Children's Home run by Nestlings Care BC Limited in Leeds

Inspection report for children’s home: 2594061 1 Registered provider: Nestlings Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is run by a private provider. It is registered to provide care for up to three children who may have learning disabilities and/or mental disorders.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered since July 2020.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: 27 October 2021

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2594061 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

27/10/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2594061 3

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improvement to be good

The provider’s systems for maintaining the home require improvement as they do not address environmental hazards, damage and routine repair works in a timely manner. Staff do not clean the home to a good standard. The poor environment does not promote children’s well-being.

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improvement to be good

Children have well-planned moves into the home as introductions take place over a number of weeks. During this time, children do activities with staff and get a booklet about their home. Professionals meet and discuss the plans for the child’s care so that, as children arrive, staff understand how to care for them. Children settle in well as they know what to expect and who will be looking after them.

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improvement to be good

Staff are nurturing and spend time with children, so they understand each child’s needs. Children are able to share their views and feelings as they have built trusting relationships with their staff.

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improvement to be good

Children see their families regularly as staff recognise the need for children to spend time with people who are important to them. Parents feel that they are welcome at the home and value the care and support children receive. One parent said, ‘My child has made loads of progress and the staff have helped my child to cope better.’

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improvement to be good

The manager and in-house multidisciplinary team plan children’s healthcare together. Children regularly access health services, which extends to emergency care when needed. Staff work with children to reduce the dangers of smoking through a structured plan. This means that children’s health starts to improve as a result of living at the home and the specialist help that they receive.

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improvement to be good

Children have fun and play games. The staff are creative and are committed to ensuring that children enjoy a range of recreational activities skills. This helps children to learn new life skills.

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improvement to be good

One child has moved out of the home as they were ready to live more independently. Talking with staff and their advocate gave the child reassurance when their plans were delayed. The child became less anxious and felt ready to move from the home.

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improvement to be good

The manager and multi-disciplinary team regularly discuss children’s support strategies and risks. They make assessments and safety plans for staff to follow. However, the inspectors identified that one child’s risk assessment was not fully up Inspection report for children’s home: 2594061 4 to date. This means that guidance for staff was unclear should a further similar incident occur.

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improvement to be good

Safe arrangements for handling and administering medication are not consistently applied. As a result, children have taken medication for which they are not prescribed. This has the potential to put children at risk of harm.

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improvement to be good

Children use knives in the kitchen under supervision as staff recognise the risks that using sharp items can have. The manager has implemented a more thorough health and safety check. This helps to ensure that staff know that these items are stored safely when they are not in use.

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improvement to be good

Children self-harm less often because of the support they receive at the home. Staff understand the causes for children’s distress and children engage in regular therapy sessions. Due to the positive relationships children have with staff, they share how they are feeling and accept help when crisis situations occur. Staff are able to divert children from causing themselves harm and ensure that they access the correct medical support.

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improvement to be good

Children are well supervised as they have at least one-to-one staff support. The manager assesses children’s time out of the home as part of an agreed plan. Staff apply the instructions included in deprivation of liberty orders, so children do not go missing from care.

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improvement to be good

Children learn about risky situations as they talk to staff about incidents, relationships and using social media. Children are able to share concerns they have, and the manager is responsive when children make disclosures or allegations. They follow procedures to safeguard children and inform the correct professionals. This ensures that investigations take place and that children have the correct support.

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improvement to be good

Descriptive incident reports enables the manager to review the effectiveness of the support children receive and identify when the use of physical intervention could have been avoided. Physical interventions are not common practice as staff find alternative ways to support children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager’s checks of the premises are poor as they do not identify all areas in need of repair or comply with the provider’s policy and procedure for health and safety. Unnecessary hazards for children have not been identified and removed. Action was taken by the manager to rectify this during the inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The provider’s recruitment procedures are not effective. There has been a failure to assess whether all new staff and agency staff are suitable to work with children before they work in the home. Insufficient safer recruitment practices place children at risk of harm. Inspection report for children’s home: 2594061 5 Disorganised filing systems and ineffective monitoring mean that not all documents are available. The lack of recording means that the support staff receive at times is unclear and that information from some children’s placing authorities is not in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager does not inform the regulator of significant health interventions, such as hospital procedures resulting from children’s self-harmful behaviours. The regulator cannot, therefore, assess the actions the manager takes to safeguard children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager’s quality of care review is not thorough as they do not consult with people or use feedback to inform their report. How the manager intends to improve the service is not clear as they do not set actions or targets.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff value the support they receive from the manager and multidisciplinary team. Staff understand the ethos and delivery of care for children as defined in the home’s statement of purpose. Staff attend training courses so they can provide a specialist service to children. This helps to ensure that children are cared for by a skilled staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The statement of purpose is kept under review. However, the manager has not provided Ofsted with an up-to-date version as required by regulation. Inspection report for children’s home: 2594061 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 quality and purpose of care standard requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 6 (2)(c)(i))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that the home is clean and that routine maintenance works in the home and garden are completed. 30 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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff—

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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; and

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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)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that children’s risk assessments include all updated risk reduction strategies identified when incidents occur.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must implement a system to identify and remove environmental hazards that increase children’s risk of ligaturing. 30 July 2022

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard requires the registered person to— 30 July 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2594061 7 use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must implement a system to ensure that all records of staff supervision, post-incident debriefs and children’s current statutory documents are available.

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Requirement Due date

notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement of purpose within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (3)(b)) 30 July 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. The registered person may only—

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children’s home; if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3). The requirements are that—

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1) (2)(a) (3)(d))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that new staff’s and agency staff’s skills and experience in working with children are recorded and that references for staff are obtained and verified before they start working in the home. 30 July 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(e)) 30 July 2022

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and 30 July 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2594061 8 any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (2)(b)(c) (5))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that they use the views of children, staff, families and placing authorities in the quality of care review and include a plan of action for service development in the report.

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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: 2594061 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Nestlings Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Suite 4, 1 Derby Street, Leigh, Lancashire WN7 4PF

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Anthony Thompson

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Inspectors

Alexandra Howitt, Social Care Inspector Aaron Mcloughlin, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2594061 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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