Children's Home run by Amegreen Children’s Services in West Berkshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC472139 1 SC472139 Registered provider: Amegreen Children’s Services Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is part of a private organisation and provides care for up to two children. The home provides care to give them the opportunity to come to terms with previous experiences of trauma, abuse, loss, rejection and poor attachments.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since 5 August 2020.

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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

Date of last inspection: 30 October 2019

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC472139 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/10/2019 Full Outstanding 14/08/2018 Full Outstanding 04/09/2017 Full Good 13/12/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC472139 3

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good

Children make good progress in all areas of their life from the point they move into the home. Staff provide children with clear structure and boundaries to help them settle. The staff’s therapeutic approach means that they provide thoughtful care that is well informed by a good understanding of the children’s individual needs and circumstances. This helps children to feel secure and provides a good base for them to make progress.

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good

Staff impress clear expectations on the children with regard to their school attendance. One child, who is due to move to secondary school, spoke positively about the support she has received from staff to help her adjust and prepare for her new school. Staff develop positive relationships with each child’s school, and they preserve excellent communication channels with teachers and learning support assistants. The headteacher of one school was exceptionally complimentary regarding the relationship she has with staff at the home and how they are supporting a child to improve their engagement with learning.

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good

Children receive support to improve their reading skills during protected time before school and at bedtime to read stories. During the inspection one child was very excited to show off how she has been learning to tell the time. Staff celebrate children’s educational successes and reward them for doing well. This ensures the children feel confident about learning.

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good

Staff understand the children’s needs and offer them appropriate affection and care. Children are involved with creating menus that help them to try new foods. They enjoy home-cooked and nutritious meals.

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good

Children’s care plans contain long-term goals for them to work towards. These goals are developed in consultation with the organisation’s clinical psychologist.

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good

Staff have high aspirations for children and encourage them to participate in a wide range of activities that give them the opportunity to be adventurous. This promotes the children’s resilience and gives them the confidence to try new things. This also provides opportunities for them to improve their relationships with each other and enjoy new experiences together.

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good

The garden at the home provides the children with a safe space to have fun. They enjoy playing on the trampoline and in the paddling pool together. The home has its own equine centre which the children attend. During this time, they practice their horse care and riding skills. Inspection report children’s home: SC472139 4 Children are in good health and have access to local and specialist health services. They receive good support from staff to understand the changes that take place in their minds and bodies, as they reach adolescence.

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good

Feedback from the children’s placing authorities is very positive with regards to the care provided by staff and the positive outcomes for the children who are living in the home.

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good

Staff are thoughtful in the way they plan for children who are moving into the home, and take time to build positive relationships. This enables them to feel comfortable about moving into the house. Each child has a trusted adult they can seek support from and talk to about any worries. Key workers who are allocated to oversee children’s care plans and engage children in life-space-interviews make every effort to make sure that they understand children’s wishes and feelings.

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good

Staff provide children with clear routines throughout the day. The children benefit from a caring and nurturing approach that helps them to feel secure and cared for.

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good

There is a positive safeguarding culture at the home. The previous registered manager and responsible individual understand child protection procedures and immediately share any concerns with the children’s placing authority and their own designated officer. Some staff, including some senior members, are not familiar with safeguarding policies and procedures. This has the potential to delay the recording and reporting of any concerns.

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good

Staff support each other during shift handovers and team meetings to put measures in place that reduce the risk of harm to the children. In practice they understand the vulnerabilities of children well and provide the support and supervision that they need to stay safe. However, children’s risk assessments are not individualised. They do not focus on individual risks and behaviours or set out clear actions that staff should take to address any concerns. Staff do not always complete risk assessments for community activities. When they do, they are generic and do not fully consider the risks to individual children. The recording does not underpin the good care practice by ensuring staff are fully informed and accountable for consistently implementing safety plans.

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good

Staff have not undertaken recent training in relation to understanding the risks presented to children by the internet and social media. Children do not have any unsupervised access to devices that are connected to the internet and therefore there are no concerns that these children are currently exposed to any risk of harm. Given that the children will, at some point, Inspection report children’s home: SC472139 5 need to access the internet, it is not clear from their care plans how they will be supported to learn to do this safely.

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good

Staff seldom use physical intervention and only do so as a last resort, to prevent harm occurring. The manager’s review of incidents where physical intervention has been used does not always consider whether the threshold for using this intervention is met, and does not always demonstrate that key details of the incident have been considered to inform learning. However, senior managers provide additional scrutiny of serious incidents and this provides an additional level of protection to ensure safe practice.

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to be good

Following the recent resignation of the registered manager, the home does not have a registered manager or permanent leader employed to provide the staff team with effective leadership and management. The responsible individual has taken immediate action to identify a suitably qualified manager to undertake the manager’s role.

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to be good

The responsible individual ensures the home is maintained to a high standard. Children live in an environment that is personalised to their tastes. The house looks and feels like a family home.

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to be good

There are sufficient suitably experienced staff in place to meet the needs of the children. However, not all staff have the skills and qualifications to complete their role effectively. For example, one senior staff member was unable to describe how to raise concerns with external professionals. Some staff have failed to keep up to date with their mandatory training including first aid and physical intervention techniques. This means that some staff are not confident in de-escalating confrontation with children.

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to be good

Managers and staff receive frequent supervision. The emotional impact on staff working in the home is recognised by the supervisor. Practice-related concerns are not always recorded effectively, and actions are not consistently followed up to ensure completion of identified tasks, designed to support staff development. This means that the leadership team at the home faces a challenge to ensure effective staffing combinations when planning rotas.

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to be good

Children’s care planning is effective. Placement plans identify children’s individual needs and list their individual strengths. Children’s case records reflect their lived experience and their wishes and feelings are taken into consideration and acted upon. Management monitoring to determine the impact of staff practice on children’s overall progress is not consistent or recorded effectively. This makes it difficult for managers and key workers to fully understand the levels of progress and achievements the children are making. Inspection report children’s home: SC472139 6 Leaders and managers have not engaged in regularly monitoring the quality of care provided for the children. The regulation 45 report has not been submitted to Ofsted within the required time frame. The manager’s review of the quality of care provided for children does not identify the home’s strengths and weaknesses and therefore does not promote service

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to be good

development. Inspection report children’s home: SC472139 7

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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;

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies;

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(v)(vii)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that individual risk assessments are updated and that trips and activities are risk assessed. 30 September 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

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

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child; 30 September 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC472139 8 ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child;

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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)(c)(d)(e)(h))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children at least once every 6 months.

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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 quality of care provided for children;

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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.

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Requirement Due date

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review (“the quality of care review report”).

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Requirement Due date

supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed. (Regulation 45 (1) (2)(a)(b) (3) (4)(a)) 30 September 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC472139 9

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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: SC472139 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Amegreen Children’s Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2 Granary Court, Fair Oak Green, Stratfield Saye, Reading RG7 2DL

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Inspectors

Paul Thomas, Social Care Inspector Sara Stoker, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC472139 11 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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