Children's home run by Hull City Council in Kingston upon Hull, City of

Inspection report for children’s home: SC034706 1 SC034706 Registered provider: Hull City Council 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 run by a local authority. It provides care on a medium- or long-term basis for up to four children who experience social and emotional difficulties. At the time of the inspection, three children were living in the home. The inspectors spoke with two of the children during the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in January 2019 and is suitably qualified.

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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: SC034706 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

26/07/2022 Full Good 02/06/2021 Full Good 08/08/2019 Full Good 21/11/2018 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report for children’s home: SC034706 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged to develop trusting and warm relationships with staff. Two children, who have recently come to live at the home, are still building these relationships and there are early indications that they are positive. This is helping them to settle in and have a sense of belonging in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child’s voice is strong and comes through clearly. There are regular children’s meetings where they are consulted about their wishes and feelings. There is also evidence that the staff advocate for the children when they need to. Staff support the children to challenge other professionals when there are elements of their care plan that they want to change.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand the importance of education and encourage children to attend. One child’s attendance has increased significantly. Another child is now clearly stating they want to attend education and staff are supporting them to increase their school hours. This promotes a clear message to the children that education is important, and they are clearly supported to succeed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff are working hard to build relationships with children’s friends and families. The children have free time to spend with important people in their lives. Staff make good links with the parents of their friends, which allows for safe arrangements to be made. They work with children so that they can have normal childhood experiences, such as overnight stays with friends.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There is good planning when children come to live at the home and when they leave. One young person, who recently left the home, has maintained positive relationships with staff and still sees them regularly. A lot of positive work was carried out with the child to prepare him for independence before he left. The transition for one young person into the home was very well managed despite the unplanned circumstances.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children do not have free access to all areas of the home. Two bathrooms are routinely locked with one also being used for storage. The pantry in the kitchen is also locked, which was agreed by previous children who lived in the home but has not been reviewed with the current children to ensure that they want this. This does not contribute to a homely feel and could cause the children to question why those areas are not accessible to them.

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

The manager and staff have quickly helped two children settle into the home and are building good relationships with them. When they first moved in, there was an increase in incidents. However, these have now reduced and have been managed Inspection report for children’s home: SC034706 4 well. Staff promote a calm, nurturing environment where issues are discussed openly. This helps the children to understand and feel heard.

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

There has been a significant change in the way the home deals with consequences. This has led to a substantial reduction in the use of consequences, other than what would naturally happen, and they are not punitive. The manager and staff take advice from the therapist about this, and the children are responding well to the boundaries as a result.

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

The staff clearly understand the children’s risks and how to respond should there be any concerns. This has led to a significant reduction in the number of missing-from- care episodes for one child. However, there are inconsistencies in the risk assessments, which means that they do not match with other documents. There is also significant information missing, which could lead to a child not receiving the right response at a time when they need to be safeguarded.

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

Staff respond effectively to incidents of children going missing from care. They are proactive in linking with family and other professionals to try and locate children. They report them missing in a timely way, regardless of what time of the day it is. They have also challenged the police when they have felt that they could do more. However, the missing-from-home documents for all three children have information missing and the specific individual strategies are not clear, which creates inconsistencies in the approach taken by staff.

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

There has been a recent medication error. This has been addressed and steps have been taken to minimise the risk of it happening again. However, there is information missing and inaccuracies in the medication records. One child self-medicates but there is no record or risk assessment regarding this. This is of concern as another error could happen which may place a child at risk of harm.

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

Fire exits are locked. All staff have keys; however, it is not clear whether this measure has been discussed with the fire officer to agree that it is appropriate. This information is not captured in the risk assessment. Also, there are not individualised risk assessments relating to fire for the children who this is a known risk for and despite this being an action in the fire risk assessment.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is held in high regard. Staff and professionals say that she is supportive, advocates for the children and provides strong leadership to the team. Her approach is therapeutic in nature, and she has a good understanding of trauma and how this can impact on the behaviours children can display. The manager uses these skills to guide the team, which has a positive impact on the way staff interact with the children and manage any challenges.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff team is well established. Staff work well together and have a lot of experience. They have all completed mandatory training. They also receive specialist training which meets the needs of the children in their care. Staff are called on Inspection report for children’s home: SC034706 5 regularly to provide support in other homes due to their knowledge and experience in their roles. Should staff need to work elsewhere, the manager tries to ensure that any impact on the children at the home is kept to a minimum.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Supervision is regular and is reflective in nature. Staff say that this is useful, and they value the opportunity to discuss the children and any issues. The sessions they have with the therapist during which they reflect on the children individually are helpful to the staff and support them to understand the children on a deeper level.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has high aspirations for the home and the children. She is clearly proud of the achievements and improvements they have made, which means the staff are highly motivated and committed to their roles. The team has recently been nominated for an award for its teamwork.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has not ensured that the outcome of a child protection enquiry for one child has been provided to the regulator. This has previously been a shortfall of the home and has happened again during this inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Management oversight of some documents is not evident. Although documents are signed off by the manager, they still have inaccuracies or information missing. This indicates that the manager has not considered all documents as a whole. This could lead to incorrect information being shared with the team or information being missing at a time when this is needed, for example to consider the risks to a child. Inspection report for children’s home: SC034706 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

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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that all significant information is included in individual risk assessments, missing-from-care documents and care plans so that staff know what action to take to keep the children safe. 31 October 2023

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(h)) 31 October 2023

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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— 31 October 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: SC034706 7 medicines kept in the home are stored in a secure place so as to prevent any child from having unsupervised access to them;

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Requirement Due date

medicine which is prescribed for a child is administered as prescribed to the child for whom it is prescribed and to no other child; and

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Requirement Due date

a record is kept of the administration of medicine to each child.

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Requirement Due date

Paragraph (2) does not apply to medicine which—

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Requirement Due date

is stored by the child for whom it is provided in such a way that other persons are prevented from using it; and

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Requirement Due date

may be safely self-administered by that child. (Regulation 23 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c) (3)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

a child protection enquiry involving a child—

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Requirement Due date

concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry). (Regulation 40 (4)(d)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated. 31 October 2023

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the fire exits are open so that they can be used if needed. If they are to be locked and staff are to have keys for them, this should be detailed in the relevant risk assessments and agreed with the relevant qualified professional. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should ensure that all shared areas of the home are open to the children. If there is a reason why a shared area cannot be open, this should be documented in a risk assessment and reviewed regularly. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.10) Inspection report for children’s home: SC034706 8

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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: SC034706 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Kingston upon Hull City Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: The Guildhall, Alfred Gelder Street, Hull HU1 2AA

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Inspectors

Gail McGann, Social Care Inspector Debra Boldy, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC034706 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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