Children's Home run by Compass Children’s Homes North East Limited in Newcastle upon Tyne

Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 1 SC472795 Registered provider: Artemis Support Limited 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 managed by a private provider. The home can care for up to five children who have emotional and/or social difficulties.

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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: 2 November 2021

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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: SC472795 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/11/2021 Full Good 04/09/2019 Full Good 14/08/2018 Full Good 25/07/2017 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children say they are happy and feel safe in their home. They make progress across all aspects of their development while living in the home. Children benefit from a caring manager and a dedicated and consistent staff team, who support the needs of the children. The children enjoy trusting relationships with those who care for them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children who move into the home are supported with planned initial visits. Unfortunately, it has not been possible for all moves out of the home to be planned due to safeguarding reasons. However, one child who was supported in moving out of the home in a planned way stays in touch with the staff and visits the home. This demonstrates the positive relationships that the child has built with the staff, and the sense of belonging which they have developed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make particularly good progress with their education. The staff advocate well for the children to access an education provision that meets their needs, and support them in attending and engaging with education. One teacher noted that since one child has been living in the home, their behaviour in school has improved significantly, and their ability to make friends has improved. This means that the child is now more focused in the classroom and is making improved progress with their learning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have access to a wide range of activities outside of the home. This helps them to build relationships with children beyond the home and their school or college. It also gives them a sense of belonging in their local community.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Home conditions are generally of a good condition and children have their own private space. However, staff sleep on a sofa bed in the living room during the night, which means the living room door is locked each night. This means that the children have restricted access to this area of their home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s meetings take place regularly. However, sometimes children are unable to attend as they have other commitments such as family time. This means that they are not always given the opportunity to share their views and they are not always kept informed about the things that are happening in their home. In addition, the children are not always informed of the outcome of their requests that they make during these meetings, such as buying items for the home which are activity based. This means that the children may not always feel listened to.

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

The manager considers the needs of all the children who are living in the home before considering whether another child can move into the home. When Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 4 information required to keep a child safe has not been shared with the manager by other professionals, she is confident in challenging the professional concerned.

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

Staff advocate for children to receive the services that they need to help to keep them safe. The manager and the staff identify external resources, which they feel the children would benefit from to support the individual needs of the child.

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

The staff have access to a psychologist to help them to understand the children’s needs. Staff are implementing the advice the psychologist gives, which has resulted in some of the children’s behaviours improving. There is a reduction in the number of times that the children need to be held to keep themselves or others safe.

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

The staff spend time with the children to educate them about being kind to others. When bullying or racism is identified in the home, the staff take swift steps to address this. The staff find creative ways to help the children to develop their social skills in these areas.

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

Allegations made by children and staff are taken seriously. Appropriate investigations ensure that the children are safeguarded. Children are informed of the outcomes of any allegations they make, and they are helped to understand the reasons for the outcome.

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

Children go missing from home infrequently. When they do go missing, the staff follow the appropriate protocols to keep the children safe. The local police force commented that staff are good at keeping them informed about the children who live in the home. The staff share relevant information with the police on a regular basis, which helps to keep children safe. However, not all of the children who have gone missing from home have been offered an independent return home interview. This prevents those caring for the child to obtain relevant information, which may help to improve the safeguarding arrangements for the child.

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

Risk assessments are individual to the needs of each child and these are regularly updated. However, they do not always contain all of the children’s known risks and, therefore, safety planning is not wholly effective. Opportunities to keep one child safe by establishing effective working relationships with other professionals have been missed. Further chances to keep the child safe in respect of their use of technology have also been missed. These missed opportunities limit the staff’s ability to keep the child safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is dedicated to developing her staff to ensure that the children receive a good standard of care. She is supported well by a loyal and consistent staff team. Staff feel supported by their manager when responding to the needs of the children and they say that their manager is approachable.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager can identify the strengths in the home and the areas that require improvement. She is realistic about the need to improve areas of practice for some Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 5 of the staff team, such as record-keeping and restorative practice. She has a process in place to address this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff have completed all of their basic training requirements needed to work in the home. The manager has identified additional training to promote the staff’s development, and to enable them to best meet the needs of the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is visible to the staff and the children. The children clearly enjoy positive relationships with the manager, which is managed through a finely balanced mix of spending time with the children while conducting her managerial duties.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has responded to COVID-19 well, creating bubbles for staff to provide continuity of care to the children when this has been required. The manager has also implemented plans to support the children through times when COVID-19 has been present in the home. These plans are designed to keep the children safe and occupied.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Management oversight is inconsistent across some of the documents which record events in the lives of the children. This does not impact on the welfare of the children. However, the manager has implemented an audit process to address these shortfalls.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

While the manager is generally good at notifying Ofsted of any safeguarding concerns, there was an isolated incident when this did not happen. This prevented Ofsted from being assured that the appropriate safeguarding procedures were followed to safeguard the child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager generally ensures that the children’s records are kept up to date. However, there is some confusion about the accuracy of dates recorded on some documents, making it unclear if some documents have been amended. There are also several important documents missing from the children’s files. These documents relate to staff having chats with children about their behaviour after they have needed to be held to keep themselves or others safe. Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 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 children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

develop positive relationships with them;

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Requirement Due date

take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives.

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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

ascertain and consider each child’s views, wishes and feelings, and balance these against what they judge to be in the child’s best interests when making decisions about the child’s care and welfare;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to express views, wishes and feelings;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how the child’s views, wishes and feelings have been taken into account and give the child reasons for decisions in relation to the child;

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Requirement Due date

regularly consult children, and seek their feedback, about the quality of the home’s care; and

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how the child’s privacy will be respected and the circumstances when it may have to be limited. (Regulation 7 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)) 5 July 2022

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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. 12 May 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 7 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;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies;

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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

that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)(e))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that the following items, which may be kept in electronic form, are kept in an accessible manner—

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Requirement Due date

records of the use of measures of control, discipline or restraint (see regulation 35);

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Requirement Due date

children’s case records (see regulation 36);

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Requirement Due date

other records (see regulation 37). (Regulation 38 (h)(i)(j)) 5 June 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 8

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the children are able to access all shared areas of their home unless there are specific reasons why this would not meet a child’s needs. Any decisions to limit a child’s access to any area of the home must only be made where this is intended to safeguard the child’s welfare. All decisions must be informed by a rigorous assessment of that individual child’s needs, be properly recorded and be kept under regular review. In particular, the living room should not be routinely locked at night. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.10)  The registered person should ensure that when a child returns to the home after being missing from care, or away from the home without permission, the responsible local authority must provide an opportunity for the child to have an independent return home interview. Homes should take account of information

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Recommendations

provided by such interviews when assessing risks and putting arrangements in place to protect each child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.30)  The registered person should notify Ofsted if one of the situations specified in regulation 40(4)(a)-(d) occurs. In particular, if a child is assessed to be at risk of child sexual exploitation. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.10)

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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: SC472795 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Artemis Support Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 17 Queens Lane, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Northumberland NE1 1RN

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Inspector

Julia Hagan, Social Care Inspector Janine Shortman-Thomas, Social Care Inspection Manager Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 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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