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

Inspection report for children’s home: 2587047 1 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

This home provides care and accommodation for up seven children who have experienced childhood trauma and may be experiencing emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home is owned by a private company.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in August 2021.

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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 2 February 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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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report for children’s home: 2587047 2

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Recent inspection history

Not previously inspected Inspection report for children’s home: 2587047 3

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outstanding

Children make exceptional progress while living at the home. A highly committed, dynamic and ambitious staff team that understands the children’s individual needs enables this progress. Children’s quality of life and future opportunities are considerably enhanced because of their experiences at the home.

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outstanding

Children are provided with highly individualised support which is of excellent quality. As a result, children make substantial and sustained progress from their individual starting points and thrive. One parent said, ‘It’s incredible what they have done. I can’t believe the progress they have made already.’

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outstanding

Educational attendance and academic attainment of children from their starting points is exceptional. Staff understand the importance of education and support children with homework tasks and revision for exams. Some children have been able to re-engage and make progress with their education, which has resulted in employment opportunities in a local shop. Staff are ambitious for children to achieve, and set goals and aspirations for their futures. They challenge professionals to do the same, to be creative and not accept limitations on progress or expectations.

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outstanding

Other children have benefited from improved academic attainment and access to employment and volunteering opportunities. The manager researched, found and funded a placement at an outdoor skills centre for one child with ambitions to join a military college. The impact of negative childhood experiences meant the child had difficulty achieving the required qualifications for entry. To counter this, the staff put together an alternative programme of work and personal experience. They spent significant time supporting the child to build a comprehensive record of achievement to demonstrate to the college their ability to learn and make progress. The manager advocated to the college that adverse childhood experience should not be a barrier to their success and that the child should be considered for this opportunity.

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outstanding

Children engage with and benefit from specialist therapeutic support. This support enables them to make significant progress emotionally, socially and behaviourally. Effective communication between the professionals involved in therapy and the staff enables the children to have ongoing support from staff between sessions. This means that the children can reflect and work through their feelings constructively.

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outstanding

Staff ensure progress is continuously tracked and evaluated to have a positive impact on children’s lives. This helps children receive tailored support to help them make progress at school and transition to adulthood. The exceptional progress children make is measured against evidence-based best practice in research or from expert statutory bodies such as the NSPCC. The manager triangulates this progress to ensure the support is consistent. For example, support from clinical therapy links Inspection report for children’s home: 2587047 4 with key-work sessions and is further linked to behavioural records. This enables staff to measure the impact this work is having on missing-from-care episodes or physical interventions.

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outstanding

The management team considers the combined group of children carefully. Effective impact assessments are completed, and well-planned transitions take place. Staff plan children’s moves to the home sympathetically and with great care. For example, staff send personalised welcome videos and pictures to children showing them their new room and introducing themselves. The move on the day is planned as a fun experience on what could be an emotionally difficult day. Children are asked what music they like so they can create a playlist in the car to listen to, and what food they like so they can stop off at a favourite restaurant. Staff emphasise to the child that they will be safe, cared for and very much welcomed to the home.

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outstanding

The staff and managers demand the very best for the children who are moving on. Managers are proactive in influencing decisions for children moving out of the home. One child successfully moved back into her family home, receiving continued support from the home’s staff. The staff delivered a programme of coaching to the child’s parent so they could understand and meet the emotional needs of the child. This move was a success, and this family has re-established their relationship.

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outstanding

The children make exceptional progress with their daily living and self-help skills. The staff help the children to develop these skills by assessing them against AQA unit awards, which helps build their record of achievement in education. Achieving these awards helps boost children’s confidence, engagement and motivation. Highly individualised approaches are tailored to children’s developmental stages so that children make progress that is significant for them. As a result, children are well prepared for their moves into adult living.

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outstanding

The staff are enthusiastic and creative in furthering children’s social experiences and opportunities. Children enjoy fantastic experiences, including sky diving and trips to theme parks, as well as bowling or meals out in the locality. These experiences are captured in photos and daily life-story diaries, which are also stored electronically to be sent to friends and family. This benefits children’s enjoyment, confidence, well- being and development.

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outstanding

The home is welcoming, spacious and vibrant. The children have contributed to the design of communal areas and personalisation of their bedrooms. Memorabilia and evidence of achievements are creatively displayed. Children are supported to grow vegetables and look after pet guinea pigs and hamsters. This helps create a nurturing home which reflects family values and meets children’s needs.

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outstanding

The experienced and skilled staff team helps children to confront and understand their past traumas. Staff know and understand children extremely well. Support staff have been given the training for the skills they need through an effective partnership Inspection report for children’s home: 2587047 5 with the home’s extensively experienced clinical team, who provide constant support. Staff understand why children may display certain behaviours and know how to provide a response that helps children. Consequently, children develop the sense of security and stability that they need to flourish.

