Children's home run by Your Chapter Limited

Inspection report children's home: 1240884 1 Registered provider: Your Chapter Holdings Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children's home

This home is one of a number operated by a large private organisation. The provider states in the home’s statement of purpose that it provides care for up to two children who may have social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children's home

The inspectors spoke to the children during the inspection.

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Information about this children's home

The home registered with Ofsted in October 2016. There is a registered manager in post.

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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: 27 January 2022

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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: 1240884 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

27/01/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 31/07/2019 Full Good 02/05/2018 Full Good 08/01/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness Inspection report children's home: 1240884 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

At the time of the inspection, two children were living at the home. One child has only lived in the home for a short period of time. Since the last inspection, two children have moved out of the home, and their placements ended suddenly. Staff were unable to effect sufficient change in one child’s risk-taking and criminal behaviour. The decision was made for the child to be moved out of the home due to increased risk-taking behaviours.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is welcoming and has recently been redecorated. Children’s bedrooms are clean and personalised. However, the communal living area is used as a staff sleep- in space. This means that children do not have access to all shared areas of their home. Although there are plans to extend the property to make room for a staff bedroom, the work has not started yet.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health and well-being are promoted well by staff. Staff ensure that healthcare plans identify children’s individual needs. Statutory health assessments have been completed, and children are supported fully to attend required medical appointments.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have individualised plans which identify risks to their safety and well-being, and provide guidance for staff on how to manage these risks. Plans contain relevant information. All children have common, specific and measurable goals that they are aiming to achieve. Staff understand the goals set for each child and are fully aware of the actions that they are required to take to help children make progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Education is promoted in the home, and the registered manager and staff are aware of their local area offer setting out the support available for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. This is a further opportunity to access a range of specialist resources for children. However, one child is only currently attending his education setting one day a week. This is limiting his progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have daily routines and boundaries in place. Staff consistently support them to engage throughout the day. This helps children to access the support available to them, and promotes their future opportunities beyond living at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children to maintain their relationships with family members. Staff are sensitive to the complexities of the child’s family visits and are flexible to the needs of the whole family. This support means that children maintain family links that are crucial to their sense of identity and belonging.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Social workers spoken to as part of this inspection gave positive feedback. They said that children have positive relationships with staff and that communication is good.

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

Inspection report children's home: 1240884 4 Children told inspectors that they are happy and safe living in the home. They talk about the support that they receive to take age-appropriate risks both at home and in the community. Children understand how to make a complaint. However, they are clear that they do not need to use this process and said that staff will help and support them if they are concerned or worried. One child told inspectors the only thing they had complained about was when a different member of staff did the food shop and the food purchased ‘wasn’t as good as normal’.

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

Managers and staff have a good understanding of the potential safeguarding risks to children in the context of known vulnerabilities of children. Staff receive appropriate training which equips them to be confident in understanding their roles in safeguarding children. However, one member of staff has not attended training in two relevant topics. This is a missed opportunity to ensure that staff have the skills and knowledge to safely care for children.

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

Safe systems ensure that all visitors to the home are asked to produce their identification and sign in. Thorough recruitment checks are completed on new or existing staff to ensure that those providing the care to the children are suitable to do so.

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

Staff are good at balancing the need to protect children with enabling them to take reasonable risks in line with their age and development. However, when staff suspect children are under the influence of alcohol or substances, appropriate action is not always taken at the time of the event to ensure that children are safeguarded.

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

Recruitment checks are robust. All new staff are suitably vetted following safer recruitment guidelines prior to starting work in the home. This promotes safe working practices.

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

Positive behaviour is promoted in the home. Staff make good use of de-escalation techniques. As a result, restraints are minimal and used only as a last resort.

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

Despite there being a stable team of staff who are passionate and committed, the outcomes for some children have been poor. The registered manager does not always ensure that safeguarding practice is fully evaluated following an incident so that lessons are learned and levels of risk are reducing for children. As a result, potential risks have not always been managed as well as they should have been, to keep children and others safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The current manager has been registered with Ofsted since April 2022. He is passionate about the role and has a good understanding of the needs of children. Staff say that they feel supported. children spoke fondly of the manager, and inspectors observed warm interactions throughout the inspection. Inspection report children's home: 1240884 5 Staff receive supervision sessions, and team meetings are held regularly. Records demonstrate that supervision discussions lack reflection on practice, learning from training and any areas for improvement.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The adults caring for children and the management team share information appropriately with relevant professionals and children’s families. Feedback is collated from a variety of agencies, as well as children and families.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

When complaints have been received from third parties, leaders and mangers ensure that they are thoroughly investigated in a timely way and that action is taken to avoid any conflict.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager does not use agency staff in the home, which means that children are always cared for by staff who know them well. At the time of the inspection, the manager was covering two shifts a week due to a member of staff being on leave and there being one vacancy. While this ensures continuity of care for the children living in the home, it impacts on his ability to regularly monitor standards within the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The management team has a good understanding of events in children’s lives. However, managers do not always evaluate practice and outline their decision- making clearly. This shortfall stems from gaps in monitoring systems. It has the potential to leave poor practice unaddressed and decisions not being underpinned by analysis and reflection.

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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 education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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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

help each child to achieve the child's education and training targets, as recorded in the child's relevant plans; 07 August 2022 Inspection report children's home: 1240884 6 understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment;

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally;

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Requirement Due date

help a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non-attendance and to return to school as soon as possible;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to attend education or training in accordance with the expectations in the child's relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iii)(iv)(v)(viii)(x))

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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

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

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

(Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(ii)(iii)(v)(vi)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to ensuring that appropriate action is taken when children are suspected to be under the influence of substances. 07 August 2022 Inspection report children's home: 1240884 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

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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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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)(a)(c)(d)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This is specifically in relation to improving the registered manager’s oversight of the home’s records. 07 August 2022

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Requirement Due date

children can access all appropriate areas of the children's home's premises; and

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Requirement Due date

any limitation placed on a child's privacy or access to any area of the home's premises—

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Requirement Due date

is intended to safeguard each child accommodated in the home;

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Requirement Due date

is kept under review and, if necessary, revised; and

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Requirement Due date

allows children as much freedom as is possible when balanced against the need to protect them and keep them safe. 07 August 2022 Inspection report children's home: 1240884 8 (Regulation 21(b)(c)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to children being able to access all areas of their home. Communal areas must not be locked and should not be used as sleeping space.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records ('case records') for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 07 August 2022

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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: 1240884 9

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Children's home details

Registered provider: Your Chapter Holdings Limited

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Hobart House, Oakwater Avenue, Cheadle Royal Business Park, Cheadle SK8 3SR

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Inspectors

Jessica Higginson, Social Care Inspector Judith Birchall, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 1240884 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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