Children's Home run by Progress Children’s Services Ltd in Wolverhampton

Inspection report for children’s home: 1266267 1 Registered provider: Progress Children’s Services Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This service offers short breaks for up to six children at any one time. Overall, the service provides support to 48 children with learning disabilities, physical disabilities or sensory impairment. A private provider operates this service.

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Information about this children’s home

A suitably experienced and qualified manager is in post. The manager has been registered with Ofsted since 3 December 2020.

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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: 15 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: 1266267 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/11/2021 Full Good 08/01/2020 Full Good 19/02/2019 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 1266267 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy and benefit from their short-break stay. All stays are well planned. This starts with careful information and partnership working with parents and carers. Where possible, children are supported to visit the service and join for a meal before they have an overnight stay. Careful consideration is given to which children would benefit from being together during their stays.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to access a range of activities in the community. For example, they visit farm parks, soft play centres, theme parks and arcades. Children have taken part in a walk to raise money for charity. A child was visibly excited during the inspection about going to an arcade and showed the inspector the slime he won the following day.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy the sensory room, garden and art equipment. Children celebrate a number of events, from the Olympics to Pancake Day. One child enjoyed his pancakes so much he asked for more the following day.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s views are sought and listened to. Staff support children to use their individual communication aids. This means that children are supported to communicate their wishes and feelings about their stays. This information is then used by staff to ensure that further visits are planned to ensure that children get the most out of their stay.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Parents are complimentary about their child’s stay. Parents told the inspector that ‘nothing is too much trouble for staff’ and ‘[my]child’s needs are met with compassion and understanding by all staff’. Parents also commented on the progress that their child was making due to the ongoing support from staff. For example, one child is able to eat a better variety of food and other children are developing their independence skills. Although most parents felt that communication from staff was good, some parents feel that this is an ongoing area of development.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home has benefited from redecoration. Parents’ views have been sought and taken into consideration. However, aspects of the home environment still require improvement. For example, some areas of the environment were not clean at the time of the inspection; there was no soap in a bathroom and another bathroom had mould in it. Some children’s files were accessible to other children. Swift action was taken during the inspection to put this right. Inspection report for children’s home: 1266267 4

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

Staff are clear about their role in keeping children safe. Staff work with other professionals and promptly share any concerns about children’s well-being or staff practice. Information is quickly shared, and actions are taken. For example, on occasions, children’s stays are extended to help keep children safe.

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

Children do not go missing from their short-break stay. However, staff are clear about what actions they would take should this happen.

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

Staff are responsive to children’s care needs and support them when they become upset. Recently, when a child’s behaviour changed, staff worked with health services, parents and training providers to ensure that staff were responding to the child’s needs in the best possible way.

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

Children are only ever held to keep them safe. The registered manager ensures that another manager oversees any overview of any incidents she is involved in. Therefore, the requirement raised at the last inspection is now met.

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

There have been some medication errors. These have been investigated and staff have been supported to improve their practice.

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

On occasions, agency staff are used to help cover gaps in the rota. These staff, along with core staff, are safely recruited. However, the registered manager has not given enough thought to any potential safeguarding risk to the organisation’s recruitment process. For example, as part of the interview process, applicants meet children and are told information about them. This is prior to safer recruitment checks being completed. While these applicants are not left unsupervised with children, this potentially risks children’s safety and their well- being.

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good

Previously, the service was managed by two registered managers. The service has been restructured. There is now one registered manager and a deputy manager. They work well together. Staff speak positively about having the opportunity to develop within the home in both skills and job roles.

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good

Staff state that staff morale dipped for a period of time when the service was going through changes. However, now these changes are embedded there is a newly found feeling of support and excitement for the future. Staff are clear that they feel supported by their peers and line managers and enjoy working at the service.

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good

Overall, children are cared for by a consistent staff team. Staff have worked extra shifts to help cover any gaps. However, the staff’s actual hours worked are not accurately reflected in the rota. Inspection report for children’s home: 1266267 5 Complaints are dealt with seriously. One complaint has been thoroughly investigated and practice has been changed as a result. However, this investigation did find a number of practice concerns with staff that the managers’ monitoring had not previously picked up. A more recent complaint is still under investigation.

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good

Children are making progress. However, this is difficult to monitor as the targets are high in number and open to interpretation. This impacts on the monitoring and understanding of children’s progress and achievements.

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good

The manager had carried out an analysis of staff training and is aware that there are some shortfalls in this area. She has a plan in place to address this. Inspection report for children’s home: 1266267 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 quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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 the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home.

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Requirement Due date

This particularly refers to managers ensuring that the children’s home is well maintained and provides a clean environment for children to enjoy.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement is restated from the last inspection. 7 April 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

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— 23 June 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 1266267 7 ensure 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.

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Requirement Due date

This particularly refers to ensuring that staff have training in understanding sensory processing, autism spectrum disorder and Makaton. It also refers to ensuring that the manager has a fuller understanding of the progress children are making and that targets for children are achievable and measurable and that parents are kept up to date about what has happened during their child’s stay.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must prepare and implement a policy which—

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Requirement Due date

is intended to safeguard children accommodated in the children’s home from abuse or neglect.

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Requirement Due date

This particularly refers to ensuring that the organisation’s recruitment process in relation to applicants meeting children prior to safer recruitment checks being carried out is carefully considered in relation to risk to children. 24 March 2023

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Requirement Due date

Schedule 4 sets out the other information that the registered person must keep in relation to a children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the records are kept up to date; and

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Requirement Due date

retain the records for at least 15 years from the date of the last entry.

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that the rotas reflect the hours staff have worked in the home. 7 April 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 1266267 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: 1266267 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Progress Children’s Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Progress House, 127 Millfields Road, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire WV4 6JG

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Inspector

Louise Battersby, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 1266267 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 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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