Children's home run by Birtenshaw in Bolton

Inspection report for children’s home: SC483533 1 SC483533 Registered provider: Birtenshaw Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is part of a large charitable organisation. It provides care for up to three children who may have learning disabilities or sensory impairment.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in October 2019.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC483533 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/07/2021 Full Good 11/03/2020 Interim Improved effectiveness 10/04/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good 15/05/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: SC483533 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy a range of activities, including sensory play, trips to the swimming pool and visits to the local park. They also attend group trips to specialist activities with children with similar needs. These activities and interactions help children to build positive and trusting relationships and to develop their social skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that education is a priority for children, and all children have 100% attendance. Staff ensure that they communicate effectively with the child’s school, and consider the child’s learning needs for a smooth transition plan between home and school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make progress from the time that they move into the home. They become more resilient and respond well to the consistent care and routines from staff. The children’s communication skills improve as they respond to the methods used by staff. This helps to build children’s confidence and self-esteem.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s bedrooms are personalised. However, currently one child’s bedroom has no radiator and the room felt cold. The manager said that there is a heater to warm the bedroom up. Still, this does not provide the child with the physical necessities that create a homely feel.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have built good relationships with children. This helps children to build trust and to feel safe and relaxed in their surroundings. Staff communicate with children verbally and through Picture Exchange Communication System boards and symbols. This enables the children to give their views and be actively involved in decisions about their daily life, such as choosing meals and leisure activities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health needs are important to staff. The children benefit from having access to the occupational therapist and the speech and language therapist. This helps to ensure that children’s health needs are consistently met. With the support from staff, some children are able to attend to aspects of their own care, such as visiting the dentist and going to the hairdressers. This means that children have involvement in the world around them.

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

The children’s risk assessments are up to date and give staff clear actions to follow to reduce the risk of harm to the child. The children’s triggers are detailed in these risk assessments and strategies are provided to help support the children to keep safe.

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

Each child has a hospital plan in place that is bespoke to the child. These plans include relevant health information and the child’s preferred communication style. Inspection report for children’s home: SC483533 4 These plans are useful for hospital staff to help them to understand the child’s health needs and known triggers which may lead to the child becoming distressed.

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

Staff only use physical restraint as a last resort. Physical restraint documents are well recorded. They give a good level of information about the incident and what staff did to de-escalate the situation. The child and staff are debriefed following any incident. This helps the staff and the child to reflect on the incident and look at other strategies that may prevent the need to use physical restraint.

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

Children currently living in the home do not go missing from the home. Staff understand how serious and dangerous it is when children are missing, and know what actions to take to make sure that children are quickly located and safely returned home.

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

The manager takes allegations seriously. To manage the allegations effectively, she works with the local authority designated officer, the child’s social worker and notifies Ofsted. This multi-agency approach is transparent and ensures that all professionals are kept aware.

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good

The manager has positive relationships with children and staff. She is enthusiastic and has high aspirations for children. Staff spoke highly of the manager’s commitment to the role and the children.

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good

There is a stable team of core staff who, along with a few regular agency staff, cover additional shifts. The manager tries to ensure that the consistency of care is maintained. Nevertheless, staffing vacancies at the home and the high use of agency staff sometimes mean that the consistency is not maintained.

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good

There are currently three suitably qualified staff. Staff who have been in post for more than two years have still not completed relevant qualifications for their role. Furthermore, agency staff do not have the relevant training to meet children’s specific needs. This means that children are not always cared for by trained staff. To minimise this risk, the manager confirmed that the agency staff do not lone work with the children.

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good

The manager ensures that the staff have regular supervision and appraisals. These allow them to discuss and reflect on the children’s care plans, the health and safety of the home and any practice and development concerns.

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good

The manager recognises the strengths of the home and the areas for further development. A development plan helps the manager to respond to the identified shortfalls in practice. External monitoring arrangements provide an additional assessment of the home. However, the reports do not routinely capture feedback from parents, and the independent person is not creative in capturing children’s Inspection report for children’s home: SC483533 5 views, wishes and feelings. This does not ensure that there is a thorough review of whether children’s well-being is met and if they are effectively safeguarded. Inspection report for children’s home: SC483533 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, 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.

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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

provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(vii)) 20 April 2023

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Requirement Due date

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained—

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Requirement Due date

the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) ("the Level 3 Diploma"); or

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Requirement Due date

a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma. (Regulation 32 (a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that staff complete qualifications in the timescales set out in regulations. 20 April 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: SC483533 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that they monitor and review the patterns and trends of turnover of staff, whether agency or directly employed, and be able understand and, where possible, address any negative trends. The registered person should also reduce the use of agency staff employed to provide care for the children. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.19)  The registered person should ensure that any individual appointed to carry out visits to the home as an independent person must make attempts each visit to speak to children’s parents to gain their views, and to be creative in capturing children’s views, wishes and feelings. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.5)

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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: SC483533 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Birtenshaw Darwen Road, Bromley Cross, Bolton BL7 9AB

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Inspector

Gemma McDonnell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC483533 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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