Children's home run by Prestige Adolescent Care and Education Limited in Stoke-on-Trent

Inspection report for children’s home: SC463188 1 SC463188 Registered provider: Prestige Adolescent Care and Education Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is registered to provide care for up to four children with social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager was registered by Ofsted in March 2021. This is the manager’s first post as registered manager of a children’s home.

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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 SCCIFF inspections on 12 April 2021.

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Information about this children’s home

We last visited this setting on 3 December 2019 to carry out a full inspection. 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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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers 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: 3 December 2019

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC463188 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/12/2019 Full Outstanding 14/11/2018 Full Outstanding 23/01/2018 Full Outstanding 21/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report for children’s home: SC463188 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have good attachments with staff who provide a high level of care. Children live in a stable and settled environment, and this ensures that children have an opportunity to develop and make good progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

This home provides excellent, spacious living accommodation for children to thrive. Children’s bedrooms are personalised and decorated to represent each individual child’s unique personality and theme of interest. The bedrooms require redecorating because there is evidence of peeling paintwork. This makes the bedrooms look tired and tatty in appearance. In one child’s bedroom, there was evidence of broken furniture and insufficient storage for clothes. A recommendation is made to address this matter.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Three of the four children spoke with the inspector about their daily life experiences. Children said that they liked living at the home. Children said they liked staff and have lots of fun. Children have an opportunity to engage in several clubs of interests to enhance their social and emotional skills. Children are encouraged to wear slippers as part of the daily point’s rewards scheme. If children decline to wear their slippers, they will not earn their points. The house rule could be considered institutional in approach. Children should be given a choice to wear their slippers so that this does not have a direct impact on loss of rewards.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have opportunities to engage in constructive and meaningful conversations with the staff team. Staff engage children in a wide range of keywork sessions that are relevant to the child’s age, level of maturity and understanding. This helps children to develop a good understanding of themselves and the world around them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Professionals and parent figures report that the progress and well-being of children is positive. One family member said, ‘The guys [staff] at the house are amazing. They offer family oriented care. They have helped to put [child] back on track.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The committed and thoughtful members of the staff team demonstrate a high level of nurture and care to the children they care for. Children feel safe and supported. Staff worked together to support the education and emotional well-being of children during the COVID-19 pandemic and enforced social restriction measures. Staff utilised creative and fun ideas to engage children during this difficult time.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are referred to specialist health services to support their physical and mental health. Staff are persistent and follow up any necessary health assessments that will help support medical assessments of children. One child now has a formal diagnosis of autism. This has helped staff to find additional support for this child, as well as to have a greater understanding of care needs in the home and in the community. Inspection report for children’s home: SC463188 4 Individual time with the in-house therapist supports the mental and emotional well- being of children. This also ensures that the therapeutic needs of children are understood. Children who have lived at the home for a long time have made excellent progress from their initial starting points.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children are in education, and there are regular planning meetings to track the progress of children. Multi-agency working with colleges ensures that children are supported with their learning, and safeguarding concerns are identified early. Follow- up of education meetings requires swift escalation for those children who have had a disruption in their education due to multiple placements moves. A recommendation is made to address this matter.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have an opportunity to express their wishes and feelings around the quality of care they receive. Children who are not clear about their care plans may need additional support to ensure that they are able to express their wishes clearly regarding their own care plan. A recommendation has been made to address this matter.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have had successful transition plans to family members and foster placements. Staff coordinated children moving into the home with effective safety measures during the pandemic to ensure that children were safe to move to their new home and settle quickly.

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

Staff provide consistent routine and boundaries to ensure that children are helped and protected. Children in this home are not at risk of criminal exploitation. One child presents as low risk of sexual exploitation, and a plan is in place to monitor the risks. Children are settled and secure in their environment.

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

Risk management plans are detailed. There are several risk assessments on the children’s files that are no longer relevant and are out of date. Documents would benefit from being simplified and streamlined for ease of reference.

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

Individual crisis management plans are generic to all children. The therapist may make recommendations to staff following an individual session. This assists staff to help support the children in the home. Children would benefit from an overview from the company’s therapist to help design the individual crisis management plans. This would help to ensure a multi-agency holistic approach to behaviour strategies used to manage behaviours.

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

Tighter scrutiny of risk management is required. For example, a child who presents with a history of self-harm has a broken mirror in her bedroom. The risk assessments state that staff will complete daily checks to ensure that the mirror is intact. It is evident that this has not occurred, as the panelled mirror has not been replaced and has sharp exposed corners that could be broken or smashed and utilised for self- injurious behaviour. Inspection report for children’s home: SC463188 5 Safety plans and contracts are in place for children with mobile phones. Staff will routinely check that children are not placing themselves at risk. Children who may present as at risk of sexual exploitation require a clear log of dates and times to ensure that staff adopt a spontaneous approach of phone tracking at different times of the day. This will help staff to feel assured that they have a much broader overview of acceptable phone use, and to review the safety measures in place.

