Children's home run by Physis Quantum Limited in Shropshire

Inspection report for children’s home: SC443708 1 SC443708 Registered provider: Physis Quantum Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is privately owned by a small, limited company and provides care for up to five children. The home provides therapeutic care for children who have experienced, and/or are at high risk of, child sexual exploitation.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted on 26 July 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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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: 25 February 2020

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC443708 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

25/02/2020 Full Good 17/10/2018 Full Outstanding 07/02/2018 Full Good 20/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report for children’s home: SC443708 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have warm and trusting relationships with child-focused staff. They feel that staff care about them, listen to them and help them to focus on their own well-being and needs. Children feel able to talk openly with staff about sensitive issues such as their identity, relationships and sexuality. This open and supportive culture provides the foundations for children to make sustained progress. A child told the inspector, ‘Emotionally I’m in the best place I have ever been. The staff have supported this 110%. They let me be me but in a safe way.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to discuss and decide upon a range of issues including money management, rules and purchasing equipment. In addition, children represent the home at regular meetings held by the provider. This inclusive approach empowers children to take ownership of their care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff recognise that education, training, and employment are the foundation for children’s success. They work closely with teachers from the onsite school to ensure that children receive consistent and individualised support. Children make excellent academic progress. Staff work with children to identify future education and career options and to enable and encourage them to achieve their goals. Subsequently, all children are in further education, employment, or apprenticeships. These successes have provided children and staff with a sense of pride and achievement. A teacher told the inspector, ‘She [child] has had fantastic exam results. She is so proud of herself and we are proud of her.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A therapist is employed to work in the home. They work closely with staff and teachers from the onsite school to ensure that they understand children’s needs and provide appropriate and effective care. For example, the therapist and staff regularly review children’s progress and set targets in line with their needs. This specialist oversight means that children receive good quality and well-informed care. As a result, children make significant progress in improving family relationships, managing their emotions and behaviour, establishing stability, and responding to boundaries and routines.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that children spend time with those who are important to them. They work hard to develop positive relationships with family members. When appropriate, staff advocate on the children’s behalf, so that they can spend safe and enjoyable time with family. This provides children with a positive sense of identity.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy a range of experiences and activities. Some children enjoy baking with staff. Staff support children to develop their hobbies and interests. For example, one child attends guitar lessons and enjoys painting. Other children have a passion for animals and enjoy attending local stables. This variety of opportunities helps to build children’s identity and increases their self-esteem. Inspection report for children’s home: SC443708 4

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

Children make significant progress in reducing their challenging and risk-taking behaviours. One child’s level of missing incidents has reduced significantly and now rarely occur. Staff worked with the child to identify ‘safe spaces’ in the home where the child could spend time if he felt unsettled. This lessened the child’s anxiety and reduced his desire to go missing.

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

Overall, staff respond well when children display risk-taking behaviours. They work effectively with each other to de-escalate challenging incidents. For example, staff complete room searches when necessary and remove items which may place children at risk. Staff use a range of strategies to support children to settle when they are distressed. In addition, children learn new strategies to self-regulate their behaviour, for example, using the garden or playing music. As a result, incidents of challenging behaviour reduce over time.

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

Staff provide children with a significant level of one-to-one support to help them understand the risks they may be exposed to. Staff use creative worksheets and information packs to engage children in discussion. This helps children to understand important issues such as healthy relationships, substance misuse and child exploitation.

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

Staff support and encourage children to take age-appropriate risks. For example, children travel to their education and employment independently. Staff support children to enjoy safe and healthy relationships and friendships. Staff act, as any good parent would, by getting to know the children’s friends and their families. This approach helps children to build key independence skills in a safe and controlled environment.

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

Staff use praise and rewards to acknowledge children’s positive behaviour. For example, staff uses praise books to capture the frequent examples of children’s positive progress. Children thrive on this approach and enjoy meeting their targets.

