Children's home run by Compass Children‟s Homes Limited

Inspection report children's home: 1252937 1 Registered provider: Compass Childrens Homes Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides care for up to four children. The statement of purpose states that ongoing intensive individual attention, stability and support are provided to children who have experienced disrupted development and multiple placement moves.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager’s post has been vacant since March 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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Information about this children’s home

We last visited this setting on 2 December 2020 to carry out an assurance visit. The report is published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about this children’s home

The provider refers to staff as adults and this is the term used in this report.

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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 requires improvement to be 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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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: None Inspection report children's home: 1252937 2 Inspection report children's home: 1252937 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/03/2020 Full Good 17/05/2018 Full Good 23/02/2018 Interim Not judged 24/05/2017 Full Good Inspection report children's home: 1252937 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Adults help children to make good progress in the home. Children develop self- awareness and make considerable improvements in caring for themselves. They work towards independence through activities such as learning to travel alone on a bus. Adults have successfully used incentives to improve social skills and interactions with others. Children demonstrate a sensitivity to the needs of others, for example pausing television programmes that some children are too young to watch, a response once thought impossible.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy good relationships with adults who are responsive to their needs, for example repairing a child’s bicycle so that they can go and see friends who are important to them. Children are able to share their wishes and feelings with adults. As well as daily dialogue and key work with adults of their choosing, children access the complaints system. They know that senior leaders will take their complaints seriously and come back to them with a rapid response. Children behave maturely as they are confident that adults will respond to them when needed. They trust the adults to help them resolve any conflicts that arise. This means that children live in a peaceful environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from adults who support them to see those individuals who are important to them. Adults are on hand afterwards to listen to children express their feelings and process their thoughts, ensuring that these are positive experiences for all.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy a range of activities, including water-sports, bowling, cycling and visits to theme parks. They enjoy the social interaction with adults and each other. Children are respectful to members of the public and demonstrate that they are responsible members of society.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Adults focus on encouraging children to access education is a strength in this home. All children are now engaged in full-time education, including those children who have not been accessing education for a long period. Children speak positively of their learning experiences and their opportunities to gain qualifications. An education professional said, ‘Adults interaction with the children is very good, and they are very supportive of school and work well with us.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The wider structure of the organisation means that therapy is readily available to children when they need it. Children always have someone that they can talk to about their difficult and painful feelings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Adults demonstrate a good approach to equality and diversity. For example, they plan events where children dress up and embrace a cultural experience. This has proven to be a good learning opportunity for children. Inspection report children's home: 1252937 5 Adults support children to ensure that their routine health needs are met, for example by arranging appointments at the dentist or optician. Other health needs are not supported with the same efficiency. Adults have been slow to respond to information requested from health professionals. Adults have missed an opportunity to gain further information from education professionals, about a child’s health needs, before the school closed for the summer holidays.

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improvement to be good

The manager acts on concerns about adults performance in relation to safeguarding. He engages with professionals to ensure children are kept safe. However, he does not always follow up on his own recommendations following an internal investigation. In one case, he did not make the necessary referral to the disclosure and barring service. In another case, he reviewed a physical restraint that he had been involved in and did not ensure that there was independent oversight of this. There is the potential for children to be at risk due to these shortfalls, even though a negative impact was not evident during the inspection.

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improvement to be good

Some safeguarding shortfalls were found in the environment, for example bleach being stored in the sleep-in room, a trailing electrical socket causing a trip hazard and no fire protection in an out-building. These were corrected during the inspection. The remedial work for the hardwire electrical installation has not been completed and there is no clear timeframe to do this. This means that the safety of the environment is not fully assured.

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improvement to be good

Adults are successful at de-escalating potential incidents. Consequently, there is minimal use of restraint. However, sanctions are poorly thought through; some are punitive, and others are disproportionate. Adults do not consider a restorative justice approach. This means that sanctions do not bring about the desired change in behaviour.

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improvement to be good

Adults support children to understand how to keep themselves safe, for example in the cyber world. Children have produced excellent presentations for adults and other children in the home, about staying safe on social media. Key adults have specific time with children to further reinforce the ‘stay safe’ message. Consequently, children have access to electronic devices without putting themselves at risk.

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improvement to be good

Children’s safety and well-being is further enhanced by adults who create safety plans for specific emerging needs. Adults use ‘my thinking’ reports to help children reflect on any untoward incidents. Children consider what they were thinking and feeling before and after an incident and the impact of their behaviour on themselves as well as others. This strategy is successful and repeat incidents are rare.

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improvement to be good

On occasion, children go missing from care. The response of adults is good. They work with other professionals, including the police, to ensure children’s safe return as quickly as possible. Inspection report children's home: 1252937 6 Safer recruitment practice is adopted. The manager is aware of the need to follow up on checks when adults have lived overseas, as COVID-19 restrictions ease. Adults have managed the restrictions posed by the pandemic well and used their creative skills to create child-friendly methods to explain the pandemic.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

This home is characterised by adults who are competent and motivated to support children to develop to their full potential. The manager has applied to register with Ofsted. He has identified the need to complete the therapeutic training that the home offers, as defined in the statement of purpose. He also has clear plans to provide the necessary behaviour management and first aid training.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Adults speak positively of the support that they get through the supervision process, as well as the day-to-day guidance. Senior leaders have not ensured that all adults have their performance appraised annually, including the manager. This means that there is a missed opportunity to develop adults further.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Some adults are working additional hours to cover staff shortages. Senior leaders have a workforce development plan that clearly shows that improvements to staffin levels are imminent.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children benefit from a team of adults who are child-centred and who have clear plans to guide them. This is coupled with a culture of high expectations and ambition, which together provide the best possible environment for children to flourish. An adult said, ‘It is child-centred here and all about teamwork and progressing in our profession through regular training.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager uses the external monitoring provided by the independent visitor as a critical tool. These reports, together with the six-monthly reports to Ofsted, provide an oversight of progress. Managers utilise the recommendations to drive forward improvements.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Adults plan well for any new children coming to live in the home. They ensure that they assess the impact of any proposed changes for all the children who live in the home. The manager ensured that there was reflection and learning for adults, from the one placement that ended prematurely.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager demonstrates that he has developed relationships with other professionals at this early stage of his career. He is open to constructive criticism, advice and guidance, seeing this as part of the means to improve children’s lives. Inspection report children's home: 1252937 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

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(v))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure any necessary referrals are made to the disclosure and barring service. 28 July 2021

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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

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure the remedial work for the hardwiring is completed and certified as safe. 31 August 2021

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Requirement Due date

No measure of control or discipline which is excessive, unreasonable or contrary to paragraph (2) may be used in relation to any child. (Regulation 19 (1))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that sanctions are proportionate and restorative and not punitive in nature. 31 August 2021

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that— 31 August 2021 Inspection report children's home: 1252937 8 the health and well-being needs of children are met. (Regulation 10 (1)(a))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, provide the requested information to health professionals.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year.

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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: 1252937 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Compass Childrens Homes Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Mountfields House, Epinal Way, Off Squirrel Way, Loughborough LE11 3GE

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Inspectors

Keith Riley, Social Care Inspector (Lead) Sara Stoker, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 1252937 10 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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