Children's home run by Hull City Council

Inspection report for children’s home: 2569527 1 Registered provider: Kingston upon Hull City Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

A local authority manages this children’s home. It provides care for one child who may have social and/or emotional health difficulties, and/or learning disabilities. Since the last inspection, two children have left the home and two have moved in. One child was present during the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in December 2019 and is dual-registered to two homes. The manager divides their time equally between the two homes.

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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: 2 November 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: 2569527 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/11/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2569527 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children who live in the home develop and make progress from the support offered to them. The staff provide children with a bespoke package of care, which helps prepare them for the future. The staff team’s focus is that of the needs of the child living in the home. This helps to build warm and trusting relationships between children who live at the home and the staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The nurturing and trauma informed staff team identify and assess individual children’s needs. The children benefit from therapeutic approaches, which the manager and staff provide. A multi-agency team provides additional support for the child and the staff. The multi-agency team review risks weekly and offer a reflective space for the manager and the staff. Incidents reduce in frequency, severity, and length of time. As children feel safe and trust those around them, they make progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff decorate the whole home before a new child arrives. This ensures the home is clean, fresh and welcoming for the child. Children choose themes for their room and personalise them with soft furnishings and personal photographs. The home is well maintained. The manager arranges repairs and replaces furnishings to maintain a comfortable and homely environment for the children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager is proactive if children are not in school. They work with the virtual school head to get children back to school. The manager provides structure for children to complete schoolwork at home, attend local leisure facilities and join clubs to meet other children. The manager escalates all concerns appropriately and keeps these under review at weekly risk meetings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to take positive risks and grow in confidence. If setbacks occur, the staff reflect with the children and help them to learn from them and move forward. The team’s therapeutic approach engages children. Professionals say it is effective and build’s children’s self-esteem.

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

Children who move into the home are often struggling. The manager and staff address risks quickly. Their first aim is to help children to feel safe. They assess and record the known risks which affect the child. Staff use this information to mitigate risks. Staff adapt the environment and their own approaches to support children to reduce risk.

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

Multi-agency weekly risk meetings are held. These include senior leaders in the local authority and children’s mental health services. Professionals review these risks together and adapt and review plans as required. The manager works to reduce any restrictions placed on children. Staff work with children and Inspection report for children’s home: 2569527 4 professionals openly. Children who leave the home have been able to move to new homes of their choice. This gives children more opportunities in life with less restrictions.

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

Children are encouraged to be independent and to take age-appropriate risks. This gives them boundaries, develops confidence and helps them to gain useful skills. This helps them to understand expectations and to feel safer. Staff practice is reflective, helping them learn from incidents. They then update approaches and strategies to help children to learn. Unwanted behaviours from children reduce as everyone involved reflect and learn from events.

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

Medication is safely stored and the stock is monitored. However, one item of medication was not clearly recorded on the medication administration record. Staff were unclear of the dose that children should have from the medication administration record. The manager should have clear direction from the prescriber on file and should monitor sheets to ensure that records are accurate.

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

Staff use physical intervention as a last resort. Instead, they reflect on incidents and their own practice. Staff learn from this and work directly with children to help them to recognise and manage their own emotions. This is a successful approach. Children grow to trust staff because of this and feel safer.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is child-focused and is inspirational to the staff. Staff respect the manager and feel well supported. External professionals speak highly of the manager’s care, skill and commitment. One professional described the manager as, ‘intuitive, nurturing and solution-focused’.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is building a bespoke skilled team to care for children. The staff are well trained and proactive in their approach to working with children. Some have moved to work here from other homes. The manager expects staff to fulfil their role and tackles those who do not.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager encourages resilience within the team. There have been new challenges when a new child comes in. The manager leads by example in creating a family environment. The manager listens to the children’s views and acts upon them. This keeps the children at the centre of the service.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There has been an impact from not having senior workers in place since the last inspection. This is evident through gaps in supervision. The quality of supervision records vary. Staff completing them have not all had training to do so. Staff shortages have impacted on the manager’s availability to keep supervisions up to date. Not all staff have had regular and reflective supervision since the last inspection. Inspection report for children’s home: 2569527 5 The regulation 45 report was not completed within timescales. The manager acknowledged that this was an oversight. Failure to provide this information in a timely way does not allow the regulator to monitor the home and assess the quality of care provided to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager uses safer recruitment for staff; this includes agency staff. The process is well managed. The team and manager work flexibly. They ensure that children have familiar faces working with them. There have been staffing challenges. Some of these are due to staff moving on. The manager has encouraged them to progress in their careers. This is positive for staff but is a loss for the children and staff team. Inspection report for children’s home: 2569527 6

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered persons 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 persons must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

medicine which is prescribed for a child is administered as prescribed to the child for whom it is prescribed and to no other child: and

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Requirement Due date

a record is kept of the administration of medicine to each child. (Regulation 23 (2)(b)(c)) 6 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.

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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)) 6 January 2023

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Recommendations

 The registered person should undertake a review that focuses on the quality of care provided by the home, the experiences of children living there, and the impact the care is having on outcome and improvements. The process that the registered person puts in place to enable such a review to take place, should allow for a report to be generated once every six months. The generated report should be sent to Ofsted and the placing local authority of all children in the home who are looked after children. (Guide to the Children’s Home Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 65 paragraph 15.3) Inspection report for children’s home: 2569527 7

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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: 2569527 8

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Children’s home details

Registered Provider: Kingston upon Hull City Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: The Guildhall, Alfred Gelder Street, Hull HU1 2AA

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Inspector

Carol Jagger, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2569527 9 inspects 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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