Children's Home run by Beacon Childcare Ltd in Birmingham

Inspection report children’s home: 2516553 1 Registered provider: Beacon Childcare Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned by a private company. The home is registered for four children who have experienced childhood trauma.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager is on maternity leave. The current manager has applied to register with Ofsted.

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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 25 March 2021 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: 14 November 2019

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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: 2516553 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/11/2019 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 2516553 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

At the time of the inspection, there were four children living at the home. One child recently moved into the home. Partner agencies report that his transition into the home was managed well by staff, which has helped him to quickly settle.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff know children’s areas of strength and need. They treat children with respect and dignity and give them care, which meets all their daily needs. Staff are nurturing and patient and have developed positive relationships with children. Children feel valued.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children can express their wishes and feelings through key-worker sessions and children’s meetings. However, on occasion, it is not clear if and how some of the children’s requests have been responded to. For example, children asked for garden furniture to enable them to sit and relax in the garden but this had not been actioned. This does not ensure that children are consistently listened to.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children told the inspector that staff promote their different cultural needs. They ensure that their different dietary needs are met and that they have appropriate hair and skin care products which form part of their identity.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children told the inspector that they feel that they are making good progress in all areas of their lives, considering their starting points. For example, two children are enrolled on college courses and report that this will be instrumental in developing their future careers and aspirations. Professionals report that staff and the manager advocate on behalf of children when they face any barriers in education. Subsequently, one child who was on the verge of a permanent school exclusion was able to continue accessing and maintaining their education placement.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are really pleased with how staff are supporting them to develop excellent independence skills. They feel better equipped and less anxious to transition into adult placements.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Good staff support enables children to spend quality time with their close family and friends at the home and within the community. One child was able to rebuild positive family relationships and is now back in their parents’ care. Children form excellent support networks, which reduces social exclusion and isolation.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live healthy lifestyles. They are encouraged to eat healthily, take regular exercise and develop their self-care skills. Children have access to a variety of activities within their community, such going on holiday, shopping and going out on day trips. Children improve their social skills, self-esteem and confidence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home environment needs improving to make it much warmer and welcoming. For example, some children’s bedrooms were cluttered and untidy, and a shower Inspection report children’s home: 2516553 4 cubicle was engrained with dirt. Some walls on the upstairs landing and main lounge had holes which need repairing, and staff and the manager were not sure how long the walls had been in this state. Some carpets on the staircase and in children’s bedrooms were stained, and the kitchen floor and a fridge were in need of a good clean.

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

Safeguarding concerns are well managed by the staff and manager, with prompt monitoring of incidents and referrals to safeguarding agencies. Managers work well and in partnership with professionals to safeguard children. Concerns about children’s welfare are routinely notified to Ofsted and show that appropriate action is taken to reduce risk and manage concerns that arise. All children told the inspector that they feel safe living at the home.

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

Staff use reward programmes and sanctions to help children to understand how to keep themselves safe and to make positive choices. Staff have positive relationships with the children and know them well. Subsequently, there has not been any physical restraints as staff are able to de-escalate situations and support children to regulate their emotions and manage their behaviour appropriately.

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

The manager has reviewed safer recruitment processes to ensure that suitable adults work at the home to safeguard children.

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

Behaviour management plans and risk assessments generally give staff clear guidance, which enables staff to manage and reduce risks to children. However, on one occasion, staff and the manager did not update one child’s risk assessment with information shared by partner agencies regarding new areas of risks identified. This has the potential to leave all staff without the information they need and may compromise children’s welfare.

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

Staff request multi-agency meetings when children’s risk-taking behaviours escalate. This enables them to formulate a coordinated approach to safeguarding children. Staff follow children’s missing-from-care protocols when children leave the home without permission. They report concerns to relevant partner agencies and undertake local and out-of-county searches to try and locate children to bring them home safely. When children return home after missing, staff are not always curious to explore who the children met and why they travelled to out-of-county locations on occasions. This does not fully promote children’s safety and is a missed opportunity for staff to find out more about why the children went missing from home and what happened while they were away. However, children are offered return-home interviews with someone who is independent of the home.

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

At the last full inspection, shortfalls were identified in the quality of one-to-one work completed with children by staff. Though staff and the manager have improved the frequency of these sessions, the quality of records needs to improve to better reflect the issues discussed, the support or advice given to a child, its effectiveness and whether any follow-up work is required. In addition, it is not clear how staff help Inspection report children’s home: 2516553 5 some children to learn about how to keep themselves safe when accessing the internet, including social media, as they could not provide evidence of doing so during the inspection. This does not consistently promote safe use of the internet by children.

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good

The registered manager is on extended leave from the home. The interim manager has only been in post for just over two months and he has worked hard with staff to manage the instability of not having a registered manager.

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good

Managers do not always ensure that staff keep children’s records up to date with all relevant correct details. For example, records did not accurately reflect that all missing-from-home interviews had been undertaken and the details of these. In addition, staff do not always record the outcome when a child has attended a health appointment. This has the potential for important information about children’s health and welfare to be missed.

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good

Managers do not maintain an audit trail of the home’s maintenance jobs. As a result, during the inspection the manager was not able to inform the inspector whether some recommendations from the home’s fire risk assessment, assessed as low risk, had been actioned or not. The recommended actions had no timescales attached to them. The interim manager has agreed to progress this without further delay.

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good

Staff receive good-quality reflective supervision which focuses on children’s needs and staff training. This enables staff to continuously meet the needs of children. Staff have had their annual performance appraisal and this promotes their self- development and provides feedback on staff’s individual performance.

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good

The interim manager is passionate about the well-being and progress of children. He works effectively with partner agencies to provide holistic care for children. Inspection report children’s home: 2516553 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.

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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

help each child to understand how to keep safe; and

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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. (Regulation12 (1) (2)(a)(ii)(v))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, exercise professional curiosity when speaking with children when they return home after a missing episode by asking questions about who they met and why they travelled to a different area. 31 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—

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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)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, keep accurate and up-to-date records for children, review and improve the quality of key-work records and keep abreast of the progress of necessary maintenance jobs. 30 November Inspection report children’s home: 2516553 7

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Recommendation

 The registered manager should ensure that the home environment is nurturing and supportive to meet the needs of their children. These will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. Children’s homes must comply with relevant health and safety legislations (alarms, food hygiene, and so on); however, in doing so, homes should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression. (Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards, page 15, paragraph 3)

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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: 2516553 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Beacon Childcare Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Hazlewoods, Windsor House, Bayshill Road, Cheltenham GL50 3AT

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Inspector

Rumbi Mangoma, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: 2516553 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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