Children's home run by Choices Home for Children Limited in Cheshire East

Inspection report children’s home: SC436559 1 SC436559 Registered provider: Choices Home for Children Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is privately owned and run. It is registered to provide care for up to five children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

Five children were living at the home at the time of this inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager is suitably qualified and experienced.

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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 28 April 2021 to carry out a monitoring 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 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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Enforcement action since last inspection:

On 18 November 2020, compliance notices were served against regulation 12, the protection of children; regulation 34, policies for the protection of children and regulation 13, leadership and management. Inspection report children’s home: SC436559 2 A monitoring visit was completed on 7 and 8 January 2021. The inspectors found that the provider had met the regulation 12 notice and the regulation 34 notice, as suitable progress had been made against the specified steps. The provider had not fully met the regulation 13 notice, as only limited progress was evident. A second compliance notice was served in relation to regulation 13, leadership and management.

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

A further monitoring visit was undertaken on 3 March 2021. The inspectors identified that significant shortfalls in the leadership and management of the children’s home remained. A third compliance notice was served in relation to regulation 13, leadership and management.

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

On 28 April 2021, a monitoring visit was undertaken to monitor compliance with the regulation 13 notice. The inspectors found that the provider had met the regulation 13 notice, as suitable progress had been made against the specified steps. Inspection report children’s home: SC436559 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/10/2019 Full Good 09/10/2018 Full Good 01/08/2017 Full Good 02/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC436559 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children experience care from adults who are child-centered in their practice and committed to their role as carers. A stable and consistent staff team provides children with an opportunity to build meaningful relationships with staff and provides them with a sense of security and belonging.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s day-to-day experiences of living in the home are positive. During the school summer holidays, children have participated in a wide range of activities in the community. This has encouraged them to stay active and introduced them to new interests. Older children have been able to spend time with friends. This helps them to develop their independence skills and supports their sense of their own identity, away from the home environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children living away from their placing authority are supported to maintain existing support services until local provision is identified. For example, staff are supporting one child to maintain a relationship with a mental health practitioner in the child’s home area. This continuity of care promotes her emotional well-being and ensures that appropriate plans are in place for her to move to local services in a planned manner.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All the children are registered with primary care services in the local area and staff are proactive in ensuring that regular appointments are attended and health needs are met. There is good multi-agency working in place for more targeted services. Children have access to specialist substance misuse services where appropriate. The sexual health nurse has attended a children’s meeting to discuss her role and explain how she can offer support to children. This partnership working means that staff are supported to meet the individual health needs of each child.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s education and training is prioritised. Staff have supported an older child to identify suitable apprenticeship opportunities so that he can progress his wish to pursue a career in mechanics. When children are not in education staff work with the child’s social worker and virtual school to obtain suitable provision. The registered manager has used information provided by the independent visitor to the home to contact a local charity with expertise in education for children with autism and additional sensory and cognitive needs. As a result, the placing authority is being supported to identify suitable local provision for the child to meet their needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to maintain or develop their family relationships and other significant relationships when this is in their best interests. Where it is not possible for children to see people who are important to them, staff share information with children in a way which helps them to understand why and supports their emotional well-being. Inspection report children’s home: SC436559 5

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

Children are cared for by staff who understand their needs. Children receive individualised care which helps and protects them effectively.

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

Detailed plans are completed and reviewed regularly. The plans provide accurate information about risks to children and details of their placement plans. However, some of these documents contain standard information for staff about how they should respond to situations, which is the same in each child’s records. This standardised information does not reflect the individual needs of children.

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

Risk management plans are not consistently written in a manner that helps staff understand if risks are being addressed effectively as they do not always show a clear increase or decrease of risk. The ability of staff to understand children’s progress through written assessments is, therefore, limited.

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

Staff use consultation with the provider’s psychologist to increase their understanding of the children and inform their approach to each child’s care. Information shared by the psychologist has helped staff to change their approach to the care of one child with additional cognitive and sensory needs. As a result, there has been a significant reduction in the need for staff to physically intervene with the child and she has been happier and more settled.

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

When physical interventions have been used, records of these events are detailed and clear. They provide a good understanding of the build up to incidents as well as the restraint and the response from staff to the child post-incident. Physical interventions are reviewed by the registered manager and a reflective and evaluative written response is provided. This ensures that the registered manager has a good understanding of practice in the home and has the information needed to identify any emerging trends or issues of concern.

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

When children go missing from the home staff are proactive in their efforts to find and return them safely. Good multi-agency working ensures that there is timely information sharing with family members, the police, and the child’s social worker to locate the child and reduce risks in the community. Where local authorities are not providing an independent service to undertake return-home interviews, the manager is not discussing with the placing authority if the allocated social worker for the child is the best person to speak with the child. As a result, opportunities may be lost to obtain information from the child that will inform future practice and responses to missing episodes.

