Children's Home, Residential special school run by Kedleston (High Peak School) Limited in Cheshire East

Inspection report for children's home: SC484134 1 SC484134 Registered provider: Kedleston (High Peak School) Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

A private company runs the home and offers education on site at a registered school. The home is registered for up to 24 children.

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Information about this children’s home

The home’s statement of purpose states that children living in this home may have a range of social and emotional difficulties or learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in October 2020.

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Information about this children’s home

The inspectors only inspected the social care provision at this school.

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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 on 17 March 2020. We returned to routine SCCIF inspections on 12 April 2021.

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Information about this children’s home

We last visited this setting on 26 January 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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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be 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

Overall judgement at last inspection: declined in effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: SC484134 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/03/2020 Interim Declined in effectiveness 04/06/2019 Full Good 05/09/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 08/02/2018 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report for children's home: SC484134 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have made good progress since they arrived at the home. This is because the staff team provides consistent routines and structure for children. Children build positive and respectful relationships with staff. They are happy living at the home and receive nurturing care from a staff team that is attuned to their needs. One child rated the home ‘1000 out of 10’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Social workers and families speak highly of the care provided to children. Children are encouraged to self-regulate, express and understand their emotions. They are supported to develop their family relationships and social skills, and improve their sense of identity. Regular consultation with children is a strength of the staff team. Consequently, children say that their views and feelings are always listened to and acted on.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

An effective admissions impact risk assessment is in place, which considers all aspects of children’s care and potential shared risks when they are placed together. Staff are consulted with prior to children’s admissions to the home to determine if they have the skills and experience to support the child’s needs. When children move out of the home, generally transitions are planned and support the child’s needs and wishes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy going to school and they have excellent attendance. When children require additional support, children engage in off-site education until they are ready to be reintegrated back into the classroom. Children are encouraged to explore their interests and hobbies. They attend weekly youth groups, such as cadets, explorers, football and climbing clubs. This has had a positive influence on children’s self- confidence and peer relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children lead healthy lifestyles and attend routine health appointments. The staff team uses direct work with children to address key areas highlighted in statutory medical examinations, such as healthy eating, sexual health and positive emotional well-being. The staff team is proactive in identifying additional services to promote children’s positive mental health.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Key-work sessions and workshops are specific to the needs of the children. They are focused and address the objectives set out in children’s care plans. Staff use creative ways to engage children and help educate them on specific themes, such as anti- bullying, COVID-19, religious celebrations, mindfulness and being kind to each other. Inspection report for children's home: SC484134 4

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improvement to be good

On two occasions, staff have failed to follow appropriate safeguarding procedures. There has been a delay in residential staff reporting suspected poor practice to senior managers and a delay in senior managers reporting a child’s allegation to their placing authority. This demonstrates a lack of understanding of whistle-blowing and child protection procedures to keep children safe. However, the manager identified these serious shortfalls prior to the inspection and acted to address the concerns with the staff involved, including accessing additional safeguarding training.

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improvement to be good

One incident of serious bullying has taken place. Staff did not adequately supervise a child to prevent risk of harm from their peers. Again, the manager completed reflective work with the staff to address the practice issues and the lack of staff vigilance. Staff have been provided with training in anti-bullying. In-depth work has been completed with all children to help them understand the impact of their behaviour on their peers. Furthermore, children reported that there is no longer any bullying in the home, and they generally get on well with their peers.

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improvement to be good

A serious but unforeseen incident between two children was managed promptly and sensitively by the staff team. The children were provided with appropriate support and guidance and have been encouraged to rebuild their friendship safely.

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improvement to be good

Incidents relating to children climbing on the roof of the premises have been scrutinised by senior managers and a lessons learned report completed to assess patterns of behaviour relating to this. For one child who continued to place themselves at risk, effective action was taken to keep the child safe, and the building was adapted to make it safe and prevent further incidents.