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

The registered manager provides a thorough response when allegations and safeguarding concerns are raised. She takes appropriate action to ensure that concerns are dealt with fairly and swiftly. Key agencies are notified and provide additional oversight. This open and transparent approach helps to keep children safe.

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

Overall, the manager and staff know the children’s risks well and take appropriate steps to manage them. However, some risk assessments are out of date and protocols to manage risk lack detail. The registered manager took steps to address these shortfalls during the inspection. For example, she implemented revised risk assessments to support staff to better identify and manage risk. The inspector also Inspection report for children’s home: SC443708 5 found shortfalls in staff communication. For example, on one occasion, a staff member did not pass on all the information relating to a concern raised by a child.

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

This had the potential to undermine the registered manager’s subsequent investigation of this matter.

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good

The registered manager is relatively new to her role. She is child focused and has clear expectations and is open to learning. She is well supported by a committed and nurturing staff team. The registered manager is aspirational and ambitious for children in her care. This ethos, while in its early stages, has inspired staff to continue improving their quality of care. A member of staff told the inspector, ‘The home seems a lot more settled since she [manager] arrived. Her support always feels very good.’

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good

Overall, the registered manager has a clear understanding of staff’s strengths and areas to improve. Her practice strikes a good balance between healthy challenge and development. Team meetings provide staff with opportunities to explore their practice and identify learning. However, on one occasion, the registered manager did not take timely action to address concerns about a member of staff failing to supervise children appropriately. While this shortfall did not impact on children’s welfare, it had the potential to undermine the quality of care they receive.

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good

The staff team has a range of skills and experience. They are adequately resourced and feel supported by leaders and managers. Overall, staff are positive role models for children and bring a range of expertise to their care. However, during the inspection, some staff were unable to articulate a clear understanding of the home’s model of care and the theory underpinning their practice. The impact of this shortfall is reduced as staff practice is overseen by a therapist. In addition, the registered manager, staff and children told the inspector that some staff provide children with inconsistent care. For example, some staff do not consistently embed boundaries or complete daily tasks. For some children, this inconsistent approach causes confusion and frustration. The registered manager acknowledges these shortfalls and has plans to address them.

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good

In general, the home environment is homely and welcoming and exceptionally well presented. Pictures of children are on display throughout the home. However, some children’s bedrooms were significantly untidy. The registered manager acknowledged that some staff are not proactive in supporting children to keep their bedrooms clean and tidy. She is currently supporting these staff to provide children with consistent care.

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good

The inspection identified some recording shortfalls. For example, some children’s plans were out of date and did not contain key information. These shortfalls in maintaining records mean that the children’s journey may be misunderstood. Inspection report for children’s home: SC443708 6 The registered manager has established strong connections with partner agencies. Professionals are positive about the communication with the staff team and about the care provided for children. A social worker told the inspector, ‘I have only had positive experiences with this home. The child continues to do amazingly well. I have a good working relationship with staff.’

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good

Detailed supervision sessions support staff to explore their practice and children’s progress. Overall, staff benefit from a training programme that equips them with the knowledge and skills to meet children’s needs. Inspection report for children’s home: SC443708 7

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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

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(i)(c)(i))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to staff understanding the homes models of practice and ensuring that children’s bedrooms are kept clean and tidy. 22 November 2021

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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 22 November 2021 Inspection report for children’s home: SC443708 8 necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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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

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)(iii)(v)(vi)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to staff taking appropriate action when a child discloses safeguarding concerns. This also relates to ensuring that children’s risk assessments are up to date and contain known risks. 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

ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to staff providing children with consistent care. 22 November 2021

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records ("case records") for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 22 November 2021 Inspection report for children’s home: SC443708 9 This relates to ensuring that children’s plans are up to date and fully reflect their needs.

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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 for children’s home: SC443708 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Physis Quantum Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: DPC, 55 Stone House Road Business Park, Stone Road, Stoke-On-Trent, Staffordshire ST4 6SR

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Laurence O’Dwyer

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Inspector

Gareth Leckey, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC443708 11 and inspects 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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Inspector

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