Children's Home run by Care Perspectives Ltd in Walsall

Inspection report for children’s home: 1263977 1 Registered provider: Care Perspectives 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 eight children with mental health difficulties and/or associated complex needs. The home was registered in December 2017.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager position is vacant. There is a manager in place who has applied to be registered with Ofsted.

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Information about this children’s home

There were seven children living in the home at the time of the inspection.

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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: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 1263977 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/06/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 29/03/2022 Interim Sustained effectiveness 23/06/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good 11/03/2020 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report for children’s home: 1263977 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress in the important areas of their lives. This is because staff know them well and they develop and share positive relationships. In addition, staff provide individualised and consistent support. Staff understand children’s individual starting points and help children to recognise and celebrate their progress and achievements. As a result, children feel valued and respected in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to engage with their education. They recognise that children have different needs, and understand the barriers in place for some children. Staff work effectively with education professionals in helping children to overcome these barriers. As a result, children’s plans are specific to their individual needs. This support helps to significantly improve some children’s attendance and attainment grades, and children make good progress from their starting points.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff and leaders regularly seek children’s views about the care that they receive. Children are encouraged to contribute to their own care planning. For example, staff complete key-work sessions with children, and children directly share their views, wishes and feelings. One child was keen to decorate the games room in the home and staff supported the child’s wishes. Consequently, children feel reassured that their voice is listened to, which improves their confidence and self-worth.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children to maintain and develop positive relationships with their families and friends. They recognise how significant these relationships are to children and their well-being. Children’s friends are encouraged to visit and spend time in the home. This supportive approach ensures that children are not isolated from the people who are important to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children’s transitions effectively. Since the last inspection, one child has moved in to the home and one child has moved on from the home to return to live with their family. Both transitions were well planned and supported by the manager and staff. The manager recognises the importance of children’s transitions and advocates strongly on their behalf. As a result, children feel supported during important moments in their lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home’s manager ensures that staff promote children’s health needs well. Leaders work effectively with the home’s clinical lead to make improvements to the home’s therapeutic approach. Some children are now starting to receive weekly support from the home’s psychologist. In addition, staff work in partnership with the clinical lead to complete focused and meaningful work with children. This improving approach helps children to learn about sensitive areas that are specific to them, in a safe and well-planned environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Overall, the home is suitably furnished to meet the needs of children. The manager has worked with the children to improve the décor and personalise children’s Inspection report for children’s home: 1263977 4 bedrooms. This helps to create an environment where children feel at ease and welcome. However, many areas of the home and garden require maintenance and repair work. Leaders recognise this and are taking action to refurbish and develop the home’s environment. In addition, the manager does not want the repair work to unsettle children and is making plans to take them on holiday while work is carried out.

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

Children say that they feel safe in the home. Staff ensure that there are clear boundaries and expectations for children, which help to keep them safe. Staff also know the children well and understand their complex needs. As a result, there are rarely significant incidents with children both inside and outside of the home. For some children, the number of significant incidents has reduced remarkably since the last inspection.

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

Staff work restoratively with children and use consequences that are appropriate and specific to their behaviour. For example, on one occasion, a child had been excluded from school for hitting another child and filming it. Staff encouraged the child to write a letter of apology to the victim and removed the child’s phone for three days while they carried out safety and reflection work with the child. There were no other incidents of this nature following this response and action taken.

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

Incidents requiring physical restraint with children are extremely rare. For example, there has been one incident since the last inspection. The manager’s review of the incident was good, and both the child and staff were spoken to and provided with opportunities to learn from the experience. As a result, children respect this approach and respond well.

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

Staff follow children’s missing-from-home plans well. During significant incidents, staff have taken immediate action to work with the police to locate children and return them to the home. In addition, the manager ensures that children receive return-home interviews, and information is used to review safeguarding strategies. This approach means that children feel reassured and know that staff care about their well-being.

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

Overall, leaders respond effectively to safeguarding concerns in the home. They work well with the relevant professionals, and follow-up investigations are completed in a timely manner. In addition, the manager ensures that all learning and follow-up actions from investigations are completed to improve staff practice. Children are always provided with updates and outcomes to any allegations made. These actions help to safeguard children and protect their welfare.

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

The manager ensures that all complaints made by children and the important people in children’s lives are acted on. Following complaints made since the last inspection, the manager has followed the home’s policies and responded to resolve the issues. Consequently, children and those people involved in children’s lives feel valued and listened to. Inspection report for children’s home: 1263977 5

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good

The home has been without a registered manager since August 2022. The current manager took over in August 2022 on an interim basis to provide leadership and support to the home. However, in November 2022, the manager took on the role permanently. While the manager has applied to register with Ofsted, she has not done this within the required timeframes. Failing to register with Ofsted in a timely manner has the potential to impact on children’s progress and overall day-to-day experiences in the home.

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good

Despite this shortfall, the manager is organised and has made a real difference to the home since taking over. She advocates well for children, works well with professionals, and is not afraid to make changes and decisions to improve the care that children receive.

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good

Staff receive regular supervision and support to improve their practice. Supervision sessions are of a good standard, supportive and clearly focus on development. In addition, the manager uses supervision to identify further training for senior staff when there are gaps in their knowledge. For example, senior staff have recently completed specific supervision training to help them when delivering supervision to staff. As a result, staff grow in confidence and improve their knowledge.

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good

Staff receive regular training, and this is relevant to the individual needs of the children. In addition, further upskilling and training opportunities that are provided to the staff help to develop and enhance the care delivered to children. For example, staff have completed workshops on recording and reporting and therapeutic parenting in team meetings. Consequently, well-skilled and effective staff support the children.

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good

Management oversight and monitoring processes are creative and reflective. The manager has made improvements to the home’s internal and external monitoring systems since the last inspection. For example, she now completes children’s progress reports, shares weekly care reports with the home’s responsible individual, and analyses children’s significant incidents effectively. As a result, the manager knows the home’s strengths and weaknesses and is taking action to improve the care that children receive. However, the manager’s systems did fail to identify some recording gaps in children’s risk assessments and records of conversations held with staff.

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good

External professionals comment positively on the home. One professional said, ‘The manager works well with me, and she is open to suggestions. Staff are receptive, supportive and always interested in the children.’ In reference to one child, another professional said that the child ‘loves staff and the home’ and that ‘staff have empathy, are proactive and want the best for children’. Inspection report for children’s home: 1263977 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the children’s home is a nurturing, well- maintained and supportive environment that meets the needs of the children. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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Recommendations

 The registered provider should ensure that they appoint a permanent manager to manage the home. The provider must ensure that the appointed person applies to register with Ofsted in the required timeframes. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 60, paragraph 12.2)

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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: 1263977 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Care Perspectives Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Care Perspectives Limited, 36 Frederick Street, Loughborough LE11 3BJ

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Rodrigo Ferreira

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Inspectors

Dean Wilton, Social Care Inspector Sharon Bourne, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 1263977 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.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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