Children's home run by Esland North Limited in Amber Valley

Inspection report for children's home: SC478991 1 SC478991 Registered provider: Esland North Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This private provider is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four children with a learning disability and associated complex needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager voluntarily cancelled her registration in October 2021. A manager has been appointed and has made an application to register with Ofsted.

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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

Ofsted last visited this setting on 15 February 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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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: 10 February 2020

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: SC478991 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/02/2020 Full Good 13/03/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 24/04/2018 Full Good 05/04/2018 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: SC478991 3

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improvement to be good

Since Ofsted visited in February 2021, two children have moved from the home and one child has moved in.

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improvement to be good

Insufficient insight and planning by managers prior to a new child moving into the home resulted in children being poorly matched and experiencing a period of disrupted care. For example, the limitations of one child being subject to an order to restrict his liberty was not sufficiently explored in the context of the other child’s plans for independence. Consequently, during the time that the children lived together, they both experienced challenges with their behaviour. Staff worked extremely hard to support both children. However, the focus on meeting children’s immediate needs and reducing the presenting risks meant that planning to ensure children’s progress was curtailed and children’s progress was limited.

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improvement to be good

At the time of this inspection, one child lived at the home. The child has started to develop trusting and meaningful relationships with staff at his own pace. The child has become confident in communicating with his carers in his preferred style when he starts to become anxious. This means that staff can adjust their approach or remove items from the immediate surroundings to help him to self-regulate his emotions. Consequently, the child is more relaxed in the environment and incidents have reduced in intensity and frequency.

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improvement to be good

Staff understand the importance of education to the children’s development. When children do not receive the educational support they need, staff have advocated for them and held partners to account to deliver individualised education packages. While an appropriate school place is being sourced for the child who currently lives at the home, clear routines and daily activities are helping to ensure that he is ready for school once a place is confirmed.

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improvement to be good

Photos of children taking part in hobbies, activities and holidays are displayed around the home and in their records. The opportunity to take in leisure pursuits such as roller blading, Christmas decoration hunts, pumpkin picking and holidays develops children’s skills and raises their confidence and self-esteem.

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improvement to be good

Throughout the pandemic, children have been helped by staff to safely maintain relationships with people who are important to them.

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improvement to be good

Maintenance work to improve the physical condition of the home following recent damage is ongoing. The home has been painted throughout and new carpets have been fitted to the hall, stairs and landing. This is helping the home to regain its homely feel. However, some aspects of the cleanliness of the home require attention. Managers told the inspector that there are plans for a ground floor bathroom to be refurbished, including the replacement of a missing cistern lid. Inspection report for children's home: SC478991 4 However, there is no timescale set for this work. This detracts from the child living in a pleasant environment.

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

A strength of this service is the individualised direct work undertaken by staff with children to help raise their awareness of COVID-19 and how to reduce the risk of transmission to themselves and others. For example, staff were sensitive to the children’s learning styles and helped them to make a countdown calendar so that children could visually understand the stages and timescales surrounding the prime minister’s road map announcement. A creative approach to supporting children during a difficult and uncertain time reduced risk both to their physical and emotional well-being.

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

Partnership working with a range of other professionals has actively promoted children’s safety. For example, with the support of an in-house clinical psychologist and the police, staff implemented a stimulus control system to help a child to manage aspects his behaviour that caused others concern and to reduce risk.

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

Training about professional expectations and safeguarding helps staff to promote the safety and welfare of children. Online safety training helped staff to quickly identify concerns about a child’s understanding of safe internet use. This prompted specific direct work with the child to raise his awareness of the risks and learn how to keep safe online.

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

Children do not go missing from the home. On the one occasion that a child left the home without letting staff know, staff were quick to notice and were able to return him to the home safely. Follow-up work with the child and discussions with partner agencies supported the development of a bespoke strategy to reduce the likelihood of the child leaving the home without staff being alerted.

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

Routine checks of the home and equipment help to ensure that children live in a home that is safe. The manager has reviewed fire evacuation procedures in accordance with a court order that restricts the child’s liberty and staff carry keys with them to allow a safe exit from the building in the event of an emergency. However, this information is not clearly recorded in the home’s fire evacuation plan or the child’s personal evacuation plan. The absence of key information being recorded in these documents could lead to confusion about the expectations for evacuation in the event of a fire.

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good

The registered manager left her post in October 2021. Since then the day-to-day operation of the home has been overseen by another manager within the organisation. More recently a dedicated manager has taken up the post. Inspection report for children's home: SC478991 5 Children receive care from staff who are dedicated, nurturing and resilient. Staff told the inspector that they feel well supported by managers and this has helped them to continue to work hard and stick with children through recent challenges.

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good

Staff say they work well as a team, that they value the guidance of the in-house clinical service and that they benefit from regular reflective supervision. However, managers have been slow to arrange training for staff with a specific focus on safeguarding children with a disability and training to raise staff awareness about the diagnosed conditions of one child. This means that staff may not have all the information necessary to meet the child’s needs.

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good

Professional feedback about the leadership and management of the home is mixed. A police community support officer describes a close and communicative relationship with managers and how this had helped shape risk reduction strategies for children. However, two social workers reported that an adversarial approach by managers when planning for children to move on from the home was not always in children’s best interests. One social worker said that poor communication with managers resulted in limits to transitional work with a child and a difficult start for him at his new home.

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good

Changes in the management arrangements have contributed to shortfalls in the monitoring of the operation of the home. Consequently, information provided to the regulator in the quality of care report and the data provided by managers to support the inspection was incorrect. This does not provide assurance that recent monitoring is reliable and that managers can use this confidently to understand and develop the quality of care.

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good

Managers do not always follow safe recruitment practice. A lack of curiosity by managers means that they have not verified the reasons for two members of staff leaving previous posts with vulnerable adults or children. It is unclear if managers have received suitable references for one agency member of staff. Shortfalls in safer recruitment practice potentially leave children at risk of being cared for by unsuitable adults.

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good

Managers have recently reviewed the statement of purpose for the home. However, the document does not meet the requirements of regulation. For example, there is no information on how the home will support the linguistic needs of children and there is very little specific information about the arrangements for meeting the needs of children with a disability. Inspection report for children's home: SC478991 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 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

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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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

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;

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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)(a)(c)(f)(h)) 2 February 2022

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)) 2 February 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must compile in relation to the children’s home a statement ("the statement of purpose") which covers the matters listed in Schedule 1. (Regulation 16 (1)) 14 January 2022 Inspection report for children's home: SC478991 7 The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or

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Requirement Due date

if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home,

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Requirement Due date

if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1) (2)(a)(b) (3)(d)) 14 January 2022

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that the children’s home be a nurturing and supportive environment that meet the needs of the children This specifically relates to works to the ground floor bathroom being completed and ensuring detailed cleaning of the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15 paragraph 3.9)

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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: SC478991 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Esland North Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Suite 1 & 5, Riverside Business Centre, Foundry Lane, Milford, Belper, Derbyshire DE56 0RN

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Jodie Whitehouse

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Inspector

Alison Cooper, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: SC478991 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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