Children's Home run by Budwood Limited in Dorset

Inspection report children’s home: 2620261 1 Registered provider: Budwood 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 by a private organisation. It provides care for up to two children who may have needs associated with emotional and behavioural difficulties and in addition may have experienced loss, trauma and abuse.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in July 2022.

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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

Date of last inspection: 27 October 2021

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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: 2620261 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

27/10/2021 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 2620261 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff succeed in building trusting relationships with the children. These relationships create the basis from which the children are making progress. Children benefit from the nurturing and positive atmosphere in which they regularly receive hugs and praise. Children report that they feel loved. They develop a sense of permanence and belonging following their past experiences of multiple moves, disruption and trauma.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Outcomes for children are positive. A child who recently moved out of the home successfully moved to an independent living arrangement in accordance with their plan. They made significant progress at the home. One child recently moved to the home and is slowly beginning to settle and make some progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children report that they feel part of a family at the home. They learn to care and take responsibility for their small pets. The staff support the children to gain confidence and learn new skills. The children enjoy a varied range of activities that help them to build their confidence. Activities include visits to the cinema, planning a trip abroad and meeting their families and friends.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The health needs of the children are met. The staff promptly obtain the appropriate health services that the children need, including support so they can learn about the dangers of substance misuse and support with their emotional needs from the company psychologist.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff understand the importance of education and promote attendance at school and college. One child is attending college and is making progress. However, one child who recently moved to the home does not yet have an educational placement. The manager has obtained an education, health and care plan for the child, after 15 months of delays at the child’s previous home. The manager is actively chasing the current educational authority to offer the child an appropriate school place. Until this place is secured, the staff are offering the child alternative educational activities. In addition, a home tutor was found, but the child is currently refusing to engage in home schooling because they wish to attend a school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff promote healthy daily routines for the children. However, details of the daily routines are not always recorded comprehensively in the daily logs to enable managers and staff to identify any trends or patterns. For example, one child sometimes refuses to get up in the morning. This is not documented in detail to identify if there are any triggers for this behaviour. Strategies to encourage the child to get up are not documented in the child’s plan. Inspection report children’s home: 2620261 4

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

Children report that they feel safe living at the home and can name a member of staff who they could speak to if they feel upset or worried. The staff are vigilant, feel confident to use safeguarding procedures and demonstrate professional curiosity. For example, if a child goes missing from the home, the staff use a contextual safeguarding approach and obtain support from the police. They follow the child and ensure they return to the home and benefit from a return home interview.

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

Behaviour is well managed. The children are helped to learn from their mistakes due to consistent boundary setting that supports them to feel safe and secure, rather than through a punitive approach. The use of restraint is minimal and is only used to ensure the safety of a child or member of staff. The children agree individual incentives with the staff that encourage them to manage their own behaviour. For example, one child recently chose a visit to the hairdresser for achieving their incentive plan.

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

The staff understand that the children’s behaviour is often a reaction to their traumatic past. For example, one child is afraid of the dark and going to sleep, so staff sit with them until they go to sleep and have installed fairy lights in the child’s bedroom. When the child first arrived at the home, the staff erected a small tent in the child’s bedroom to help the child feel safe and secure until they felt safe and confident to sleep in their bed.

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

This is a home where the staff learn from incidents and improve their practice arising from this learning. For example, following one incident where the police were called when the staff were unable to manage a child’s behaviour safely, the incident was reviewed. A new policy has been written that gives the staff clear guidance that the police are not to be called in future incidents to manage the children’s behaviour.

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

Recruitment processes are comprehensive and thorough. This helps to ensure that only suitable people are employed at the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager provides strong leadership. He enables a supportive and approachable culture in the home. Staff report that through regular supervision sessions and reflective practice they continually develop their skills, gain confidence in their roles and are supported to provide good-quality care to the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers ensure that the staff receive regular training so that they can meet the identified needs of the children in their care. The manager ensures that the staff have the specialist knowledge they need to support the children effectively and to help them make good progress. Children are encouraged to become involved in the staff training, to share their personal experiences that help the staff fully understand their needs. Inspection report children’s home: 2620261 5 Leaders and managers are aware of any improvements required to strengthen practice in the home. Information about how these identified areas for improvement are to be addressed is contained in the home’s development plan. This includes plans to modernise practice so the staff are not using institutional language in records and that formal staff handovers are undertaken informally, rather than excluding the children from a room while they are taking place.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home provides the children with a comfortable and generally well maintained environment. Children can decorate their bedrooms to their taste, and photographs of the children and staff are displayed throughout the home. Some upstairs windows are fitted with window restrictors that have an institutional appearance, which detracts from the otherwise homely appearance of the house.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Feedback from the children, professionals and the staff is very positive. Children refer to staff as their ‘family’. Placing social workers are extremely positive about the progress their children are making. They value the home and praise the well-trained, child-centred staff team. Inspection report children’s home: 2620261 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 education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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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

help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment;

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Requirement Due date

Help a child who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non-attendance and to return to school as soon as possible. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(iv)(viii)) 15 December 2022

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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

This particularly refers to ensuring that the expectations and daily routines for a child are made clear to them, are recorded in daily logs and are documented in their care plans. 15 December 2022 Inspection report children’s home: 2620261 7

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Recommendation

 For children’s homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases be homely, domestic environments. Children’s homes must comply with relevant health and safety legislations (alarms, food hygiene etc.); however, in doing so, homes should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression. In particular, the registered manager should ensure that window restrictors are of a domestic appearance and only used if risk assessed as necessary to keep a child safe, that staff do not use institutional language in records, and that staff ‘handovers’ are undertaken informally and do not exclude children. (‘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 children’s home: 2620261 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 12 West Links, Tollgate, Southampton, Hampshire, SO53 3TG

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Inspectors

Tina Maddison, Social Care Inspector Gary Turney, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: 2620261 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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