Children's Home run by My Choice Children’s Homes Limited in West Sussex

Inspection report fochildren’ s home: SC364812 1 SC364812 Registered provider: My Choice Children’s Homes Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned and run by a private organisation. It is registered to provide care for up to four children. There were two children living at the home at the time of the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager of the home was registered with Ofsted in August 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: 2 February 2022

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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: SC364812 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/02/2022 Full Good 10/07/2019 Full Good 19/11/2018 Full Good 18/10/2017 Full Good Inspection report children’ s home: SC364812 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are looked after by staff who are committed to teaching them how to build and maintain positive relationships. This makes children feel safe and secure, which enables them to make good progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The environment is homely. Children’s bedrooms have personal items which reflect their interests and identity. Children are encouraged and supported to take responsibility for keeping their bedrooms clean and tidy. This gives them a sense of ownership and pride in their surroundings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s successes are celebrated and captured in key-work sessions. Managers and staff speak with pride when they describe children’s progress, for example, when children take increased responsibility for their self-care and learn new independent living skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children turn to staff for support and enjoy their company. Staff encourage, explain and model language and behaviour which promotes mutual respect. Children’s views are central to decisions about the way that the home is run. Children told inspectors that there is nothing that they would change about the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children speak positively about the progress that they are making at school and the opportunities available to them. For example, one child is looking forward to undertaking ‘teaching assistant experience’, where she will support younger pupils in the classroom.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff recognise the importance of ensuring that children have new experiences to expand their interests and learning. Children have the opportunity to make friendships outside of the home by joining children from the organisation’s other homes for activities in the community.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Managers and staff proactively advocate for children to ensure that they are accessing the resources and support that they need to meet their physical and mental health needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Managers work closely with the people who are important to children. Reports written for children’s annual reviews provide a comprehensive overview of their progress. A manager from the children’s placing authority told inspectors that communication with the home is good and that he admires the resilience and patience of staff. Inspection report children’ s home: SC364812 4

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

Managers have a sound understanding of children’s individual risks, vulnerabilities and strengths. Effective written and verbal communication with the staff team ensures that all staff have up-to-date knowledge of children’s current needs.

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

Children’s plans describe the steps that staff need to take to provide consistent care for children and keep them safe. Due to their complex needs, the children’s risks are changeable. Managers are not risk averse and make sure that children are not subject to unnecessary restrictions at times when they do not need to be.

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

In the period since the last inspection, extensive building work has been carried out to extend the home. Managers have invested time and energy in making sure that the physical environment has remained safe and secure.

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

Managers make effective use of induction, supervision and discussions to assess staff performance and ensure that staff know how to safely meet children’s needs in line with their care plans and risk assessments.

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

On the whole, children’s behaviour is well managed and the use of physical restraint is low. However, on one recent occasion, staff who were not trained in the de- escalation and restraint techniques used by the organisation were unable to bring an incident to a swift conclusion. They briefly left the children unsupervised while they sought support from the police. Managers have recognised that this had the potential to place children at risk of harm and have now provided all staff with training in de-escalation and physical restraint. They are committed to ensuring that, in future, all staff receive this training before working with children. There are plans in place to discuss the learning from the incident with all the staff involved.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers are ambitious and have high aspirations for children. They strive to promote a way of working with children which is consistently therapeutic and are excellent role models. One child described the registered manager as ‘amazing’.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff speak positively about their experience of working for the organisation. They are unanimous in their praise for the support that they receive from leaders and managers. Feeling valued and respected inspires staff to give good-quality care to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff recruitment and retention has been particularly challenging for the home since the last inspection. Managers have worked hard to keep the impact of this on children to a minimum. When it is necessary to use agency staff, managers try to ensure that they are staff who are familiar to the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers frequently cover shifts themselves. While this is in the best interests of children, it has had a negative impact on some areas of management monitoring. One example relates to the oversight of records of children’s key-work sessions. The Inspection report children’ s home: SC364812 5 inspectors found several examples where identified further actions were not followed up by the key worker.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

A further shortfall relates to the monitoring of records of physical restraint. Not all records demonstrate that managers have fully explored why the measure was necessary. This shortfall in recording does not demonstrate the good-quality scrutiny of physical restraints which takes place in practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers have a well-informed awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of the home. They are responsive when external monitoring systems identify areas for development and demonstrate a commitment to ensuring continuous improvement. Inspection report children’ s home: SC364812 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 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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered person should ensure that management monitoring systems provide effective oversight of key-work sessions and restraint records. 28 February 2023

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that all their staff have been adequately trained in the principles of restraint and any restraint techniques appropriate to the needs of the children the home is set up to care for. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.57)

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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: SC364812 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: My Choice Children’s Homes Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 3a, Mill Green Business Estate, Mill Green Road, Haywards Heath RH16 1XQ

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Inspectors

Mike Simmonds, Social Care Inspector Helen Simmons, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’ s home: SC364812 8 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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