Children's Home run by New Start in Liverpool

Inspection report children's home: SC444411 1 SC444411 Registered provider: New Start Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been in post since August 2019.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned by a private provider. The home provides accommodation for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties who are not able to live at home.

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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 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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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: None Inspection report children's home: SC444411 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

25/04/2019 Full Good 24/04/2018 Full Good 19/07/2017 Full Good 28/03/2017 Interim Not judged Inspection report children's home: SC444411 3

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improvement to be good

The child currently living in the home is settled. Her emotional well-being has significantly improved since she came to live in the home. She has recently been accepted to attend an education provision that is able to meet her needs, after being out of formal education for some time. The registered manager has been instrumental in finding the right education provision. Staff have also supported the child to take part in activities in and out of the home to enhance her learning and development.

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improvement to be good

The child told the inspector that she likes living in the home and believes the staff care about her. Staff use praise and positive reinforcement to help the child to develop and promote her well-being. As a result, the child has forged secure, positive relationships with staff.

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improvement to be good

Children’s progress is mixed. A child who recently left the home did not make good progress. The child’s placement continued, despite escalating concerns and staff’s lack of ability to meet the child’s complex needs.

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improvement to be good

Staff promote children seeing their families, in line with their placing authorities’ care plans.

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improvement to be good

Staff ensure that children have access to community healthcare services and provide support and guidance to them about healthy lifestyles. Staff help the child to eat healthily and encourage her to prepare and cook nutritious meals, which enhances her independence skills. However, some aspects of care planning do not support her to develop independence skills in other areas.

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improvement to be good

The child can share her views on the care and daily routines of the home. Positive relationships with staff enable her to raise any concerns at any time. The child knows how to make a complaint and who to talk to if she has a concern.

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improvement to be good

Risk management is not consistent in the home. This means that the child is not always safeguarded effectively.

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improvement to be good

The staff demonstrate good knowledge and understanding of risks to the child and the protective strategies in place. However, the quality of written risk assessments is variable, and at times information is inconsistent. This is a recording issue that reflects weaknesses in the manager’s monitoring of the paperwork. Inspection report children's home: SC444411 4 It is positive that there has been no use of physical restraint. In addition, there have been no episodes of the child going missing from the home. This evidences that the child has secure and trusting relationships with staff. Meaningful direct work is undertaken to help the child learn from her experiences.

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improvement to be good

Positive behaviour is consistently promoted by staff. Consequences are proportionate. As a result, staff help children to manage their behaviours in a safer way.

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improvement to be good

Staff and the manager have undertaken a range of training in safeguarding matters. This ensures that they have some basic knowledge of safeguarding practice. However, staff had not received training in relation to some specific risks to the child before she came to live in the home. This fails to adequately equip the staff to meet her needs and potentially increases the risk of harm to the child.

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good

The registered manager has been in this post for 12 months after working in the home for a number of years. The manager shows a good understanding of the child’s needs. She has a good relationship with the child.

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good

The manager is efficient and well organised. She has a passion to improve outcomes for children. The manager has a warm and nurturing approach, which has helped to develop a culture that is characterised by high hopes for children.

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good

Staff say that they feel supported in their roles. Supervision takes place regularly and is reflective in nature.

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good

The staffing team is small and currently does not include a senior staff member to support the manager in her role. As a result, this has reduced the managers ability to undertake her role at times.

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good

Ineffective decision-making about one child moving into the home, resulted in the child having a negative experience of leaving the home.

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good

The manager failed to ensure that staff received relevant training specific to children’s needs. For example, no training has been undertaken in relation to mental health awareness. This has not been recognised as part of the manager’s oversight or when reviewing referrals and accepting children into the home.

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good

Monitoring requires improvement. Shortfalls were identified in the child’s records.

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good

Professional feedback is positive. The manager is described as child centred and committed to improving outcomes for children. Inspection report children's home: SC444411 5 Staff are either qualified to the appropriate level or are currently undertaking the relevant course. This means that the child receives support from suitably qualified staff. Inspection report children's home: SC444411 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. 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

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies;

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)) 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— 20 October 2021 Inspection report children's home: SC444411 7 ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c)(h))

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children who wish to keep and take their own medication should be supported to, if they are able to do so safely. Staff should be mindful that children holding their own prescribed medication must only use it for themselves in accordance with the prescription. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.16)  The registered person should ensure children live in an environment that is personalised to their needs which includes a safe space outside for them to spend time in. Staff should provide a nurturing environment that is welcoming and supportive. Homes must also meet children’s basic day-to-day needs and physical necessities. Staff should seek to meet the child’s basic needs in the way that a good parent would, recognising that many children in residential care have experienced environments where these needs have not been consistently met –

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Recommendations

doing so is an important aspect of demonstrating that the staff care for the child and value them as an individual. (Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations including the Quality Standards, page 15, paragraph 3.7)

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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: SC444411 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 179 Townsend Lane, Clubmoor, Liverpool L13 9DY

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Inspector

Rachel Springford, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: SC444411 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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