Children's home run by Keswick Care Limited

Inspection report children's home: 2594543 1 Registered provider: Keswick Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

This home is owned and managed by a private company. It provides care for up to four children with social and emotional difficulties.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been in post since the home registered in July 2020. There have been no children living in the home from 20 September 2020 until June 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 SCCIF inspections on 12 April 2021.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

This was a blended full inspection consisting of on-site and off-site work over two days.

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

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

p.1

good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children's home: 2594543 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

Not previously inspected Inspection report children's home: 2594543 3

p.2

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children say their home is excellent and that they are happy. They achieve great things because of the quality of care that they receive from the staff. Staff consistently provide nurture, fun and warmth to enable the children to thrive and overcome their day-to-day struggles.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are progressing in education. The children’s academic ability differs but their individual achievements are good. For example, one child received a reward for being the most improved student of the year for a specific subject, and another child is now attending school full time and improving their reading and writing ability.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Lessons have been learned to improve children’s experience of moving into this home. Initially, placement planning for children was weak and the manager did not have a grasp of the child’s needs. Improved consultation between the manager, professionals and pertinent people helps the manager to have a full and balanced description of the child. Children now experience a planned move once the manager has assessed that the staff have the skills to care for the child. The staff have improved their practice knowledge around conditions that impact on children, such as foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children talk fondly about one another and regularly play together. Group living can be difficult for some children, and they express their frustration through aggression towards staff and each other. The impact of matching children to live together is assessed by the manager. Currently, there is no consideration to the variations in each child’s care plan and the impact that this has, such as frequency of family time and potential planning for rehabilitation back to family or carers.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home registered during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the restrictions imposed by the government impacted on the child’s choice of leisure activities. Since the home reopened, and COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, the children enjoy a range of activities that they each enjoy.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children routinely attend health appointments and receive medical attention when they have any new ailments. Some children have pre-existing medical conditions and allergies. Lessons have been learned around the risk management of allergies as mismanagement has impacted on children. The children’s plans still do not reflect the necessary medical oversight for all pre-existing conditions, and this could leave children without necessary medical treatment.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children spend time with their families. Children like to plan their family time around emotive celebrations, like Christmas and birthdays. Families provide positive feedback about the care their children receive as they can see their children’s progress. Inspection report children's home: 2594543 4

p.3

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

The children receive high levels of staff supervision. The time and attention that staff give the children means that they can quickly respond to the children’s behavioural and emotional needs. The children’s behaviour management plans provide guidance to the staff, with effective strategies to support the children. Risk assessments also provide staff with further guidance. However, these records are repetitive, inaccurate, and therefore hard to digest.

p.4

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

Children do not go missing from this home. There are emotive times when children have attempted to run away, but the staff take immediate action. Staff do not lose sight of the children and help them to safely return to their care. If children were to go missing from this home, prepared documentation enables a timely response by staff.

p.4

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

Children need personal and social education. The staff have helped the children to have a better understanding of their menstrual cycle. The staff have used a variety of approaches to help children to retain their learning and understanding about menstrual self-care. As the children become teenagers, further teaching is necessary to help them to learn about relationships, puberty and consent.

p.4

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

Clear and consistent boundaries and routines further the children’s progression and outcomes. Children thrive from their daily structure and recognise that they were a completely different child before they lived here. One parent said, ‘My daughter is more confident in herself because she is more capable, I am really happy with her living at this home.’

p.4

good

The manager is committed to her role and understands the importance of her responsibility. She has explored her approach to management and is using her developed knowledge and experience to improve the standard of care for children and her communication with her staff.

p.4

good

Internal and external monitoring processes help the manager to review children’s progress and well-being. The manager knows the strengths and weaknesses of the home from her oversight of the children’s care and records. The manager recognises good-quality care and the impact that this has for children. The staff appreciate when the manager recognises good practice, and the praise that the staff receive encourages them to strive for greatness.

p.4

good

The manager has not addressed the accuracy and language being used within the children’s records. Professional language and jargon are evident within records that should be written for children. The written content within some documents could cause confusion for children and impact on children accessing the available support or guidance. Inspection report children's home: 2594543 5 A new cohort of staff has been appointed since the home reopened. Recruitment and induction processes have been developed to ensure that appointed staff have a foundation of knowledge and qualities important to children. Newly appointed staff bring experience previously gained within children’s residential care. However, some staff have not gained the necessary qualification within regulatory timescales. Steps are being taken to address this and ensure that there is no continued breech of this regulation.

p.4

good

The provider has taken action to improve safer recruitment processes. However, the manager does not have full oversight of her staff recruitment records. The manager has a lack of awareness of her staff employment history and has failed to question the suitability of the current employment history check. The provider’s recording template for employment history does not enable the thorough review of employment gaps or reasons for staff leaving their roles. Inspection report children's home: 2594543 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 health and well-being standard is that—

p.6

Requirement Due date

children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being. (Regulation 10 (1)(b)) 18 March 2022

p.6

Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children—

p.6

Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home.

p.6

Requirement Due date

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

p.6

Requirement Due date

manage and review the placement of each child in the home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a) (2)(b)(ii)) 18 March 2022

p.6

Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2.

p.6

Requirement Due date

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained—

p.6

Requirement Due date

the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) (“the Level 3 Diploma”); or

p.6

Requirement Due date

a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma.

p.6

Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls 2 years 18 March 2022 Inspection report children's home: 2594543 7 after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home. (Regulation 32 (3)(d) (4)(a)(b) (5)(a))

p.6

Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that she and her staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

p.7

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: 2594543 8

p.7

Children’s home details

Registered provider: Keswick Care Limited

p.8

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Hylton House, 150 Barnsley Road, Hemsworth, West Yorkshire WF9 4PQ

p.8

Inspector

Jennifer Fenlon, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 2594543 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.

p.8

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.9

Inspector

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

p.9

Inspector

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

p.9