Children's home run by Utopia Children’s Services Ltd

Inspection report children's home: 1269072 1 Registered provider: Utopia Children’s Services Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides residential care and accommodation for three children up to the age of 18 with social and/or emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager of the home was registered by Ofsted in June 2021.

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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: 9 December 2019

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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: 1269072 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

09/12/2019 Full Good 25/02/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 26/06/2018 Full Good Inspection report children's home: 1269072 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children make good progress in all areas of their lives. Staff are committed to creating positive experiences. Children receive individualised care and spend quality time with staff. As a result, the children benefit from trusting relationships and feel a sense of belonging.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last full inspection, the home has benefited from redecoration and the introduction of new soft furnishings. The home has a picture wall in the living room, which displays photographs of the children and staff and of children who previously lived at the home. One child commented that he really likes the changes the new manager has made and that he likes to help with decorating. The welcoming environment means that the children feel comfortable in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have access to education. The encouragement from staff helps children achieve full attendance at school, attend extra-curricular clubs and transition into new provisions. The home has an in-house education co-ordinator to advocate for the children’s needs and improve communication. As a result of this good support, the children make progress with their learning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There is a child in the home who smokes. They have previously been supported to access specialist services to quit. However, there are no current plans in place to encourage them to reduce smoking or make healthier lifestyle choices. This could have implications for the child’s long-term health.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support the children to express their views. For example, they have monthly progress meetings with their key worker to make targets for the next month and are encouraged to chair their own review meetings. Children are also encouraged to provide regular feedback to staff at ‘children’s chat’ meetings. The registered manager then reads the meeting notes and responds in writing to any requests. This provides children with the opportunity to reflect on their progress and to feel that their wishes and feelings matter.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are creative in providing stimulating activities for the children. Children enjoy spending time with the home’s pets, help staff to maintain the vegetable patches and spend time with friends in the community. More recently, the children have also enjoyed a holiday with staff. This helps them develop social relationships and confidence in the community.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are helped by staff to spend time with loved ones. Families are welcomed into the home and staff travel with the children to support the time families spend together. This helps the children to rebuild positive and meaningful relationships with those who are important to them. Inspection report children's home: 1269072 4

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

Children’s risks and vulnerabilities are understood by staff. However, the written assessments to manage and reduce risk are not clear. For example, one child’s missing-from-home risk assessment does not specify when staff should contact the police. In addition, children’s risk assessments do not adequately identify all risks, for example, one child self-administers medication and this is not assessed. This could lead to inconsistencies in staff practice and may compromise the children’s safety.

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

The home has built good working relationships with other professionals. There are plans in place for the children to receive life-story work and therapy sessions. This will help the children to understand their experiences and reinforce personal identity.

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

Children’s positive behaviour is recognised and rewarded by staff. Inappropriate behaviours or actions are discussed and, when necessary, the children receive appropriate sanctions. This motivates them to make positive informed choices in the future. However, sanctions are not always recorded. This means that managers and staff are unable to monitor patterns and trends to ensure sanctions are fair and effective.

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

The registered manager ensures that staff who are recruited to work in the home are subject to all necessary checks. This helps to ensure that staff who work in the home are safe to do so.

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

Staff are confident in their roles and well supported by managers. Staff benefit from good-quality supervision and team meetings that focus on children, working relationships and team dynamics. This allows staff to reflect on their practice, develop a relationship with the registered manager and build a good understanding of children’s needs.

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

Children live in a physically safe environment. Staff carry out regular health and safety checks to ensure the safety of the home.

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good

The new registered manager is suitably qualified and experienced. She is enthusiastic about the service and is child focused. There has been a good handover with the outgoing manager. This means that the registered manager has a good understanding of the service.

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good

The current staff team is stable. Staff work additional shifts when necessary to ensure the children experience continuity. This ensures the children are always cared for by adults with whom they have positive and established relationships.

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good

One child’s case file does not contain all the required information. As a result, staff do not have the information that they need to provide coordinated care. Inspection report children's home: 1269072 5 Children do not know how to make a complaint. It is not clear in the children’s guide what action would be taken to respond to a complaint made by a child. Furthermore, a concern raised by a child was not followed up by the registered manager. This is a missed opportunity to support children to raise concerns and be listened to and valued by staff taking actions and reflecting on practice.

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good

Leaders and managers carefully considered the impact a new child might have on the other children already living in the home. However, they did not review staff training to ensure that staff had the skills to meet the child’s specific health need. The manager did not ensure that staff were equipped with the most up-to-date knowledge.

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good

The administration records of medication are not consistent. There are occasions when staff have not followed the instructions on the prescription and there are recording errors on the medication sheets. The manager completes medication audits, however, did not identify or respond to the shortfalls. While this has not had any serious consequences thus far, it has the potential to do so.

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good

Not all staff have completed mandatory training. For example, not all staff have completed training in medication or managing allegations against staff, and not all managers had completed supervision training. This compromises consistent care and professional development. Inspection report children's home: 1269072 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))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to ensuring that children’s risks are accurately reflected in their written documentation, and that risk assessments clearly advise staff about how to respond to risk. 20 October 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

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 have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(c)

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Requirement Due date

This relates to ensuring that staff undergo the necessary training to support them in their role in working with children. 20 October 2021

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children— 20 October 2021 Inspection report children's home: 1269072 7 receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered manager ensuring that care staff have the skills in place to support the children admitted into the home. The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular the registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

medicine which is prescribed for a child is administered as prescribed to the child for whom it is prescribed and to no other child. (Regulation 23 (1) (2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that medication is administered to children as prescribed. 20 October 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))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the need for a child’s care plan to be kept up to date. 20 October 2021

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children are aware of the complaints procedure and be reminded of it as necessary. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.13)  The registered person should ensure that the children’s guide helps children to understand how to make a complaint in line with the home’s complaints procedure. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 4.22)  The registered person should ensure that all incidents of control, discipline and restraint are subject to systems of regular scrutiny to ensure that their use is fair. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.36) Inspection report children's home: 1269072 8  The registered person should ensure that staff have the relevant skills and knowledge to be able to help children understand, and where necessary work to

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Recommendations

change negative behaviours in key areas of health and well-being such as the use of tobacco. (Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 35, paragraph 7.18)

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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’.

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Utopia Children’s Services Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 9, Wheatstone Court, Waterwells Business Park, Davy Way, Gloucester GL2 2AQ

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Inspector

Sophie Hills, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 1269072 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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