Children's home run by Hull City Council in Kingston upon Hull, City of

Inspection report children’s home: SC040105 1 SC040105 Registered provider: Hull City Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned and operated by a local authority. It provides an edge-of-care service for up to four children who may have emotional and/or social difficulties. They provide emergency and/or short-break/respite accommodation to support children and families and prevent relationship breakdown. At the time of the inspection, one child was present, three others were due to stay on different nights.

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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 in October 2021 to carry out a monitoring visit and 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: 26 October 2021

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC040105 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

26/10/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good 13/07/2021 Full Inadequate 22/10/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good 25/06/2018 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC040105 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Overnight short breaks are offered to children and their families as part of a wider package of support. Outreach work is also offered in the community, alongside other health and social care professionals. Interventions with families are timely and responsive to individual need. The support helps children and families to make positive changes and enables children to remain in their family home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s short breaks consist of one, two or three nights per week. Family relationships, as a whole, are improving and, over time, children and families report that they do benefit from less fractured relationships at home. This is positive progress and promotes the ability of children to remain living with their family.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Short breaks also provide children with a period of increased safety and stability. This is helping to remove children from unhealthy peer relationships in the community and focus on keeping safe.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is well presented, and both communal areas and children’s bedrooms are clean and tidy. Lots of games and books are evident, which provides activity choices for children. Due to the nature of the children’s short stays, bedrooms are not personalised. To compensate for this, personal and sentimental items are kept at the home, which are available to children during their stay. This helps children to feel more settled and contributes to children’s sense of belonging.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff have a custom and practice of locking and alarming some internal doors overnight. This is not regularly reviewed dependant on which child is sleeping at the home and does not contribute to a homely domestic feel.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff and children have good relationships, which is evidenced by children’s enthusiasm to undertake activities with staff. These have included cinema trips, playing golf and swimming. Staff have also supported children to understand the wider world and political climate. Children have undertaken some voluntary work in respect of collecting clothing for war refugees. This encourages children to gain an understanding of citizenship, and such activities increase their self-esteem and empathy.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The provision of emergency accommodation is carefully balanced alongside the short breaks to minimise the impact on all concerned. Staff seek to understand the risks for children staying at the home for even a single night. If staff assess that they cannot safely care for a child, then they are not admitted. This results in only children being cared for where staff are confident and skilled to meet their needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive short breaks for as long as it takes to benefit the family, but they are not intended to be permanent. In preparation for the short breaks coming to an end, there is a gradual reduction in the amount of time spent in the home. This is Inspection report children’s home: SC040105 4 coupled with increasing positive networks in the community and a bespoke support package. This results in children and families being better equipped and more resilient to manage conflict.

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

The recording of risk documentation has improved since the last inspection. Mitigating steps are much clearer, and documents clearly differentiate historic and current information. This helps to evidence change, while still acknowledging areas of vulnerability.

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

Staff work closely with mental health, social care and exploitation specialists to help children become increasingly safe. There is effective information-sharing and a consistent approach to supporting families. Staff are careful not to duplicate work to avoid children and families feeling overburdened with so many professionals involved in their lives. Feedback from professionals describes excellent information-sharing by staff, which promotes children’s safety.

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

There has only been one instance of a child going missing since the last inspection. Staff did report the child missing and followed plans. However, this incident did identify a gap in staff knowledge around supporting children in the criminal justice system. The manager has since taken swift action to remedy this, which has addressed gaps in staff knowledge.

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

The strong relationship between staff and the home’s clinical psychologist enables staff to get advice and guidance to support children more effectively. The direct access to a dedicated psychologist also avoids delays in children getting specialist support around their emotional and psychological well-being.

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

There is careful consideration given to whether children can safely have overnight stays at the same time. It has happened occasionally, but usually children stay on their own in the home. This has significantly reduced concerns around negative influences and bullying between children.

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

There has only been one low-level behavioural incident since the last inspection. This was well managed in line with the child’s plan. The written record shows good reflection and learning, and there has been no repetition of this behaviour. Staff are appropriately trained to de-escalate situations. During this isolated incident, they did not need to use a physical intervention to manage the behaviour. This is a good outcome for the child.

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

Staff have systems to ensure that the home is safe and hazard free. However, it was found that a blender blade had accidentally been left accessible to children. This was rectified during the course of the inspection, but the system was shown to be ineffective at preventing harmful items being in general circulation. There has, however, been no impact as a result on the children. Inspection report children’s home: SC040105 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders have a strong vision about the edge-of-care service, which they share regularly with their team. The service now aligns with the home’s statement of purpose. The manager is clear about which children should access the service and for what purpose. She recognises the risks in relaxing these criteria. This has resulted in the service staying within its remit, which promotes better outcomes for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children and families make progress and the manager regularly reviews what factors support this. Staff are trained in relationship-based practice and spend time developing trusted relationships, which make children feel settled and safe. There is recognition that children will find their own adult with whom they connect. The manager respects this and works creatively to ensure that relationships are nurtured in the widest context, as this promotes engagement from children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There are gaps in supervision as a result of sickness. However, supervision records are of a better quality than at the last inspection, and extended sessions have been offered for the staff who have been absent. Mandatory training is now largely up to date. The current children’s vulnerabilities include exploitation and self-harm, and although staff are trained in these areas, for some, this training took place over three years ago. Staff say they would benefit from refreshing their knowledge in these areas.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The quality-of-care review was submitted late. This reduces the regulator’s ability to have oversight. Requirements made at the last inspection have been met, with exception of the blender blade that had been left accessible.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff complete focused key work with children, and the frequency of this has recently improved. However, the quality and format of recording is inconsistent. Work does not always relate to the objectives for care and children’s measured outcomes. There is also little progress recorded in overcoming communication barriers with children where this is a factor. This does not support staff to evidence the effectiveness of their work, or the momentum of positive change.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home has also improved the quality of written documentation overall. The impact on the children is clear as they have positive experiences during their stays. They make progress and, as a result, reduce their need for short breaks. Inspection report children’s home: SC040105 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 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 premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(d))

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Requirement Due date

This refers to the establishment of effective systems to ensure that harmful items are not in general circulation. 31 May 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (“a quality of care review”) at least once every six months.

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Requirement Due date

supply to HMCI a copy of the quality-of-care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed. (Regulation 45 (1) (4)(a)) 31 May 2022

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that just as in a family home, children should be able to access all shared areas of their home unless there are specific reasons why this would not meet a child’s needs. Limits on privacy and access may only be put in place to safeguard each child in the home (regulation 21(c)(i)). Any decisions to limit a child’s access to any area of the home and any modifications to the environment of the home, must only be made where this is intended to safeguard the child’s welfare. All decisions should be informed by a rigorous assessment of that individual child’s needs, be properly recorded and be Inspection report children’s home: SC040105 7 kept under regular review. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15 , paragraph 3.10 )

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs, and should understand the key role they play in the training and development of staff in the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that a child’s plans should form the basis of their care, and providers should use their judgement as to what is relevant in each case. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.1)

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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 children’s home: SC040105 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: The Guildhall, Alfred Gelder Street, Hull HU1 2AA

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Louise Taylor-Deville

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Inspector

Rachel Ruth, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC040105 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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