Children's Home run by Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds) in Leeds

Inspection report children’s home: SC001531 1 SC001531 Registered provider: Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds) Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is registered to provide care for up to seven children who may have a range of emotional and/or behavioural difficulties, and who may also have experienced abuse, neglect or exclusions.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered in February 2020 and was previously the acting manager.

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Information about this children’s home

Due to COVID-19, at the request of the Secretary of State, we suspended all routine inspections of social care providers carried out under the social care common inspection framework (SCCIF) on 17 March 2020. We returned to routine SCCIF inspections on 12 April 2021.

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Information about this children’s home

The home was last inspected in December 2020.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Date of last inspection: 19 November 2019

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good Inspection report children’s home: SC001531 2 Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC001531 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/11/2019 Full Good 10/12/2018 Full Good 26/09/2017 Full Good 14/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC001531 4

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outstanding

The children benefit tremendously from the consistent and stable relationships they have with the nurturing staff team. As such, all of the children have thrived and developed a strong sense of belonging to the home.

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outstanding

Staff have supported the children to build their self-confidence through engaging in positive activities within the home and the wider community. These activities provide the children with positive experiences and enable the children to develop levels of independence and positive relationships with their peers.

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outstanding

All the children have excellent school attendance. Their achievements are well celebrated within the home. Staff work with schools and virtual schools to ensure that the children’s educational needs are prioritised and the children receive the specialist support they require to fulfil their educational potential. This helps to ensure that children have improved opportunities in the future.

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outstanding

Children’s health and developmental needs are well understood and supported by the staff. They work with children’s adolescent mental health services, school nurses and the children in care nurse to ensure the children’s health needs are well supported. This approach means that children’s health needs are being met by a team of professionals who understand what support the children need.

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outstanding

Staff have had training in trauma-informed care and restorative practice from the in-house clinical social worker. This means that staff provide the children with therapeutic responses and consistency of care. In addition, the children engage with therapy. This means that children’s emotional well-being is being supported.

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outstanding

The children have a voice in the running of their home and have regular consultations and focused and informal key-work sessions with staff and the manager. They attend regular children’s meetings and are involved in the recruitment of new staff to the home. Children share their wishes and feelings openly and know that staff listen and act up on them. For example, the children recently requested personalising their bedrooms and preparing the home for Halloween. The inspectors saw that the home was dressed and prepared for the forthcoming celebrations.

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outstanding

Professionals told the inspectors that the staff provide an exceptional level of individualised care and work effectively in partnership with all professionals to meet the complex needs of the children.

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outstanding

Families told the inspectors that the manager and staff are focused on supporting children to maintain positive links with their families. They have continued to do this Inspection report children’s home: SC001531 5 throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This has helped to build relationships with family members and promoted positive family time for the children.

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

Staff’s knowledge of safeguarding procedures enables them to understand the risks and vulnerabilities of the children. This means that staff are more able to better protect the children.

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

The children’s individual risk assessments are clear and are regularly updated with management oversight. This helps staff to fully understand the risks to each child and how they can be supported to be better protected.

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

There are low numbers of missing episodes in this home. However, when they occur, staff follow missing-from-home procedures. They complete local searches in the community and work closely with the police, social workers and families to ensure the safe return of the children. Return interviews are completed and staff use reflection to support the children to understand the risks of going missing.

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

Staff’s good understanding of the children’s experiences helps them to respond appropriately when children are unable to emotionally regulate. Staff use a range of strategies to help children to self-regulate. For example, they enable the children to express their feelings. As a result, the children are more able to manage their emotional and behavioural needs.

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

Routine health and safety checks take place to ensure the home environment is safe for the children. Staff have training in fire safety and there are routine tests, drills and evacuations carried out to keep the children and staff safe.

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

Medication is safely stored and is administered to the children appropriately. There are robust checks in place to ensure that medication is safely administered by staff. Routine stock checks and reviews of medication are carried out by the seniors and managers.

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

Children told the inspectors that they feel safe and that the staff keep them safe. They said that if they are worried, they can talk to staff about any concerns.

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

One professional said, ‘This is one of the best homes I work with.’ Another stated that staff keep the children safe, work in partnership and provide a safe, caring environment for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has a wealth of experience and knowledge of the children in the home. She is ambitious for the children and motivates her staff well. Inspection report children’s home: SC001531 6 The manager is accessible to the children and her staff team and provides good support to her staff through supervision and regular team meetings. This means that the staff are supported in their roles.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff’s training and developmental needs are supported by the manager. When there are gaps in training, the manager is resourceful in ensuring that staff can access specialist training to support them in their roles. However, the recording of training lacks clarity. Therefore, the inspectors could not be fully satisfied that all staff were accessing regular training.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has excellent relationships with children’s families. This helps to ensure that the children remain connected to their families, and that family time remains in the best interest of the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has an up-to-date quality management framework auditing tool, which self-evaluates the service along with an updated homes development plan, which gives clear objectives, action and outcomes. This shows her vision to improve practice and outcomes for the children. However, this information is not being used to complete the six-monthly review of the home effectively. This is a missed opportunity to fully reflect on the work undertaken by staff and the children’s successes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has a good understanding of the strengths and areas for development of the service and will advocate and challenge other professionals on behalf of the children. This ensures that children’s care plans are progressing, and children continue to achieve positive outcomes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff told the inspector that the manager provides good support, role models positive practice, and provides a good induction and probation for all new staff. Inspection report children’s home: SC001531 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 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 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

supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed; and

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Requirement Due date

make a copy of the quality of care review report available on request to a placing authority, if the placing authority is not the parent of a child accommodated in the home.

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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) (4)(a)(b) (5)) 31 January 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC001531 8

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs, and should understand the key role they play in the training and development of staff in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)

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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: SC001531 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds)

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 11 North Grange Road, LEEDS LS6 2BR

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Inspectors

Noel Cooper, Social Care Inspector Evelyn Chafota, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC001531 10 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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