Children's home run by Hull City Council

Inspection report for children’s home: 2633602 1 Registered provider: Hull City Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is operated by a local authority. It provides medium- to long-term care for up to four children with emotional and behavioural needs. At the time of the inspection, the home was fully occupied.

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Information about this children’s home

The previous registered manager left in October 2022. A temporary manager was subsequently in post who was recently replaced by a new permanent manager. The new manager has yet to register with Ofsted.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: 8 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: 2633602 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/09/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2633602 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive care that is individualised based on their specific needs. Children are encouraged to personalise their rooms, which reflects their personalities and gives them a sense of belonging. Personalisation extends to some communal areas of the home, where photos on display show that the children are valued. Children also have pets, which helps them learn to be responsible for caring and looking after animals.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There is an established professional network around the children with strong relationships between the home, education and health colleagues. These relationships have helped to promote the stability of children’s school placements and given staff insight into effective ways of working with the children to meet their needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress in many areas. They have developed their own interests and hobbies, improved school attendance and form positive attachments to adults in their lives. Children have also learned independence skills to help them now and when they move on from the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Where children have undiagnosed health needs, staff support them to access the relevant professionals for assessment and support. The staff offer activities, games and trips out of the home to those children who have been out of formal education. This provides structure to the children’s day and provides informal learning opportunities. At times, attendance at school fluctuates, but staff are persistent in motivating children to attend.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A real strength of the home is the relationships between the staff and the children. The staff understand the importance of relationship-based practice. This helps children to feel a sense of belonging and they are able to share their worries and concerns with the staff. These relationships continue after children move out, which confirms to the children that staff care about them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s views are sought through formal and informal means. Children are encouraged to participate in reviews of their care and when important decisions are taken. Meeting children’s requests is used as an incentive, which reduces the need for consequences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Before children move into the home, a matching assessment is undertaken. The records show a good level of consultation, and consideration of available information. However, children do not always have good relationships with each other, with friendships sometimes deteriorating over time. This does have a negative impact on the day-to-day experience of some children, who say they are scared of their peers. Other children say they are happy in the home and score it nine out of 10, talking positively about the activities they do with staff. Inspection report for children’s home: 2633602 4 Transitions are generally planned and carried out to reflect children’s wishes and feelings. One child who moved out of the home since the last inspection had a poor experience of moving on. This placement came to an abrupt end due to being involved in criminal behaviour. Although this was a negative experience for the child,

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

the aftermath was well managed and staff and children were supported to come to terms with the child leaving at short notice.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is generally well presented but there are areas of damage and wear and tear awaiting redecoration, which detracts from the otherwise homely appearance.

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

Children’s risks and vulnerabilities are well understood by the staff. The staff make effective use of other professionals when specialist expertise is needed. This includes working with others to mitigate risks associated with exploitation or harmful behaviours. This helps to promote children’s safety. Staff benefit from bespoke training around children’s vulnerabilities, such as foetal alcohol syndrome. This gives them additional knowledge to support children more effectively.

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

Children have individualised missing plans, which staff follow. Recently, the frequency and duration of episodes of going missing have reduced. Staff offer high levels of supervision both inside and outside the home to children who are particularly vulnerable. Very recently, one child left the home undetected during the night. Actions were taken immediately to reduce the risk of this being repeated and further safeguards are currently being put in place. This demonstrates that leaders and managers learn from significant events and make improvements to prevent reoccurrence and to keep children safe.

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

There has been effective working when children first start to show concerning behaviours. Liaison with the fire service to educate children about the dangers and risks of fire-setting and preventative work around sexually harmful behaviour have stopped these behaviours developing.

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

There have been recent incidents arising from online use. This is a re-emerging risk and therefore previous measures have not been wholly effective in reducing the risk.

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

Children have assaulted each other on a small number of occasions. Although staff have intervened, this has led to children saying that they feel worried or unhappy and have contacted the police. These relationships have not been consistently managed and action has not been swift enough to avoid repetition. A similar situation was observed at the previous inspection.

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good

Since the last inspection, the previous manager has left and a temporary manager has just been replaced by the new permanent manager. The new manager is yet to Inspection report for children’s home: 2633602 5 register with Ofsted. There have been times since the last inspection when leadership and management have not been effective. There have also been times when leadership has been strong.

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good

Requirements raised at the last inspection have not been met entirely. There are still training gaps in some areas, which does not support staff to have the full breadth of knowledge and skills they need to help the children. Not all significant events have been notified to the regulator. In particular, this relates to keeping the regulator updated when child protection enquiries are concluded. This limits the regulator’s opportunity to be reassured that all relevant actions have been completed.

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good

There have been other shortfalls in management in respect of support provided to staff. Supervision has not been delivered in line with the provider’s policy. Similarly, key management monitoring tasks have been completed late. These omissions impact on the manager’s ability to identify weaknesses and address shortfalls. It is noted that improved systems have recently been introduced to monitor the care provided. This is already supporting the new manager to drive up the quality of care.

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good

Leaders and managers show a detailed understanding of the children’s needs. They have shown that they are strong advocates for them and work to identify solutions and remove barriers for them. While progress is not always linear, this has led to children making significant improvements in their education and accessing therapeutic support. Inspection report for children’s home: 2633602 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 positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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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

de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children;

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Requirement Due date

understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable; and

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bullying and how to deal with them. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(xi)(xii)(xiii)) 24 February 2023

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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 promotes their welfare.

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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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; 24 February 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2633602 7 use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c)(d)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This refers to staff receiving training in all relevant areas, including those identified in referral documents or children’s plans.

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Requirement Due date

This also refers to content of, actions arising from, and timely submission of independent visitor and quality of care review reports.

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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. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)) 24 February 2023

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

a child protection enquiry involving a child—

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Requirement Due date

concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry). (Regulation 40 (4)(d)(i)(ii)) 24 February 2023

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff seek to meet the child’s basic needs in the way that a good parent would, recognising that many children in residential care have experienced environments where these needs have not been consistently met. This includes maintaining the physical environment – doing so is an important aspect of demonstrating that the staff care for the child and value them as an individual. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.7)  The registered person should ensure that children feel safe and are safe. Staff should support children to be aware of and manage their own safety both inside and outside the home to the extent that any good parent would (including in the online world). Staff should help children to understand how to protect themselves, feel protected and be protected from significant harm. (‘Guide to the

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Recommendations

Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.9) Inspection report for children’s home: 2633602 8

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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: 2633602 9

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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

Rachel Ruth, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2633602 10 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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