Children's home run by Keswick Care Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2594543 1 Registered provider: Keswick Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned and managed by a private company. It provides care for up to four children with social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager left in July 2022. Interim management arrangements were immediately put in place.

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Information about this children’s home

An interim manager has applied to register with Ofsted.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Date of last inspection: 19 January 2022

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2594543 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/01/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2594543 3

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outstanding

Children make exceptional progress because of the high-quality care they receive from competent and dedicated staff. The staff are enthusiastic, skilled and knowledgeable and children are treated with unconditional positive regard at all times. This helps children to feel loved and valued. The ethos of the home is to provide a warm, welcoming environment that supports and promotes positive outcomes for children. The inspector observed many examples of this during the visit.

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outstanding

The environment replicates one of a family home. Children are clearly settled and enjoy lots of fun times with each other and staff. One child told the inspector, ‘I know that I am wanted here. The staff treat me as they do their own children.’

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outstanding

Children have strong and trusting relationships with staff. This was evident throughout the inspection, with lots of warmth, fun and laughter observed. It is clear that the children benefit enormously from the excellent care and support they receive from staff. This creates an environment where children have the confidence to feel safe, secure and thrive.

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outstanding

The children are attending school full time and have made progress in a number of subjects including English and their reading ability. Children say that they enjoy their regular trips to the local library as well as reading an array of books at home. There is an established bedtime reading routine for all children. This has helped to form part of their settling to sleep routine.

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outstanding

Children’s health and well-being have greatly improved since their admission to the home. Staff work with the children to help them to understand how to improve their physical and mental health. In addition, there are good links with external professionals. This helps to promote children’s healthy development and well-being.

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outstanding

The quality of the care and the experiences provided by staff have enriched the children’s lives. Children speak with excitement about the activities, hobbies and trips that they routinely take part in. Examples include gymnastics, horse riding, going to a local Pride event and dog walking. These experiences have built the children’s confidence and social skills immensely.

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outstanding

Staff recognise the importance of childhood memories to children living away from their family. Each child is helped to collect memories of trips and activities that are collected in memory books. These books are filled to the brim with a collection of happy childhood memories.

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outstanding

Children are listened to, and staff act on their requests. There is a huge focus on involving the children in discussions about their care. Their views are captured in a Inspection report for children’s home: 2594543 4 number of ways, for example in the wealth of key-work sessions that take place, everyday chats and, more formally, within their care reviews. Children make decisions about the activities they want to do, the meals they eat and trips out. Other important matters have also been actioned, such as a child’s request for more flexible contact with parents.

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outstanding

Developing independence skills starts early, with children given tasks and responsibilities around the home that provide them with useful skills, such as keeping their bedrooms tidy, helping with shopping and developing skills in the kitchen. This improves their independence and gives them a sense of responsibility. As children progress, they take on more responsibility for managing themselves. This improves self-confidence and self-esteem as children move towards living a more independent lifestyle.

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outstanding

The house has a domestic and homely appearance with furniture and fittings being of a good standard. The children’s toys and books are evident in lounges and children’s bedrooms. However, the decoration in some rooms is marked in a number of places, showing signs of wear and tear. This detracts from what is otherwise a positive environment for children to grow up in.

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outstanding

Staff have a parent-like approach, act as good role models and provide the right examples to enable the children to learn new skills and become more socially aware. Children say that they are very well supported by staff who care for and understand them well. Children know that staff are there to help them and feel able to talk about any concerns they might have. Children are confident that they will be listened to and taken seriously.

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outstanding

Significant incidents are rare. However, when they do occur, immediate action is taken by the staff. The staff are proactive and put clear, protective measures in place to keep the children safe.

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outstanding

Staff implement the support required to minimise the risks to children. Risk assessments are thorough, insightful and highly individualised. They reflect the diverse needs and personalities of the children. Staff help children to understand risks associated with social media and exploitation through good-quality key-work sessions and daily discussions. This has helped to raise children’s awareness of risk and risky situations.

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outstanding

There have been no incidents of children going missing since the last inspection. The children have clear routines and boundaries. They know that staff, like any parent, want to know where they are, and who they are with, to ensure their safety. Children respond well to staff explaining the house rules and boundaries. They told the inspector that this helps them to understand potential dangers. Inspection report for children’s home: 2594543 5 Praising children is part of everyday life at the home, along with incentives focused on supporting further positive behaviour. The children respond well to the therapeutic approach staff use. As a result, the children feel valued, safer and secure.

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outstanding

The use of physical intervention is seen as a last resort. Distraction and de-escalation are used to support children. All physical intervention incidents are well recorded, and are promptly reviewed by the manager. The manager’s evaluation of physical intervention is excellent. She ensures that careful analysis and evaluation is undertaken. This has helped her to identify alternative strategies for children, which have minimised the need for further interventions.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is very well managed by an experienced and fully committed manager who leads by example. Her aspirations for children are high and her expectations for staff are the same, with high standards demanded. This has earned the full respect of the staff team and goes some way to explaining the overall good morale in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children benefit from a care approach and culture where everyone can express their opinion and views, and these are valued. This enables the children to have a real say and influence on how they are cared. In turn, this builds their confidence and helps them to feel safer, secure and respected.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is a feeling of enthusiasm and positivity in the home that disseminates from the manager to the staff and children. Children talk about how much they love living at the home and that they feel cared for. The staff state that this is the best team they have worked with, and that they want to provide excellent care to the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff benefit from regular and in-depth reflective supervision, where the children’s care, staff well-being, development and training are a focus. This makes sure that staff feel valued and well equipped to carry out their role and duties.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive an induction and mandatory training in the essential areas, to enable them to undertake their duties and meet the needs of the children. This includes safeguarding, first aid, behaviour management and physical intervention training. In addition, staff have undertaken more specialist training in foetal alcohol disorder syndrome, child sexual exploitation and child trauma and the impact of this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Safe recruitment practices are followed, including explanations of any gaps in employment history of staff. This means that as much as possible is done to ensure that the staff working with children are suitable and safe to do so.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

A lot of work has been undertaken to ensure that all records are written in a child- friendly language. This greatly helps children to be able to better understand the information recorded in their case files. Importance is given to collaborative and partnership working. Social workers state that there is frequent communication by email, telephone calls, weekly update Inspection report for children’s home: 2594543 6 reports and a monthly newsletter. Education staff report that the staff have daily communication and share strategies that best support the children. This greatly assists all professionals to work consistently in the best interest of the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Thorough internal and external monitoring systems support the improvement of the care delivered to the children. The manager meticulously reviews all records, providing feedback where required to make improvement and detect deficits. Inspection report for children’s home: 2594543 7

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Recommendations

 The registered persons should ensure that children’s homes are nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children. Homes will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. However, in doing so, homes should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression. In particular, the registered person should decorate all areas that have marked and damaged decoration. They should improve the garden area to encourage the children to use. They should also remove the moss from garden paths. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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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: 2594543 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Keswick Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 17 Cedars Business Centre, Barnsley Road, Hemsworth, Pontefract WF9 4PU

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Post vacant/interim manager in post

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Inspector

Debbie Foster, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2594543 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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