Children's Home run by Derbyshire County Council in Derbyshire

Inspection report for children’s home: SC036248 1 SC036248 Registered provider: Derbyshire County Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

This home is run by a local authority and provides care and support for up to five children with social and emotional difficulties.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since 2020.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

p.1

outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

p.1

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.

p.1

outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

p.1

outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC036248 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/04/2022 Full Good 13/04/2021 Full Good 04/09/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good 25/07/2018 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC036248 3

p.2

outstanding

Children receive outstanding care from staff who are dedicated and seek to improve the children’s lives. Staff use their extensive skills and knowledge to build trusting and caring relationships with children. Over the last year, there have been some significant challenges in relation to staffing and children moving. However, children have continued to make exceptional progress because the manager and core staff team have remained extremely child-focused.

p.3

outstanding

A real strength of the management and staff team is the way that children’s moves into and out of the home are supported. The staff understand the worries that children may have before they move in. They seek to minimise these worries through excellent transition planning and working collaboratively with external agencies. The nurturing and caring approach of staff helps children settle quickly following their move to the home. For example, one child who had recently moved in said that he had ‘never been so settled’. He also said, ‘I was surprised at how quickly staff got to know me.’ When children have left, they often remain in contact with the staff. They come back to visit or meet staff in the community. This is a testament to the strong bonds between staff and the children and how children feel able to reach out to staff for support and guidance.

p.3

outstanding

The staff understand that past life experiences can continue to impact on children. Children, at times, display negative behaviours. In response, staff adopt a caring and nurturing approach, and they give praise freely and often. Consequences to manage poor behaviour are rare. Staff focus on restoring relationships when difficulties arise. This allows for respectful and meaningful bonds to develop between the children and staff.

p.3

outstanding

The staff understand how important it is for children to gain education qualifications. When one child moved in, they had been out of education for several months. Staff worked tirelessly in advocating for them, so they could access the right education provision. Now the child is exceeding expectations. This outcome is similar for all the children living in the home and is a direct result of the dedication of staff and their aspirations for the children to improve their life chances.

p.3

outstanding

Staff strive to meet children’s needs. These needs arise from learning difficulties and cultural backgrounds. The staff are patient and spend time with children to gain a full understanding of their backgrounds and needs. Staff enjoy being with children and speak about them with fondness and compassion. Children and staff undertake activities together and, over time, children have learned the importance of having caring adults in their lives. This has enabled children to settle, start making progress and feel loved. Inspection report for children’s home: SC036248 4 The home environment is challenging because there is extensive building redevelopment planned. Despite this, the standard of accommodation is good and the atmosphere is light-hearted and fun. This helps the children to feel relaxed and comfortable and enjoy their home.

p.3

outstanding

The safeguarding of children in this home is outstanding. The staff and managers go above and beyond to keep children safe. Children’s behaviour is well managed, and they rarely go missing from care. The underlying reason for children’s very good behaviour and stability is the excellent relationships children and staff enjoy.

p.4

outstanding

The staff consider all the children’s safeguarding needs and act quickly if they need to keep children safe. Staff work very effectively with external partner agencies and professionals and parents regarding safeguarding matters that affect children. Children’s individual risk assessments capture the risks and vulnerabilities of each child. The level of detail recorded shows how well staff know each child. Managers and staff regularly review risk assessments and update them if circumstances warrant it. As a result, staff have up-to-date information about each child and the best way to respond to their needs and keep them as safe as possible.

p.4

outstanding

The number of concerning incidents involving children has decreased. When incidents do occur, staff are quick to respond and follow relevant protocols. Staff are meticulous in recording incidents, and they capture all the vital details. Staff undertake individual debriefs with children following any incidents and individual work is carried out with children if necessary. The focus on learning from incidents by managers and staff is excellent. They remain committed to learning lessons and preventing incidents in the future. The staff and managers know that fundamental to providing outstanding care is the safety and welfare of the children.

p.4

outstanding

The children have access to the internet and social media and enjoy this aspect of their lives. The online activities of the children are monitored to ensure that they remain safe. Should the staff have worries over children’s online activities, they can restrict access. However, staff will endeavour to explore with children what they are doing online. Staff will seek to educate children and raise their awareness so that they can enjoy their online activities in a fun and safe manner.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home is managed by an excellent leadership team that is committed to improving outcomes for children. Leaders and managers try to find solutions to challenging behaviour and remain focused on providing children with a long-term placement that helps children to excel in all areas. They will do all they can to enable a child to remain in their care and they are driven in ensuring that children make progress and go on to achieve their life goals. Inspection report for children’s home: SC036248 5 The leadership team has spent time developing excellent relationships with external agencies. The team knows that partnership working is key to effective care planning for children. Professional feedback from external agencies is overwhelmingly positive and highlights the hard work and commitment of leaders and staff.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The leadership team has developed a culture of celebrating the differences and diversity of each child. Everyone is respected for who they are. The emphasis is on staff adapting their care approach to suit the needs of each child. Equally, children respect staff and have learned that adults can be caring, nurturing and trusted. This is important for children to learn and will help them develop positive relationships as they get older.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is confident and ambitious for the children. She supports and guides the team effectively, and they are inspired to carry out their work to a very high standard. The manager ensures that all staff receive professional supervision regularly. The manager supports and encourages reflective practice and enables staff to improve their approaches to care. This significantly benefits the children as they receive exceptional care from a skilled and knowledgeable team.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has not yet developed a workforce development plan that shows how she intends to develop her staff going forwards. This plan will support the manager in strategically ensuring that staff have the training and development they need to continue providing excellent care. Inspection report for children’s home: SC036248 6

p.5

Recommendation

 The registered person should have a workforce plan which can fulfil the workforce-related requirements of regulation 16, schedule 1 (paragraphs 19 and 20). (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)

p.6

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: SC036248 7

p.6

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Derbyshire County Council, County Offices, Matlock DE4 3AG

p.7

Inspector

Lizette Watts, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC036248 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