Children's home run by Leeds City Council in Leeds

Inspection report for children’s home: SC033370 1 SC033370 Registered provider: Leeds City Council 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 the local authority and is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to five children. The home currently offers care and accommodation for up to four children in line with the home’s statement of purpose.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager is suitably qualified and registered with Ofsted in July 2020. The registered manager and the responsible individual were both not in work at the time of the inspection. The inspection was led by an operations manager from the local authority.

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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 requires improvement to be good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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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: SC033370 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/06/2021 Full Good 30/10/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good 27/02/2019 Full Good 03/05/2017 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC033370 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from positive relationships with staff. It is evident that staff care about the children and this is clear in interactions between them. Staff use every opportunity they have to engage with children and continue to develop these relationships. Children can access support and help from staff whenever needed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage children with their education. Staff work closely with schools to adapt timetables and ensure that the school staff can meet the children’s needs. Children have access to the education they need to succeed in life.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff know and understand how children’s emotional well-being can be affected by adverse experiences. The staff work closely with the therapeutic team, whose members are confident about the staff’s ability to recognise changes in children’s behaviours. One therapeutic worker said that the staff ‘show real empathy and care’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The importance of children’s families is understood and plans are in place for children to see loved ones. Staff recognise that when children leave the home, they may return to live with their families. Staff work with children to develop the skills to build and maintain positive relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are offered numerous activities and experiences. Staff recognise the value of giving children these opportunities and capture this in photos and mementos for children to take with them when they move on from the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children say that they do not always feel listened to and their requests are not always responded to promptly. Children’s meetings do not take place as they should and their voice is not captured clearly in documents and records. The complaints process is also not clear for children to follow should they need to make a complaint.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Communal areas of the home are locked by staff without any clear rationale. This was rectified on day one of the inspection. Children later commented that they were happy they could now get drinks and food in the evening.

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

Staff work with the children to understand risks associated with missing behaviour and work to disrupt any negative relationships children may develop in the community. As a result, children rarely go missing from the home. When children do go missing, staff are proactive in looking for them, regardless of the time of day. Staff raise appropriate challenge with other professionals to ensure that children are safeguarded effectively.

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

There has been an increase in criminal behaviour for some of the children, both in and out of the home. Staff work with children and the youth justice service to Inspection report for children’s home: SC033370 4 reduce this risk and to try and prevent children being criminalised. Multi-agency work takes place, with plans put in place to reduce the impact of children’s actions on one another. This is to prevent children from becoming increasingly involved in any criminal activities.

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

The manager and staff team have worked to rebuild relationships with the local community after the home was vandalised. A recent barbecue in the garden saw the community, staff, family and friends of the children meet to build on these relationships. The manager is aware of the importance of children growing up in a positive community environment.

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

The staff have listened to children and moved away from using behaviour management measures that are punitive towards the children. Any measures used now are proportionate and made in agreement with the children. The staff now focus on positive incentives and reparation to support the children to learn and develop.

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

Recruitment checks are detailed and thorough. Agency staff work in the home and the operations manager has worked with the agency to ensure that safeguarding checks are in place. Additional checks are undertaken by the home’s manager to prevent unsafe staff working in the home.

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

Risk assessments and safeguarding protocols for children do not clearly identify risks and do not all contain steps to follow to reduce and manage risks. Support plans that should provide staff with immediate, easy-to-read steps to follow use formal and hard-to-understand language. This means that those new to the home would not know how to help children when they are upset.

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good

The registered manager was unavailable during this full inspection. It was difficult for the staff team and the operations manager to find documents due to the record storage system employed by the manager.

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good

The members of the staff team said that they feel well supported by each other and there is a strong sense of team morale. However, communication is not always effective. At times, information from staff and managers is only shared with children’s key workers, even if they are not in work. This means there may be a delay in information being known by the rest of the staff team.