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

The home is generally a safe environment for children to live in. However, staff were unaware that one child had disabled his bedroom smoke detector by wrapping it in plastic bags and clothing. It was unclear how long the alarm had not been functioning. This could have potentially fatal consequences if not identified and remedied swiftly. Inspection report children’s home: SC436559 6

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has recently returned to the home after a prolonged absence. The response to his return has been overwhelmingly positive, with children, staff and social workers saying that his return to the home has brought about positive changes. Morale has increased and there is a sense of direction and an optimism and energy within the home that was previously lacking. Staff say that they enjoy coming to work and work well as a team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has a good understanding of the strengths and areas for development needed. The registered manager has taken responsibility for most initial plans and assessments to oversee practice. However, in one instance, this led to only the registered manager having access to current local authority care plans as he had not put these on the child’s case records and shared this with the staff team. The registered manager is aware that he needs to move towards further delegation of tasks to the wider staff team. This will increase the skills of staff and ensure that the registered manager has sufficient time to undertake his management responsibilities.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children’s care records are held electronically. These are not easily accessible to children and the format of some records and language used does not help children to contribute to their care or understand what is being written about them. The registered manager and responsible individual are both aware that this needs to be addressed. No actions have yet been taken to progress this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular supervision from the registered manager, which supports their practice. Supervision is used to embed the model of care in the home and discussions held in these meetings use the model to inform reflections on practice. Team meetings are used effectively to talk about children’s care and their progress. There is regular input from the provider’s psychologist at team meetings, and staff can request one-to-one clinical supervision with him if they require this. This individual and group support ensures that staff have the resilience, skills and understanding they need to undertake their roles to a good standard.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has worked hard to ensure that staffing levels are sufficient to meet the individual needs of each child. This has resulted in an increase in the number of staff at night to support the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

For the most part, staff have the training they need to meet the needs of children. One whole staff team training day arranged to address the needs of one child has not yet taken place. As a result, staff have not yet had the opportunity to gain further information to support their understanding of the child’s complex cognitive and emotional health needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Some areas of the home need attention. The decoration in some communal areas is tired and dated. Bathrooms are damp and need general repair and renovation. One child’s bedroom downstairs does not afford the child sufficient privacy. As a result, Inspection report children’s home: SC436559 7 she needs to keep her curtains drawn. The staff bedroom and bathroom are cluttered and used as storage space. Furniture in the sleep-in room is broken. The condition of some parts of the home does not help children or staff to feel valued.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The statement of purpose for the home has been updated but has not been shared with Ofsted. In addition, the record of admissions and discharges to the home is not held in a central register. These omissions have not impacted on the quality of care for children. This does mean that some information needed to oversee and regulate practice in the home is not readily available. Inspection report children’s home: SC436559 8

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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, The 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 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;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 30 September

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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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

that staff help each child to access and contribute to the records kept by the registered person in relation to the child. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(f))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to children being able to access and contribute to their records. 30 September

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff— 30 September Inspection report children’s home: SC436559 9 provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background. (Regulation 6 (1)(a) (2)(b)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, that children’s plans are individualised to each child.

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Requirement Due date

If the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005(a) applies to the home—

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Requirement Due date

the registered person must ensure that the requirements of that Order and any regulations made under it, except for article 23 (duties of employees), are complied with in respect of the home. (Regulation 25 (2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, that staff undertake regular checks of children’s bedrooms to ensure that all smoke alarms are working. 30 August 2021

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Requirement Due date

Schedule 4 sets out the other information that the registered person must keep in relation to a children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the records are kept up to date. (Regulation 37 (1) (2)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, that a central record is kept showing the admission and discharge of each child. 30 September

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Requirement Due date

keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it; and

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Requirement Due date

notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (3)(a)(b)) 30 September

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that homes set up for emergency placements as indicated and detailed in their statement of purpose have Inspection report children’s home: SC436559 10 sufficient staff trained and skilled in in the admission and care of children. Specifically, that when a child is admitted in an emergency, any training required by staff to meet the child’s needs is prioritised and delivered in a timely manner. (Guide to children’s homes regulations including the quality standards, page 57, paragraph 11.6)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that when a child returns to the home after being missing from care or away from the home without permission, the responsible local authority provide an opportunity for the child to have an independent return-home interview. (‘Guide to children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.30)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that damage to walls and furniture is repaired, bathrooms are free from damp and broken tiles are repaired and an additional window covering is put on the child’s bedroom window on the ground floor. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff bedrooms and bathrooms are free from clutter and that broken furniture is repaired or removed. (‘Guide to children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 17, paragraph 3.26)

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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: SC436559 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Choices Home for Children Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 31 Wellington Road, Nantwich CW5 7ED

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Inspector

Dawn Parton, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC436559 12 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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