Children's home run by Together For Children Sunderland

Inspection report for children’s home: 2613157 1 Registered provider: Together for Children Sunderland 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 and managed under trust arrangements. The home provides care for up to three children who may have emotional and social difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The inspector spoke with two of the children who live in the home during the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The suitably experienced and qualified manager registered with Ofsted in October 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 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: 14 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: 2613157 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/09/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2613157 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are welcomed into the home sensitively after planned introductions to meet staff and other children. This supports children to start to develop relationships at an early stage. Once living in the home, children have time to develop secure and trusting relationships with adults who care for them. This is a strength of the home and supports children to make good progress from their starting points.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The property is welcoming and well furnished, with the children being central to all aspects of the home. Children have personalised bedrooms, and their views are sought about changes to their home. Children are supported to express their views on an individual basis or through contributing to young people’s meetings. Advocates are available for the children if they wish to have this independent support. Children spoken with said that they feel listened to.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff take children’s physical and emotional health needs seriously. Staff work in consultation with experts to deliver psychologically informed care and work closely with experienced experts. This supports staff to work with children with a focus on consistency, understanding, and caring relationships. Staff support children to make progress with the benefit of regular group consultation.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work closely with education professionals and are strong advocates for children who need support to engage with their education. This approach provides the children with the best opportunity to be supported back into learning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to spend time with family members and are proactive in making these arrangements. Family time is promoted for the children in line with their care plans, as well as considering the child’s wishes and feelings. Staff make suitable arrangements for family time and develop positive communication with parents.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When children move out of the home, their transition is managed and supported by staff to ensure that this provides a positive experience for them. Staff contribute to children’s transition plans and take a pivotal role in supporting the child through this change. Children maintain contact with staff and vice versa when children leave the home and this reflects the positive nature of the relationships that are established between the staff and children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Parents of children who live or have lived at the home describe positive working relationships with staff. One parent described the staff as, ‘amazing’ and another parent said that they ‘cannot thank staff enough’ for the help and support that they have provided to their child and them. Inspection report for children’s home: 2613157 4

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

Children say that they feel safe living in the home. This is attributable to staff’s relationships that they develop with children to help them to feel safe and protected.

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

Staff take quick and appropriate action when there are safeguarding concerns. Safeguarding procedures are followed by staff and the recording of these incidents is detailed. Debriefs with staff and the child take place, and the manager appropriately evaluates all incidents.

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

There are few consequences given in the home and, where they are issued, they are appropriate for the child and time limited. The recording of these documents has been revised to meet regulations.

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

Very few physical interventions take place in the home. When they do, they are deemed necessary and are well recorded. However, on occasion, there is no evidence that children are offered the opportunity to access an advocate to support them during their debrief. This limits their opportunity to talk to an independent person about the physical intervention that they have experienced.

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

When children go missing from home, staff follow the children’s risk assessments and missing-from-home procedures. Staff make efforts to locate children, including contacting known family and friends. When children are returned, they are welcomed back into the home and return-home interviews are offered.

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

Impact risk assessments are completed for children when consideration is given to them moving in to the home. This allows managers to explore how group living will impact each child joining the home and those already resident. However, not all impact risk assessments fully explore the impact of each child on another child living in the home, and this is a shortfall in the home’s pre-placement planning.

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

Children’s risk assessments are detailed and provide information about children’s risk behaviours and vulnerabilities. Managers do not ensure that all known risk factors are detailed in children’s risk assessments, and therefore staff cannot clearly access information to determine how to manage and reduce certain risks for children.

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

When bedroom searches are undertaken, the rationale for undertaking them are appropriate. However, the records do not evidence if children are informed of these in advance, whether consent is sought, or whether children are given the opportunity to be present during the search of their bedroom.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed by a suitably experienced and qualified manager. The manager is supported by an experienced deputy manager and staff team, with some new staff members. Inspection report for children’s home: 2613157 5 Leaders and managers know the children who they care for well. They understand what progress children make while in their care and how to access support when necessary. This supports children’s continuing progression.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager takes complaints seriously, although complaints are seldom made. When complaints are received, this leads to further discussion and reflection on practice, where necessary, to help to resolve matters satisfactorily and in a timely manner for families.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Regular team meetings take place. Managers give opportunities for staff to meet and focus on the children and discuss what is happening in the children’s lives. This enables staff to reflect on their practice and learning needs. This environment helps managers to evaluate how best to support the team to develop and for good practice to thrive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager ensures that staff have a structured training programme that is specific to the individual needs of the children. The manager and his team complete the provider’s mandatory training and records of completed training are kept up to date. This means that most staff have the necessary knowledge and skills to care for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff feel supported by the management team and are confident to seek advice and support. Supervision takes place regularly. However, the quality of the recording of these sessions varies depending on the supervisor. Some of the supervision records lack reflective practice. This lack of consistency means that not all staff are receiving the same quality of supervision.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Not all staff hold the required qualification to help them to deliver good-quality care to children. Other staff are qualified or are in training for the required qualification. Leaders and managers provide new staff with induction training that is relevant to the needs of the children. Relief staff who work at the home do not have the same qualifications or training completed as staff members who are employed in the same role. This therefore leaves some staff members who work with children without the necessary training to meet children’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers are aware of the need to ensure that safe recruitment procedures are followed. However, the registered manager could not provide evidence that a reference had been verified for a new member of staff despite their current employment involving working with children or vulnerable adults. This has the potential to leave children at risk of harm. Inspection report for children’s home: 2613157 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 protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. 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 and are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to impact risk assessments and risk assessments. 8 May 2023

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform.

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Requirement Due date

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained—

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Requirement Due date

the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) ("the Level 3 Diploma"); or

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Requirement Due date

a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma.

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Requirement Due date

The relevant date is— 10 April 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2613157 7 in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls 2 years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home.

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Requirement Due date

For the purposes of Paragraph (3)(d), full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1) (3)(b)(d) (4)(a)(b) (5)(a))

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that any child who has been restrained is offered the opportunity to access advocacy support to help them to express their feelings about their experiences of the restraint. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 50, paragraph 9.60)  The registered manager should ensure that rooms are only searched if the child has been informed or asked for their permission. Children should ideally be present. Immediate searching may be necessary where there are reasonable grounds for believing that there is a risk to the child’s or another person’s safety or well-being. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 16, paragraph 3.20)  The registered person should ensure that there are systems are in place so that all the staff, including the manager, receive regular supervision so that they can

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Recommendations

reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,’ page 61, paragraph 13.2)

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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: 2613157 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: City Hall Floor 2, Plater Way, Sunderland SR1 3AA

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Majella McCarthy

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Inspectors

Joanne Wallis, Social Care Inspector Paula Shepherd, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2613157 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 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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