff also work closely with other professionals, including mental health professionals, to ensure that their practice provides children with the support that they need to manage and reduce risks to their safety.

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

Although there are no occasions of bullying occurring in the home, one child reported an incident that took place on the school bus. In this situation, the registered manager worked closely with the child’s school to manage and resolve this incident, and protect the child from harm. Integrated strategies between the home and the school are now in place to prevent further incidents of bullying.

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

All children said that they feel safe. Staff are consistent with their approach to the children’s daily routines, and this creates structure and security for the children. Children rarely go missing from the home. There are plans and protocols in place for staff to follow should a child go missing. The protocol ensures that there is a multi- agency response to a missing-from-home episode. This reinforces to children that staff are keeping them safe.

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

Health and safety checks are routinely carried out and are up to date. Children take part in regular fire drills at the home and this shows that children take fire precautions seriously. The management oversight of these checks ensures that the children live in a safe environment.

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

Recruitment processes ensure that the suitability of staff is verified. Overall, the monitoring of the recruitment process is effective and promotes safe care for the children.

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good

New staff at the home do not have an appropriate induction. They do not receive inductions sessions that would provide them with the essential information that they need and help them to settle in their roles. Without a clear record of the induction process, it is difficult for the registered manager to monitor staff progress, or to evaluate the strengths and areas of development for new staff members.

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good

The registered manager has not included other local care homes within the locality risk assessment. The risk assessment does not determine how to minimise the risk should there be a concern.

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good

Staff receive regular supervision. Leaders and managers review staff practice and reflect on recent incidents. This encourages development and learning for staff and promotes good safeguarding practice. All staff spoken to, said that they feel supported by leaders and managers in the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC385633 5 The registered manager works with a wide range of professionals, including teachers, social workers and psychologists. Communication between the home and these professionals is good and this integrated approach supports children’s progress. One social worker said, ‘The child has formed some really good relationships and likes the staff. They are really benefiting from that.’ Inspection report children’s home: SC385633 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 protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)) 21 August 2021

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Requirement Due date

ensure that each employee completes an appropriate induction. (Regulation 33 (1)(a)) 21 August 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

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child; and

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Requirement Due date

are kept up to date. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)) 21 August 2021

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises used for the purposes of the children’s home at least once in each calendar year taking into account the requirement in regulation 12 (2)(c) (the protection of children standard). (Regulation 46 (1)) 21 August 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC385633 7

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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: SC385633 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: St Hill Establishments Limited

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Inspector

Gemma McDonnell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC385633 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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