Children's home run by Truly Care Services

Inspection report for children's home: 2633026 1 Registered provider: Truly Care Services Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home is owned by a private provider. It can accommodate one child with learning disabilities and/or complex challenging behaviour.

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Information about this children’s home

This is the home’s first inspection since being registered in August 2021. The manager has been registered since the home opened.

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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: Not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: Not applicable Inspection report for children's home: 2633026 2

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Recent inspection history

Not previously inspected Inspection report for children's home: 2633026 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Managers work effectively with specialised education providers to deliver bespoke learning packages to the children. The home has an onsite, purpose-built, classroom which the children make good use of. Due to the complex needs of children, education is currently focused on developing skills and strategies for independence. However, plans to reintegrate children back into a school are in place. This will mean that children have more opportunities to learn and to spend time with their peers.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Managers and staff ensure that children, regardless of ability or disability, have opportunities to experience activities in the community. Community activities are well planned. This means, for example, that children now go shopping. They also go swimming and horse-riding. For children with complex disabilities, these steps to become part of their community are significant.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are helped to make decisions about issues that affect them. Children have complex communication needs. Effective use of signs and symbols ensures that children know what is happening throughout the day and can express their wishes and feelings. For example, one child has learned to point to a symbol that tells staff when they feel unwell. Because communication strategies are effective, children’s anxieties decrease over time.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in a purpose-built environment that is designed to meet their complex sensory, communication and learning needs. However, some children have outgrown the small communal areas. The provider is working with the placing authority to ensure that the environment continues to be able to meet the children’s changing needs.

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improvement to be good

Fire evacuation procedures for children are not yet robust enough. Children are assessed as requiring additional support with their mobility in the event of a fire. However, some recommended equipment is not available. This means that risks have not been minimised.

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improvement to be good

When significant changes to children’s medication regimes are made, these have not been recorded accurately in children’s care plans. Additionally, regular audits of medication administration procedures have not been effective in identifying errors. As a result, the risk that children might be given the wrong dosage of their medication is increased.

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improvement to be good

Staff ensure that activities for children are fully risk assessed. Due to the complexities of children, these assessments are thoroughly detailed. Because staff carefully follow these assessments, children are able to safely access the community. Inspection report for children's home: 2633026 4 Children have not gone missing from this home. This is because staffing ratios are high and staff understand the children’s complex needs. However, missing-from- home strategies do not clearly set out actions for staff to take in the event that a child leaves the home unaccompanied.

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improvement to be good

Staff have not always recorded incidents in sufficient detail to enable managers to review practice and provide effective oversight. This means that opportunities have been missed to learn from incidents.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is skilled and competent. He is well supported by an assistant manager. There is a low turnover of staff, which provides consistency of care for the children who live in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Professionals are positive about the care provided to children. They say partnership working is effective. When specialist advice is required, managers ensure this is accessed quickly and without delay. This means children’s needs are met.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive good-quality training. When specific training needs are identified, training is provided promptly. All staff have had training in autism spectrum disorders and managing challenging behaviour. Because staff have learned a range of de-escalation strategies, there have been no incidents of restraint.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular, supportive supervision that helps them to reflect on their practice. Managers use supervision well to review children’s care plans and discuss safeguarding practice. The good-quality support provided to staff means that team morale is high.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Due to the bespoke nature of this children’s home, managers often work as part of the care team, especially when supporting challenging behaviour. This has meant that the manager has not always prioritised management tasks. As a result, the manager is not yet fully effective in identifying areas for development and improvement. Inspection report for children's home: 2633026 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

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.

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Requirement Due date

This relates to a fire evacuation risk assessments not being effective or accurate. Children do not have all necessary fire evacuation equipment. 18 April 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular the registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

medicine which is prescribed for a child is administered as prescribed to the child for whom it is prescribed and to no other child; and

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Requirement Due date

a record is kept of the administration of medicine to each child. (Regulation 23 (1) (2)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to medication administration records that are not accurate. Children are at risk of not receiving the right medication as prescribed. 18 April 2022 Inspection report for children's home: 2633026 6

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Recommendations

 Staff should continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. Where there are safeguarding concerns for a child, their placement plan, agreed between the home and the placing authority, must include details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risk on a day-to-day basis. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)  Children’s home staff should seek to identify and provide appropriate opportunities for children to develop themselves as part of the home’s plan for their care. (‘Guide to Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 31, paragraph 6.4)  For children’s homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. Children’s homes must comply with relevant health and safety

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Recommendations

legislation (alarms, food hygiene etc.); however, in doing so, homes should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than institutional impression. (‘Guide to Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  Those with a leadership and/or management role should be visible and accessible to staff and able to deliver their leadership and/or management responsibilities. Any registered manager employed in the home should have sufficient capacity to ensure that the quality standards are met for each child in the home. (‘Guide to Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 52, paragraph 10.7)  As set out in regulations 31-33, the registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risk to them. (‘Guide to Children’s Homes Regulations,

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Recommendations

including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and make best use of information from independent and internal monitoring (including under regulation 44 and 45) to ensure continuous improvement. They should be skilled in anticipating difficulties and reviewing incidents, such as learning from disruptions and placements breakdowns. They are responsible for proactively implementing lessons learned and sustaining good practice. ('Guide to 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) Inspection report for children's home: 2633026 7 Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’. Inspection report for children's home: 2633026 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Truly Care Services Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Olive House, Blake Street, Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire NG19 9NT

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Inspector

Simon Hunter, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2633026 9 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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