Children's home run by Total Care Matters Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2541993 1 Registered provider: Total Care Matters Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a private children’s home that is registered to care for four children who are currently unable to live with their family. During this inspection, there was only one child living in the home.

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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: 7 February 2023

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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: 2541993 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/02/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 10/08/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2541993 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child is happy and relaxed around staff. The child has made significant progress from their starting points, particularly with regards to their behaviour. They are now happier and more able to engage in their education and life in the home. Friends visit and have had a sleepover, which is in line with what their peers would be doing.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff fully involve the child in writing their care plan. The care plan is child-friendly and written as if the child is telling the story. It provides good information for staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The registered manager strongly advocates for the child to ensure that they can access a school as quickly as possible. Home tutoring has been sporadic, but the child now seems to have a tutor that they can engage with for the allotted four-and- a-half hours a week over three days. Alongside tutoring, staff have been supporting the child with their education. Staff have provided an outline of a timetable for education, but this offers little structure and is not very creative. For example, the timetable will say mathematics for one day rather than detailing an activity that involves mathematics at a specific time of the day. The lack of structure and creativity will not support the child back into school. The registered manager started to outline a more structured and creative plan for the child’s education during the inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff fully support the child to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. The child’s sleep pattern has improved, which is helping them to better access education. Staff support the child to attend all healthcare appointments, including support for their emotional health. Staff have nurturing and supportive relationships with the child and have a good understanding of their emotional and mental health needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide the child with a wealth of activities inside and outside the home, which they enjoy. These include spending time with friends, including having a friend round for a sleepover, swimming, youth club, music production on the home computer, pool and the water park. Risks are carefully managed but do not prohibit the child from enjoying activities their peers would enjoy.

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

Staff have been creative about supporting the child to manage their own behaviours. This has had a significant impact on reducing the concerning behaviours they were displaying. For example, it has been two months since the child last ran away from the home.

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

Risk management plans provide good information for staff. Staff have a good understanding of the child’s risks and know how to reduce them. Risk-reduction plans have been effective in supporting the child to manage their own behaviour Inspection report for children’s home: 2541993 4 better. For example, there have been no incidents of aggression towards staff for two months and no incidents of damaging property for three months.

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

Good post-incident discussions between staff, managers and the child ensure that there is a comprehensive review of the incident. Any learning is incorporated into future strategies. There is in-depth and insightful oversight of incidents and allegations.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is qualified and experienced. She is passionate about providing the child with safe and effective care. She is child-focused and ensures the child is involved in decisions made about their care. She has made child-centred improvements to the home, which have meant that the staff team has become more therapeutic and consistent in their approach. The consistent, structured therapeutic approach has helped the child to make significant progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff know the child well and are extremely proud of the progress the child has made and their achievements. Most staff are enrolled on the appropriate qualification, but only one member of staff is currently qualified. Nevertheless, staff have access to a good induction programme and ongoing training. Staff come across as knowledgeable and skilled. They have a good understanding of the therapeutic approach used in the home, which the child responds to well.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is a spacious property that is well maintained. Furnishings are homely and the child’s bedroom is highly personalised in a way that helps them to feel safe. However, fire doors are routinely propped open with door wedges. This could help the spread of fire. The registered manager ensured that all door wedges were removed during the inspection. Furthermore, corded light pulls have not been made safe following a child’s attempt to use one as a ligature some time ago. Although the child has no previous history of using a ligature and has not done so since, the risk assessment references changing the light pulls. Therefore, this part of a comprehensive risk assessment has not been implemented quickly. Nevertheless, the current risk of the child using a ligature is low.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

External professionals have been complimentary about the care and support staff and the manager provide for the child in this home. They agree that staff communicate effectively with them. A social worker said that the child made a video in which they referred to staff as friends and family. She also talked about the significant progress the child has made and said: ‘I think the child feels really safe and stable there.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Complaints are managed quickly and effectively with a fair outcome. The outcome has been appropriately communicated to the child, and they have responded by drawing a smiley face on the response letter, demonstrating that they are satisfied with the outcome. Inspection report for children’s home: 2541993 5

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Recommendations

 The registered person must ensure that the children’s home complies with relevant health and safety legislations, including fire. Specifically, fire doors should not be routinely propped open with door wedges. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should ensure that staff continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. Where there are safeguarding concerns for a child, their placement plan, agreed between the home and their placing authority, must include details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risks on a day-to-day basis, and these should be implemented promptly. Specifically, when the risk assessment states that corded light pulls should be made safe, this should be acted on quickly. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42,

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Recommendations

paragraph 9.5)  The registered person should ensure that children who have been excluded from school are supported to sustain or regain their confidence in education and be engaged in suitable structured activities. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.15)

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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: 2541993 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Total Care Matters Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 230 Bathley Street, The Meadows, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire NG2 2ER

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Inspector

Joanne Vyas, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2541993 7 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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