Children's home run by Keys Education Ltd

Inspection report children’s home: SC488439 1 SC488439 Registered provider: Keys Education 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. It is registered to provide care for up to three children who may have experienced childhood trauma that has led to unmet emotional needs which require specialist care and support.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been in post since 2019 and is experienced and suitably qualified.

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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 children’s home: SC488439 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

12/08/2021 Full Good 21/01/2020 Full Good 12/03/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 24/09/2018 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC488439 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Three children live in the home. One child has moved on from the home since the last inspection, and two new children have arrived to live here.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Leaders carefully consider if they can meet the needs of children before they move in. Staff implemented the plans well for the child who left the home to ensure that they were prepared to live on their own.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home has been redecorated since the last inspection. Children’s bedrooms are well personalised. One child said how they ‘loved’ that they were allowed to design everything in their room, including the lighting, creating an up-lit trophy display to show all their achievements.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from positive relationships with staff. Staff are invested in children, their emotional well-being and the things they enjoy. One child is part of three different football teams and attended a week-long football camp recently at a premier league club. Staff regularly go walking with children in the local countryside, take children to the cinema, on holidays, and do creative activities. This is enriching children’s lives and building their self-esteem.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children are now in education full time. Education professionals speak positively about the communication staff have with them and about how the staff have a good insight into children’s educational needs. This has helped to inform and plan children’s care when they start new schools. However, when there have been shortfalls in the roles of other agencies regarding children’s education, the manager has not raised these with other professionals.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have all had appointments with an optician, dentist and doctor when needed. Staff support children to understand important health matters. However, one child has experienced significant delay in getting specialist therapeutic support and assessment, but the manager has not escalated or challenged this to reduce delays. Staff ensure that they support the child’s emotional well-being as much as possible in the absence of this specialist support.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from positive praise and encouragement. One child said that staff’s encouragement of them has helped them to feel more in control of their emotions. However, some consequences given to children are not restorative. This hinders the otherwise nurturing responses that children receive from staff.

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

Staff develop strong relationships with children. Children say that they feel settled and like they can trust the adults around them. Inspection report children’s home: SC488439 4 Staff have used restraint on one occasion since the previous inspection. This was proportionate to the potential risk. The restraint was clearly recorded, and the child and staff were offered debriefs in a timely way afterwards. The requirement from the previous inspection is met.

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

Staff and the manager listened to a child when an allegation was made. The manager acted in line with safeguarding procedures to ensure that it was fully investigated. This ensures that children are cared for by those who are safe to do so.

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

When children have disagreements or struggle to live with one another, staff are sensitive to this and support children to overcome any issues. Children say that they have better relationships with other children than they did previously because they feel that staff listen to them.

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

The team reassures children effectively when they become emotionally distressed. Items which might pose a risk of harm are removed by staff. There are strategies in place which are used to support children in understanding their own emotions. After one incident, there was a delay in the manager increasing the supervision of a child. The manager resolved this issue quickly.

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

Staff offer children good advice and guidance to reduce the risks of exploitation. However, for one child, the manager’s guidance for staff on how to supervise the child safely and the recording of the support that was given to the child were poor. When this was identified during the inspection, managers took action to improve plans.

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good

The registered manager is experienced, appropriately qualified and knows the children well.

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good

Staff find the manager to be approachable and supportive. Many of the staff are well established and have worked in the home for some time. This helps to create a consistent and predictable atmosphere for children.

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good

Staff receive regular supervision. However, they do not recognise supervision as a tool to help them to reflect on children’s care. Records show that supervision sessions are not practice related. This is a missed opportunity to help staff to reflect on the children’s care and develop their skills and knowledge.

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good

The manager reviews incidents and daily records in the home, and then uses team meetings to help guide staff to ensure that they use a consistent approach with children. However, the manager’s wider reviewing and monitoring systems are poorly recorded. The manager did not identify some shortfalls identified in this inspection, such as where staff recording and their own risk management planning have been poor. Inspection report children’s home: SC488439 5 Staff have had most of the training they need to meet children’s needs. However, one staff member’s safeguarding training is out of timescales and some staff have not had training in missing from care or online safety. These are skills relevant to the children living in the home.

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good

Professionals say that the manager and staff are knowledgeable about the children, which helps to coordinate their care. However, the manager has not always escalated shortfalls with other agencies. For example, the manager has not had paperwork from a child’s statutory medical review which took place over one year ago. This was a requirement at the previous inspection and is not met.

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good

There has been one complaint recently from an external person. The manager has not responded to this to act to resolve the issues. The manager acknowledges that this complaint has been challenging and intends to rectify this to improve relationships with others. Inspection report children’s home: SC488439 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 meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (a)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to escalating concerns with the placing authority of children when there is delay.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was raised at the previous inspection and is restated. 22 December

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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 person ensuring that there are plans in place to keep children safe from known risks and that these are followed to reduce the risk of harm. 22 December Inspection report children’s home: SC488439 7 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; and

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c)(f))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that staff have the skills needed to meet the needs of children, and that the registered person has a monitoring and reviewing system which helps them understand and develop the quality of care. 5 January 2023

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)) 5 January 2023

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that a record is made of any complaint, the action taken in response, and the outcome of any investigation. (Regulation 39 (3))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that they respond to complaints and take action, where necessary, in line with the home’s policies and procedures. 5 January 2023

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that any consequences used to address poor behaviour are restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38) Inspection report children’s home: SC488439 8  The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Staff should record information about individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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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 children’s home: SC488439 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Keys Education Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Maybrook House, Second Floor, Queensway, Halesowen, Worcestershire B63 4AH

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Inspector

Fiona Roche, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC488439 10 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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