Children's home run by Nottingham City Council in Nottingham

Inspection report for children’s home: SC427165 1 SC427165 Registered provider: Nottingham City Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is managed by a local authority. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three children and young people who have emotional and behavioural difficulties. The home’s statement of purpose states that the home provides medium- to long-term care.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager is experienced and qualified. She has been in the role for over four years.

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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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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: 14 January 2020

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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: SC427165 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/01/2020 Full Outstanding 27/02/2019 Full Outstanding 20/03/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 21/06/2017 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC427165 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make excellent progress from their starting points. This is because the well- qualified and skilled staff understand children’s needs and how to support them to reach their potential.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from being well matched with those already living at the home. This results in children being compatible with each other. They develop friendships and care for each other. They are settled and happy. During the inspection, there was great excitement as it was one child’s birthday. The children enjoyed planning their celebratory meal out and planning what to wear. Decorations, cakes, presents and balloons remained out on display over a couple of days in celebration. Staff support children to have positive experiences and to create happy memories of their time at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from a committed core team of experienced staff. Staff have high aspirations for the children. They flourish in this positive environment and make very good progress over time. One of the children said that living at the home was ‘great’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Education is a priority. All of the children have an education placement and levels of attendance are high. Children are encouraged to consider their futures, what their lives after leaving the home might be like and what skills they need to succeed. This helps children to prepare well for their futures.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s views, opinions, wishes and feelings are heard and acted on. Children help to shape what their own care looks like. They are listened to. There is a culture of reward and recognition of children’s achievements. As a result, children are motivated to achieve their goals. They become more confident and their self-esteem improves.

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

For the majority of time, children are kept safe because the adults who care for them know them well. Managers and a well-trained staff team are effective at building trusting relationships, identifying triggers for difficult behaviour and noticing any subtle changes in a child which may indicate that they are at risk. There is a multi-agency safeguarding response to incidents of concern. However, during a period when a child was at increased risk and was going missing regularly from the home, staff practice was not always effective at limiting risks for the child. There were missed opportunities for information-sharing and for professional curiosity.

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

Managers and the staff team complete and regularly update detailed risk assessments and behaviour support plans. These assessments and plans enable staff to understand children’s risks and vulnerabilities. Behaviour support plans give Inspection report for children’s home: SC427165 4 clear guidance to staff on how to keep children safe, de-escalate behaviours and respond to risk.

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

Staff use relationship-focused methods to support children to manage strong emotions and difficult behaviours. These strategies are very effective. For instance, there has been no use of physical intervention in the home, indicating that behaviour management strategies are working and prevent situations escalating. The children live in a settled home where they do well and make good progress. Staff are skilled in supporting children to regulate their emotions and behaviours.

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

In general, the home is very settled with few incidents of concern. Individual one-to- one sessions between staff and children provide a safe space to talk about and explore risk. This has a positive impact because children learn about how they can be safer. Children can identify members of staff who they would speak to if they are concerned or anxious. They feel confident and relaxed enough to speak to any of the staff team about their worries or concerns.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is highly experienced. She is supported by a capable and experienced deputy manager. Together, they are a tenacious management team. They have been effective in providing very good standards of care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff feel supported and they talk very positively about the overall team ethos. They say that support from managers and from within the staff team helps them to carry out their roles. Staff speak highly of the children. The way in which they work with children demonstrates their caring and highly sensitive approach. Staff see each child as an individual and try their best to help and support them with their differing needs. Staff focus on positive recording so that children know they are cared about, both now and if they look back on any of their records later in their lives.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Management monitoring of the home is usually of good quality. Managers generally have a thorough understanding of the functioning of the home and take action when shortfalls in practice are identified. However, when there was a period of a child being at risk and going missing from the home, managers did not have a good enough overview of the functioning of the home at that time. The manager’s internal monitoring of the home will be enhanced by reviewing this period to identify if any actions are needed to improve staff practice and outcomes for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff team is diverse in relation to ethnicity and age. This enables children to learn and experience difference and diversity as part of their day-to-day life. Staff have regular supervision with managers. Consequently, they have regular opportunities to explore their practice and talk about any concerns that they may have. Staff are trained to look after the children. This includes training around first aid, behaviour management and safeguarding. It also includes specialist training to ensure that staff have the skills to meet children’s individual needs. Inspection report for children’s home: SC427165 5

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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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)) 30 March 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation;

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious;

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there;

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Requirement Due date

a child protection enquiry involving a child —

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Requirement Due date

concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(a)(b)(c)(d)(i)(ii)(e)) 30 March 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC427165 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should make best use of information from internal monitoring to ensure continuous improvement. They are responsible for reviewing the effectiveness of and proactively implementing lessons learned and for sustaining good practice. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)

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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: SC427165 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Nottingham City Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Nottingham City Council, Loxley House, Station Street, Nottingham NG2 3NG

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Inspector

Catherine Honey, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC427165 8 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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