Children's Home run by Positive Pathways Limited in Birmingham

Inspection report for children’s home: SC410537 1 SC410537 Registered provider: Positive Pathways Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is run by a private provider. It provides care for up to three children with EBD (social and emotional difficulties), and/or learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in December 2021 and is suitably qualified.

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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

We last visited this setting on 5 March 2020 to carry out an interim 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

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC410537 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

05/03/2020 Interim Sustained effectiveness 06/08/2019 Full Good 26/06/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 12/03/2018 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC410537 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are cared for by a committed staff team. Despite the changes in staffing and management, children have remained settled and have formed positive relationships with the new manager and staff. Children told the inspector that they like living at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have developed plans for children which set out the aims and objectives of the placement. However, there is no clear information for staff on how they should work to meet those objectives. This could result in an inconsistent approach, which means that children may not have progressed as well as they could have.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have helped some children resume education. Those who previously were reluctant attenders now attend. Children say that they like going to school and are beginning to achieve academically. However, for children who refuse to attend, education staff have not put in place plans which encourage attendance or provide structured informal learning. This means that not all children are supported to see the importance of education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff actively encourage children to participate in activities they enjoy, such as swimming and dance. This has helped children improve their confidence and self- esteem.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children to become more independent. Staff support children at a pace and level which are appropriate to them. Children are encouraged to do as much as they can for themselves, such as menu planning, cooking, budgeting, and opening bank accounts so they can manage their own money. As a result, children are prepared for the next stages of their lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children to make decisions about their health. Staff encourage children to talk to health professionals about the medication they take. As a result, some children, with the support of medical professionals, have reduced their intake of medication and some have stopped taking medication which they felt was not of benefit to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children to access other professionals and organisations, such as mental health and LGBT+ services. Consequently, children are supported to discuss and understand their feelings, which builds confidence and improves their mental well- being. Inspection report for children’s home: SC410537 4

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

Staff keep children safe. Staff implement behaviour management plans and risk assessments which are regularly reviewed and updated, especially following incidents. This means that staff know the triggers to children’s behaviours and how to provide a consistent response to reduce incidents.

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

Incidents which require physical intervention are rare. When they do occur, they are recorded appropriately and overseen by the manager. The manager will make comment and discuss further if she feels that staff could have taken a different approach to resolve the incident. As a result, staff have the knowledge they need to defuse situations and reduce incidents.

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

Children rarely go missing from the home. When they do, staff take prompt action. On one occasion, there was a short delay in reporting a child missing. As a result, the manager acted and made sure that staff fully understood children’s missing- from-home protocols to prevent this from happening again.

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

Staff help children to understand risks and how to keep themselves safe. When concerns arise, such as when children are accessing internet sites or talking to those they should not communicate with online, staff take prompt action to safeguard children and carry out work with them so that they fully understand the risks posed to them.

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

Occasionally, there are clashes between children that could be perceived as bullying. When incidents occur, staff take action and challenge children. Staff carry out key- work sessions with children to help them understand the harm such behaviours can cause. Staff also conduct mediation sessions between children so that they have an opportunity to reflect and understand how their behaviour makes others feel.

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

Children trust staff to help them and keep them safe. For example, when children make disclosures, these are taken seriously and reported. Staff support children with police interviews and court appearances. This has meant that children feel believed and are able to confidently tell others when they have been put at risk or suffered abuse.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is a child-focused practitioner who is suitably qualified and has many years’ experience of working in children’s homes. In the time she has managed the home, she has built positive relationships with children and reorganised the staff team. Despite these changes, children are settled and making progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive supervision in line with the organisation’s policy and undertake a variety of training that is both online and face to face. Staff say that they find the training useful, particularly when online training is followed up by face-to-face training. However, not all staff have completed training on mental health in children and suicidal ideation. One worker has not completed the Level 3 Diploma for Inspection report for children’s home: SC410537 5 Residential Childcare (England) within the required timeframe. As a result, not all staff have the skills and knowledge they need to care for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is aware of the home’s shortfalls and is planning ways to improve the care given to children. However, she has not gained the views from children, staff, families or professionals as part of her monitoring. This is a missed opportunity to improve the quality of care at the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The independent visitor does not consistently talk to children and gain feedback from them, children’s families or other professionals. This is particularly important for children not in education and who are not engaging with others. Not talking to children or gaining views from others could mean that those who have concerns do not have an opportunity to share them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has formed positive relationships with other professionals. Those spoken to were complimentary about the communication between the home and others. They feel that this is a real strength. All said how well the children are progressing under the manager’s care. Inspection report for children’s home: SC410537 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 quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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

provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that staff develop plans for children which set out the aims and objectives of the placement and give clear guidance on how to support children. Staff should ensure that targets set for children give clear advice about how staff are to help children meet those targets and that this progress is reviewed. 1 April 2022

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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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

understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers; 1 April 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC410537 7 help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment;

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(iii)(iv)(v))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to staff understanding why children do not want to attend education and that they take action to help children to attend. Staff should also help children to see the importance of education and provide structure which promotes attendance. For those children not attending, staff should develop structure and plans which support informal learning.

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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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a) (b)(2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to managers providing training to staff about mental health in children and the potential consequences of mental ill health, such as suicidal ideation. 1 April 2022

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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—

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

The relevant date is— 1 April 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: SC410537 8 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 after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home. (Regulation 32 (4)(a)(b) (5)(a))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to staff having completed the relevant qualification within timescales.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was issued at the previous inspection and is restated.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (“a quality of care review”) at least once every 6 months.

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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 quality of care provided for children;

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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; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children. (Regulation 45 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to managers gaining feedback from children and others to improve the quality of care given. 1 April 2022

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Recommendation

 The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home, in particular making sure that the independent visitor undertaking the regulation 44 visits is consistently gaining views from children, staff, families and professionals. (‘Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24) Inspection report for children’s home: SC410537 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: SC410537 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Positive Pathways Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Park Business Centre, Hastingwood Industrial Park, Wood Lane, Erdington, Birmingham, West Midlands B24 9QR

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Inspector

Debbie Bond, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC410537 11 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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