Children's home run by Keys QTC Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2595983 1 Registered provider: Keys QTC Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is privately owned. It provides care for up to four children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, there were four children living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in July 2021.

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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: 15 November 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: 2595983 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/11/2022 Full Good 24/08/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2595983 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have trusting and positive relationships with staff. The manager and staff place the children’s welfare at the centre of their practice and treat the children with dignity and respect. Staff actively seek the children’s views and wishes, and respond to these through regular key-work sessions and children’s meetings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy access to a range of social and recreational opportunities, including activities, clubs and groups in the local community. One child attends an LGBTQ+ group, one child is a member of a local football and cheerleading team, and another child goes to weekly self-defence classes. This means that children have a range of positive experiences and have age-appropriate social interactions to help them to build skills and strategies to form and maintain relationships and gain a sense of their own identity.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are proactive in seeking health advice when needed. They work in partnership with health professionals to ensure that the children’s health and well-being needs are met and that children have access to necessary health services. One child has a health condition that is very well managed by the manager and staff team. The staff are suitably trained and have a sound knowledge of the child’s condition.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff work collaboratively with external professionals to ensure that there are positive outcomes for children. Social workers spoken to during the inspection provided positive feedback about the care that children receive and about the team supporting the children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children all have good attendance at school and are making progress with their academic goals. The home communicates well with the schools and share relevant information to ensure that there is positive partnership working.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff work with placing authorities and families to promote positive and meaningful time with family in line with agreed plans, and ensure that this time meets the children’s individual needs. This means that the children are able to maintain relationships that are important to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff encourage and support the children to engage in age-appropriate independence work, such as budgeting, using public transport, and household tasks. This targeted work helps to prepare them for adulthood.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff document the children’s journeys since living at the home. These demonstrates the positive impact that living at the home has had on individual children’s progress. Inspection report for children’s home: 2595983 4

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

The children can identify a trusted adult in the home who they can talk to about any concerns. The children seek out staff when they need adult support, and the staff respond promptly and sensitively. Children say that they feel protected.

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

There is a strong and proactive response from the staff that has reduced actual harm to children, including self-harm. Individual risk management plans address any known vulnerabilities for each child. However, there are some minor inconsistencies, and some more detail is required in key parts to assist the staff caring for the children.

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

Staff know what to do when children are missing from the home. The children rarely go missing. When they do, staff look for the children and know where they are likely to be. Staff inform parents and relevant professionals when children have been missing from the home.

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

Staff support children to take risks that are appropriate to their age and level of understanding. The manager encourages children and the staff to learn from any incidents when things do not go to plan.

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

The staff know the children’s needs and behaviours well, and are appropriately trained to hold children when it is necessary. Staff record all incidents thoroughly and the manager reviews and monitors these. The language used in these documents is child-focused and empathetic. The views of the child are sought and understood.

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

When staff impose consequences, they are reasonable and proportionate. However, the effectiveness of these consequences is not always evaluated and so it is not clear if they are having the intended effect.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is a registered manager in post who has high expectations for what all children can achieve. The staff are positive about the manager and describe a supportive environment. Staff spoken to describe the manager as readily available to provide advice and guidance.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager uses internal and external monitoring of the home effectively, and has a good vision of how to develop the home. He has a good understanding of the home’s strengths and weaknesses. This enables him to take effective action when required. However, some records in the home are handwritten and illegible. This means that it is not always possible to monitor these records.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The administration and recording of medication has improved since the last inspection. However, when pain relief medication is given, the reason why it is necessary is not recorded. This means that the use of pain relief cannot be appropriately monitored. Inspection report for children’s home: 2595983 5 There have been two minor errors in the administration of medication. The manager has taken appropriate action and ensured that these are thoroughly investigated. Measures have been put in place to prevent a reoccurrence, such as changes to medication training to improve the level of competency.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is a consistent staff team, which provides stability for the children and means that children are always cared for by staff who know them well. Staff are suitably qualified and trained in mandatory subjects. However, there are some shortfalls in training to meet children’s individual needs, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, LGBTQ+, cystic fibrosis and better awareness of mental health.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager ensures that plans for children comprehensively identify their needs. However, they did not have access to all the children’s placing authority care plans or pathway plans. This has not been adequately challenged with the placing authority.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular supervision, which is practice related. In addition, there are regular team meetings that cover topics that are relevant to the current matters arising in the home. They are used as a development opportunity for the team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager ensures that the home environment is maintained to a high standard, meets the needs of the children, and feels and looks like a family home. It is a nice place for children to spend time. Inspection report for children’s home: 2595983 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, 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

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13 (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that staff have the appropriate training to meet children’s individual needs. This specifically relates to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, cystic fibrosis, bereavement, mental health, and LGBTQ+ training. 10 August 2023

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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

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(v))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that children’s plans and risk management plans contain up-to- date information. 10 August 2023

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Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff— 10 August 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2595983 7 if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must challenge the placing authority when children’s care plans and pathway plans are not sent in a reasonable timeframe.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular the registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

a record is kept of the administration of medicine to each child. (Regulation 23 (1) (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that the reason why pain relief medication is administered is clearly recorded. 10 August 2023

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful and clear recording, ensuring that handwritten records are legible. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  The registered person should ensure that all measures of control and discipline are subject to systems of regular scrutiny to ensure that their use is fair and to evaluate the effectiveness of the measure used. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.36)

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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: 2595983 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Keys Care Ltd, Maybrook House, Queensway, Halesowen B63 4AH

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Inspectors

Katie Tomlinson, Social Care Inspector Sarah Huntbatch, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2595983 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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