Children's Home run by Gravitas Care Limited in Calderdale

Inspection report for children’s home: 1257706 1 Registered provider: Gravitas Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

A private organisation runs the home. The home provides care for up to two children who may require support to manage social and/or emotional difficulties. At the time of the inspection, two children were present at the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The home does not have a registered manager. However, there is an interim manager overseeing the daily functioning of the home.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 1257706 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/06/2021 Full Good 12/03/2020 Interim Sustained effectiveness 10/09/2019 Full Outstanding 03/10/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 1257706 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children at the home feel well cared for. This stems from a staff team of carers that are committed and focused on championing the children’s needs. Relationships between children and their carers have therefore flourished, which has enabled children to achieve a sense of stability.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home environment is pleasant and well furnished. There are various framed photos that capture special moments between children and their carers. There are plentiful resources in the home that enable children and their carers to have fun together. In essence, the home has a relaxed and calming influence on children, and it provides children with a sense of belonging.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Carers encourage children to take an active role in their local community. Children have responded by raising money for charity. In doing so, carers have created opportunities for children to empathise by broadening children’s awareness of other people’s circumstances.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The interim manager ensures that he maintains close links with the children’s respective educational settings. Carers take an interest in children’s progress at school and college. On the day of the inspection, carers accompanied one child to collect their GCSE results and celebrated their success. This instils a sense of pride and achievement.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Carers produce written records of significant discussions that they hold with children. Recorded discussions cover a host of topics, ranging from sensitive issues concerning the child, to general current events. The interim manager expects that all carers read these recordings. In doing so, this has created a thread of consistency for the children as carers remain attuned to the child’s world. From reading the recorded discussions, the inspector saw examples of good role modelling and parenting.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The health and emotional well-being of children is a priority in the home. Carers take children’s diagnoses and general well-being seriously. The children’s health plans that carers have devised clearly evidence this. Carers support children to attend all health-related appointments. This approach to care has provided children with a sense of worth and value.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Carers talk with children about the children’s care planning. However, there is no endeavour from carers to encourage children to read their plans. Carers also use professional language within the plans, which children would struggle to understand. Additionally, the home’s placement plans do not complement the child’s statutory care plan. These factors combined increase the risk of children struggling to understand their care planning, which could lead to uncertainty and frustration. Inspection report for children’s home: 1257706 4

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

Children’s risk assessments are clear, succinct and instil confidence in carers. The interim manager frequently reviews risk assessments to ensure that they remain current. However, the interim manager endorsed a specific strategy that failed to keep a child safer. There was the expectation that the child acquired receipts for all purchases made when out in the community. This approach to risk management only serves to marginalise children from their friends.

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

Carers’ recording of incidents involving children provide transparency around care practices. This has enabled the interim manager to evaluate how carers support children in crisis and apply clear management oversight. However, management has not consistently applied this practice. Therefore, management has overlooked various learning opportunities for carers to develop their skills and intuition.

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

The interim manager has established a good working knowledge of the local area, which they have captured in the home’s location risk assessment. In addition to this, the interim manager has established strong working ties with a host of safeguarding professionals who are familiar with the home and the children who live there. This has broadened the support to children and, in doing so, keeps children safer.

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

The organisation’s recruitment processes are effective. Although there have been several changes of carers, which the children have understandably raised as an issue, the agency has successfully recruited dedicated and committed carers in a timely manner. This has reduced the potential disruption to children’s care, whilst upholding the safer recruitment process.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The interim manager leads a team of committed and dedicated carers. Carers volunteer to cover gaps in the rota to maintain consistency for the children. However, some of the carers’ work patterns were excessive. Consequently, the interim manager is increasing the risk of fatigue. This has the potential to impair carers’ decision-making.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The interim manager values the independent visitor’s input. However, the independent visitor’s analysis is ambiguous in key parts of the report. Methods such as scaling do not provide clear evaluation around safeguarding or the well-being of children. These issues dilute the transparency of the home, in addition to clouding the reader’s ability to accurately interpret the intended message.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Carers have access to an array of online training. The agency also provides access to face-to-face training for courses such as restraint. Although carers value the training on offer, some staff complete up to 11 online training courses in one day. This volume of training will reduce staff capacity to retain and apply new knowledge.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is good collaboration between the interim manager and the children’s respective local authorities. However, the interim manager has not done enough to Inspection report for children’s home: 1257706 5 ensure that the children’s statutory documentation is held on file. The absence of statutory documentation has the potential to undermine the care planning process.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The interim manager has made good efforts to instil a togetherness in the team. The interim manager is enthusiastic and committed to their role and leads by example. This has created a vibrant and child-orientated environment. Inspection report for children’s home: 1257706 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

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;

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (2)(d)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, to ensure that staff do not work excessive work patterns that are likely to hinder their capacity to provide the necessary support to the child.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, to ensure that there is consistent management oversight of all incidents involving children. 15 September

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ‘seek to involve’ the placing authority that places a looked-after child in the home, which in practice means working primarily with the child’s statutory social worker by acquiring statutory paperwork that will inform and underpin the home’s care planning for the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 11, paragraph 2.5)  The registered person should take reasonable precautions and make informed professional judgements based on the individual child’s needs and developmental stage about when to allow a child to take a particular risk or follow a particular course of action. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.7)  The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs, and should understand the key role

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Recommendations

they play in the training and development of staff in the home. The manager should ensure that staff complete any training at a frequency that will promote Inspection report for children’s home: 1257706 7 staff to retain and effectively apply their learning. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)  The registered person should ensure that a child’s plan forms the basis of their care, and providers should use their judgement as to what is relevant in each case, taking the plans listed in the definition in the Regulations as a starting point rather than a complete list or a tick-box exercise. Essentially, the home’s care plans need to reflect the local authority’s care plans. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 11.1)  The registered person should ensure that children are encouraged by staff to see

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Recommendations

the home’s records as ‘living documents’, supporting them to view and contribute to the record in a way that reflects their voice on a regular basis. The language within the records also needs to be relatable to the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 58, paragraph 11.19)  The registered person should ensure that any individual appointed to carry out visits to the home as an independent person must make a rigorous and impartial assessment of the home’s arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children in the home’s care. Readers of the report should be able to understand the points raised in the body of the report. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.5)

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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: 1257706 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 1-3, Annes Place, Pellon Lane, Halifax HX1 5RB

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Inspector

Steve Guirey, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 1257706 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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