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

Children who struggle with retaining information may require ongoing key-work sessions to ensure that they understand acceptable phone use. For example, those children who may need additional support to keep safe in their community and college placements. Tighter multi-agency communication with safeguarding leads is required. A requirement is made to help improve the risk assessments with specific regard to the protection of children.

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

The manager demonstrated a good understanding of local area risks and has regular updates from the local safeguarding meetings coordinated by the police.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

This is the manager’s first role as a registered manager of a children’s home. The manager demonstrated a good understanding and overview of the children in her care. The manager is efficient and was able to assist the inspection effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children’s files contain detailed recordings. The manager ensures oversite and scrutiny using a chronology. This helps the manager to clearly case track and evidence the progress of children. Any outstanding activities are then followed up with staff and professionals. Consultation logs with children’s key workers help to track the progress of each child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Handwritten records of team meetings and staff supervision records are on occasion difficult to read. A recommendation was made at the last inspection to ensure that handwritten records are legible. The home would benefit from progression to typed documents for ease of reference going forward. A further recommendation is made to address this matter.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

A consistent and settled staff team provides stability and security for children. Staff have a broad range of training on offer. Staff may benefit from regular refresher training to support children with attachment and trauma-related complexities, for example autism and neurodiversity, also known as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. In addition, due to the current concerns regarding one child, staff would benefit from up-to-date online safety training and familiarisation of social media applications.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Supervision records are task oriented and lack reflection. Reflective supervision is important for staff who care for children with complex behaviours so that staff can think constructively about their practice and address any areas of improvement. Inspection report for children’s home: SC463188 6 Following a complaint to Ofsted from a neighbour regarding noise levels from children playing in the garden, the home has effectively responded to the complaint with the assistance of the local community police officer. The manager discussed the challenges faced during enforced social isolation in response to the pandemic. The large, spacious garden area became a haven for children and staff to engage in positive and playful activities. Children should have free access to their garden space when required, but some further reparation work may be required to repair fractious relationships with neighbours.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Independent scrutiny of the home is provided by an independent person. The purpose of this report is to provide evaluation of the progress of children and identify areas of improvement. The report does not routinely include discussions with children, family members and/or professionals. Visits by the independent person are short and often done when children are in school. A requirement is made to address this matter. Inspection report for children’s home: SC463188 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 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 promotes their welfare.

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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 work as a team where appropriate;

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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

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to 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

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and

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Requirement Due date

feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; 30 April 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC463188 8 and 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)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)(g)(i)(ii)(h))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children’s home at least once each month.

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Requirement Due date

When the independent person is carrying out a visit, the registered person must help the independent person—

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Requirement Due date

if they consent, to interview in private such of the children, their parents, relatives and persons working at the home as the independent person requires; and

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Requirement Due date

to inspect the premises of the home and such of the home’s records (except for a child’s case records, unless the child and the child’s placing authority consent) as the independent person requires.

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Requirement Due date

A visit by the independent person to the home may be unannounced.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must produce a report about a visit (“the independent person’s report”) which sets out, in particular, the independent person’s opinion as to whether—

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Requirement Due date

children are effectively safeguarded; and

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Requirement Due date

the conduct of the home promotes children’s well-being.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person’s report may recommend actions that the registered person may take in relation to the home and timescales within which the registered person must consider whether or not to take those actions. (Regulation 44 (1) (2)(a)(b) (3) (4)(a)(b) and (5)) 30 April 2022

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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

that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(e)).

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Requirement Due date

In particular, regular review of children’s risk assessments. 30 April 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC463188 9

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Recommendations

 The registered manager should ensure that children are offered the opportunity to have an independent advocate to advise them and ensure they have the support needed to express their views, wishes and feelings about their care and lives. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations, including the standards,’ page 23, paragraph 4.16)  The registered manager should ensure that staff meet the basic needs of children in the way that a good parent should. Therefore, ensuring that children have appropriate storage facilities in their bedrooms and that any damaged furniture is promptly replaced. Children’s bedrooms are repainted to ensure they are free from tired and damaged paintwork. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations, including the standards,’ page 15, paragraph 3.7)  The registered manager should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective

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Recommendations

and clear recording. Where possible, the manager will consider replacing handwritten records to be replaced by typed documents. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards,’ page 62, paragraph 14.4)  The registered manager should act as an effective advocate for or on behalf of a child who may be experiencing difficulties with education or training matters, including attainment, admissions, attendance, or behaviour. The registered manager should ensure that early resolution of safeguarding concerns are managed within college. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards,’ page 28, paragraph 5.12)

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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: SC463188 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Prestige Adolescent Care and Education Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 90 King Street, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire ST5 1JB

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Inspector

Kamal Bhamra, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC463188 11 regulates 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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