Children's Home run by After Care (NW) Limited in Sefton

Inspection report children’s home: SC042652 1 SC042652 Registered provider: After Care NW 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 three children. It 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 July 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 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: SC042652 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/03/2020 Full Good 12/03/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 24/05/2018 Full Good 23/01/2018 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC042652 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make significant progress because of the care, love, nurture and support that they receive from the adults who look after them at home. One child said, ‘After the year I have had I didn’t think I would be able to carry on but because of the support I have had I knew I could.’ As a result, children feel positive about their futures and can resolve their worries with adults they trust.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s records include detailed information about them, and their plans contain clear targets that children are supported to achieve. However, the language used is not always accessible to children and is at times institutional. Children are therefore less likely to be the driving force of their plans if they do not fully understand their records.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The provider has developed a creative and innovative life-skills programme that supports children to develop new skills. The programme is underpinned by a regulated framework to ensure that children’s skills are thoroughly assessed and reviewed. Children are supported to be prepared for their adult lives and children have successfully moved on to live more independently.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children attend and enjoy their education. They make progress academically and have had some achievements. However, the adults who care for children are not familiar with children’s educational barriers and how to support them best at home. This increases the risk of children not being able to meet their age-related expectations and close any attainment gaps.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health needs are prioritised by the adults who care for them. Children who are experiencing individual and significant health difficulties receive outstanding care and commitment from their team. Close working with health professionals ensures that children’s health needs are not compromised and they are able to live a healthy life.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The adults who care for children ensure that they have opportunities to spend quality time with their families despite distance or different time zones with family members in different countries. Children are supported by the adults at home to resolve any family issues. Children are therefore able to maintain meaningful relationships with important people in their lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to develop memory books to remember the milestones they have achieved and the memories they have made since living in the home. However, they are not supported to understand their life history. This could prevent children from developing resilience to past trauma they have experienced. Inspection report children’s home: SC042652 4

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

Children are safely cared for and the adults who look after them have a good understanding of the risks in their lives. The adults have a good knowledge of current issues that can affect children’s safety, such as child exploitation. They confidently know how to respond to this complex safeguarding issue. The adults also know how to manage and reduce risks, with personalised strategies to ensure that children are safe.

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

Children’s safety plans are personalised and contain current risks. However, they also contain historical risks that are no longer present in the children’s lives. Assessments and plans that are not reflective of children’s current needs have the potential to stigmatise children and have an impact on their self-esteem.

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

The adults caring for the children offer consistent support to help them when they are struggling to deal with their emotions. There has been one incident when a child required a physical intervention. The adults and the child involved did not have the opportunity to debrief with the manager following the event. This reduces the opportunity for concerns to be raised by those involved and for learning to take place following an incident.

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

Children rarely go missing from their home. They have individual safety plans relating to going missing. The plans provide specific guidance about each child for the adults caring for them. This ensures that children are safeguarded and the adults caring for them know how to respond if they ever go missing from home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has developed a child-focused team who have the children’s best interests at the heart of everything that they do. The team is supported by the manager through coaching, regular supervision and structured team meetings. The manager’s support is reflective and child centred, with a focus on developing the team to achieve the best outcomes for children. This ethos is recognised by the children’s family members. One parent said, ‘My child is really looked after. There has been a total transformation in him, and this is because of the encouragement and support he has received from the team.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff team has undertaken a range of training to develop their knowledge on different topics. Staff are supported to reflect on their learning in team meetings. However, the team has not received training to understand all the children’s individual needs. This results in children’s day-to-day care and plans not being individualised, as staff are lacking knowledge.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children’s identity needs are not embedded into the team’s practice. Children who are not cared for by their families need to be supported by adults who understand their individual diversity. This will provide children with opportunities to develop their own understanding of their identity. Inspection report children’s home: SC042652 5 The manager has good monitoring systems in place and evaluates practice in the home reflectively. She has also completed a review of the quality of care. However, the review lacks feedback from children. This is combined with a lack of feedback from children, families and professionals in the independent person’s reports. This means that the manager’s review of the care is not well rounded to identify areas of development and growth for the team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager offers challenge to others when she feels the response is not good enough for the children she cares for. The challenge offered has a direct impact for children in relation to their plans and the support that they receive. This approach ensures that children have strong advocates who challenge just like a good parent would. Inspection report children’s home: SC042652 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, 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

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

details of the child’s behaviour leading to the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person who used the measure (“the user”), and of any other person present when the measure was used;

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so ("the authorised person")—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and 31 October 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC042652 7 within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 35 (3)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(b)(i)(ii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to debriefs taking place with adults and children who are involved in physical interventions.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the adults caring for children have the knowledge and skills to understand each child’s education and training targets and their next steps for learning. If a child’s progress is not in line with their agreed targets or next steps, staff should seek expert advice from education professionals, such as the the headteacher of the virtual school, SENCO, learning mentor or teacher. The provider must challenge the child’s education or training provider if the child does not receive sufficient support to progress as outlined in their relevant plans. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 27, paragraph 5.11)  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

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Recommendations

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 the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)  The registered person should ensure that records on each child represent a significant contribution to their life history. Children and their parents should be supported to understand the nature of records kept by the provider and how to access them. The adults caring for the child should understand their important role in encouraging the child to reflect on and understand their history, according to their age and understanding. They should keep and encourage children to keep appropriate memorabilia of the time spent living at the home and help them record significant life events. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including

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Recommendations

the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.5)  The registered person should ensure that the child’s individual identity is promoted, and plans consider the child’s gender, religion, ethnicity, cultural and linguistic background, sexual identity, mental health, any disability, their assessed needs and their previous experiences. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 14, paragraph 3.2) Inspection report children’s home: SC042652 8  The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate resources to support their training needs to meet all the children’s individual needs. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)  The registered person should continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them to ensure that the child is not stigmatised. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality

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Recommendations

standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)  The registered person should ensure that the child’s records are non-stigmatising. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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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: SC042652 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: After Care NW Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 45 Kensington Road, Southport, Lancashire PR9 0RT

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Timothy Blundell

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Inspector

Carly Quinn, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC042652 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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