Children's Home run by T-Junction Children’s Services in Leicestershire

Inspection report for children's home: 2495951 1 Registered provider: T-Junction Children’s Services Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

A private provider owns this home. It provides care for up to three children who have social and emotional difficulties. Two children were 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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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Date of last inspection: 28 September 2022

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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: 2495951 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

28/09/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 20/06/2022 Full Inadequate 12/04/2022 Full Inadequate 28/04/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2495951 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is warm and homely and provides a comfortable environment for the children. Children’s bedrooms are personalised to reflect their interests and tastes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to share their wishes and feelings. They discuss a wide range of topics in children’s meetings. The staff meet with children individually to obtain their views and discuss important issues for the children. If children complain, complaints are addressed promptly and effectively by managers. Managers write to children to provide feedback once a complaint has been dealt with to provide reassurance to children. This ensures that children feel listened to.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children and staff have positive relationships. Staff support children to engage in activities that interest them. A social worker said: ‘For [child’s name] to see staff support her and encourage her makes a huge difference.’ Staff recognise children’s strengths and celebrate them. This helps to develop children’s self-esteem and confidence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Managers and staff work collaboratively with education providers to ensure that children receive the education they need. An education professional said: ‘Communication is very good, and we work together to look for supportive and innovative solutions to engage our children in education and maximise outcomes.’ This supports children with their educational progress and prepares them well for the future.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff do not consistently support children to develop positive relationships with their peers in and outside of the home. For example, staff do not support children to take risks appropriate to their age, but instead are restricted from spending time in the community. Children are not then able to learn from incidents when things do not go to plan. This can hamper children’s preparations for later in their lives.

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

When children are held by staff, records are of a good quality. The manager and staff support children to help them understand why a physical intervention has been used to manage behaviour and keep everyone safe. This helps children develop a better awareness of the implications of their actions. Staff have worked with children to develop a better understanding of how to support them managing strong feelings and emotions.

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

When incidents occur outside the home, staff work with external professionals to help keep children safe. Links are established with the local police community support officer and education providers. Staff support children with their feelings and emotions. Inspection report for children's home: 2495951 4 Consequences for children are not used often, and when they are, they are proportionate and reviewed by a manager. Positive behaviours are recognised daily and recorded in individual books for the children. These records are shared with the children on a weekly basis. Following any incident, debrief meetings take place with the children and staff involved. This helps children and staff reflect on the support needed.

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

Children’s individual risk assessment plans lack detail and guidance for staff to follow. Known risks are not considered or reflected and details of known triggers are limited. Where there are emerging concerns, managers and staff do not identify and support the potential risks effectively. This means that children are at increased risk of harm.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager understands children’s individual needs. An external professional said: ‘Our child is very settled at [name of home] and has a really good relationship with the staff there. I’ve seen first-hand how relationships have developed and how our child trusts and respects [child’s name] the carers.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers reflect on the progress made by children. The manager is developing a way to record the progress children make more clearly; however, this is not yet embedded. This helps with positive development of the service and the care provided for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive a range of training, including safeguarding training. Training is regular and varied, taking into consideration children’s specific needs. This enables staff to have a good understanding of children’s care needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff have regular, individual supervision meetings with the manager, which are supportive and help the member of staff to develop their care practices. The individual needs of the children are discussed, as well as any support needs for the member of staff. However, discussions during supervision sessions do not consistently promote reflection on what staff could do better.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has systems in place to ensure that oversight does take place. However, this is inconsistent at times and reduces the understanding of the strengths and development opportunities going forward. Inspection report for children's home: 2495951 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 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

make decisions about the day-to-day arrangements for each child, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans, which give the child an appropriate degree of freedom and choice. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(ix))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that staff support children to take age-appropriate risks and develop skills to understand and manage risks safely. 19 July 2023

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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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 staff— 19 July 2023 Inspection report for children's home: 2495951 6 communicate to each child expectations about the child’s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful;

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Requirement Due date

that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(v)(vi)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically refers to staff supporting children to develop and manage positive peer relationships.

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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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

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to risk assessments being robust and ensuring that staff understand how to help keep children keep safe. It also refers to staff being aware of emerging concerns and for staff to have the knowledge to support the potential risks robustly. 19 July 2023 Inspection report for children's home: 2495951 7

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Recommendation

 The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and make best use of information from independent and internal monitoring (including under regulations 44 and 45) to ensure continuous improvement. They are responsible for proactively implementing lessons learned and sustaining good practice. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)

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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: 2495951 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: T-Junction Children’s Services Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 27 The Pastures, Narborough, Leicester LE19 3DS

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Inspector

Kathryn Hurley, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2495951 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 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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