Children's Home run by Northamptonshire Children’s Trust Limited in West Northamptonshire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2616670 1 Registered provider: Northamptonshire Children’s Trust Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is operated by a children’s trust on behalf of a local authority. It is a residential home for children with autism spectrum disorder and moderate to severe learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspectors were aware during this inspection that serious child-protection allegations have been investigated by the police. Although these investigations have been concluded, disciplinary and legal processes are ongoing. While Ofsted does not have the power to investigate allegations of this kind, actions taken by the setting in response to the allegations were considered alongside other evidence available at the time of the inspection to inform inspectors’ judgements. The staff involved are not currently working at the home.

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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: 24 February 2022

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: declined in effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2616670 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

24/02/2022 Interim Declined in effectiveness 23/06/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 2616670 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are happy. Staff have warm and nurturing relationships with children. This can be seen in the way that staff interact with children, supporting them with their independent living skills, personal care, meals and activities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy a wide range of activities in the home and in the local and wider community. They have new play equipment in the garden, such as a trampoline and a large slide. They now regularly go swimming or on trips to the seaside or the local park. Holidays are being planned for the summer. Within the home, the children enjoy a recently refurbished sensory room, a quiet room and an activity room. Staff engage children in pleasurable activities, like blowing bubbles. The joy on the children’s faces when they made a bubble was a pleasure to see.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is undergoing several environmental changes for the benefit of the children. For example, lighting in the lounge and the dining room is now on a dimmer switch to ensure that children who are sensitive to bright lights can have the lighting muted. The lounge is being refurbished and a large new television has been put on the wall so the children can see and hear it better, as previously it was behind a plastic screen. The large institutionalised-looking cupboards have been removed from the lounge and more homely furniture is planned. Children’s bedrooms have been highly personalised, and they now have good-sized beds rather than small, built-in beds. Children who are tall have a double bed to ensure their comfort. Staff have made a start on a new sensory garden for the children to enjoy.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged to make choices and to carry out independent-living tasks. For example, children are now cooking with the chef, following simple recipes that the chef has devised for them. They also clear away their crockery from the table, as well as other tasks. A breakfast choosing board has been introduced to enable the children to choose what they would like for breakfast. Children are very accomplished with this already. Children also have a ‘hurt board’ that they use to tell staff they are not well. Staff have a good understanding of how each child communicates; they listen and try to help.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children regularly see their parents and staff facilitate these meetings and important relationships. Parents are mostly happy with the care of their children. One parent said, ‘It’s fantastic. They are great.’ A parent came to visit his daughter on her birthday. Staff had put up birthday banners and made a cake. Everyone sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to the child before she blew out the candles. She was clearly very happy.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The health of the children is very good. Staff liaise with a range of healthcare professionals to ensure that children are receiving the right help and support. Medication is safely managed. Inspection report for children’s home: 2616670 4 Children have good attendance at school. Staff facilitate transport to and from the school, where this is required. Staff work hard to provide a consistent approach between school and the home. A headteacher said, ‘Staff are receptive to any advice given from school and are keen to work on any targets that we are working on.’

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

Staff have a good understanding of whistle-blowing and safeguarding policies and procedures. Safeguarding concerns are managed well to ensure that children are protected from harm.

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

Staff follow good risk-management plans that help to keep children safe. Children are safer because staff know the children well.

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

Children are mostly happy; however, sometimes they get upset. When this happens, staff are sensitive and try to reassure the child. They follow the child’s care plans and risk assessments to support the child.

