Children's Home run by Nurture Care Group Ltd in Wolverhampton

Inspection report for children’s home: 2642297 1 Registered provider: Nurture Care Group Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned and operated by a small private company. It provides care for up to three children, aged from five to 17 years old, who experience social, emotional or behavioural difficulties and associated complex needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager is appropriately qualified and is registered 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 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: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2642297 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

22/06/2022 Full Good 18/01/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 2642297 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

At the time of this inspection, there were three children living in the home. Two of the children have lived at the home for almost two years, and one child has lived at the home for nearly six months. All three children are flourishing and making excellent progress in all areas of their lives. They are building positive relationships with staff, their peers and families, and their education attendance and attainment has considerably improved.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The progress and experiences of children who live in this home are excellent. Staff are trained in a therapeutic approach to parenting. This supports children to feel safe and secure because of the trusting and loving relationships that they have with staff. Staff are continually curious about, and reflect on, how they can help children grow in all areas of their development. As a result, children develop a sense of belonging and have a range of positive experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children moving in or out of the home benefit from transitions that are well managed and supported by staff. For example, prior to moving in, staff encourage children to visit the home to see what it is like and to meet the staff. When children move out of the home, staff support children to meet their new carers. Staff also stay connected with these children to reduce feelings of isolation and provide essential support. This supports children to reduce their anxieties and settle into their new homes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff value and place high importance on children’s education. As a result, children do well in education. All three children are in full-time, mainstream education and they all have excellent attendance. Staff advocate for children’s education and work closely with educational professionals to ensure that the best possible outcomes are achieved academically for children. This support helps children to grow in confidence and self-esteem. It also provides them with a better opportunity to reach their full potential and increases their life chances.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to develop their independence skills. They help children to learn new skills such as budgeting, cooking, cleaning and independent travel. This helps prepare children for adult life.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that children have opportunities to have fun and make happy memories. Staff support children to develop their own hobbies and interests. One child has taken up ice skating and dance lessons. They are now taking part in competitions. Another child takes part in regular trampolining lessons, and another enjoys rollerblading. All children recently enjoyed a day on the beach with staff. Taking part in activities supports children to build their self-esteem and confidence. It also helps build positive relationships. Inspection report for children’s home: 2642297 4 Children enjoy good health. Staff understand the children’s individual health needs. Staff support children to attend all routine health appointments. Staff are supported by the organisation’s clinical psychologist, who provides regular consultation and advice on how to support children. The therapeutic team also completes direct work

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

with children, including life-story work, to help them understand their life journey. This further promotes children’s health and emotional well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff actively promote time for children to spend with their families and friends. Children have re-established relationships with their family members through this support from staff. This supports children’s identity and contributes to their life story.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s views are highly valued by staff and managers. Children have multiple opportunities to have their say, for example through children’s meetings, debriefs, therapeutic consultation and extensive direct work sessions. This allows the children to share and talk about their achievements, reflect on events, and learn how to manage conflict. These opportunities provide valuable life experiences for children to learn how to communicate and listen effectively.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in a welcoming, homely and well-decorated home. Children’s artwork and photos of children, their adventures and achievements are displayed throughout the home. Children’s bedrooms are personalised and comfortably furnished. The home has two cats, which adds to the homely feel. This helps children to feel comfortable in their surroundings and gain a sense of belonging.

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

Managers and staff have positive regard for the safety and well-being of children. Staff know the children extremely well. Staff have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities in keeping children safe. Staff ensure that there are clear, consistent boundaries in place. Staff and children adhere to these. The children say they know why these boundaries are in place, and that these help to keep them safe.

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

Children’s written plans and risk assessments are comprehensive and are regularly reviewed. They provide staff with clear guidance and strategies to support children and reduce risk. Staff work extensively with children to understand their behaviours, risks and triggers. This has supported the children to become safer. As a result, incidents have reduced.

