Children's home run by Compass Children‟s Homes Limited in Charnwood

Inspection report for children’s home: SC031220 1 SC031220 Registered provider: Compass Children’s Homes Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is a privately run children’s home. It provides care and accommodation for up to six children with social and emotional difficulties alongside problematic sexualised behaviour and other additional needs. A fundamental objective of the home is to provide ongoing intensive, therapeutic, personalised care and an educational structure. The service offers a four-week assessment programme which determines the therapeutic needs of the children and their suitability for intervention.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager of the home was registered with Ofsted in June 2020. She is experienced and has worked at the home for a number of years.

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Information about this children’s home

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 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 27 January 2020 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: 27 January 2020 Inspection report for children’s home: SC031220 2 Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC031220 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

27/01/2020 Full Outstanding 13/06/2018 Full Good 21/08/2017 Full Good 25/11/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report for children’s home: SC031220 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff provide the children with highly individualised care, structure, routine, and nurture. This enables the children to build trusting relationships with the staff and helps them to make positive progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from a specialist therapeutic model of care. Over time, children begin to develop their self-awareness and an understanding of their behaviours. As a result, the children are more confident and are learning ways to regulate their feelings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health and developmental needs are well understood by staff. Staff work in partnership with the in-house therapist, the child and adolescent mental health services, psychologists and the children in care nurse. This helps to ensure that the health needs of the children are effectively supported.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children have good school attendance. Staff have high aspirations for the children to achieve their educational targets. When children are having difficulties, the staff work in partnership with the schools and virtual headteacher to ensure that they continue to have access to bespoke education. This approach enables the children to enjoy and achieve through their learning experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All the children are completing The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme and are working towards qualifications through the home’s ‘safe programme’. This supports the children to develop their self-confidence, social skills and manage everyday practical and independence tasks.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children access lots of fun activities, such as bowling, rock climbing, going to the cinema, trampolining, fencing, arts and crafts and are supported to join groups in the wider community. Staff support the children to engage in culture and fun days throughout the year. These events are captured in children’s journals and memory books. These experiences help to build children’s confidence and social skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Individualised independence plans identify opportunities for children to learn age- appropriate life skills at their own pace. This is also promoted through direct access to the in-house therapist. This ensures that children are helped to manage their transition to adulthood.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children have a voice and a positive influence in their home. They have daily community meetings and weekly group meetings. These opportunities enable the children to express their wishes and feelings about the day-to-day running of their home, activities, menus, and holidays. The children receive praise and rewards during their meetings and their successes and achievements are recognised. Inspection report for children’s home: SC031220 5 The home environment is warm and friendly, and children have personalised bedrooms. One child has created a jungle theme in their bedroom and another is planning a graffiti wall.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Professionals said that they felt the home is welcoming and that the staff are accommodating, and that staff help the children to engage in their therapy.

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

Staff have a good understanding of the specific needs and vulnerabilities of children and take appropriate action to address them. Children become increasingly safer, self-confident and resilient because of the support that they receive, and the actions that staff take to help and protect them.

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

For some children there has been an increase in the level of missing from home incidents. When there are incidents, the staff follow local missing-from-home procedures to respond promptly, to locate them in the local community and provide them with reassurance. After each incident, a child has a return home interview and staff complete extensive key work with the children. This helps to raise children’s awareness of the risks they face when they go missing from home.

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

Staff use effective de-escalation strategies to help the children to reflect and manage their emotions. Staff have high expectations of children’s behaviour and will proactively challenge through age-appropriate discussions. Consequently, children feel protected and listened to by staff.

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

Bullying behaviour is quickly identified and addressed by staff. However, this has remained an area of concern for some children. Staff undertake key work discussions with the children, but continued work is needed to help support the children in developing positive and appropriate relationships.

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

The staff access support from the in-house therapist through weekly triangulation meetings. They also have monthly staff development days, fortnightly team meetings and child-focused discussions. These opportunities enhance the staff’s knowledge to support the children.