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

Occasionally, children are restrained when all other de-escalation techniques have been exhausted. This is always to keep the child safe. However, the views of the child about the incident or restraint have not been sought because children are non- verbal. Staff have not been creative in ascertaining the views of children about incidents of restraint.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is not currently working in the home. A registered manager from another home within the trust is managing the home, ably supported by the assistant team manager.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers have worked hard to ensure that the home is less institutionalised, and meets the needs of children effectively. Many improvements have been made to monitoring systems, the environment, communication with staff and external professionals, as well as activities for children. Managers lead by example, and this is having a significant impact on staff and consequently the lives of children. A parent said, ‘The interim manager presents well. She seems to have good values, a commitment to [name of child], listens to parents and wants to include them.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

It is commendable that managers have taken the time to look at outstanding services as part of their journey of improvement.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff like the new management arrangements. They say that there is better direction, changes that needed to be made have been made quickly, the team has been brought together, plans for the children are better and there are more organised activities. A member of staff said, ‘There is more structure than chaos.’ He said that children are happier. Inspection report for children’s home: 2616670 5 Most staff have not received appropriate training opportunities to ensure that they are qualified and skilled in the specialist work they do in looking after children with autism spectrum disorder. Managers are currently looking for training opportunities to ensure that staff have this vital training, including training in the methods of communication children use.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers are slow to enrol unqualified staff on the appropriate qualification. This means that nearly half of the staff team is not yet qualified. This is something that is being discussed within the trust.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home continues to have a number of staff vacancies because it is struggling to recruit the right people for the jobs available. Agency workers continue to be used. However, they receive a good induction prior to working with the children, and ongoing support. They also know the children well.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Monitoring systems have much improved. Managers have a much better understanding of the issues that face the home and how they want to further develop the home. However, some minor concerns remain with regards to oversight of incidents and the planning of activities.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Communication with parents and external professionals has improved. Home/school diaries are completed. Staff send weekly emails to schools and social workers to aid communication, and they attend meetings. Staff communicate with parents as often as parents wish, in the way parents request. For example, a parent said he speaks to staff every night.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Some maintenance issues continue to take time to be completed. For example, a safety mat under a swing is starting to lift and this issue was reported nearly a year ago. This is now booked in to be resolved. Meanwhile, a damaged sink was fixed the day after being reported. Managers communicate effectively to expedite maintenance issues and leaders within the trust are reviewing maintenance systems to ensure a better service.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff feel very well supported by the management team and each other. They have regular team meetings and supervision. Supervision of staff could be strengthened by including a reflective discussion regarding practice. Inspection report for children’s home: 2616670 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that practice supervision for staff allows them to reflect on their practice as well as the needs of the 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 staff continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. This includes ensuring that all activities in the community are well planned and risk assessed to ensure that children are not put at undue risk of harm. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)  The registered person should ensure that any child who has been restrained is given the opportunity express their feelings about their experience of the restraint as soon as is practicable, ideally within 24 hours of the restraint incident, taking

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Recommendations

the age of the child and the circumstances of the restraint into account. In some cases, children may need longer to work through their feelings, so a record that the child has talked about their feelings should be made no longer than 5 days after the incident of restraint. Children should be encouraged to add their views and comments to the record of restraint. Children should be offered the opportunity to access an advocacy support to help them with this. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 50, paragraph 9.60)  The registered person should ensure that all staff in a care role, including external agency or bank staff, have the qualification in regulation 32(4) within the relevant timescale listed in regulation 32(5). The registered person may extend the time period if the member of staff has not worked in the role for a prolonged period, such as sick leave or maternity leave, or if it is not reasonable to expect the

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Recommendations

member of staff to complete in this timescale due to the nature of the hours they work. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.12)  The registered person should ensure that the oversight of incidents is strengthened. They should ensure that all staff involved in incidents are debriefed and any issues raised are formally addressed. Debrief forms should be signed by the person being debriefed to demonstrate that it is a true record and managers involved in the incident should not complete debriefs of staff involved in the same incident. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2) Inspection report for children’s home: 2616670 7

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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: 2616670 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Northamptonshire Childrens Trust Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: One Angel Square, Angel Street, Northampton, Northamptonshire NN1 1ED

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Inspector

Joanne Vyas, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2616670 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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