Children's Home run by Resicare Alliance Limited in Birmingham

Inspection report for children’s home: SC463639 1 SC463639 Registered provider: Aston Children’s Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is operated by a private company. It provides care for up to five children with learning and/or physical disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

Three children live at the home. Two of the children have lived at the home for over three years and are settled. Two children have moved out of the home since the last inspection. One child has recently moved into the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has applied to register with Ofsted.

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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: SC463639 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/08/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 03/05/2022 Full Inadequate 25/05/2021 Full Good 08/01/2020 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: SC463639 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is welcoming and provides a warm, family environment for the children. All children’s bedrooms are personalised and reflect their personal interests.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are nurturing and supportive of the children and they speak warmly about them. Staff know the children well and provide them with individualised care. Consequently, children are making progress in a range of areas, including their emotional well-being and health.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Two children access education that is appropriate to their individual needs. Both children are making progress and are meeting the targets in their education, health and care plans. One child, who has recently moved into the home, is not currently accessing education. There are plans for staff to support him to access education once he has settled into the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to engage in various activities in the home and the community. Children enjoy riding their scooters at the park and going swimming. One child enjoys equine therapy, and the other child is involved with a theatre group. These opportunities help children to socialise with peers and develop their self-esteem and confidence while having fun.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported by staff to maintain their relationships with people who are important to them. Staff have positive relationships with children’s families, which helps children to enjoy positive family time. A parent told the inspector that staff are empathetic and are working with her to resolve issues with planning family time. Consequently, children benefit from staff and families working together to support family time.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff do not proactively and consistently help children to use their communication aids to express their views, wishes and feelings. Therefore, at times, staff struggle to understand what children are trying to communicate, such as how their day has been. This has meant that staff have guessed what the child is trying to communicate rather than use aids to capture accurately what the child is trying to convey.

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

Staff help children to understand their needs and identify their goals. Staff support children to work towards their goals at their own pace. This helps children to develop new skills and manage their feelings more positively. As a result, there has been a low number of incidents and staff have not had to use physical intervention. In addition, staff have not had to call the police to respond to incidents. Inspection report for children’s home: SC463639 4 Overall, staff have a good understanding of children’s risks and respond appropriately to safeguarding incidents. Care plans and risk assessments for children who have lived it the home for a number of years are detailed and inform staff on how to safely care for children. However, the current manager has failed to put these documents in place for a child who recently moved into the home. Once this issue was identified by the inspector, it was resolved by the manager during the

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

The previous manager did not notify the regulator of a significant incident involving one child. This approach does not support the regulator to have oversight of safeguarding practice in the home. In addition, records of the action taken in relation to this incident are not clear. This hinders the manager’s oversight of the incident and the identification of learning to inform future practice.

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good

The home has not had a registered manager since December 2020. During this period, four different managers have managed the home. This has resulted in inconsistent leadership. The current manager has been in post for two months and has applied to register with Ofsted.

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good

The manager’s monitoring systems require improvement. The manager has failed to identify shortfalls in the quality and timeliness of recordings. As a result, work carried out with the children has not always been recorded or it is not clear what actions have been taken to identify good practice or learning to improve practice.

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good

The staff feel supported by the management team and receive regular supervision sessions. These sessions, alongside team meetings, provide opportunities for the staff to review and develop their practice to improve the care children receive.

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good

Effective working relationships exist between managers, staff and external professionals, including family support workers, social workers and teachers. This ensures that information is shared quickly, and staff and professionals work together to support children and keep them safe. Inspection report for children’s home: SC463639 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, 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 children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives.

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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

ascertain and consider each child’s views, wishes and feelings, and balance these against what they judge to be in the child’s best interests when making decisions about the child’s care and welfare;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to express views, wishes and feelings. (Regulation 7 (1)(c) (2)(a)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to staff using communication tools and aids to help children communicate on a day-to-day basis.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was issued at the previous inspection and is restated. 9 June 2023

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there;

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(c)(e)) 9 June 2023

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which— 9 June 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: SC463639 6 include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

securely in the children’s home during the period when the child to whom the case records relate is accommodated there. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that records are kept up to date and that each child has a care plan on file to inform the care they receive from staff.

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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: SC463639 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Aston Children’s Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 181 Penn Road, Wolverhampton WV3 0EQ

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Inspector

Sharon Bourne, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC463639 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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