Children's Home run by Keswick Care Limited in Wakefield

Inspection report for children’s home: 1183197 1 Registered provider: Keswick Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The home is a privately run children’s home. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four children with emotional, social and behavioural difficulties. The registered manager’s position is currently vacant. There is an acting manager in place.

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

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 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: good

p.1

good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 1183197 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

09/10/2019 Full Good 23/04/2018 Full Good 06/06/2017 Full Outstanding 03/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report for children’s home: 1183197 3

p.2

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy trusting and meaningful relationships with staff. Staff are creative in enabling their relationships with children to flourish. One example of this is that various staff bring their pet dogs to the home, which children have responded positively to. This adds to the intimacy of the home and has assisted staff in building positive relationships with children.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is well maintained by the staff and children enjoy living in a homely environment. This promotes the children taking pride in their home and their bedrooms, which are personalised. There are framed photographs of the children on the walls in the home. This provides children with a sense of belonging.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide children with memory books from when they first arrive at the home. Staff update these books with photographs and statements throughout the child’s stay at the home. In respect of one child, her social worker commented that she did not realise the extent of the fun that the child had experienced at the home until she saw her memory book. Children’s memory books help to cement valuable experiences that children can fondly look back on.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to keep in touch with family and friends. Staff demonstrate a good understanding of each child and their relationship with members of their family. Staff have helped one child to strengthen her relationship with family members. As a result of this, the child is more positive about the time that she spends with her family.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Not all staff have a good understanding of the impact of trauma on children’s behaviour. On occasions, this lack of knowledge has resulted in staff contacting the police. The manager is aware that this has not always been necessary and has challenged staff appropriately. The manager has a plan to support staff with their development in this area. This will help staff to become more confident when supporting children in crisis.

p.3

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

Children come to the home with established histories of high-risk behaviours. Staff have a very good understanding of those risks. This means that most children’s risk- taking behaviour has reduced. However, for one child, staff were not able to manage their behaviour effectively, meaning that the child’s placement at the home ended. The manager has since made efforts to ensure that the members of the staff team have access to the appropriate level of training and support. This has helped to reduce the risk of other children’s placements coming to an end.

p.3

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

Risk assessments are informative and reviewed by the manager. This helps staff to understand what measures to take to better protect children. It also enables staff to Inspection report for children’s home: 1183197 4 reassess risk and reward children with additional responsibilities when it is appropriate to do so. This enables children to learn how to develop their independence skills, which better prepares them for adulthood.

p.3

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

Key-work sessions assist children to learn about their vulnerabilities. Staff educate children to raise their self-awareness when they are out in the community, and when they are using social media. This keeps children safer and enables them to feel more involved with their peers.

p.4

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

Children are supported by staff to lead active and healthy lifestyles. They are encouraged by staff to be active and eat healthy and balanced meals. However, children’s plans lack clarity around reducing the risk of harm relating to smoking cigarettes. This lack of clarity means that staff are not always clear on what action to take to help children.

p.4

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

Incidents involving restraint are not frequent occurrences in the home. When staff have restrained children, it has been appropriate and proportionate. Despite this, staff have not always supported children to talk about incidents that have led to a restraint. For one child, this meant that they were not fully supported by staff to learn techniques to manage their emotional distress better. The manager is aware of this and has implemented a plan to ensure that staff routinely discuss and record incidents involving restraint with children.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The children benefit from care provided to them by a stable team whose members are committed. Staff feel well supported by their manager and enjoy working at the home. Staff have invested in the child-centred values of the manager. This has been pivotal in creating a homely environment, resulting in the children having greater opportunities to flourish.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager ensures that there is good transition planning for the children. However, in one instance, the manager did not have sufficient oversight of a child’s legal status when she moved into the home. This meant that neither the manager nor the team could fully advocate for the child from their earliest opportunity.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager ensures that all staff receive regular supervision. The manager supports staff with a debrief following all significant incidents with children. However, the manager accepts that reflective practice needs to improve within these forums.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have good access to training. Staff value the training and state that it supports them to meet the specific needs of the children that they care for. This has created a learning culture which makes staff feel valued. Inspection report for children’s home: 1183197 5

p.4

Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that, in line with their individual health plans and the ethos of the home, children are offered advice, support and guidance on health and well-being to enhance, and supplement that provided by their school through Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE). Staff should have the relevant skills and knowledge to be able to help children understand, and where necessary work to change negative behaviours in key areas of health and well- being, specifically around children using tobacco. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.18)  The registered person must ensure there are procedures in place for welcoming and introducing each child to the home, and that they are sensitive to the needs of the child at the time of arrival, specifically around understanding the child’s legal situation. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality

p.5

Recommendations

standards’, page 57, paragraph 11.7)  The registered person needs to promote staff having the skills to respond to each child’s individual behaviour. Where necessary they should manage conflict, maintain constructive dialogues and react appropriately if challenged by a child in their care, specifically to reduce police intervention to the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 39, paragraph 8.14)  The registered person needs to ensure that any child who has been restrained should be given the opportunity express their feelings about their experience of the restraint as soon as is practicable, ideally within 24 hours of the restraint incident, taking the age of the child and the circumstances of the restraint into account. In some cases, children may need longer to work through their feelings, so a record that the child has talked about their feelings should be made no

p.5

Recommendations

longer than 5 days after the incident of restraint (regulation 35(3)(c)). Children should be encouraged to add their views and comments to the record of restraint. Children should be offered the opportunity to access an advocacy support to help them with this (regulation 7(2)(b)(iii)). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 50, paragraph 9.60)  The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)

p.5

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 Inspection report for children’s home: 1183197 6 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: 1183197 7

p.5

Children’s home details

Registered provider: Keswick Care Limited

p.7

Children’s home details

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

p.7

Inspectors

Steve Guirey, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 1183197 8 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.

p.7

Inspectors

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.8

Inspectors

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

p.8

Inspectors

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

p.8