Children's home run by Attivo Care Ltd

Inspection report children’s home: 2570070 1 Registered provider: Attivo Care Limited 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 private company. The home provides care for up to two children. The home specialises in caring for children who may have social, emotional and mental health needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered since November 2019.

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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 21 January 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 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: not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report children’s home: 2570070 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

Not previously inspected Inspection report children’s home: 2570070 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making good progress in all areas of their lives. The nurturing relationships that they have with the adults who care for them are helping children make progress. One child said, ‘They showed me a different way and helped me turn my life around.’ Children now have the confidence to achieve their goals.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health needs are met. Children receive specialist support with their emotional health needs. The adults who care for the children demonstrate curiosity with specialist professionals. This helps them to expand their knowledge and skills relating to children’s individual health needs. This practice ensures that therapeutic care is embedded into children’s daily care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children feel comfortable to explore their identity. When they are struggling, they feel confident to work through any challenges with the adults who care for them. The adults challenge practice from other agencies that is discriminatory and not inclusive, which has a direct positive impact on children’s self-esteem, resilience and self-worth.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The development of life skills is not individualised to each child and this area of support is not effective. For example, children learn some cooking skills. However, there is not a plan in place to ensure a coordinated approach to help children develop the independence skills they need for a successful adult life.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Good educational attendance and attainment are key focuses for children. Those children who were not attending school previously have progressed on to education settings that meet their needs. Children are aspirational about their futures and have career goals in place, which will improve their opportunities in life.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to spend quality time with their families. If the quality deteriorates, the adults caring for them resolve any issues to maintain good relationships between children and their families. Children are supported both practically and emotionally when they stay overnight with their families and if they are returning to live with them. As a result, children are sensitively supported to return home in line with their plans.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Memories and life-story work are not key features in children’s lives. Children do not have documented memory books or a documented chronology of their time in the home. Without this work, children may not understand their history, important relationships and significant memories in later life. Inspection report children’s home: 2570070 4

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

There have been a very small number of significant events involving the children. When safeguarding issues arise, the adults caring for children have a good knowledge of how to keep them safe. They have a clear understanding of children’s risks and their individual safety plans.

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

Although the adults caring for children understand the current risks in children’s lives, they lack up-to-date training relating to safeguarding issues such as exploitation, substance misuse, and children going missing from home. This has not had a direct impact on children’s safety, but further knowledge is required to ensure that staff are skilled in identifying risk factors for children.

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

When children go missing from the home, the adults caring for them proactively contact the children’s families and friends to try and locate them. The manager has oversight of all incidents when children go missing from care. However, there is a lack of evaluation relating to practice, which could increase the risk of harm to children when they are missing.

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

There is a consistent, nurturing, restorative approach to children when they are struggling with their emotions and experiences. There have been no physical interventions for children since the last monitoring visit. This is significant for one child who previously experienced a high number of physical interventions in other homes. There are good evaluations from the manager about consequences that are given to children, and children’s views are gathered and considered to inform the consequence and learning for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The managers have created an aspirational culture, with a team that is passionate about achieving the best outcomes for children. The managers said, ‘We want to give the kids an outstanding experience. Going above and beyond is in our nature.’ This culture has a positive impact on children’s experiences and is recognised by their families. One parent said, ‘I can see such a difference in my child. I never see him sad. He is always happy and that is because of them.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers do not always offer challenge relating to specific issues. The lack of escalation has not always had a positive impact on children’s lives. Independent advocates are not routinely offered to children to support their challenge. On occasions, the practice of other agencies has fallen below expected standards without effective escalation from managers.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

An independent person visits the home monthly. Managers have implemented recommendations from the independent person’s reports, and the team is reflective about the findings. The manager has also completed a review of the quality of care. However, the review lacks evaluation and feedback from children, professionals and families. This means that the manager’s review is not well rounded to identify areas of development and growth for the team. Inspection report children’s home: 2570070 5 The adults directly caring for children feel supported by their managers. They receive good supervision sessions that focus on their emotional well-being, the children’s needs and future development. Actions set at supervision sessions are tracked to ensure that there is no drift and delay that may affect children’s progress. Inspection report children’s home: 2570070 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that evaluation of incidents when children go missing from the home is undertaken to identify any gaps in training, skills or knowledge for staff or to record and retain evidence of what worked well. This evaluation should inform the review of the quality of care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.31)  The registered person should ensure that staff have the knowledge and skills to recognise and be alert for any signs that might indicate a child is in any way at risk of harm. The registered person should ensure that skills in safeguarding are gained, refreshed and recorded in the home’s workforce plan. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.12)  The registered person should ensure that where the placing authority or another relevant person does not provide the input and services needed to meet a child’s

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Recommendations

needs during their time in the home or in preparation for leaving the home, the home must challenge them to meet the child’s needs (see regulations 5(c)). Staff should act as champions for their children, expecting nothing less than a good parent would. The registered person should consider the use of an independent advocate (see paragraph 4.16) if the child’s needs are not being met. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 12, paragraph 2.8)  The registered person should ensure that the importance of understanding who we are and where we come from is recognised in good social work practice, for example through undertaking life-story work or other direct work. Staff in children’s homes should play a full role in work of this kind. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 16, paragraph 3.14)  The registered person should ensure that staff help each child to prepare for any

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Recommendations

moves from the home, whether they are returning home, moving to another placement or adult care, or to live independently. This includes supporting the child to develop emotional and mental resilience to cope without the home’s support and, where the child is moving to live independently, practical skills such as cooking, housework, budgeting and personal self-care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 17, paragraph 3.27)  The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and make best use of information from independent and internal monitoring (including under regulations 44 and 45) to ensure continuous improvement. They should be skilled in anticipating difficulties and reviewing incidents, such as learning from disruptions and placement breakdowns. They are responsible for proactively implementing lessons learned and sustaining good practice. (‘Guide to

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Recommendations

Inspection report children’s home: 2570070 7 the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)

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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: 2570070 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Attivo Care Limited

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Inspector

Carly Quinn, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: 2570070 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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