Children's Home run by Island Choices Ltd in Isle of Wight

Inspection report for children’s home: SC399866 1 SC399866 Registered provider: Island Choices Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is one of two operated by a private company that is commissioned by the local authority where the home is based. It is registered to provide care for up to four children.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in August 2009.

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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: 4 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: SC399866 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

04/11/2021 Full Good 13/11/2019 Full Good 31/10/2018 Full Good 05/10/2017 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC399866 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress while living in the home through staff’s strong parental style approach to care. Children have positive relationships with the staff who look after them. They are comfortable with talking to them and getting help when they need it. Conversations are natural and supportive, ensuring that children have consistent messages from the staff team.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s views are important and central to the running of the home. Their views are sought on all aspects of their care. Children are thoughtfully told by staff if something that they have asked for cannot happen or it is not appropriate. During the inspection, children were seen to request items for their rooms and places to go to on activities, and for staff to advocate their views to their social workers. This demonstrates that children feel valued and listened to.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are all engaged in some form of education, mostly through tutors who visit the home. There are significant challenges to children accessing formal education due to their life experiences and emotional well-being. Staff liaise regularly with staff from the virtual school. They share the children’s views and wishes about education and help the children to overcome their barriers to learning. Staff have programmed activities to supplement children’s education time. However, children’s engagement is sporadic. The activities coordinator is enthusiastic and continues to find new ways to engage children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children learn independence skills in line with their age and abilities. Some children are learning how to budget, shop for food, and make meals for themselves. There is a range of healthy and freshly made meals on the menu. However, children rarely eat together, often taking their food to their rooms.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to understand healthy lifestyles and what this means for them. There are good links with the children’s looked after nurses, who often help children to understand the need to see other health professionals. Children have accessed smoking cessation support and sexual health services, as needed. There are good links with child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), and staff support children if they are anxious to attend.

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

Staff know children well and know what their individual risks and vulnerabilities are. Staff will raise difficult subjects with children if they feel that there is something troubling them. Children are confident in their home and around staff. They approach staff for help and support with anything that worries them, including requesting that staff accompany them to the bus stop due to issues with others in the community. Inspection report for children’s home: SC399866 4 Staff know how to respond to safeguarding or child protection concerns, including how to escalate these outside of the organisation. They have suitable training in a range of safeguarding areas, such as managing self-injurious behaviour, ligatures, and signs of exploitation in all forms. Close working with partner agencies ensures that investigations into any concerns are conducted as required.

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

Children know what is expected of them through the consistent approach to behaviour support. Staff know that children are communicating how they feel through how they behave. The home uses an incentive approach to support children with adhering to expectations, and this is well respected. There have been no incidents of physical intervention and no consequences since the last inspection.

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

Staff support children who have been involved in anti-social behaviour in the community. Staff attend court with children and help them to engage with the youth offending team as required. The managers in the home have not always informed Ofsted when the police have come to the home because of issues in the community.

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

There has been a significant number of times when children have been missing from the home. Staff respond effectively when children are missing from home. They look for children in known locations and constantly try to make contact with them by phone. Staff work well with partner agencies, including specialist police officers, to ensure children’s safe return. Staff share intelligence with the police on where children have been and who they are with. Children are welcomed back to the home warmly, and staff seek to support them to be safe when in the community.

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

Staff are confident in supporting children who self-injure or misuse drugs and alcohol. Children are supported through one-to-one support and guidance from staff, as well as linking with health services, including CAMHS. Staff use day-to-day events and conversations to check in with how children are feeling and monitor them accordingly. Those who have histories of potentially harming others are supervised without the child feeling watched or restricted in the home.

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

Children are protected from unsuitable people working with them through safer recruitment practice. However, a member of staff has been working in the home without a Disclosure and Barring Service check. Children have not been exposed to unnecessary risk, as the member of staff was always supervised. Additionally, not all places that staff have worked with children or vulnerable adults have been checked during pre-employment checks. This was immediately rectified at the time of the inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The managers are active in the day-to-day care of the children, modelling the ethos of a positive parenting approach. Staff say that managers are extremely helpful and approachable, and have helped them to develop their childcare skills and understanding. Inspection report for children’s home: SC399866 5 Staff have a full range of training to meet the children’s needs. They say that they can request any training they may want in addition to this. Staff have regular supervision, which they find useful in developing their practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers have good oversight of the home and children’s progress. They regularly review children’s plans. These are updated monthly to show the progress that children have made, as well as guiding staff on how to best support any new or emerging needs. Six-monthly monitoring reviews of the home are evaluative and inform the home’s development plan. The managers are keen to constantly improve the service to meet the changing needs of those who they care for.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The management team has good working relationships with other professionals and keeps them up to date on the children’s changes and progress. Managers are confident in challenging partner agencies if they do not feel that they are providing an adequate service for children, using formal complaints processes appropriately.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers regularly consult with social workers on how they would like staff to respond to certain behaviours that children display, sharing children’s plans and protocols with them. However, there is not always a record of the social worker’s agreement to the plans, particularly how staff should respond to a child’s missing episodes. Inspection report for children’s home: SC399866 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 protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff—

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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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, record social workers’ agreement when risk management plans regarding children being missing are made. 5 May 2023

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may permit an individual to start work at the home despite the fact that the requirement in paragraph (3)(d) has not been met if—

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Requirement Due date

the registered person has taken all reasonable steps to obtain full information about each of the matters in Schedule 2 in respect of the individual, but the enquiries in relation to any of the matters in paragraphs 3 to 6 of Schedule 2 are incomplete;

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information in respect of the individual has been obtained in relation to the matters in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Schedule 2;

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Requirement Due date

the registered person considers that the circumstances are exceptional; and

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Requirement Due date

the registered person ensures that the individual is appropriately supervised while carrying out the individual’s duties, pending receipt of any outstanding information on the matters in paragraphs 3 to 6 of Schedule 2, which is then considered satisfactory by the registered person. (Regulation 32 (7)(a)(b)(c)(d)) 5 May 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: SC399866 7 In particular, ensure that all staff working in the home have a Disclosure and Barring Service certificate.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if —

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (b)) 5 May 2023

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that children are encouraged to sit together to eat, and not have meals in their bedrooms. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15 paragraph 3.8)

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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: SC399866 8

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: William Stanbridge

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Inspector

Jennie Christopher, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC399866 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 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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