Children's Home run by Motivations Activity Projects Ltd in Staffordshire

Inspection report for children’s home: 1257202 1 Registered provider: Motivations Activity Projects 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 by a private company. It provides care for four children who have experienced childhood trauma.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been in post since July 2022 and has applied 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 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: 1257202 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/01/2022 Full Good 09/12/2019 Full Good 17/12/2018 Interim Not judged Inspection report for children’s home: 1257202 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in a warm and friendly environment. Children say that they are happy living in the home and want to remain living in the home until they are old enough to move to independence. This is a testament to the excellent relationships that children have with staff. All the children currently living in the home have benefited from positive experiences and are making progress from their original starting points.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When children move in, staff make them feel welcome. Before children move into the home, they can visit, stay for tea, and meet the staff and other children who live in the home. Child-friendly information provides information about what living in the home is like, and children are encouraged to personalise their bedrooms when they move in. This helps children to settle into the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to access education that meets their individual needs and allows the children to achieve in their learning. Staff work collaboratively with education professionals, and they communicate with school staff daily to support children in their learning environment. When children struggle to attend school, staff ensure that bespoke support packages are put into place, so that children do not miss their learning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy good physical health. Staff support children to attend routine health appointments and will ensure that children have access to specialist mental health support, when needed. This promotes children’s health outcomes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage children to try new activities and develop hobbies and interests. One child is a member of a local dance group. They are excelling in this, attending regular competitions and they have received numerous awards. Children also enjoy sharing a variety of activities with staff, both in the community and in the home. These activities include going to the cinema, laser tag, escape rooms and pamper evenings. Sharing activities enables children to grow in confidence and improve their self-esteem.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support the children to develop their own identity when they are exploring their sexuality. Staff have ensured that they have changed their communication style and essential documents to reflect children’s chosen pronouns. This supports the children to improve their sense of self and feel more confident.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When children are old enough, staff support children to develop their independence skills. Staff help the children to progress towards adulthood with appropriate life skills, including budgeting, cleaning, cooking and managing their personal time. This supports children to make plans for their future and make informed decisions about their life, and develops their resilience. Inspection report for children’s home: 1257202 4 Staff understand the importance of children feeling heard and listened to. Staff ensure that they seek the views of the children. They use various forums to achieve this, including children’s meetings, one to ones, feedback and debrief sessions. This allows the children to share and talk about their achievements, reflect on events, and learn how to manage conflict. These opportunities provide valuable life experiences for children to learn how to communicate and listen effectively.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff make sure that children stay connected with the people who are important to them. Staff ensure that children regularly see their friends and family. This ensures that children continue to build relationships and attachments with those people who are significant to them

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is warm and welcoming. The home is decorated and furnished to a good standard. Children’s bedrooms are personalised. There are photos of the children enjoying activities, as well as children’s awards and trophies for their achievements on display throughout the home. This helps the children to feel valued and develop a sense of belonging.

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

Children say they feel safe. Staff know the children’s triggers and risks well. They work hard to keep children safe and manage the complex risks with which they are faced. Staff understand safeguarding procedures and the actions they need to take to keep children safe. As a result, children’s incidents are reducing.

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

Children’s risk management plans are comprehensive. Staff and managers ensure that these plans are updated regularly and following any significant incidents. This ensures that staff have up-to-date guidance on the actions they need to take to minimise risk.

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

Staff and managers take prompt action when there are allegations and complaints. Managers ensure that they share information with other professionals. They complete comprehensive internal management investigations when there are concerns. Children are kept informed of any outcomes. This ensures that children feel confident to raise concerns. It also helps them to feel safe and secure in their environment.

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

Staff respond quickly when children go missing from the home or are away from the home without authority. Staff follow missing-from-home procedures. They extensively search for children and consult with the local police until children are found. When children return, staff warmly welcome them. Managers ensure that an independent person completes return home interviews.

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

Staff work with children to help them to understand how to keep themselves safe. Discussions take place with the children following every significant incident, which helps the children to raise their knowledge and awareness of the risks that they may face. Staff also collaborate with external professionals to help children to understand Inspection report for children’s home: 1257202 5 the consequences and the impact of their behaviour on others. For example, local police have supported children to understand the impact of bullying.

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

Physical intervention is used as a last resort. Staff use effective de-escalation strategies to respond to challenging behaviour. Staff are up to date with the relevant and required physical restraint training. Following the use of physical restraint, children and staff are spoken to by the manager to ensure that the intervention was necessary and proportionate. However, not all records of restraint include the duration of the restraint, or a manager’s review of effectiveness of the measure.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home’s manager is enthusiastic and committed. The manager leads by example, and she wants the best for children. Staff share this ambition and strive to improve the lives of the children and young people they care for. The manager has a clear vision for the home and has a good understanding of the areas for development, both for the staff and for what she wants to achieve in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers have effective monitoring systems in place, which support them to review the quality of care. They use these well, along with development plans and independent visitor assessments to continually assess and improve the quality of care for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home has a consistent core staff team. Staff have a variety of skills, experience and qualifications. There are regular staff meetings, to reflect on children’s care and discuss how the team can work best together. This ensures that children receive consistent, good-quality care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive effective support and guidance. They have regular practice related supervision; annual appraisals and each staff has a personal development plan. In- between formal meetings, staff have regular opportunities to speak with a manager or senior member of staff. This enables staff to develop and improve care practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers ensure that staff have access to a wide variety of training and development opportunities. However, managers have not always ensured that additional training required to meet children’s specific needs is completed in a timely manner. For example, staff did not receive attention deficit hyperactivity disorder training until February, despite a child with this diagnosis living in the home for 11 months. This is a weakness and does not support staff to have the knowledge and skills to respond to children appropriately.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers and staff maintain good working relationships with children’s families and professionals. During the inspection, professionals told the inspector that they were extremely pleased with the quality of care provided to children and that the communication from managers and staff was excellent. They were happy with the progress children have made since coming to live in the home. The manager will challenge those that she feels are not effectively supporting children. Inspection report for children’s home: 1257202 6

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person 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

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;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13 (1) (2)(c)

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the manager ensuring that staff have additional training that supports staff to meet children’s individual needs in a timely manner. 18 April 2023

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that records of restraint are kept and enable the registered person and staff to review the use of control, discipline and restraint to identify effective practice and respond promptly where any issues or trends of concern emerge. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.59)

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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: 1257202 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Motivations Activity Projects Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: St Matthews Business Centre, Duddeston Manor Road, Birmingham B7 4LZ

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Inspector

Sonia Sullivan, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 1257202 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 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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