Children's home run by Fledglings Child Care Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2669905 1 Registered provider: Fledglings Child Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The home is owned and managed by a private organisation. It provides care for up to two children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

Ofsted registered this home in May 2022 and the manager also registered at this time.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

p.1

good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

p.1

good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

p.1

good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

p.1

good

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report for children’s home: 2669905 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

Not previously inspected Inspection report for children’s home: 2669905 3

p.2

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Two children have moved into the home since it was registered. Staff are focusing on helping children to build positive relationships and taking them on activities. This approach means that children can start to form stable attachments. One child said, ‘This is the best place I’ve lived. The staff respect me, and I respect them.’

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Managers and staff ensure that children’s cultural needs are identified and met. They attend places of worship with one child and provide them with the relevant dietary requirements so that they can continue to practise their faith. This reinforces for children that adults around them do care and support their needs.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s physical and emotional health is important to staff. Children are supported to attend their routine health appointments, eat a balanced diet and enjoy regular activities and exercise. This encourages children to lead a healthy and happy life.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When children struggle with education, the registered manager works closely with school staff. Together, they look at alternatives for the children to encourage their attendance. However, the current plans are mostly ineffective and children are not attending school. Day-to-day routines in the home do not provide children with structure to prepare them for more formal learning. Furthermore, staff are not working in line with one child’s education plan as they are not encouraging independent reading. This is detrimental to the child’s educational progress and social development.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff use one-to-one sessions to encourage children to communicate their views, wishes and feelings. These sessions are child-focused. Any incidents or concerns are always followed up with discussions between children and staff. These discussions support children to reflect on any issues of concern, without leaving them feeling that they are to blame. This helps children to become more self-aware.

p.3

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

Staff know each child’s vulnerabilities and know the children well. The children’s support plans and risk assessments are detailed and provide staff with clear actions to follow to reduce each child’s risk. This has resulted in the individual risks to children reducing. Therefore, children are better protected from harm.

p.3

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

Staff are consistent in their approach to supporting children. They reinforce boundaries for children, both in the home and when they are out in the community. Following incidents, staff help children to reflect on their behaviours, and together they look at what might have worked better for the child. This continual shared learning helps children to develop an understanding of their own risks. As a result, risks to children’s safety continue to reduce. Inspection report for children’s home: 2669905 4 Children do not go missing from home. This is excellent progress for one child. Staff are aware of the actions to take should a child go missing and how to work in partnership with other agencies, including the police. Consequently, children can be quickly and safely located and returned to the home.

p.3

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

Staff build positive relationships with children in a short space of time and are able to understand their triggers. This enables staff to manage, and start to reduce, any disruptive or unwanted behaviours. Furthermore, children are becoming more resilient and better able to cope when feeling angry or sad.

p.4

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

Children said that they feel safe and can speak to staff about any worries or concerns that they may have. Children are aware of how to make a complaint. This reassures children that their views are taken seriously. This gives them the control to share their views, wishes and feelings, both in and out of the home.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is a positive role model for staff and leads by example. This way of working ensures that staff are consistent in their approach and encourages the nurturing ethos in the home. It also creates a culture of high aspirations for the children.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children are cared for by a consistent staff team. Collectively, staff have the knowledge, experience and skills to provide a good standard of care. Although there are staff vacancies, the team pulls together to ensure that this does not impact on the children. This maintains the children’s sense of security.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is aware of the home’s strengths and areas for development. The monitoring systems in place mean that, when shortfalls are found, the registered manager takes immediate action to ensure that they are swiftly rectified. Nevertheless, the quality of care review does not provide evaluation of how children’s progress has been achieved. Also, external monitoring is not always effective as shortfalls in paperwork have not been identified. The registered manager was quick to address and rectify this during the inspection.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff supervisions are frequent and provide staff with an action plan to help them develop in their role. Plans are regularly reviewed. This continual review of staff’s aims and objectives encourages their ongoing development. Nevertheless, supervisions could be strengthened by more reflection of staff practice towards children. This is a missed opportunity to explore better ways to support children.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children communicate their views, wishes and feelings through one-to-one sessions, children’s meetings and general discussions. The children have managers’ work email addresses. This means that children can write to them with their views, wishes and feelings. Managers respond to these emails in a timely manner. Inspection report for children’s home: 2669905 5

p.4

Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet the Care Standards Act 2000, the 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.

p.5

Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff— help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans; support each child’s learning and development, including helping the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)) 23 April 2023

p.5

Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to 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)  The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and make best use of information from independent and internal monitoring (including under regulations 44 and 45) to ensure continuous improvement. Evaluation of these documents should be undertaken to identify gaps in training skills or knowledge for staff or to record and retain evidence of what worked well. This evaluation should inform the review of the quality of care. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 55,

p.5

Recommendations

paragraph 10.24) Inspection report for children’s home: 2669905 6

p.5

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: 2669905 7

p.6

Children’s home details

Registered provider: Fledglings Child Care Limited

p.7

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Colonnade House, 1st Floor, 163 Kingsway, Manchester M19 2ND

p.7

Inspector

Gemma McDonnell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2669905 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

p.7

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.8

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.8

Inspector

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.8