Children's Home run by Northumberland County Council in Northumberland

Inspection report for children’s home: SC486604 1 SC486604 Registered provider: Northumberland County Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

This home is operated and managed by a local authority to provide care for up to four children who may have emotional and/or social difficulties.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in June 2016.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The inspector spoke to all the children who live in the home.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

p.1

good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

p.1

good

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

p.1

good

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

p.1

good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC486604 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

25/05/2021 Full Outstanding 06/01/2020 Full Outstanding 26/02/2019 Full Outstanding 21/03/2018 Full Outstanding Inspection report for children’s home: SC486604 3

p.2

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There are four children living in the home.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children presented as comfortable and confident. They were positive about their life at the home. The children told the inspector that they have good relationships with the staff and can share their thoughts and feelings freely with all the staff. Furthermore, the children have lots of opportunities to have their voices heard, through spending quality one-to-one time with staff or at the children’s meetings. These opportunities help the children to feel involved in the planning of their personal care and activities.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Care plans are detailed. Staff demonstrate a good understanding of the needs of the children and ensure that care plans are fully implemented. The staff work closely with internal and external agencies to support the children’s individual needs. When there are additional or emerging needs, the manager and the staff are proactive in accessing appropriate services to meet these.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help the children to spend time and keep in touch with people who are important to them. Staff sensitively help children to understand why they are unable to live with their families or see them. Staff are skilled in talking with children about relationships and personal anxieties. This helps children with their emotional and mental well-being.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are being supported to develop life skills and age-appropriate independence skills. Some children are learning to budget, plan and cook meals. One child has received positive feedback about a voluntary work placement that has led to the possibility of employment.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Some of the children have experienced bullying and unkind remarks in the home. Staff are quick to acknowledge and label this behaviour, bringing it to the forefront of the children’s discussions. The staff support the children when they have experienced bullying. The staff have been creative in sensitively supporting the children to learn about and understand the impact of their hurtful words and behaviour. This encourages the children to think about the wider influences of their language and actions in and outside of the home.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There are clear plans in place to address the children’s health needs. Staff support children to attend their health appointments and make sense of health information. Some children smoke and staff work with the children in the key-work sessions to educate them about the risks involving smoking and vaping.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home environment is warm and homely. Photos of children are nicely displayed in the home. This helps the children to feel that they belong and reminds the children of the positive memories they have when living in the home. Inspection report for children’s home: SC486604 4

p.3

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

Staff understand the children’s strengths and vulnerabilities. Risk assessments are detailed and reviewed regularly. Identified risks and strategies are clearly recorded. This helps staff to work consistently with the children. The children are involved in reviewing their own risk assessments, according to their understanding. This helps children to make choices that will help keep them safe.

p.4

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

There has been an increase in disruptive behaviours for children living in the home. Records show that staff are carefully and sensitively monitoring concerns and that this increase was linked to association in the community. Staff are proactive in seeking support from other agencies to ensure there is a multi-agency approach to keep children safe.

p.4

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

When the children are absent from the home without permission, the staff and the manager follow safeguarding protocols. During this inspection, a child was missing from home, and staff continuously communicated with the child’s family and partner agencies during the child’s absence. The child’s parent said they felt supported by the staff. When the child returned, the staff spoke with him and requested a return home interview. This means that the child has the opportunity to talk about his experience and learn about the risk associated with their going missing.

p.4

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

Safer recruitment practice promotes the safety of the children. The manager ensures that comprehensive checks into the staff’s suitability to work with children are completed. This reduces the risks of children being cared for by unsuitable adults.

p.4

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

The home is in transition to paperless recording. This has resulted in some important documents being missing from the children’s file. These include looked after children’s review minutes, personal education meeting minutes and looked after children’s health assessments. This means that children’s files are incomplete. This shortfall prevents children from accessing their own record should they wish to do so.

p.4

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

Staff use sanctions to help children to understand the consequences of their behaviour. Overall, the use of sanctions is fair, and they are of a restorative nature. However, children are not consistently offered opportunities to carry out reparation work as an alternative to financial penalty. On one occasion, the duration of the sanction was not clearly recorded. Furthermore, the sanction records do not include the date that the effectiveness of the review took place or the date that the children are spoken with. This means that the children’s records lack information that are important to them.

p.4

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

The manager shares significant incidents that involve the children with the relevant agencies. However, she has not notified Ofsted of a serious incident. This oversight has prevented Ofsted from being assured that the manager and the staff have taken effective action to safeguard the children. Inspection report for children’s home: SC486604 5

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is led by a suitably qualified manager who has the experience to undertake her role. She is supported by an experienced deputy manager. There is a clear management structure. They work together to support one another and complement their skill sets, which has a positive impact on the staff and the children.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager provides strong and effective leadership and has implemented a monitoring system, ensuring the home is operating in accordance with the aims and objectives identified in the home’s statement of purpose. She is fully involved in children’s care planning and has a good understanding of children’s progress. The manager ensures that any additional resources needed to support children are made available, contributing to the children’s ongoing development.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff complete mandatory training. In addition, bespoke training is arranged to enhance the knowledge and skills of staff to meet the individual needs of the children. Staff are highly complimentary about the support they receive from the manager who, they say, leads by example in ensuring children receive good-quality care.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Regular team meetings are held to discuss the progress the children make, home environment and staff well-being. This enables the staff team to develop a sense of shared ownership about its practice. Staff reported that they value the opportunity to share ideas and set mutual goals for the children.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff retention is good. The children benefit from having a consistent team of staff who receive regular training, supervision and support. However, not all staff have had an annual appraisal. This is a missed opportunity to identify additional performance objectives for the team.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The quality of care children receive from the manager and staff is good. This is positive for the children, who have experienced a significant amount of trauma and disruption. Inspection report for children’s home: SC486604 6

p.5

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.

p.6

Requirement Due date

No measure of control or discipline which is excessive, unreasonable or contrary to paragraph (2) may be used in relation to any child.

p.6

Requirement Due date

The following measures may not be used to discipline any child—

p.6

Requirement Due date

imposing a financial penalty, other than a requirement for the payment of a reasonable sum (which may be by instalments) by way of reparation. (Regulation 19 (1) (2)(f))

p.6

Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the manager ensuring that children are offered opportunities to carry out reparation work when imposing consequences. 22 September

p.6

Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

p.6

Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(c)) 22 September

p.6

Requirement Due date

The registered person must prepare and implement a policy (“the behaviour management policy”) which sets out—

p.6

Requirement Due date

how appropriate behaviour is to be promoted in the children’s home; and

p.6

Requirement Due date

the measures of control, discipline and restraint which may be used in relation to children in the home.

p.6

Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

p.6

Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration; 22 September Inspection report for children’s home: SC486604 7 the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

p.6

Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (“the authorised person”)—

p.7

Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

p.7

Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (1)(a)(b) 3(a)(iv)(vii)(b)(ii)(c))

p.7

Requirement Due date

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

p.7

Requirement Due date

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

p.7

Requirement Due date

are kept up to date. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b))

p.7

Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the manager ensuring that the children’s looked after review documents, personal education meeting documents and looked after health assessment documents are obtained and kept up to date. 22 September

p.7

Requirement Due date

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

p.7

Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(e)) 22 September

p.7

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: SC486604 8

p.7

Children’s home details

Registered provider: Northumberland County Council

p.8

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: County Hall, Morpeth, Northumberland NE61 2EF

p.8

Inspector

Cherie Chen, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC486604 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.

p.8

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk. You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.9

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.9

Inspector

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.9