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outstanding

Children say they feel safe because of the strong rapport they have forged with staff. These strong relationships mean children feel confident in engaging in open and honest communication. Children who have previously not engaged with therapeutic support have now started to seek advice and therapeutic support from staff. If children find they are most comfortable talking with non-clinically trained staff, oversight of this is given by the home’s clinical team so staff can give safe support. This has helped children make progress with safe sexual health, sexuality and substance misuse concerns.

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outstanding

Strong relationships between staff and children and the effective implementation of behaviour support plans have led to a significant reduction in disruptive behaviour for children. Children who have had multiple previous placement breakdowns have settled at the home and begun to thrive. Key to this is the joint working between care staff and the home’s programme psychologists. Their oversight and analysis of all incidents have enabled effective identification of triggers to children’s anxiety.

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outstanding

Behaviour support plans are implemented very effectively. The programme psychologists review records of children’s mood and behaviours across all settings, including at school. They use this information to create proactive strategies and consistent boundaries. Professionals said that the consistency of staff in following them was a key driver to children making progress. One child told staff that the setting and following of boundaries was very important to them, helping them feel settled and assured, and able to enjoy life without fear of making a mistake.

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outstanding

The manager has built a culture of using consequences instead of sanctions, following evidence-based practice. Staff have wholeheartedly embraced this approach, which is regularly discussed in team meetings and development days. This culture has brought significant reductions in the need for physical interventions and in missing-from-home episodes. This means children are safer, enjoy less conflict with adults and peers and have an improved quality of life.

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outstanding

This approach was measured and mapped in the home over set time periods. The analysis shows that children benefit from this therapeutic approach because the actions staff take are thoughtful and useful to help children make reparation. Staff are challenged by the manager to be creative in helping children to learn why they sometimes behave in a certain way and help them to put that right.

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outstanding

The implementation of high-quality risk assessments actively ensures that children are safer. The staff are not risk averse and use dynamic risk assessment processes, to ensure children are enabled to take balanced risks and grow their independence. The staff respond to the children’s progress by reducing levels of supervision when it is safe to do so. Individualised agreement for free time in the community for children further supports the range of their experiences and self-esteem. Inspection report for children’s home: 2587047 6 Children are protected by a robust approach to safeguarding concerns. Staff are skilled and confident in recognising abuse or when a child is at risk of harm and do not hesitate to escalate concerns. A recent incident demonstrated the home’s safeguarding response worked quickly to safeguard children. The manager used the concern as an opportunity to stress test their system, take learning from this and

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outstanding

praise staff when things worked well. This provides assurances that there are effective systems in place to safeguard children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home has made exceptional progress and improvement under the skilful leadership of the experienced and qualified manager. The manager and staff are consistently focused on children’s needs and have a strong desire for children to make progress. They are innovative and ambitious in creating an environment where children can thrive, rooted in evidence-based best practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff regard the manager as an inspirational leader whose openness and desire to develop a skilful staff team has brought stability to the home. Under the manager’s leadership, staff have grown in confidence to follow the planned therapeutic delivery of care to children who have experienced trauma. Professionals and relatives said that staff’s ability to consistently provide boundaries for children was key to the better-than-expected progress they are making.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff feel extremely valued by managers. They benefit from high-quality supervision that includes support for their personal well-being. Staff receive rewards that their peers can nominate them for, which aids team spirit. The manager can give paid time away from work for staff to use to focus on themselves, which is regenerative. This helps staff feel valued and motivated, helping develop resilience for their demanding role.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has implemented a well-researched model of working that creates a safe psychological space for staff to share ideas and think creatively. This culture allows those staff who spend the most time with children, rather than just managers, to lead problem-solving and encourage aspirations for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff value and commit to team meetings and development days. They are encouraged to share learning from research into good practice. Staff take responsibility for their learning and are inspired by the management team to play their part in continuous development. They have a very strong desire to develop the skills that lead to improvement in children’s life experiences.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff take advantage of a comprehensive and specialised training programme. The depth of staff’s knowledge is continuously reflected on through practice-based meetings and questionnaires. Effective and robust training ensures staff are well equipped to meet the children’s needs. Children benefit because staff consistently deliver support that follows a research-based therapeutic approach. Staff continue to Inspection report for children’s home: 2587047 7 reflect on their learning through supervisions, team meetings and practice discussions with the home’s programme psychologists.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff and management team have established very positive relationships with professionals. One child’s social worker said, ‘This is the best home I have worked with. The manager is fantastic, they are very child-centred. I could not have asked for more, they have had such a strong impact for her [the child].’ Education professionals felt that the staff team’s hard work and dedication directly contribute to improved school attendance and well-being for vulnerable children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager recognises the importance of children maintaining or rebuilding relationships with family. They have instilled a culture of kindness and respect towards families. A relative said, ‘The staff have been so supportive and reassuring to me through this process.’ Inspection report for children’s home: 2587047 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: 2587047 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 LE7 1PF

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Inspector

Jamie Cousins, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2587047 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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