Children's home run by Prestige Adolescent Care and Education Limited in Stoke-on-Trent

Inspection report for children’s home: SC463188 1 SC463188 Registered provider: Prestige Adolescent Care and Education Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is registered to provide care for up to four children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in March 2021.

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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: 26 January 2022

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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: SC463188 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

26/01/2022 Full Good 03/12/2019 Full Outstanding 14/11/2018 Full Outstanding 23/01/2018 Full Outstanding Inspection report for children’s home: SC463188 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There are three children living in the home. The home is large and spacious. Efforts have been made to make the home a welcoming environment for children. There are photos displayed on the walls, and rooms are comfortable. Children’s bedrooms are personalised to reflect their individual tastes. However, there are displays and incentive charts in communal areas that detail children’s individual needs and detract from the homely environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are helped to develop positive relationships with staff who care about them and who want them to reach their potential.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children’s educational and health needs. Staff advocate for children’s needs, and their communication with health and education providers is positive. Staff and the manager have worked with external professionals to explore underlying medical reasons for a child’s ongoing behaviours.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to develop their independence skills. One child has made significant improvements with their independence and social skills and has secured voluntary and paid employment with support from staff. One social worker commented, ‘[Name of child] is doing brilliantly. From the time they moved in, they have grown in themselves and their independence skills have improved significantly. They are doing things that we never thought possible due to their social anxieties.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to spend time with the people who are important to them, including their friends and families. Children have a variety of opportunities to engage in activities in the community with peers, including horse riding, swimming and scouts. Children are supported to make positive memories, and these are captured in memory books for children to keep.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress when living in the home. However, sometimes, their positive experiences are limited by the rigid boundaries and house rules that are in place. One child raised concerns about not being allowed to have a blanket on the sofa or wear their pyjamas downstairs. This limits children’s sense of belonging and reduces their opportunities to develop elements of control in their lives.

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

Staff understand the individual needs and behaviours of children and know how to respond to risks. External professionals say that children are safe in the home. Risk management plans clearly identify risks and strategies to enable staff to help keep children safe. However, individual crisis plans do not provide the same clarity for staff to respond to and manage risk for children. Inspection report for children’s home: SC463188 4 Staff provide consistent boundaries and routines for children. However, some actions taken by staff seem disproportionate to children’s individual risks and vulnerabilities, such as removing televisions from bedrooms at night and checking mobile phones.

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

When there have been safeguarding concerns, these have been managed appropriately and shared with relevant professionals. The home has appropriate procedures in place for when children go missing.

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

Staff ensure that children’s medication is stored safely, recorded carefully and administered correctly. This helps children to stay safe and supports their health and emotional well-being.

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

Recruitment checks are robust. Prior to starting work in the home, new staff are suitably vetted following safer recruitment guidelines. This promotes safe working practices and minimises risks to children.

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

The manager works with professionals, including the police and local authority, to identify risks and implement strategies to manage these effectively.

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good

The manager is enthusiastic about improving outcomes for children. There is a committed and consistent team of staff who support the manager. The manager and staff know individual children well and want the best for them.

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good

Staff feel supported by the management team. Staff receive regular supervision and attend team meetings which provide opportunities to consider children’s needs and areas of development for the home. Training provided to staff is good and includes training that is specific to the needs of the children, such as training in autism spectrum disorder.

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good

The manager and staff have developed positive relationships with external professionals. Information is shared appropriately and in a timely way, which is valued by professionals involved with the children.

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good

Children are encouraged to actively participate in discussions about the home and their lives. This is supported through the use of child-friendly consultation forms.

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good

The manager advocates for the children in her care, including with health and education provisions. This ensures that children are supported in all areas of their development. The manager is not aware of the local offer which sets out the support available for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and could provide further opportunities for children.

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good

The manager has implemented a reward system that appears excessive for the children and their needs. One child states that the routines and boundaries are inflexible and rewards sometimes feel unachievable. Children receive child-friendly Inspection report for children’s home: SC463188 5 compliments from staff, but these do not link to tangible rewards. Staff should be supported to understand factors that affect children’s motivation to behave in a socially acceptable way. This would encourage children’s enthusiasm for positive behaviour. Consequences for unwanted behaviours are not being recorded, which limits the manager’s oversight of practice in the home.

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good

Restraint is used frequently with limited evaluation from managers. A member of staff, who had not been formally trained, was involved in the restraint of a child. Records do not reflect their involvement or how the restraint was managed. On this occasion, there does not appear to have been an impact on the child. Evaluation of incidents focuses on children’s behaviours rather than the actions of staff.

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good

The manager’s monitoring systems are not robust. There are areas of the home that need refurbishment and several hazards that were not identified by the manager. Inspection report for children’s home: SC463188 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

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

protect and promote each child’s welfare;

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Requirement Due date

treat each child with dignity and respect;

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Requirement Due date

provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand and manage the impact of any experience of abuse or neglect;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop resilience and skills that prepare the child to return home, to live in a new placement or to live independently as an adult;

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Requirement Due date

provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably;

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Requirement Due date

provide to children personal items that are appropriate for their age and understanding; and 5 April 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: SC463188 7 make decisions about the day-to-day arrangements for each child, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans, which give the child an appropriate degree of freedom and choice;

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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. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(ix) (c)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that the home is maintained to a good standard, including addressing potential hazards and ensuring that damaged furniture is replaced. The registered person should ensure that information about individual children’s needs is not displayed in communal areas of the home.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that boundaries for children are proportionate to their needs and that staff understand how to promote positive behaviour for children in line with their plans.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person should ensure that they are aware of the local offer which sets out the support available for children with SEND.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must prepare and implement a policy (“the behaviour management policy”) which sets out—

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Requirement Due date

how appropriate behaviour is to be promoted in the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

the measures of control, discipline and restraint which may be used in relation to children in the home.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must keep the behaviour management policy under review and, where appropriate, revise it.

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

the name of the child; 5 April 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: SC463188 8 details of the child’s behaviour leading to the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person who used the measure (“the user”), and of any other person present when the measure was used;

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (“the authorised person”)—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (1)(a)(b) (2) (3)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(b)(i)(ii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular the registered person must ensure that incidents of restraint are clearly recorded and that they are evaluated by managers to ensure that they are appropriate and proportionate.

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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; 5 April 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: SC463188 9 understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (2)(c)(f))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that staff have received appropriate training regarding the physical restraint of children. The registered person must ensure that managers have effective oversight of incidents to inform the quality of care provided to children.

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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: SC463188 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Prestige Adolescent Care and Education Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 90 King Street, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire ST5 1JB

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Inspectors

Jenni Gadsby, Social Care Inspector Caroline Bertram, Regulatory Inspection Manager Inspection report for children’s home: SC463188 11 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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