Children's home run by Coventry City Council

Inspection report children's home: 2529639 1 Registered provider: Coventry City Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home was registered in August 2019 to provide care to four children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager is new and registered with Ofsted in September 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 16 November 2020 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 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: 6 February 2020

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children's home: 2529639 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/02/2020 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children's home: 2529639 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

At the time of this inspection, four children were living at the home. Two children are relatively new to the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home offers a welcoming and warm environment. It is bright and clean and children have personalised their bedrooms. This helps them to feel at home and valued.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Despite some changes in the staff team, children have received care from a consistent group of staff. Children develop, positive relationships with staff. Staff are warm in their interactions, and children seek out staff to spend time with them. This helps children feel safe and secure.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand the importance of relationships and support children to see their families and friends. As a result, children maintain positive relationships even though they are living away from home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making progress in most areas of their lives. Staff do their best to support children in education. Most children have excellent attendance. When children struggle at school, staff provide them with good support to attend. Staff support children to access specialist support and advice, and they work closely with external agencies. As a result, the children receive the support that they need.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported by staff to contribute to some of their records and plans. However, some children’s records are complex and not written in a child-friendly manner. This may hinder the children’s understanding of their documents.

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

Safeguarding practices within the home are good. The registered manager takes swift action when responding to any safeguarding incidents. The registered manager communicates effectively with professionals when a concern arises. As a result, children are effectively safeguarded.

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

The registered manager notifies Ofsted of serious incidents and shares the outcomes of investigations. This helps the regulator to have overview of the home between inspections.

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

Children feel safe and are safe at the home. Children have good relationships with staff which means that they can share their concerns and worries. As a result, incidents in the home have significantly reduced. Children rarely go missing from home; on the rare occasions they do, staff take appropriate action to ensure they return to the home safely. Inspection report children's home: 2529639 4 The registered manager has ensured that all new staff coming into the home are safely recruited. As a result, he is assured that adults are suitable to work with children.

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

The registered manager considers the potential impact of a new child moving into the home. However, the potential impact of new children on existing children is not always robustly considered. Despite this, children are well matched and get along with one another.

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good

The registered manager is new to this role and has quickly identified areas for improvement. He is aware of some of the shortfalls identified at this inspection and is in the process of addressing them. Together, with a new deputy manager, they are starting to provide more effective leadership.

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good

The registered manager’s oversight and monitoring of the home are generally good. However, at times, they have not been sufficient to ensure that all staff receive regular supervision or that detailed supervision records are kept. This has not had an impact, and staff feel supported in their roles.

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good

There is a comprehensive range of training opportunities, including essential courses in safeguarding and first aid. Despite this, some staff have not completed all the relevant training, such as drug misuse, managing challenging behaviours, online safety and child exploitation. As a result, not all staff have been trained in areas that would help them support the children who they currently look after.

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good

The registered manager has not ensured that children’s bedrooms are searched for potential risks. For example, on one occasion, staff did not search a bedroom when illegal substances were suspected in the home. While staff have regular conversations with children, there is an absence of planned key-working sessions to address risk behaviours. These oversights do not support children to understand or reduce their risks.

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good

The registered manager and staff team have developed strong relationships with relevant professionals, including social workers, education staff and the police. As a result, there is good communication between them, which promotes children’s welfare. Feedback from professionals is extremely positive.

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good

Staff describe the managers as being supportive and available. Regular team meetings occur. These have significantly improved to provide additional training and learning opportunities. As a result, staff are well supported and have opportunities to develop their practice. Inspection report children's home: 2529639 5

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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;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(vi))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to ensuring that room searches are completed when required.

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Requirement Due date

It also relates ensuring children have support to understand risks.

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Requirement Due date

It also relates to ensuring detailed impact risk assessments are completed for new children moving into the home. 29 October 2021

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development;

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that staff receive supervision in line with the provider’s policy. 29 October 2021 Inspection report children's home: 2529639 6 It also relates to ensuring that staff complete all relevant training for their roles.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff consult with children regularly on their views about the home’s care to inform and support the quality of care provided. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.11)  The registered person should ensure that children are actively encouraged to read their records. These records should be age appropriate and child friendly. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.6)

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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: 2529639 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Coventry City Council, Council House, Earl Street, Coventry CV1 5RR

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Inspector

Debbie Holder, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 2529639 8 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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