Children's Home run by Impact For Change Ltd in Devon

Inspection report children's home: 2549629 1 Registered provider: Impact for Change Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is part of a small organisation. The home provides care for up to three children.

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Information about this children’s home

This setting and the manager were registered with Ofsted in March 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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Information about this children’s home

We last visited this setting on 3 and 4 November 2020 to carry out an assurance 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

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report children's home: 2549629 2

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Recent inspection history

Not previously inspected Inspection report children's home: 2549629 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Good planning ensures that children’s moves into this home and on to the next stage of their lives are positive experiences. Before children move in, they are supported to visit the home when appropriate, meet with the staff and choose soft furnishings for their bedroom. Similarly, children who leave the home benefit from keeping in touch with staff who they have built strong relationships with.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff creatively help children who are not in school by providing worthwhile learning opportunities and educational activities. The manager is working appropriately with the virtual school head, placing authorities and education services to tackle the lack of formal education for some children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive good support to maintain and develop their relationships with family and friends. Children particularly benefit from loved ones visiting the home. Safety plans are used effectively to guide staff in their role and responsibilities for keeping children safe when they spend time away from the home with their family and friends.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s personal interests and hobbies are actively encouraged. Activities are varied and promote the children’s health and well-being effectively. Children contribute to their local community and learn about the wider world by helping at charitable events.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

To meet the children’s care plan needs the home’s rota is reliant on core staff working additional hours and temporary staff working in the home. In the main, children have been provided with continuity of care because the manager ensures the same temporary staff work here. More work is needed to recruit to vacancies and ensure that permanent staff care for children.

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

Children feel safe living here and are kept safe. They are looked after by a staff team that attends regular refresher training in safeguarding and puts their learning into practice. The core team has a good understanding of their roles and responsibilities.

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

Safer recruitment practice is good. The manager has the right tools to help her to assess the suitability of agency workers to ensure they are safe to work in the home.

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

The management of medication is safe. Staff are receive training in the safe administration of medication and ensure that medication is administered and audited effectively. Inspection report children's home: 2549629 4 Staff help children to develop appropriate behaviour. Episodes of children going missing from home are rare and if they do happen staff act quickly to find the child and return them safely to the home. Staff demonstrate care by spending good- quality time with children on their return and speaking with them about how they feel about going missing. This work needs to develop as staff do not always explore where the child has been, what they have been doing and who with. In addition, the opportunity for the child to speak with someone independent of the home does not happen consistently, despite the manager persistently requesting this from the local authority.

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

At times, staff have appropriately held a child to keep them safe from harm. The manager ensures that staff are given various opportunities to discuss the incidents of them holding children. Despite this good work, these opportunities do not include reflective discussions about staff’s actions and whether the behaviour management strategies are effective.

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

The locality assessment requires review. Information in the document is not up to date, includes information that is not relevant to the home and omits information that is really important.

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good

The manager understands how the home is performing and works hard to lead and manage the home effectively. However, management tasks and the manager’s oversight have slipped in recent months due to the need for her to cover staff vacancies.

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good

Monitoring of behavioural incidents lacks robust scrutiny. Omissions in records are not always identified. For example, the duration of restraints is not always recorded, and some language used in reports is suggestive of personal opinion rather than being factual and concise.

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good

The manager shares pertinent information with staff during team meetings and directs them effectively in their role to meet children’s daily health and well-being needs. However, despite this good work, meetings do not provide staff with the opportunity to share good practice and to learn from the findings of audits and monitoring activities.

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good

The manager ensures that staff are given the right training and development opportunities to help them to meet the children’s needs. The mandatory training and specialist training provided are effective.

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good

The home’s development plan lacks creativity and ambition to help staff to improve the quality of care children receive. Inspection report children's home: 2549629 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 quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

protect and promote each child’s welfare;

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Requirement Due date

provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably.;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that any care that is arranged or provided for a child that—

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Requirement Due date

satisfies the conditions in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

that the care is delivered by a person who—

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Requirement Due date

has the experience, knowledge and skills to deliver that care. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(i)(ii)(vii)(d) (3)(c)(i)

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered manager progressing the recruitment of new staff to ensure that there 3 December 2021 Inspection report children's home: 2549629 6 are sufficient permanent staff to meet the care plan needs of the children.

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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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child; and

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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) (2)(c)(d)(e)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure monitoring of the home is effective and rectifies omissions in children’s daily records and behaviour management records. 3 December 2021

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (“a quality of care review”) at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children;

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person 3 December 2021 Inspection report children's home: 2549629 7 intends to take as a result of the quality of care review (“the quality of care review report”).

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c) (3) (5))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that the home’s development plan helps staff to improve the quality of care children receive.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the recording of incidents is factually accurate, clear and concise. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  The registered person should review the location of the premises and ensure that all risks in the local area are properly considered and there are strategies in place for managing them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.1)

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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: 2549629 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Impact for Change Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Canns Down Press, Beaford, Winkleigh, Devon EX19 8LZ

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Hannah Lloyd-Perkins

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Inspector

Sharron Escott, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 2549629 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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