Children's Home run by Your Chapter Limited in Tameside

Inspection report for children's home: 2519592 1 Registered provider: Care 4 Children Residential Services Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

This is a privately owned children’s home. The provider states in their statement of purpose that they provide care for up to four children with EBD (social and emotional difficulties).

p.1

Information about this children’s home

There is no registered manager in post. The post has been vacant since 31 January 2021. An interim manager has been in post since July 2021.

p.1

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 inspections on 12 April 2021.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

p.1

good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

p.1

good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

p.1

good

Date of last inspection: 15 October 2019

p.1

good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

p.1

good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: 2519592 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/10/2019 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2519592 3

p.2

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Two children currently live at this children’s home. Children are enabled to build trusted relationships with staff. Staff know the children well and they listen to them and promote their welfare. One child told the inspector that staff have helped him make positive changes to his life. He described how staff have enabled him to attend education and make plans for his future. He talked happily about how staff have helped him sustain improvements in his life.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children in day-to-day decisions about their lives, for example, arrangements for contact with family and friends. Staff help children think about their circumstances and help them engage with challenges. There are relationships of trust and reliability.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children do not complain about their care. However, children told the inspector that they know what to do if they do want to make a complaint.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s plans are individualised. Staff understand children’s plans. However, leaders and managers need to ensure that children’s plans include clear goals and staff’s actions to support them. This is necessary to accurately measure children’s progress to know that they are achieving their full potential.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children attend education. They are learning and making good progress from their starting points. One child attends college. Staff support him to attend by taking him to and from college.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff find activities and opportunities that children like. Staff support children’s likes and interests. One child has recently moved into the home and staff quickly found an activity that he enjoys.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children maintain contact with their families. This often means that staff drive children on long journeys to see their families. This is important for children to maintain relationships with their families and friends.

p.3

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

Children told the inspector that they feel protected and kept safe by staff. Children said that they can talk to staff and that staff listen to them and take their concerns seriously.

p.3

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

Staff spoken to demonstrate an understanding of children’s current risks and actions to take to reduce risk. There is regular contact with children’s social workers and other relevant professionals. This demonstrates an all-round effective safeguarding approach. Inspection report for children's home: 2519592 4 Children’s risk assessments include children’s current risks and actions to take to reduce risk. Staff told the inspector what they would do to keep children safe. However, staff practice would be enhanced if leaders and managers included individual strategies in all children’s risk assessments. For example, in relation to substance misuse, assessments should include what steps staff should take if a child returns home under the influence of a substance.

p.3

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

Children are supported to take age-appropriate risks. One child can now spend time going out in the local community. This is significant progress for this child, who has a history of going missing from home.

p.4

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

Children do not routinely go missing from home. However, when they do go missing, children experience coordinated responses, including staff searching for them, and contacting the relevant professionals and their families.

p.4

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

There have been incidents of physical intervention since the previous monitoring visit. Records demonstrate that staff intervene to keep children and staff safe. One physical intervention was managed in line with regulation and one was not. The shortfalls found were in relation to management oversight and evaluation.

p.4

good

The home has not had a registered manager since January 2021. An interim manager has been in post since July 2021. He submitted his application to register with Ofsted in September 2021. This has been returned to him by Ofsted on numerous occasions because he did not provide Ofsted with the relevant information to progress his application.

p.4

good

Leaders and managers monitor the quality of care provided. However, they do not consistently review and evaluate records and children’s plans. This means that they cannot consistently evaluate staff practice to continually improve the quality of care provided for children. Leaders and managers recognise this and there are plans in place to improve this.

p.4

good

Internal monitoring needs to improve, and leaders and managers need to ensure that they send internal monitoring reports to Ofsted in line with regulation.

p.4

good

Leaders and managers work proactively and positively with other agencies. Children’s social workers are positive about communication from staff. One social worker said that communication is ‘brilliant’. She said that the interim manager and staff know her child well and keep her updated about relevant issues.

p.4

good

The quality of children’s records is inconsistent. It is not always clear who has added information to children’s records. This means it is difficult for leaders and managers to review and evaluate information accurately. Furthermore, case records do not reflect all the work that is carried out with children to demonstrate the positive impact that living in the home has on children’s lives. Inspection report for children's home: 2519592 5 The interim manager needs to ensure that he includes his actual working hours on staff rosters. This is a requirement in regulation and necessary to ensure that accurate records are kept in case there are any safeguarding concerns.

p.4

good

Staff spoken to talk about positive changes that the interim manager has made. They describe a supportive environment and say that things are improving and are more consistent and structured. Inspection report for children's home: 2519592 6

p.5

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.

p.6

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—

p.6

Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

p.6

Requirement Due date

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

p.6

Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

p.6

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)(f)(h))

p.6

Requirement Due date

This is particularly in relation to the manager’s monitoring and review systems. The manager needs to ensure that he consistently reviews all plans in relation to children so he can continually review the impact that the quality of care is having on children’s progress and experiences. 14 February 2022

p.6

Requirement Due date

The registered provider must appoint a person to manage the children’s home if—

p.6

Requirement Due date

there is no registered manager in respect of the home; and

p.6

Requirement Due date

does not satisfy regulation 28; or 3 January 2022 Inspection report for children's home: 2519592 7 is not, or does not intend to be, in day-to-day charge of the home. (Regulation 27 (1)(a)(b)(i)(ii)(iii))

p.6

Requirement Due date

The registered person must prepare and implement a policy ("the behaviour management policy") which sets out—

p.7

Requirement Due date

how appropriate behaviour is to be promoted in the children’s home; and

p.7

Requirement Due date

the measures of control, discipline and restraint which may be used in relation to children in the home.

p.7

Requirement Due date

The registered person must keep the behaviour management policy under review and, where appropriate, revise it.

p.7

Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

p.7

Requirement Due date

details of the child’s behaviour leading to the use of the measure;

p.7

Requirement Due date

the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

p.7

Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

p.7

Requirement Due date

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

p.7

Requirement Due date

the name of the person who used the measure (‘the user’), and of any other person present when the measure was used;

p.7

Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

p.7

Requirement Due date

a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure;

p.7

Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so ("the authorised person")— 14 February 2022 Inspection report for children's home: 2519592 8 has spoken to the user about the measure; and

p.7

Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

p.8

Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (1)(a)(b) (2) (3)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(b)ii)(c))

p.8

Requirement Due date

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

p.8

Requirement Due date

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

p.8

Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 14 February 2022

p.8

Requirement Due date

Schedule 4 sets out the information that the registered person must keep in relation to a children’s home.

p.8

Requirement Due date

maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4. (Regulation 37 (1) (2)(a))

p.8

Requirement Due date

The interim manager needs to ensure that he records his actual working hours on staff rosters. 14 February 2022

p.8

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 every 6 months.

p.8

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—

p.8

Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children;

p.8

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 14 February 2022 Inspection report for children's home: 2519592 9 any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

p.8

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").

p.9

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 competed; and

p.9

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.

p.9

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))

p.9

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: 2519592 10

p.9

Children’s home details

Registered provider: Care 4 Children Residential Services Ltd

p.10

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Care 4 Children, 1 Stuart Road, Bredbury Park Industrial Estate, Bredbury, Stockport SK6 2SR

p.10

Inspector

Catherine Fargin, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2519592 11 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.

p.10

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.11

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.11

Inspector

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.11