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

All staff access regular training and development opportunities. Staff receive training in how to better understand self-harm, physical intervention, and therapeutic training. This has helped to upskill the knowledge base of the staff team.

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

There has been a reduction in the use of physical interventions in the home. When incidents happen, children are supported and debriefs take place. This helps those involved to reflect and look at different ways to manage complex emotions. Incident records provide a good account of the event, and managers have good oversight of each incident. This helps them to tack any potential patterns and trends.

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

The staff were not able to de-escalate the behaviour of one child. This resulted in the child moving from the home. The registered manager has reviewed the actions Inspection report for children’s home: SC031220 6 taken by staff and has identified some practice shortfalls. A higher staffing ratio is now in place and an action plan to address practice has been implemented. This will help to prevent any future reoccurrences.

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

Children’s impact assessments do not reflect how new admissions to the home are compatible with the children currently living there. The registered manager acknowledged this as an area for development and has reviewed the current system. This will help to ensure that any future admissions have a comprehensive risk analysis.

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

The supervision and risk management arrangements for children when on an activity away from the home were not sufficient to protect them from a harmful situation. A less experienced staff member was unable to provide the required level of monitoring, which led to an incident and a subsequent allegation. This may have been avoided if the children’s level of risk had of been fully considered prior to the event.

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

Allegations and safeguarding incidents are dealt with in line with procedures. This means that there is effective oversight of safeguarding concerns and children are better protected.

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

The children told the inspector they can talk to the staff, they feel safe and secure and that they have positive relationships with the staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers ensure that the home is managed effectively. The registered manager has consistently high expectations of staff and aspirations for the children. She stimulates the enthusiasm of staff and channels their efforts effectively. This helps to ensure that children continue to progress in all aspects of their lives.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is supported by deputy managers and senior residential workers. Together they provide the staff with a robust training and development programme, alongside regular supervision, team meetings and development meetings. This helps to support the staff to deliver nurturing care to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is good management oversight of the arrangements to meet each child’s care and development needs. This ensures that the care provided for the children is of a good standard, and that children’s care plans are progressing.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff feel supported by the managers. They say that the managers are accessible, provide good support, lead by example and that they role model positive practice. This helps to ensure that staff have a good understanding of their role and responsibilities in supporting the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The management team understand the strengths and areas for development. They continually reflect on practice and work in partnership with social workers and the therapist to provide children with nurturing care and support. Inspection report for children’s home: SC031220 7

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What does the children’s home need to do to improve?

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

help each child to understand how to keep safe; (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that children are supervised accordingly, and the risk of harm is managed appropriately through staff who know and understand the risks. 3 April 2022

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Requirement Due date

 The registered person should only accept placements for children where they are satisfied that the home can respond effectively to the child’s assessed needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, and where they have fully considered the impact that the placement will have on the existing group of children. In particular, ensuring the compatibility of children in impact assessments. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.4)

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Requirement Due date

 The registered person should ensure that staff understand the range of influences that friendships can have, and should encourage those with a positive impact, and discourage those with a negative impact. Homes that care for children who have, or are likely, to sexually offend should establish the extent to which friendships can be supported in line with the child’s relevant plans and subject to the safety of all concerned. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 38, paragraph 8.8)

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Requirement Due date

 The registered person should ensure that staff understand the factors that affect children’s motivation to behave in a socially acceptable way. Staff should Inspection report for children’s home: SC031220 8 encourage an enthusiasm for positive behaviour through the use of positive behaviour strategies in line with the child’s relevant plans. In particular, helping children to develop positive peer relationships. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 39, paragraph 8.13)

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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: SC031220 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Compass Children’s Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 3 Rayns Way, Syston, Leicester, Leicestershire LE7 1PF

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Jessica Middleton

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Inspector

Noel Cooper, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC031220 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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Inspector

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