Children's home run by Flourish (Gloucestershire) Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2557920 1 Registered provider: Flourish (Gloucestershire) Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned by a private company. The statement of purpose states that the home can provide care for up to four children with a learning disability. At the time of this inspection, three children were living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in November 2019.

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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 requires improvement to be 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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2557920 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/08/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2557920 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

This home provides good-quality care and support to the children. Children are provided with stability in this home because they are looked after by adults who know them well and who, themselves, are a cohesive and competent team.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are empowered to make choices and to express their views, wishes and feelings. Staff use alternative communication methods effectively when consulting with children. This helps children to have a say in the decisions that affect their lives. The staff demonstrate a genuine interest in the children’s well-being and work collaboratively to create a positive environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

During the school holidays, the children enjoy day trips out that provide them with new and enjoyable experiences. More action is needed to ensure that the same opportunity to stretch children’s interests is available during the week, when children often spend time gaming or watching the television.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s educational needs are met and promoted well. The registered manager and team work cohesively with education providers to ensure that the children’s educational programmes are suitable, so that their learning experiences are improved. Children’s attendance at school is good, and the support children receive from the care team means they are making steady progress in meeting their educational targets.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The registered manager and staff team are strong advocates for the children. They encourage and support the children to maintain and develop their relationships with their families. Staff facilitate visits, which has improved children’s experiences when seeing people who are important to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Feedback from two social workers is exceptionally positive. They provided the inspector with good examples of the children’s progress and the help and support they receive.

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improvement to be good

All staff have completed safeguarding training and regularly attend refresher courses. Staff are clear about their safeguarding responsibilities and implement their learning from the training in practice.

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improvement to be good

The leaders and managers take safeguarding concerns seriously and take effective actions that protect children when concerns are identified. Despite this, safeguarding records do not detail how the investigating officer has reached the outcome that supports the actions taken. In addition, the registered manager has not reported one safeguarding concern to Ofsted as required. Inspection report for children’s home: 2557920 4 Since the last inspection, the number of reported physical interventions has reduced significantly. However, records of these interventions show that, on some occasions, staff have moved a child from one location to another. This potentially increases the risk of injury to both the child and staff. The registered manager’s monitoring of these incidents requires improvement.

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improvement to be good

Children are provided with an opportunity to communicate their views after incidents occur. However, staff are not always successful in helping the children to communicate how they felt about being held or explore how staff can help them to share their anxieties that may prevent further incidents. Similarly, after incidents, reflective discussions with staff do not always consider what actions could have been taken differently to prevent the incident escalating.

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improvement to be good

Safer recruitment processes are followed effectively. Children are looked after by adults whom leaders and managers have assessed as suitable. Despite this, set interview questions do not enable the interviewer to explore the candidates’ experience and understanding of looking after children who have complex disabilities. The registered individual took immediate action to improve the interview questions.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager of this home is also registered to manage a second home within the organisation. He is suitably experienced and qualified and provides strong and effective leadership of this home. At this inspection, the registered manager informed the inspector that he intends to resign his registration of the second home. Team meetings take place frequently and staff attendance at these meetings is good. These meetings allow the staff to learn from each other and reflect on their practice. Discussions are varied and include a review of the children’s progress. This approach is positive and encourages staff to work collaboratively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Care staff receive good-quality formal supervision, which focuses on the needs of children and staff’s roles and responsibilities. However, the registered manager does not receive the same quality and frequency of supervision. The requirement raised about this at the last inspection has been reinstated.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Not all staff are compliant with basic mandatory training, and some have not completed specialist awareness courses linked to the children’s needs. This means staff are not maximising their knowledge and understanding of the children’s complex needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has successfully created a culture that encourages staff to work as a team. Staff who provided feedback at this inspection were very positive. They say they enjoy working with the children and seeing them grow as individuals. Staff value the support they receive from the managers. Collectively, staff have created an atmosphere in the home that is like that of a positive family home. Inspection report for children’s home: 2557920 5

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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—

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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;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies;

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm;

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Requirement Due date

that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)(e) 28 April 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2557920 6 In particular, the registered person should ensure that up-to- date records are maintained of all safeguarding investigations. Records should detail what actions have been taken, and how the outcome has been reached.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person should ensure that notifications of safeguarding concerns are consistently reported to Ofsted.

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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

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensures that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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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)(a)(c)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers should ensure that staff have completed basic mandatory and specialist training as required.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person should ensure that the monitoring of physical intervention records includes reviewing the appropriateness of moving a child from one location to another while distressed. 28 April 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. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)

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Requirement Due date

This relates specifically to ensuring that the registered manager. 28 April 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2557920 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that debriefs for children and staff following incidents consistently include opportunities for them to talk about how they felt during the incident, and to explore what support is needed. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 50, paragraph 9.60)  The registered person should ensure that recruitment records document how the interviews are used to explore the candidates’ suitability of working with children who have complex disabilities. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,’ page 61, paragraph 13.1)

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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: 2557920 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Flourish (Gloucestershire) Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 27 Westend Office Suites, Westend, Stonehouse GL10 3FA

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Samantha Summers

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Inspector

Sharron Escott, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2557920 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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