Children's home run by Homes2Inspire Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 1255747 1 Registered provider: HOMES 2 INSPIRE LIMITED Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is operated by a private company that is owned and operated by a national charity. The home is registered to provide care for up to five children with emotional and social difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is led by a registered manager.

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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: 1255747 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/06/2021 Full Good 16/10/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good 13/03/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 09/04/2018 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 1255747 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy living at this home. Staff and children have positive relationships. Children say that they like the staff. In addition, staff speak highly of the children and are proud of their achievements. As a result, children are settled and happy.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The house is well maintained. Children’s bedrooms are large and the children can decide how to decorate them and make the rooms theirs. Communal areas are comfortable. This creates a homely environment that children can enjoy living in. However, children commented that they need more storage space for clothing and belongings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s individual care plans are detailed. They focus on the child’s individual needs, wishes and feelings. They are reviewed and updated regularly to reflect any changes in the child’s life. This provides staff with guidance on how children should be supported to achieve their goals.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are involved in a variety of activities to support their interests. They enjoy playing board games together and have a separate games and music room. Staff ensure that children have trips to parks, gyms and sports clubs. This provides activities involving exercise. Therefore, children are helped to remain healthy as well as having fun.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff involve children in group and individual sessions on a range of topics and interests. This has included baking for special occasions, trying food from different countries, Pride Month and mental health awareness. It also includes learning about current events in this country and worldwide. This helps children to understand and celebrate equality and diversity and understand the world they live in.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to spend time with family members. This has included ensuring a child can attend his place of worship with his family each week. Staff take children to their family time and supervise this in homes or in the community when required. This helps to children to maintain their relationships with their families.

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

Children’s behaviour and risk management plans cover areas specific to each child. They are written in a child-friendly manner. They explain what risks the child has been, or may be, exposed to and the current level of risk. The ways that children may behave or react to situations have been identified. Therefore, staff can recognise triggers and know the best way to help and support children.

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

Staff and managers have developed a good working relationship with a psychiatrist from the child and adolescent mental health team. He has worked directly with Inspection report for children’s home: 1255747 4 children. He praised the work of the home with a child who had presented very difficult behaviour. He said: ‘They did an extremely good job at supporting him.’

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

Children’s behaviour is well managed. Staff are trained in the provider’s preferred method of behaviour management. Situations are de-escalated and therefore physical intervention is rare. Most incidents are recorded well. Following an incident, further work has taken place, including debriefs with staff and children. The involvement of other professionals is included, if required. This helps staff to learn from incidents and identify best ways to work with each child.

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

Children rarely go missing from care. Children have individualised risk assessments in relation to going missing. An agreement has been made with a social worker regarding how one child’s absence from the home is recorded. Staff are aware of the procedures should a child go missing. This ensures that children are safeguarded if they go missing from care.

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

Some children have been involved in incidents of risky or inappropriate use of the internet. A multi-agency approach was planned for one child who was exposed to high-risk online radicalisation. A decision was made, following a court order, for the child to live in a home with less children. Group and individual sessions have taken place between staff and children regarding online risks. Agreements are in place with children when it is in their best interest to limit or remove access to the internet. This helps staff to keep children safe online.

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good

There have been many changes to the staff team. New staff have been recruited. However, managers have had to work on some shifts to maintain adequate staffing levels. Agency staff are also used to ensure adequate levels of staffing to care for the children. Some inexperienced staff have worked long hours. On occasion, this has been alongside an agency member of staff.

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good

Staff have not received regular supervision in line with the home’s policy. The manager acknowledged that staff supervision sessions are not taking place frequently enough. This is particularly the case for staff during their induction. Also, those identified by management as needing more support are not supervised regularly. The manager does have regular care practice discussions with staff however, these are not always recorded as formal supervision sessions.

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good

The decision-making regarding the admission of one new child could have been better. The registered manager did not fully ensure that risks to the child were fully assessed, considering the needs of the existing children. However, the manager has recognised this developmental need. New processes will be used for the next referral. This will improve the matching process for admissions to the home. Inspection report for children’s home: 1255747 5 Team meetings have not taken place regularly. The manager recognises that this is a key area requiring improvement. As a result, this predominately new staff team has not had time to develop teamworking.

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good

Staff have received training on working with children with autistic spectrum disorder. This has met a recommendation from the previous inspection. This improves staff confidence working with the children and supporting children with these specific needs.

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good

The manager feels supported by an experienced responsible individual. The responsible individual visits the home often and knows the children and staff well. The manager states that she has received regular supervision from senior managers. Inspection report for children’s home: 1255747 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 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 the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(d))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically refers to the manager and leaders ensuring that there are sufficiently experienced staff on duty. 21 October 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development;

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

This particularly refers to supervision of staff taking place regularly and more often during staff induction period. 21 October 2022

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children should be provided with appropriate furniture, such as wardrobe or draw space to securely store personal Inspection report for children’s home: 1255747 7 items. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 16, paragraph 3.19)

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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: 1255747 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: HOMES 2 INSPIRE LIMITED

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Lumonics House, Valiant Office Suites, Valley Drive, Swift Valley Industrial Estate, Rugby CV21 1TQ

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Inspectors

Shaun Caplis, Social Care Inspector Corline Parker, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 1255747 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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