Children's Home run by Care Hubz in Leeds

Inspection report for children’s home: 2686949 1 Registered provider: Care Hubz Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned and managed by a private provider. Care is provided for one child aged between 11 and 17 years.

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Information about this children’s home

The home and the manager registered with Ofsted in December 2022. There was one child living at 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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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: not previously inspected

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report for children’s home: 2686949 2

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good

The manager’s vision for the home is not yet embedded in practice, resulting in several shortfalls that are limiting the children’s progress. The organisation’s handling of referrals and poor planning resulted in one child experiencing an unplanned and traumatic move from the home.

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good

Leaders and managers do not apply enough critical analysis to referral information concerning the children’s needs. The information gathered at the referral stage does not filter into the child’s behaviour support plan that guides the staff. This limits the ability of staff to fully understand the child’s needs.

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good

The manager and staff are committed to their role. They try to build warm and trusting relationships with the child in their care. However, the child’s behaviour support plan does not provide clear information about agreed boundaries, such as the child’s access to their mobile phone throughout the night. This increases the risk of the staff team missing opportunities to increase the child’s welfare.

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good

Staff are patient and show care and affection towards the child living in the home. They address undesirable behaviour in a manner that gets the best from children, by teaching them about aspects of their behaviour that need to change. Inspectors observed a good example of this when the child was testing boundaries with staff. This prevented the situation from escalating as the staff supported the child to regain their focus effectively.

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good

The staff work closely with the child’s family. This enables the child to be supported to work through complicated issues that have placed a strain on their relationships with important family members. However, the manager does not appropriately apply the delegated authority that reflects the child’s legal status.

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good

The children’s day-to-day lived experiences in the home are enhanced. The manager and staff take pride in the home, and they provide a welcoming family environment for the children. Children personalise their bedroom and contribute their ideas to the decor of the home and the outside premises. This promotes a sense of belonging, ownership and being valued for the children.

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good

Staff encourage the children to pursue their interests and hobbies. Staff are motivated to provide the children with a wide range of stimulating experiences, and they enjoy taking part in activities with the children. This creates natural opportunities for the child to develop meaningful relationships with the staff.

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good

For children who are on a temporary partial school timetable, the manager is proactive in finding ways to bolster the child’s educational opportunities. This ensures that the child’s learning is not limited. Additionally, the staff promote the Inspection report for children’s home: 2686949 3 child’s learning of the wider world through celebrating various cultural events and having educational conversations with the child about topical current issues.

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good

Children are encouraged to give their views through a variety of methods, such as general conversations with the staff, weekly meetings and the home’s ‘grumble box’. However, there is a lack of consultation with the children about their plan that the local authority has endorsed. This increases the risk of the children being misinformed and confused about what their long-term plan is.

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improvement to be good

Care planning is not cohesive. The child’s care plan, behaviour support plans and risk assessments do not align, nor do they reflect the needs and risks identified in the child’s formal assessments undertaken by other professionals. Information contained in the home’s care plan for the child is sparse. Cumulatively, this limits the ability of staff to work as a team to keep the child safer.

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improvement to be good

The manager’s oversight of significant incidents involving the children is inconsistent and lacks analysis. There is a lack of strategy to reduce the risk of incidents recurring. This also applies to notifications of significant events that are received by the regulator. This prevents the regulator from being assured that the children are appropriately supported in a crisis.

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improvement to be good

When the children are restrained by the staff, it is done in the child’s best interests. There is a focus from staff to keep the child safer by exerting control and supporting the child to recover. However, the manager’s debriefs with the staff are not sufficiently recorded. Although the manager states that the debrief has occurred, this is not evident, and therefore transparency, accountability and learning are compromised.

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improvement to be good

Documents intended to help the staff better protect the child if they go missing from the home do not hold information that is up to date and pertinent to the child. This compromises the staff and external agency’s ability to take effective steps to safeguard the child.

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improvement to be good

The home’s local risk assessment includes oversight of the local area and knowledge of local crime rates. The manager makes good efforts to network and collaborate with other providers to share information on local challenges that could pose a risk to children.

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to be good

The manager has a good knowledge of the child’s needs, understands their starting points and can talk about the progress that the child is making in their care. However, this knowledge does not transmit into the child’s written records. This Inspection report for children’s home: 2686949 4 undermines the manager’s ability to direct the staff on how to meet the needs of the child.

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to be good

The staff and manager struggle to work effectively with the home’s electronic recording and storage system. When inspectors asked for specific documents, the staff and manager struggled to find the child’s working document and were often given differing records to sample. This increases the risk of staff referring to the wrong document, consequently working against the manager’s intended direction.

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to be good

While the leadership team knows the service’s strengths and areas for development, its vision is not clear as the workforce development plan is only partially complete. Formal mechanisms for gaining feedback from stakeholders are not yet embedded. These factors combined prevent the leadership team from evidencing gaps in the service and identifying a plan to remedy them.

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to be good

Team meetings are well recorded and show good team cohesion around talking about the child’s needs and the overall functioning of the home. However, the outcomes do not consistently feed into the child’s care planning. This reduces accountability and increases the risk of drift and delay for children, as the agreed actions are not current in the child’s working documents or reviewed on a regular basis.

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to be good

Staff complete the provider’s mandatory training programme. However, at the time of the inspection, the manager’s training matrix was not up to date and did not include the staff who work at the home. This oversight hinders the manager’s ability to be assured that all of the staff are appropriately trained to care for the children.

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to be good

Staff confirm that they value their supervision sessions. They benefit from regular, good-quality sessions that are reflective and promote their professional development. There is evidence of management challenge and support. Inspection report for children’s home: 2686949 5

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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 care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)) 1 June 2023

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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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

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home; 1 June 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2686949 6 demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and

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Requirement Due date

feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; and

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(f)(g)(i)(ii)(h))

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the home’s record of significant events includes a clear description of the action taken and the outcome of any resulting investigation. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.14)  The registered person should ensure that the children are encouraged by the staff to see the home’s records as ‘living documents’, supporting them to view and contribute to the record in a way that reflects their voice on a regular basis. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 58, paragraph 11.19)  The registered person should ensure that the records that are kept electronically can be easily accessed by anyone with a legitimate need to view them and, if required, be reproduced in a legible form. Electronic records should be held at the individual home in accordance with data protection principles. (‘Guide to the

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Recommendations

Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 14.2)  The registered person should ensure that the staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs, and they should understand the key role that they play in the training and development of the staff. Additionally, the manager should have a system in place so they can be assured that all staff have access to training. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)  The registered person should ensure that the staff continually and actively assess the risks to each child and are aware of the arrangements in place to protect them. Where there are safeguarding concerns for a child, their placement plan, agreed between the home and the child’s placing authority, must include details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risks on a day-to-day

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Recommendations

basis. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5) Inspection report for children’s home: 2686949 7

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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: 2686949 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: St Catherine’s Mill, Broad Lane, Leeds LS13 2TD

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Laura Ainley-Pearson

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Inspectors

Steve Guirey, Social Care Inspector Shirin Khan, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2686949 9 and inspects 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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