Children's home run by Cynhenid Care Ltd

Inspection report for children's home: 2667401 1 Registered provider: Cynhenid Care Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides residential care for up to for children with social and/or emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has a registered manager who is suitably qualified and experienced.

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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: Not previously inspected

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: Not applicable Inspection report for children's home: 2667401 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

Not previously inspected Inspection report for children's home: 2667401 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have excellent relationships with staff. Staff’s approach to care is consistent and nurturing. The house is welcoming, comfortable and maintained to a high standard.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children attend education and are making good progress. Furthermore, staff encourage children to access an online learning platform to develop knowledge further. The children have completed training courses on internet safety and health and nutrition. As a result, barriers to learning are reduced.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff are passionate about seeing children make happy memories. Staff support children to take part in a variety of activities including water sports, visiting the local gym and going on long walks. In addition, children are active members of clubs such as football groups. Activities encourage children to have fun and build relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to see family members. Staff facilitate arrangements flexibly and provide transport and activities. Staff also enable and empower children to make decisions about these arrangements. For example, one child has recently chosen to write letters to a family member. This ensures that children feel fully involved in their care planning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are registered with local health services and attend routine appointments. Furthermore, a qualified therapist works with the children on a weekly basis to provide additional emotional support. This practice ensures that children are in good health and that their well-being improves.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s moves into the home are well considered and individualised. Staff have created detailed transition plans and work well with previous carers. Children and family members are provided with the opportunity to visit the home and staff send welcome guides to children before their arrival. This helps to reduce any anxieties and promotes new relationships.

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

Staff understand the children’s known risks and what actions they are expected to take to keep children safe. Children’s individual risk assessments are clear and provide strategies to support staff when responding and preventing risk. However, the home’s activity risk assessments fail to fully mitigate risk. For example, the risk assessment for children paddleboarding fails to consider the training staff require to facilitate this activity. Furthermore, there are times where children have not been supported by the correct staffing levels as specified in the risk assessment. Although this has had no impact to date, this places children at unnecessary risk. Inspection report for children's home: 2667401 4 Staff physically intervene when necessary to keep everyone safe. Staff ensure that children are supported by a debrief session following an incident and that appropriate professionals are informed. More recently, the manager has ensured

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

that the home’s lead clinician reviews incidents, which helps to inform staff practice. For example, advice has been provided to the staff that they should review activity plans with a child prior to activities to help reduce his anxieties. This practice has improved the quality of care received by children.

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

Children have not had any missing-from-home incidents. However, missing protocols are up to date and shared appropriately with relevant professionals. This helps to ensure that staff know what to do in the event of children going missing from the home and, as a result, children are better protected from harm.

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

Staff recognise children’s achievements and rarely use consequences. Staff implement incentives which promote opportunities for children to receive additional pocket money and develop their skills. For example, one child recently helped paint the garden fence and, in recognition of this, he received a new watch. This ensures that positive behaviour is encouraged.

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

CCTV is used in the external areas and children’s bedroom doors are alarmed at night. There is no assessment of children’s individual needs to support the requirement of these measures. Furthermore, the home’s statement of purpose is unclear about the rationale for CCTV. As a result, there is the possibility that surveillance is being used unnecessarily. During inspection, the manager said she would review documentation to ensure that policy and practice are clear.

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

Staff carry out regular health and safety checks to ensure that the home is physically safe. The home has a location risk assessment, which considers data about criminal activity in the local area and the views of local police officers. This ensures that risks are reduced and improves oversight of the local area.

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

The registered manager ensures that staff who are recruited to work in the home are subject to all the necessary checks. This helps to ensure that staff who work at the home are safe to do so.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is a suitably qualified manager in post. The manager understands children’s needs exceptionally well and drives for positive outcomes for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff group in the home is stable, which means that the children benefit from consistency. Managers provided examples of staff being flexible with their working patterns to meet the children’s needs. This means children have the opportunity to form meaningful relationships.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

All staff have completed mandatory training. However, the manager has not ensured that staff have completed all the training as identified in the home’s workforce development plan such as county lines training. Furthermore, staff have not Inspection report for children's home: 2667401 5 received water safety training, despite water sports being the children’s regular activity of choice. This may have an impact on the quality of care children receive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular supervision, which considers how staff are working with the children and any improvements that can be made. Regular team meetings take place to enable staff to reflect on their practice and share ideas. This has helped to create good staff morale and ensures that staff feel supported.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has a workforce development plan. The plan fails to provide clear information about how staff are supported when they are subject to a period of probation. Consequently, expectations for new staff are not clear.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Feedback from external professionals is positive. They spoke of good working relationships and said that the manager has a good understanding of the needs and experiences of the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has not ensured that the children’s guide helps children to understand the home’s complaints procedure and what action would be taken to respond to a complaint. This is a missed opportunity to ensure that policies are clear for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children’s case files do not contain all the required information. There is evidence of the manager escalating concerns to the local authority. However, requested information is still not available. As a result, staff do not always have all the information they need to provide coordinated care. Inspection report for children's home: 2667401 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 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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered manager ensuring that all risk assessments set out clear guidance for staff about how to manage and reduce risks. 27 September

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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

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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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that staff have received training specific to children’s needs. 27 September

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may only use devices for the monitoring or surveillance of children if— 27 September Inspection report for children's home: 2667401 7 the monitoring or surveillance is for the purpose of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child concerned, or other children. (Regulation 24 (1)(a))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that door alarms and CCTV are only used as set out in a child’s agreed risk assessment.

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

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the need for a child’s up-to-date education plan to be in place. 27 September

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the children’s guide helps children to understand how to make a complaint in line with the home’s complaints procedure. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 4.22)  The registered person should have a workforce plan which can fulfil the workforce-related requirements of regulation 16, schedule 1 (paragraphs 19 and 20). The plan should detail the processes and agreed timescales for staff to achieve induction and detail the process and timescales for supervision of practice. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)

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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: 2667401 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Swift Accountants 1b Chowley Court, Chowley Oak Business Park, Bolesworth Estates, Chester CH3 9GA

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Inspectors

Sophie Hills, Social Care Inspector Alison Snell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2667401 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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