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good

The registered manager has not consistently had full monitoring and oversight of the home. Children’s documents are not reviewed by the manager, which means that concerns raised by children or poor staff decisions go unaddressed. In addition, incidents are not always evaluated, or areas of development are not identified. This prevents learning and does not improve the quality of care children receive. Inspection report for children’s home: SC033370 5 When children move into the home, the manager does a detailed impact risk assessment. However, plans to mitigate any risk were not implemented by the time one child moved into the home, which led to an incident that could have been avoided. The manager has been quick to respond to reduce the chances of this reoccurring.

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good

It has been difficult to recruit staff and the home has used casual and agency staff at times. The manager has ensured that the same people work with the children to promote consistency. However, on occasion, there have been insufficient staffing arrangements in place, which has affected the safety of both children and staff.

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good

The manager does not always notify serious incidents to Ofsted, or these notifications are delayed. This does not allow the regulator to have oversight of safeguarding practices in the home when serious incidents take place.

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good

Supervisions do not always take place in line with the home’s statement of purpose. Opportunities when these could have taken place have been missed. Debriefs following incidents are not formally recorded and therefore there is no protected one-to-one time for staff to reflect and learn to improve their practice.

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good

The manager has ensured that staff have the training they need to support the children. There has been a focus on staff completing and understanding mandatory training while the manager has continued to explore and implement training that meets the children’s needs.

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good

The manager is a strong advocate for the children and is not afraid to challenge other professionals to ensure that children receive the care and support they need. It is evident that multi-agency working is effective in improving outcomes for children. Inspection report for children’s home: SC033370 6

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered persons 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 persons 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—

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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;

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Requirement Due date

make each child aware of and, if necessary, remind them of each of the matters in sub-paragraph (d)(i) to (iii);

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Requirement Due date

is enabled to provide feedback to, and raise issues with, a relevant person about the support and services that the child receives; 2 December 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC033370 7 has access to the home’s children’s guide, and the home’s complaints procedure, when the child’s placement in the home is agreed and throughout the child’s stay in the home;

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Requirement Due date

keep the children’s guide and the home’s complaints procedure under review and seek children’s comments before revising either document;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that an explanation is given to each child as soon as reasonably practicable after the child’s arrival about—

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Requirement Due date

how to make a complaint or representations in relation to the home or the care the child receives and how any such complaint or representations will be dealt with. (Regulation 7 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(vii)(b)(i)(ii)(c)(d)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, that the children’s guide and complaints processes are updated and shared with children.

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Requirement Due date

That children’s meetings take place monthly to enable them to express their opinion.

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Requirement Due date

That children are made aware of any limitations of access to areas of the home and restrictions that may be put in place, such as door alarms.

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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

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; 2 December 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC033370 8 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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, risk assessments and children’s plans are to be updated to provide clear guidance to all staff about current risks and how to manage these. This includes giving practical steps that are clear to all staff.

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Requirement Due date

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 promotes their welfare.

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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 work as a team where appropriate;

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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

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child;

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home; 2 December 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC033370 9 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)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, that the registered manager has full oversight of the home and reviews and evaluates recordings in a timely manner, particularly incident reports and key-work sessions.

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Requirement Due date

The registered manager should ensure that any learning from such records is identified and shared with the staff to improve practice.

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Requirement Due date

The registered manager should ensure that when children move into the home, the actions identified to reduce any risk of harm to children are in place.

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Requirement Due date

the privacy of children is appropriately protected;

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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. (Regulation 21 (a)(b)(c)(i)(ii)(iv)) 1 October 2022

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the statement of purpose is kept under review, contains all information about the home and is shared with Ofsted when reviewed. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 14, paragraph 3.5)  The registered person should ensure that children’s records are written in a child- friendly way and capture the conversations that have taken place, particularly the Inspection report for children’s home: SC033370 10 support they are receiving from staff. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.5)  The registered person should ensure that they notify Ofsted without delay of an incident specified in regulation 40 (4). (‘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: SC033370 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Civic Hall, Calverley Street, Leeds LS1 1UR

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Inspectors:

Debra Boldy, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC033370 12 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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