Children's home run by Unity Residential Care Services Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2508456 1 Registered provider: Unity Residential Care Services Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home provides care for up to three children who have experienced childhood instability, resulting in trauma and associated complex behaviours.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered in 2020 and is appropriately qualified and experienced.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Date of last inspection: 20 September 2021

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2508456 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/09/2021 Full Outstanding 11/12/2019 Full Outstanding Inspection report for children’s home: 2508456 3

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outstanding

There are three children currently living in the home. Two children have lived there since before the previous inspection. A third child has moved in since the previous inspection.

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outstanding

Managers and staff supported the child well with their move in to the home, which helped them to settle quickly. They are also supporting one child who is due to move out soon to ensure that they are fully prepared to move on and have the skills to live more independently. The child’s progress is regularly reviewed, with them gaining awards at each stage for their achievements. This supports children to be prepared for adult life.

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outstanding

The home is immaculately decorated and has a cosy feel. Children’s rooms are very well personalised. For example, one child has several dolls and items that they have crafted on display. The manager leaves motivational message jars around the home for children to dip in to when they might feel low. The staff bedrooms are also immaculately presented, which helps to contribute to staff feeling valued in the home.

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outstanding

Children have socially and emotionally made excellent progress from their starting points. For example, one child has recently attended their first birthday party and has just joined a trampolining club, after previously having significant social anxiety and never having attended a party before.

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outstanding

Children are excelling educationally. All children attend school, with two children engaging in additional tutoring to support them to now surpass their original targets. One child who previously had frequent detentions has settled, and the school commended her for ‘excellent manners’. For another child, staff devised a set of visual aids to support them when they feel overwhelmed due to their learning disability. These were shared with the child’s college. The college reports that this has supported the child to feel calmer in the learning environment.

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outstanding

Staff take time to connect to children and spend time with them. Staff plan direct work with children each month based on each child’s needs. They write monthly reviews about how effective this work has been so that the support offered to children remains meaningful. For example, staff supported one child to use ‘hug vouchers’ to help them to express their emotions, and staff have used a well-known theory with children to learn about their learning styles so that they can support them more effectively.

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outstanding

Staff ensure that children have positive memories and are shown that they are valued. For example, children each have a daily journal that is used by staff to write positive things to them, so they have this as a keepsake when they move on. Staff Inspection report for children’s home: 2508456 4 ensure that children enjoy experiences that help to enrich their lives. For example, they go on holiday, attend concerts, and enjoy activities such as fishing, youth clubs and visiting the beach for the first time.

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outstanding

The manager implements individual support plans for children that are therapeutically informed. Children create these plans with staff. These plans ensure that staff understand children’s risks and what to do to reduce them.

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outstanding

Staff relationships with children are strong. Professionals note that children view staff as their ‘second family’. Staff praise children and use incentives to help them to stay motivated in meeting their goals. Subsequently, there have been no missing incidents or restraints.

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outstanding

Staff know children well and, therefore, when risks emerge, they pick up on any early warning signs so that children get specialist support at an early stage before worries escalate. For example, when concerns were identified around one child’s eating and their self-esteem, staff spent time chatting to the child about food and body health. The manager advocated for the child so that other professionals became involved to ensure that their needs were fully met.

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outstanding

Staff support children to use social media positively. For example, staff offer close supervision and show a genuine interest in children’s online worlds. They regularly meet with children’s social workers to plan their care, and have interactive sessions using quizzes and videos to support children directly. This has enabled one child’s risks to significantly reduce, and they are now openly sharing information and building trusting relationships with staff.

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outstanding

Since the last inspection, on two occasions, children have made allegations about staff. In both incidents, staff ensured that the child was safe and supported. However, there were delays in staff following the safeguarding procedures, and recording is sometimes unclear. The manager acted promptly on the first occasion to ensure that staff individually received further guidance and training. However, this practice has recurred on a second occasion. This an area of safeguarding that leaders intend to develop within the home as an immediate priority.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager has continued to build relationships with her staff team since the last inspection, and she is now well established. She is organised, ambitious and constantly thinking of new ways to further the team’s knowledge so that children receive the best care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has improved her recording and monitoring of care. She has a wide array of systems to help her to understand the quality of care. For example, the manager completes a supervision review annually where staff are asked to Inspection report for children’s home: 2508456 5 contribute, to ensure that supervisions are using the home’s restorative approach and that staff find it useful. The manager also completes a practice review, which led to changes in the way that children were consulted about their wishes and feelings. This practice demonstrates good insight into the care and shows continued improvement.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff say that they feel well supported by the manager. They feel that their well- being is a priority, as are their opportunities to develop. Staff supervisions add to this support for staff and ensure that reflective practice is prioritised. For example, each month, staff are asked to score their strengths and areas of development based on the home’s therapeutic training approach. Staff have personalised well- being plans implemented, if needed, to ensure that their self-care is prioritised.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff are trained to care for children’s specific needs. Every month, staff engage in training workshops. For example, staff recently engaged in bereavement training with a local counselling service after some children experienced family loss. The manager has carried out interactive quizzes, role plays with the staff team around awareness of learning disability diagnosis, and helped them to practise their skills in risk assessing, for instance using an exercise as a team. This is ensuring that staff knowledge is of a high standard so that the care of children remains research informed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager’s partnership working with other agencies is excellent. The manager regularly meets with the local police constabulary to plan the care based on local area risks, which help to inform the locality risk assessment. All educational and local authority professionals for children living in the home have also commented that they feel that children are receiving exceptional care. This investment in children’s care enables them to exceed their targets. Inspection report for children’s home: 2508456 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff understand what allegations are and how to respond to them promptly in following the child protection procedure to report these concerns without delay. (Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards, page 44, paragraph 9.17)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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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: 2508456 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Unity Residential Care Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2 Lymevale Court, Lyme Drive, Parklands, Stoke- on-Trent ST4 6NW

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Inspector

Fiona Roche, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2508456 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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