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

Leaders and managers respond quickly when there are allegations or concerns about staff practice. They ensure that the local authority designated officer is always informed and all concerns are investigated. This helps children to be confident to raise any concerns, as they know staff will take them seriously. It also helps them to feel safe and secure in their environment.

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

Staff take prompt and appropriate action when children go missing from home. Staff follow missing-from-home procedures to ensure that children are quickly located. Staff support children to know about the risks of going missing and how to Inspection report for children’s home: 2642297 5 keep themselves safe. Multi-agency meetings are held when required to support children to keep safe and reduce missing-from-home incidents.

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

Staff respond with sensitivity and compassion when children harm themselves. This means that children know that they will get help if they need it and so they seek this from staff.

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

Physical interventions are only used as a last resort. Managers have oversight of all incidents, and they ensure that children are spoken to following any intervention. However, managers do not always speak to the staff involved in the incidents. This impacts on the manager’s ability to effectively review the incident.

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

Safer recruitment practices are not consistently followed. While there are organisational checks in place, the manager does not provide effective oversight on these. Managers have, on two instances, failed to show professional curiosity, when there are discrepancies in staff members’ recruitment files. The manager did rectify this during the inspection.

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

There have been some delays in Ofsted being notified of serious events. This has prevented Ofsted from having a timely understanding of what took place and being assured that all the necessary actions had taken place to safeguard children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed by an extremely dedicated and conscientious manager. She is supported by an enthusiastic deputy manager and a supportive responsible individual. Together, they have built an excellent leadership team, and all have high aspirations for the children in their care. The manager shows great ambition for the home and where it aims to be. This ethos is shared with the staff and children, resulting in high-quality care. Managers and staff have an exceptional knowledge of the children’s starting points and what they have accomplished since living at the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are well trained. Managers ensure that staff have training to meet the children’s needs. Staff have a variety of skills, experience and qualifications. This ensures that all staff have the skills and training necessary to work with the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff morale is high. Staff say that they enjoy working at the home and they are positive about the support they receive from the managers and the in-house therapeutic team. Staff receive high-quality supervision and annual appraisals. Team and ‘team around the child’ meetings are regular and reflective. This supports staff to work together as a team, develops staff practice and improves the quality of care children receive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers have effective monitoring systems in place, which support them to review the quality of care. They use these systems well, along with independent visitor assessments, to continually assess and improve the quality of care for children. However, while the six-monthly quality of care review has been completed by the Inspection report for children’s home: 2642297 6 manager, she did not forward this to Ofsted. As a result, the regulator is not able to review the progress that children are making and the actions that the manager and staff are taking to support this progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff and the manager work closely with a wide range of professionals so that children receive well-coordinated care. The manager will challenge those who are not meeting children’s needs, or when she feels decisions are not in the best interests of the children. Feedback from professionals and parents is consistently good. They are positive about the progress that children make while living at the home. Inspection report for children’s home: 2642297 7

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person 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

This requirement was issued at the last inspection and has been reinstated.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that schedule 2 checks are completed in respect of all staff who work in the home. 20 July 2023

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children ("a quality of care review") at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed. (Regulation 45 (1) (4)(a)) 20 July 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2642297 8

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that they keep records of restraint and that these should enable the registered person and staff to review the use of control, discipline and restraint to identify effective practice and respond promptly where any issues or trends of concern emerge. The review should provide the opportunity for amending practice to ensure it meets the needs of each child. Specifically, the registered manager should ensure that they speak to the user about the measure. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.59)  The registered person should have a system in place so that all serious events are notified, within 24 hours, to the appropriate people. The system should cover the action that should be followed if the event arises at the weekend or on a public holiday. Notification must include details of the action taken by the home’s staff in

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Recommendations

response to the event. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.13)

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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: 2642297 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Nurture Care Group Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Suite 34 Hilton Hall, Hilton Lane, Wolverhampton WV11 2BQ

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Inspectors

Sonia Sullivan, Social Care Inspector Jas Nahar, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2642297 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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