Children's Home run by The Rose Road Association in Southampton

Inspection report for children’s home: SC042446 1 SC042446 Registered provider: The Rose Road Association Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The service provides care for up to eight children from the age of four to 18 who have severe learning difficulties, and who may have additional physical disabilities, autism spectrum disorder and/or complex health needs. The home is owned by a charitable organisation and provides short overnight breaks on a planned or occasional basis. At the time of this inspection, there were 46 children accessing the short-breaks service.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since 2016 and is suitably qualified. The manager is also registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and manages care for adults with similar needs in a separate part of the building. Care staff work across both adult and children’s services. A separate report by the CQC is available for the adult service.

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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

Date of last inspection: 25 October 2022

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC042446 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

25/10/2022 Full Good 24/11/2021 Full Good 10/02/2020 Interim Improved effectiveness 08/08/2019 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC042446 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is spacious and welcoming for children. There are lots of areas that children can spend time in. For example, an area has been turned into a cinema space for children to enjoy watching movies together, there is a soft play area for children to play in, and there are plans for the sensory room to be upgraded. There are also plans to improve the garden area and children are being consulted on how they wish this to look.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Careful planning is in place to assess new children referred to the home. A transition plan is put in place, which may include visits for tea, or a longer stay at the weekend. The managers also consult with important people involved in children’s lives, such as families and education providers, to ensure that care plans are right for children so they can enjoy their stay and receive the best care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Leaders and managers want the children to enjoy their stays and have new experiences and adventures. For example, children who may want to stay overnight with friends from school can share a room and have sleepovers. The staff constantly seek feedback from children to see if they have enjoyed their visits and how they can improve this for next time.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff have built beautiful relationships with children and show that they genuinely care for them, for example staff think of the children in their own time and purchasing things they think the children may like. This is not expected of the staff, but they do it because the children mean so much to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Where children move on from using the service, leaders and managers work in conjunction with other providers such as adult services to support an effective changeover between care settings. This provides children with a smooth transition.

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

Senior leaders have ensured that learning from a safeguarding incident has been taken and embedded in staff and manager’s practice. There has been additional training provided to staff around reporting and recording of incidents and this has improved records, meaning that incident reports are more informative.

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

Children’s health needs are managed extremely well. There are stringent measures and risk plans in place to manage the children’s medication and additional health equipment such as feeding tubes and oxygen.

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

There are clear, written plans to ensure that children’s complex care needs are identified. These plans are constantly reviewed and reflect any changes. Staff read children’s plans on every visit to ensure that they know the most up-to-date Inspection report for children’s home: SC042446 4 information for children. This ensures that children receive appropriate help and care from staff that know them well.

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

Any concerns raised by partner agencies are fully considered and reflected on to identify learning and any improvements that can be made. For example, where a child may have arrived at school and is not positioned correctly in their chair, the registered manager has arranged additional training for staff to ensure that this is addressed.

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

There are shortfalls in the registered provider’s recruitment processes. For example, they have not obtained information relating to some staff’s previous employment with children or vulnerable adults. Additionally, they are unable to demonstrate that agency staff have been fully vetted before working in the home. Action was taken by senior leaders to ensure that this was addressed during the inspection.

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good

Senior leaders are invested in the quality of care given and have improved the monitoring and oversight of the children’s care and experiences. They are in the early stages of a new insights tool to capture trends and patterns with the plan to improve children’s care and promote staff well-being.

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good

There are sufficient staff to provide the care and staffing ratios identified for the children in line with their care plans. The staff are very positive about working in the home and feel they have good communication and support for each other.

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good

Children’s families and professionals are complimentary of the care provided to the children, and the relationships between them and the staff. Daily handover books ensure effective communication with children’s families so that they know how the stay has been for their child.

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good

There have been occasions where staff have needed to use a physical intervention to keep children or staff safer. However, there are insufficient records kept demonstrating that these have been reviewed under the regulation. Consequently, the inspector was unable to review physical interventions as the correct records have not been made.

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good

Leaders and managers provide regular and effective supervision for staff. However, staff have not had their annual performance appraised. This is a missed opportunity to support and plan staff development while reviewing their practice.

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good

There are regular opportunities for staff training. However, records to capture and demonstrate that staff have the skills and experience required, including mandatory refresher training, are not kept up to date to evidence that all staff are competent and have the skills to support children’s needs. There is currently no workforce plan to effectively plan and capture this information. Inspection report for children’s home: SC042446 5 The statement of purpose has been updated and sent to the regulator. However, it does not include all of the required information and, therefore, does not provide a full overview of the care provided to children and processes in place. Inspection report for children’s home: SC042446 6

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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 registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or

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Requirement Due date

if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home,

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Requirement Due date

if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1) (2)(a)(b) (3)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that:

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Requirement Due date

the relevant checks are carried out to ensure that staff have been suitably vetted; any temporary or agency staff have been safely recruited and satisfactory information is available to demonstrate this. 31 July 2023

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development; and

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(c))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person should ensure that: 30 September Inspection report for children’s home: SC042446 7 all staff have their performance appraised annually; the workforce development plan demonstrates all staff’s skills, experience and training plans; mandatory training identified for staff is updated within reasonable timescales. The registered person must prepare and implement a policy (“the behaviour management policy”) which sets out—

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Requirement Due date

the measures of control, discipline and restraint which may be used in relation to children in the home.

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

details of the child’s behaviour leading to the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person who used the measure (“the user”), and of any other person present when the measure was used;

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (“the authorised person”)—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and 31 July 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: SC042446 8 within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (1)(b) (3)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(b)(i)(ii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that a record is made where physical intervention has been used by staff to support a child.

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Recommendation

 The statement of purpose is of particular importance to this standard (regulation 6 (2)(a) and (b)(i)). Homes are required to develop and keep under review a “Statement of Purpose” (regulation 16 and schedule 1). The registered person should ensure that the home’s statement of purpose is child-focused, indicating how the home provides individualised care to meet the Quality Standards for the children in their care and covers the criteria of schedule 1. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, pages 14-15, paragraph 3.5)

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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: SC042446 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: The Rose Road Association

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Rose Road Association, 300 Aldermoor Road, Southampton, Hampshire SO16 5NA

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Inspector

Sara Stoker, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC042446 10 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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