Children's home run by Social Care Services Limited in Stockport

Inspection report for children’s home: SC400355 1 SC400355 Registered provider: Social Care Services (Clayton) Limited 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 operated by a private organisation. It provides care for up to three children with social and emotional difficulties.

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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 the 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 requires improvement to be good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be 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: 16 January 2020

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC400355 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/01/2020 Full Good 19/02/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 31/07/2018 Full Outstanding 11/01/2018 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report for children’s home: SC400355 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children develop positive relationships with staff. They receive good care and support from a committed staff team. Children grow in confidence and self-esteem.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home provides a family-oriented environment. Staff ensure that children develop a sense of stability. Children enjoy living at the home. Children are encouraged and supported to have a range of positive experiences during their time living at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy good health. Staff understand children’s individual healthcare needs. They support children to attend appointments. This maintains children’s physical and emotional health.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff motivate children to learn and encourage them to attend school. When a child’s attendance at school becomes problematic, staff work with professionals to help children to continue learning at home or support them to return to education. As a result, children engage with learning and make progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Good arrangements are in place to support children to spend time with their families. Family time is facilitated by staff, even for children whose families live a considerable distance from the home. Staff work creatively to ensure that children have a sense of belonging and positive self-identity. Children are supported to maintain contact with family and other people who are close to them, when it is safe to do so. This work contributes to the stability of the children’s placements.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to express their wishes and feelings. This takes place through regular meetings and individual time with the manager. Children feel listened to and valued because of this. However, children are not routinely being offered the opportunity to read their records and plans.

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improvement to be good

Staff are trained in safeguarding. The training meets the needs of the children. However, safeguarding is not routinely discussed in one-to-one supervision, and practice matters are not always followed up in supervision as would be expected. Similarly, safeguarding matters are not always discussed in team meetings. Introducing this as a standing agenda item would provide opportunities for staff to discuss and learn about specific and wider safeguarding issues. The team meetings should also act as a vehicle for staff development regarding safeguarding and should ensure that the staff team has a shared understanding of roles and responsibilities.

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improvement to be good

Children know how to make a complaint. When they do, their complaints are taken seriously, investigated and addressed thoroughly. Inspection report for children’s home: SC400355 4 Staff follow missing-from-care procedures well. They work with other professionals effectively, and they utilise the resources available to them to reduce the number of times that children go missing from the home. When children do go missing from the home, staff actively look for them. They support them to return safely to the home.

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improvement to be good

Recruitment records do not show attention to detail. This particularly relates to pre-employment checks and following up gaps in employment. Another example of a lack of adherence to safe employment practices relates to following up and risk assessing the reasons why staff have left previous employment. Consequently, there is a risk that unsuitable staff may be employed at the home to care for children.

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improvement to be good

Multi-agency safeguarding practice is good. However, one safeguarding incident was not reported to Ofsted in a timely manner. This was because of an oversight by the manager, who was under the impression that the notification had been sent, when in fact it had not been received by Ofsted. This prevents the regulator from having oversight of safeguarding practice to ensure that children are being safeguarded.

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good

The registered manager is suitably qualified and experienced. He has the respect and commitment from the staff team. Staff feel well supported. The team is cohesive and has a shared sense of ownership.

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good

Staff have regular supervision. Supervision is not recorded well. Supervisory discussions are repetitive, and they are not used to progress or challenge staff’s development and learning. Safeguarding discussions are limited, and staff practice is not always referred to. This lack of reflective and developmental discussion limits the staff’s ability to develop professionally.

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good

The registered manager undertakes internal monitoring and has a development plan in place. The monitoring does not provide an oversight or demonstrate organisational understanding about the impact and effectiveness of care. Consequently, continuous improvement is not made.

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good

The home has an up-to-date care review report. This report does not include consultation with relevant agencies or capture the children’s views about their care. Consequently, the manager’s ability to demonstrate learning from feedback from children, other professionals, stakeholders, parents and carers is impaired.

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good

Although independent visits are taking place, the registered manager has not ensured that the independent visitor reports are submitted to Ofsted in a timely manner. This further restricts the regulator’s oversight of the home.

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good

The home is a safe, homely environment. The registered manager reviews and updates the environmental risk assessments, although it is not clear if these are Inspection report for children’s home: SC400355 5 shared with the team. This impacts the team’s understanding of its role and responsibilities. This fails to develop staff’s duties and responsibilities. Inspection report for children’s home: SC400355 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 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 promotes their welfare.

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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

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

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Requirement Due date

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and

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Requirement Due date

feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received.

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(2)(f)(g)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular reference to ensuring that supervision and team meetings are used effectively to shape practice in the home, to address any concerns about staff practice and to ensure that staff are provided with consistently high- quality development and training. 31 May 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC400355 7 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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the manager ensuring that regulation 44 visits, together with their self-evaluations of the home, are used to improve the effectiveness of the home and the care children receive. 31 May 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home, if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

the individual is of integrity and good character;

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Requirement Due date

the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform;

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Requirement Due date

the individual is mentally and physically fit for the purposes of the work that the individual is to perform; and

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1) (2)(a)(b) (3)(a)(b)(c)(d)) 31 May 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC400355 8 This specifically relates to having full employment history with satisfactory explanation of any gaps in employment, in writing.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children’s home at least once each month.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must provide a copy of the independent person’s report to—

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children are actively encouraged to read their records and to add further information to them. Children should be regularly reminded of their rights to see information kept about them and be given information about how they might be supported to access their records in later life. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.6)  The registered person should ensure that they notify Ofsted and other relevant persons if one of the situations specified in regulation or if there is an incident relating to the protection, safeguarding or welfare of a child living in the home that the registered person considers to be serious. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 63 paragraph 14.10)  The registered person should ensure and have systems in place so that all staff,

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Recommendations

including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)  The registered person should ensure that the content and/or outcomes of supervision sessions reflect discussion on safeguarding issues which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs and risks of children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.4)

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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 frameworks. 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: SC400355 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Social Care Services (Clayton) Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 31 Shaw Rd, Heaton Moor, Stockport SK4 4AG

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Annabella Foulkes

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Inspector

Thirza Smith, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC400355 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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