Children's home run by Back on Track Children’s Services SE LTD in Dover

Inspection report for children's home: SC473404 1 SC473404 Registered provider: Back On Track Children’s Services SE Ltd 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 provides care for up to five children with learning disabilities. There are currently two children living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered since 17 March 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: 30 October 2019

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

On 7 December 2020, the provider was issued with a condition to give Ofsted three months’ notice of its intention to operate the home and admit children. On 25 January 2022, a monitoring visit took place as the provider had given Ofsted notice that they wanted to reopen.

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

On 16 February 2022, a further monitoring visit took place. Shortfalls were found in recruitment practice and a requirement was raised.

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

The provider then submitted a variation request to change the conditions of registration from caring for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties to caring for those with learning disabilities, which was agreed. Inspection report for children's home: SC473404 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/10/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good 06/11/2018 Full Good 13/12/2017 Full Good 23/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report for children's home: SC473404 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive individualised care from a knowledgeable and loving staff team. Individual behaviours and challenges are known and understood, and staff respond to these well.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to maintain good relationships with their families. This includes staff having regular communication with parents, setting up and supporting contact visits and being proactive when children are clearly upset or anxious as a result of contact. Detailed contact reports illustrate the level of care from staff and their ability to pick up on nuances in contact. One example of this is when a child’s body language changed when he talked about loving his mum, whom he had not seen for some time. One parent commented that she was happy with the care provided and said, ‘I could not ask for them to do any more, and anytime I ask for anything I know that it is done.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have been supported to maintain their existing school placements and, as a result, they have continued to make educational progress. When there are concerns about children’s behaviour in school, staff work with other professionals to be part of a team around the child. This helps to maintain consistency between school and home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s emotional needs are well met. Actions are taken quickly to maintain or restore emotional support if therapeutic relationships are not working effectively.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children share their views through regular one-to-one sessions and children’s meetings. Staff always speak to children following any incidents, so that children have time to reflect on what happened. There is also structured one-to-one work so that children can continue to receive education on a variety of subjects such as online safety.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Admissions to the home are carefully planned. Robust impact assessments are completed which fully explore known behaviours and provide assurance to staff that they are able to meet the child’s needs. Assessments include good consideration of the other children in the home and how any admission will impact on them. Transitions are carefully managed, with good opportunities for visits and the sharing of information, such as children’s guides. This supports children to have a good understanding of what to expect at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Care planning is mostly positive and detailed, although up-to-date signed consent forms were missing for one child. Inspection report for children's home: SC473404 4

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

Children are kept safe and staff demonstrate a good knowledge of safeguarding risks. Detailed risk assessments provide guidance to staff about risks that are historically known, as well as risks that emerge as children grow. Leaders regularly review the risk assessments to ensure that they remain relevant.

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

However, when there is a risk of self-harming behaviour, assessments do not clearly indicate all strategies that staff use, for example, where staff would find ligature cutters in an emergency. Staff working in the home were confident about where to find ligature cutters, but staff coming to work from the other home in the organisation would not know this vital information.

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

Incidents are well managed and the consistent approach from staff has resulted in a reduction in the frequency of restraint for children. Clear and detailed reports show actions that staff have taken to keep incidents to a minimum, and staff always ensure that there is good follow-up work to help children to understand why the incident occurred.

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

One incident report has been written in a way that suggests a child was told that moving to the home was their ‘last chance’. This is disproportionate for a child’s first incident and could ultimately impact on the child’s view of restraint and their relationships with staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have high aspirations for the children and what staff can achieve with them. Before the home reopened, leaders were clear about their learning from previous experiences, for example, ensuring sufficient staffing capacity to look after the children, and this is demonstrated in current practice. Leaders have made careful and considered plans regarding transitions into the home, ensuring that staff sufficiency and skill are never compromised. This level of trust has cascaded down. Staff talk confidently about the entire leadership team being friendly, approachable and available.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive effective and regular supervision. Detailed records show that staff have the opportunity to reflect on the challenges of the work and how these impact on them, while also being held to account for the work that they need to complete. Staff are also able to ask for extra supervision should they need additional advice or guidance; this enables them to feel supported in their work.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has developed his practice over recent months. For example, he has focused on how he responds to incidents, records his discussions with staff and evaluates the work that is happening in the home. This is enabling him to have a stronger oversight of practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has a good understanding of the home’s strengths and weaknesses. There is a positive response to the feedback from the regulation 44 Inspection report for children's home: SC473404 5 visits and this has helped in the development of the strategies that staff and leaders use. There has been one completed regulation 45 report reviewing the quality of care, although the reflection and learning on the part of the registered manager are not clear.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders challenge appropriately when they are not satisfied with responses from professionals. Challenges are always based on the child’s best interests. Social workers are positive about the impact that staff have on children living in the home. They are clear about how well leaders keep them updated. In their view, their children are thriving. Inspection report for children's home: SC473404 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 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 that staff—

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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)) 31 December

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children ("a quality of care review") at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children;

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review ("the quality of care review report"). (Regulation 45 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c) (3)) 31 December Inspection report for children's home: SC473404 7

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Recommendation

 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. (‘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 for children's home: SC473404 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Back On Track Children’s Services SE Ltd

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Christopher Campbell

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Inspector

Mark Newington, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: SC473404 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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