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improvement to be good

Staff have not all been suitably trained in emergency first aid. Consequently, there is not always a safe number of staff on shift that are qualified in first aid. The manager’s oversight of some records is not thorough. Information recorded within medication management and safer recruitment documents is not always clear. Some discrepancies are not addressed or clarity is not provided to evidence that action has been taken to ensure the safety of children. That said, these shortfalls have not impacted on children’s safety.

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improvement to be good

On a positive note, children say that they feel safe at the home. In the last few months, there has been a reduction in the use of restraint and serious incidents, such as children harming themselves and incidents of missing from home. This is because the staff understand how to support children when they are in crisis, and they have a good understanding of effective de-escalation strategies.

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improvement to be good

The quality of risk assessments and behaviour management plans has improved significantly. Behaviour management plans provide staff with a clear account of triggers for children’s behaviour and effective de-escalation strategies. Risk assessments include evidence-based chronologies of children’s behaviour and Inspection report for children's home: SC484134 5 guidance for staff to promote children’s positive behaviour and interaction with others.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is passionate about achieving positive outcomes and change for children. She has good relationships with the children and knows them very well. She is a positive role model to the staff team, advocating on behalf of the children to ensure that their views are listened to and considered when planning their care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff team is supported by a manager who recognises the strengths and weaknesses of the service and plans against these to make improvements to the operation of the home. She promotes transparency and is working hard to ensure that staff have the skills and confidence to meet children’s needs and keep them safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff feel supported and appreciated by the senior leadership team. They have regular practice-related supervisions to reflect on their progress and development. The manager ensures that staff are provided with training that is specific to children’s needs and risks so that the staff team has the knowledge to support children in all aspects of their care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There has been some significant staff changes in the last year. However, the management team has made some recent improvements for staff, and this has contributed to improved positive staff morale. Consequently, the staff team has started to stabilise. A recommendation has been made to ensure that the manager sustains the current staff team stability and, furthermore, continues to promote the continuity of care for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and senior team work positively with social workers and families to promote children’s continued progress. Communication and partnership working with other agencies have improved. Children have access to advocacy services and support. There have been no complaints made by children, which demonstrates that children feel their views are listened to.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Senior manager’s monitoring of serious incidents provides detailed analysis that identifies trends or patterns to enable the manager to make changes to staff practice to improve children’s safety. However, both the manager’s quality of care review report and the independent visitors’ reports do not evidence regular consultation with children and those involved in their care to provide a full evaluation of the quality of the service. Inspection report for children's home: SC484134 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 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

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies;

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii) (b))

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Requirement Due date

All staff should follow appropriate safeguarding procedures for reporting unsafe practice, allegations and disclosures made by children in a timely manner to the appropriate 18 March 2022 Inspection report for children's home: SC484134 7 professionals. This ensures that prompt action is taken to protect children from harm.

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Requirement Due date

Children should be supervised appropriately, as set out in risk assessments, to reduce the risk of children bullying or causing harm to each other.

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Requirement Due date

Information recorded within medication management and safer recruitment documents should be clear so that any discrepancies are clarified and the reader can understand the action taken to keep children safe.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person should ensure that all staff have been suitably trained in first aid and that there is always a suitable ratio of staff on shift that are first-aid trained.

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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. (Regulation 44 (2)(a)) 18 March 2022

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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—

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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.

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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 (2)(b) (5)) 18 March 2022

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that they demonstrate every effort to achieve continuity of staffing so that children’s attachments are not overly disrupted, including ensuring that the employment of any temporary staff will not prevent children from receiving the continuity of care that they need (Regulation 31(1)). (Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 51, paragraph 10.1) Inspection report for children's home: SC484134 8

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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: SC484134 9

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Children’s home details

Provision sub-type: Residential special school

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Kedleston (High Peak School) Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 8 Brook Business Centre, Cowley Mill Road, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 2FX

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Inspectors

Cheryl Field, Social Care Inspector Natalie Bennett, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: SC484134 10 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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