Children's home run by N H Care Limited in Birmingham

Inspection report for children’s home: SC446152 1 SC446152 Registered provider: N H Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is privately owned and is registered to provide care for up to three children with learning disabilities and/or emotional and social difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered on 23 April 2021.

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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: 1 September 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 for children’s home: SC446152 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

01/09/2021 Full Good 12/05/2021 Full Inadequate 24/09/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good 05/06/2019 Full Inadequate Inspection report for children’s home: SC446152 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Three children are currently living at the home. Staff and the manager provide the children with care that is nurturing and supportive. All three children have made significant progress since moving into the home. For example, they are all attending school and their education plans state that they are engaging well with their learning and meeting their individual targets.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff and the managers work well with teachers and other professionals when children disengage with their learning. They are proactive in putting effective support plans in place. For example, when a child was excluded from school, they reintegrated into another mainstream school within a short length of time due to excellent partnership working. This prompt and effective action reduced any gaps in the child’s learning and the child quickly settled in their new school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children access exciting new activities, such as going on holiday, visits to the zoo and enjoying birthday parties with their school friends. The children are making memories while socialising with peers, forming friendships and building their confidence and self-esteem.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children are supported to live healthy lifestyles. Staff also ensure that children attend all their health appointments.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Home-cooked meals include foods from different corners of the world, which the children enjoy. Mealtimes are treasured by staff and the children as they are used for socialising and bonding. They all discuss how their day has gone and check on each other to promote well-being and positive relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff value children’s wishes and feelings and ensure that they are given opportunities to express these in children’s meetings and by attending their care planning review meetings. Children are involved in making decisions about their care, which helps them to then invest in the support provided. However, on one occasion, staff and the manager were not proactive in supporting a child to access his chosen place of worship to meet his religious needs. This left the child feeling sad and not listened to. During the inspection, the manager put in place an action plan to make sure that this was addressed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children told the inspector how they appreciate that staff make arrangements for them to spend quality time with their family and friends. The children are building and maintaining their external support networks, which prevents social exclusion when they transition from the home and on to independence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One child has moved from the home since the last inspection and two children have moved into the home. All children experienced planned and positive moves into and on from the home. Inspection report for children’s home: SC446152 4 The home is warm and welcoming and has ample space for children to relax and enjoy themselves. Children have also been given opportunities to personalise their bedrooms, which they are all proud of.

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

All the children told the inspector that they feel safe living at the home.

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

Staff and the manager have built positive relationships with the children. As a result, they can de-escalate situations quickly. On the few occasions that physical intervention has been required to keep children safe, it has been used as a last resort and proportionately.

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

Staff carry out educational work with children about risks relating to going missing from home, internet use, including social media, appropriate relationships, knife crime and criminal exploitation. This good work has helped children to understand the potential risks they could face and how they can keep safe. For one child who does go missing, incidents are reducing.

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

Staff are proactive when children go missing from home. They search for them and contact their friends and family members as well as relevant agencies to try to find them and return them safely to the home. When children return home, staff exercise professional curiosity as they ask the children what has happened and where they were while they were missing. Children also have independent return home interviews and staff use information from these to update the children’s risk assessments.

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

The manager’s safer recruitment processes are mostly compliant with regulation. However, there have been occasions when it is not clear that appropriate references have been sourced. This does not ensure that children are only cared for by safe adults.

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

The manager has recently reviewed the home’s location risk assessment but has not consulted partner agencies to ensure that the information contained in it is up to date and still relevant. This has not had a detrimental impact on the children’s safety to date.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is child focused and has the children’s best interests at heart. She models positive parenting to staff, which ensures that the children receive the best quality care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Partner agencies speak highly of the manager and staff as they update them on the children’s care and progress. Staff attend all the children’s care planning meetings and put in place any support that is recommended promptly. Inspection report for children’s home: SC446152 5 Since the last inspection, there has been a high turnover of staff. The manager has ensured that the children continued to receive continuity of care by either covering the shifts herself or using the same agency workers. She has now recruited more staff and does not have any vacant posts.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Some aspects of the manager’s monitoring of the service have been negatively impacted on by the high staff turnover. For example, staff need to refresh some mandatory training, and two members of staff have not completed their level 3 qualifications within the recommended time frame.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff report that they feel supported by the manager. However, some staff’s supervision sessions and yearly appraisals are not up to date. This is a missed opportunity to discuss staff’s performance and continuous development opportunities.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager promptly submits her quality of care review reports to the regulator. However, the quality of these reports needs to be improved as they do not fully evaluate the impact the level of care has on children’s experiences, progress and outcomes. Inspection report for children’s home: SC446152 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

employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or

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Requirement Due date

if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home,

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Requirement Due date

if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

the individual has the appropriate experience, qualifications and skills for the work that the individual is to perform;

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2.

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Requirement Due date

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained—

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Requirement Due date

the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) (“the Level 3 Diploma”); or

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Requirement Due date

a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma. (Regulation 32 (2)(a)(b) (3)(b)(d) (4)(a)(b)) 31 March 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; and

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)(c)) 31 January 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: SC446152 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the quality of care review focuses on the quality of the care provided by the home, the experiences of children living there and the impact the care is having on outcomes and improvements for the children. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.2)  The registered person should enable children to maintain and develop their cultural or religious beliefs as far as practicable, and, where appropriate, through participation and instruction and by observing religious requirements, including dress and diet. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 17, paragraph 3.22)  The registered person should consult with relevant partners when undertaking a review of the appropriateness and suitability of the location and premises of the home at least once a year. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including

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Recommendations

the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.1)

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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: SC446152 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Steward Street Business Lofts, 69 Steward Street, Birmingham B18 7AF

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Inspector

Rumbi Mangoma, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC446152 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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