Children's home run by Timeout Children’s Homes Limited

Inspection report children’s home: 2612070 1 Registered provider: Time-Out Children’s Homes Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a privately owned and managed children’s home that provides care for up to two children aged between six and 17 years old. The home provides a nurturing environment and works holistically with education and therapy to help children to integrate into the community.

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Information about this children’s home

The home and manager were registered with Ofsted in December 2020. The registered manager is qualified and holds the registration of this and the sister home that is within the same area.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Date of last inspection: 26 October 2021

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report children’s home: 2612070 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

26/10/2021 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: 2612070 3

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outstanding

Children enjoy a wonderful experience living at the home. Children receive an excellent level of care from highly skilled staff. Current social care and medical research is used innovatively in practice to help children to excel. This exceptional level of care enables children to make significant and sustained progress in all areas of their lives.

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outstanding

Staff ensure that children’s time with family is meaningful. Staff are confident to work alongside parents and other family members. They help them to attend special events, such as award ceremonies. They work openly and honestly with family members and help them to understand the behaviour of their children better. One parent told inspectors, ‘When I get to spend time with [child], staff are always there. It is like having the extended family around. It feels so natural.’ Children have an enhanced experience of family time, which truly supports their family relationships and helps them to have a positive sense of identity.

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outstanding

The quality of relationships between staff and children is excellent. Staff really understand children and work hard to form and maintain relationships with them. Children are nurtured by dedicated staff, who are consistent in their approach. When crises occur, staff undertake reparation work so that the child can ‘start afresh’. Children receive help from staff, who they trust and have enduring relationships with.

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outstanding

The home’s therapeutic model is well established and is evident throughout all areas of practice. The manager and staff work in close partnership with the psychologists, who support and influence all aspects of planning for children. This means that children receive day-to-day care that takes into account the trauma that they have experienced and helps them to heal.

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outstanding

Children’s records tell their story in a way that is balanced and insightful. Children’s voices are captured in records. The records seen are of a consistently high quality. This will help children to understand their time living in the home, and help them to have positive memories.

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outstanding

Staff support children to embrace an outdoor lifestyle and be active. They engage in a wide range of stimulating experiences and in activities that they want to do. Staff encourage children to try everything. Children are making good, measurable progress in activities such as swimming and horse riding. Children were excited to tell the inspectors about newly learned skills. Children feel a sense of pride and are achieving.

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outstanding

Children have made excellent progress in education. Professionals told inspectors that one child has gone from not being motivated to attend school at all, to finding Inspection report children’s home: 2612070 4 a love for learning. They are working at expected levels and have 100% attendance.

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outstanding

Risk assessments are specific to individual children and contain all known risks. Staff review and update them when needed. Risk assessments tell staff how to care for children. They link into care plans and help to inform therapeutic interventions. When incidents arise, staff manage these well because they are clear about what each child needs to help them regulate their emotions. A child who previously had a high level of incidents of self-harm now rarely displays distress in this way because the staff have helped them to find other, safer ways of dealing with their distress.

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outstanding

Children do not go missing. Staff use the physical space available to give children time to themselves while not being unsupervised. Staff use their knowledge to read children’s cues and listen to their wishes and respond appropriately. Should a child go missing, staff are confident of what action they need to take to ensure their prompt and safe return.

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outstanding

Staff have an in-depth knowledge of each child’s care history and how this influences their behaviour. Children’s behaviour is tracked in a detailed way and the results are evaluated. The manager uses this information, supported by current and specific areas of research, to inform how children should be cared for to achieve the best outcomes. Worrying behaviours are significantly reducing and children are being kept increasingly safe.

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outstanding

Where safeguarding concerns arise, the manager and staff understand what action to take, including whistle-blowing. Staff spoken to have a good understanding of their responsibilities and can talk confidently about what they would do to keep children safe in situations where they may be at risk.

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outstanding

The staff have a good understanding of the home’s physical intervention model. Physical intervention is only used as a last resort. Behaviour management plans are detailed and have clear descriptions of triggers, behaviour and how to de-escalate through distraction and being caring. In most cases, staff de-escalated situations without the need for physical intervention. For one child, the use of physical intervention has decreased even though their behaviours have increased due to the uncertainty of forthcoming changes in the home. This means that staff have learned how to better support children who are in crisis.

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outstanding

Children are supported by staff to get along and be accepting of others. Staff encourage children to share and be cooperative. Staff work with children to help them know what healthy friendships look like. This means that children make good progress in their social skills and the risk of bullying is reduced. Inspection report children’s home: 2612070 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is a strong and extremely ambitious leader who puts children at the centre of everything she does. She develops and maintains collaborative relationships with others. Feedback received by inspectors from professionals and family members about her practice has been consistently excellent.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Where issues arise, the manager challenges other professionals to ensure that children’s needs are understood and appropriately met. Where issues affect children, the manager steps up and takes affirmative action. The manager consults effectively with others and takes ownership to address matters quickly. This means that children’s plans progress and children are not left waiting for the help and support they need from other professionals.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is forward-thinking. One child’s long-term plan is foster care. The manager has advocated for a school nearer to their home community when they move. This means that the child will have stability in their education and peer relationships, and the impact on their academic achievements from any change will be minimised.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Where plans for children include a move to foster care, additional records capture behaviours that would not usually be considered significant by a team of carers. The manager recognises that foster carers may experience some behaviour differently and ensures that plans for transition take this into account. Children are more likely to be matched successfully with foster carers who fully understand their needs. This will reduce the likelihood of children having unnecessary moves due to carers being unable to meet their needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Thorough safer recruitment processes are in place and consistently applied. If required, the manager looks for more information to support good decision-making.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff are valued and supported to develop their skills. The manager makes excellent use of current topics, auditing and evaluation to consider new and innovative ways of practice. The manager has launched a new staffing structure and a senior development programme. This helps staff to feel highly valued and able to progress in their careers, making them more likely to stay. The result is that children are cared for by a stable staff team who are highly skilled and knowledgeable.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager ensures that staff experience high-quality, regular supervision from knowledgeable managers. Staff are helped to understand their role and develop their skills in line with the home’s model of care, and any concerns about practice are quickly dealt with. Supervision includes learning and personal growth.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home is a listed building. There has been a delay in addressing the cracks to the windows in several of the rooms in the home because planning consent is needed. Managers need to ensure that all steps are taken to ensure that repairs are carried out promptly. Inspection report children’s home: 2612070 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the regulation 44 reports review the quality of care and identify any improvements needed to support the manager in improving the quality of care, including reporting on where staff have been interviewed in private. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)  The registered person should ensure that children live in homely environments that are free from risk of injury and that any repairs are made in a timely way. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15 paragraph 3.9) Inspection report children’s home: 2612070 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 children’s home: 2612070 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Time-Out Children’s Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 2, Ripponden Mill, Mill Fold, Ripponden Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire HX6 4DH

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Dominic Macauley

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Inspectors

Rachel Walker, Social Care Inspector Sue Atkinson-Millmoor, Regulatory Inspection Manager Inspection report children’s home: 2612070 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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