Children's Home, Residential special school run by Overley Hall Limited in Telford and Wrekin

Inspection report for children's home: SC020558 1 SC020558 Registered provider: Overley Hall Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned children’s home cares for up to 22 children with severe learning disabilities, sensory impairment, autism spectrum disorder and/or challenging behaviours. Young people may stay beyond the age of 18 to complete their education.

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Information about this children’s home

The children’s home is situated on the same site as a special school. A separate residential home for young adults, registered with the Care Quality Commission, also operates in the school grounds. The inspectors only inspected the social care provision at this school.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in January 2021 and holds the appropriate qualifications.

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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: inadequate

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

At the last full inspection, the home was judged inadequate. Two compliance notices were issued, under regulations 13 and 23. At this inspection, the inspectors found that the provider had taken sufficient action to meet the compliance notices. Inspection report for children's home: SC020558 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

24/08/2022 Full Inadequate 13/07/2021 Full Good 10/07/2019 Full Good 04/09/2018 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: SC020558 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Leaders and managers have taken seriously the concerns raised at the previous inspection. They have improved all aspects of care given. As a result, children are now receiving an improved quality of care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When children struggle to progress, managers are quick to respond and arrange meetings with all professionals involved in the child’s care. These meetings ensure that the team around the child considers strategies to support staff to help children develop. However, some plans are not actively progressed as well as others. This means that some children are not progressing as well as they could be.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff build trusting relationships with children. They help them to feel safe by enabling them to communicate their needs. This helps to stabilise children’s emotions and behaviours. Staff reassure children by using symbols and pictures. Children have opportunities to express their wishes and feelings about what they enjoy. As a result, children feel valued and respected.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live busy and healthy lifestyles. They are encouraged to eat healthily, take regular exercise and develop their self-care skills. They enjoy walking the footpaths around the extensive grounds and using the play equipment in the gardens. Staff help children to access a variety of activities in the community. Children are taken swimming, to the local parks, to shops and on holidays. Staff make sure children do not miss out on events and celebrations, most recently having a Halloween party where children and staff dressed up. The variety of activities improves children’s confidence, social skills and social inclusion.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s moves to the home are well planned. Managers make sure they have all the relevant information. They include children and families in the planning and go at the child’s pace. As a result, children settle quickly into the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There has been a big focus on improving and maintaining the home’s environment. Bedrooms are personalised to children’s tastes and bathrooms have window coverings and all the things children will need. Children have their own towels and toiletry boxes. As a result, the home feels homely.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children attend the on-site school. Care and education staff work together with parents to ensure that they deliver the child’s local authority education, health and care plan. The service provides good support and encourages learning through play. For children out of education, care staff support learning through day-to-day life skills while alternative education is sought. Inspection report for children's home: SC020558 4

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

Staff know the children and understand their needs and risk factors. They have a good understanding of the strategies they should use to care for the children and implement these well to keep children safe.

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

Leaders and managers have undertaken audits and reviewed arrangements for the safe administration of medication. These changes have meant there is greater management oversight of the administration of medication and of staff completing healthcare tasks. Staff are now following guidance consistently when supporting children who are gastrostomy fed and there have been no further medication errors. This has improved children’s safety.

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

Staff have reviewed the support for children’s behaviour. Staff’s knowledge means that they can pre-empt situations which may become challenging. Staff use their knowledge and skills well to defuse and distract so that there is a reduced likelihood that a child may struggle with their emotions. As a result, there has been a reduction in incidents which require staff to use physical intervention.

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

Managers have prioritised training for staff who may need to undertake physical intervention. When physical intervention has been used, records now show the detail needed. Debriefs with children and staff are now taking place. There is also greater management oversight and scrutiny of practice. As a result, physical intervention is only used when necessary by staff who are qualified to do so.

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

Managers have introduced a recording system where staff record consequences imposed on children. This is monitored by managers to ensure the consequence is appropriate and provides a learning opportunity for children.

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

Children do not go missing from the home. Children are cared for by the required number of staff needed to meet their needs and keep them safe when in the home and out in the community. If children were found to be missing, there are plans in place for staff to follow.

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

Managers have made sure that new staff are recruited following safer recruitment procedures. This means that all those who are recruited to work with children are safe to do so.

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good

Leaders and managers have shown great commitment and dedication to improving the quality of care children at the home receive, however these improvements are not yet fully embedded. For example, managers have completed impact assessments for new children, however, in one case had not included information about staffing levels needed, although this was in other documents. Audits had not picked up the need for greater detail in some risk assessments and that information from one risk document had not been recorded in another risk document for the Inspection report for children's home: SC020558 5 same child. Staff were able to clearly tell inspectors of the current plans and needs of children. However, the omissions could cause confusion and may result in staff not having all the information they need.

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good

Leaders and managers have developed a detailed service improvement plan which they regularly review and update. As a result, leaders and managers have been able to satisfactorily meet all the requirements and recommendations from the last inspection.

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good

The new responsible individual has increased their oversight of practice and the quality of care provided by managers and staff. She has addressed the immediate concerns identified at the previous inspection with the necessary rigour. She has a clear plan in place that considers the medium and long term to ensure that the improved practices in the home continue to be embedded and developed.

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good

Managers make sure that there are regular fire evacuation practices for staff and children. However, managers had not picked up through their audit that children and staff new to the home had not had instruction when they arrived.

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good

Training has been prioritised for staff. There is now a programme to develop staff skills and knowledge. Managers have a monitoring system to make sure staff have completed the necessary training in the required timescales. There is greater use of face-to-face training delivered by other professionals from inside and outside the organisation. Learning in supporting children with self-injurious behaviours is undertaken by staff as part of training on other subjects. However, staff do not have training dedicated to this area. It is not clear if staff have received enough training to fully understand how to support children who display self-injurious behaviours.

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good

Children are cared for by a consistent staff team who know them well. Improvements in staff rotas mean that they now show who is working with children and when. Staff say they are happy working at the home, feel well supported, receive regular supervision and that, since the last inspection, many things have improved. For example, there has been more training, improved planning for activities for children and improvements have been made to the home environment.

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good

Managers have challenged the quality of the independent visitor’s monthly visits. They have worked with them to identify the improvements needed so that going forward these visits support the development of the service.

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good

Parents and professionals spoke highly of the home. Despite the previous judgement, they were happy for children to remain living at the home. Professionals have undertaken frequent visits. They say staff are ‘fantastic’ and ‘child-focused’, that they are ‘impressed with the service’ and that the responsible individual is ‘a strong leader’. Inspection report for children's home: SC020558 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 quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered persons should ensure that staff actively progress all children’s targets so that they can reach their full potential. 30 December

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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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered persons should ensure that gaps in impact assessments are identified, such as staffing levels needed to care for all children and what additional staff and skills are needed, that new children and staff undertake fire evacuation practice when they first arrive, and that information about risks to children is the same across all documents and that information is comprehensive. 30 December Inspection report for children's home: SC020558 7

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Recommendation

 The registered person should support staff to be ambitious for every child in the home and to gain skills and experience that enable them to actively support each child to achieve their potential. Specifically, that staff have child-specific learning on self-injurious behaviours. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 52, paragraph 10.5)

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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: SC020558 8

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Children’s home details

Provision sub-type: Residential special school

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Overley Hall Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Overley Hall School, Overley, Telford, Shropshire TF6 5HE

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Inspectors

Debbie Bond, Social Care Inspector Dawn Bennett, Social Care Inspector Lisa O’Donovan, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: SC020558 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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