Children's Home run by Aston Children’s Care Ltd in Birmingham

Inspection report for children’s home: SC453726 1 SC453726 Registered provider: Aston Children’s Care Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is privately owned and provides care for up to four children with complex behaviours due to childhood trauma.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in June 2022 and holds a level 5 qualification in leadership and management.

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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: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC453726 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/05/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 16/11/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good 07/09/2021 Full Inadequate 15/05/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: SC453726 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, one child has moved out of the home and has returned to live with their family. At the time of the inspection, four children were living in the home. Staff are supporting one child to prepare for their transition to another home that is more suited to meet their needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Managers and staff work well with partner agencies to support children to have positive transitions into the home from very unsettled starting points. Managers and staff are supported by the clinical lead to use a consistent child-centred approach, which takes account of the trauma that children have experienced. This enables them to provide children with individualised care. One child’s social worker told the inspector that the child ‘had experienced a number of placement breakdowns before living at this home’. She said, ‘this is the most settled [the child] has been and there had been a significant reduction in incidents that require staff to use physical interventions to keep [the child] safe’. Staff help children to settle and develop a sense of belonging.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff share nurturing relationships with children and consistently undertake work with children to support them to understand and express their emotions positively. Children enjoy spending time with the staff and feel valued and cared for. When children are struggling emotionally, staff provide effective support to help children to access the medical help they need and engage in activities to lift their mood.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff and managers regularly seek children’s views about the care that they receive. Children are encouraged to contribute to the decision-making about any changes planned to take place in their home. For example, one child told the inspector that plans had been made to redecorate both the lounge and dining area of the home and that children had chosen new wallpaper for these rooms. Consequently, children feel reassured that their voice is listened to, which improves their confidence and self-worth. In addition, as a result of contributing to their environment, they feel invested in their home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to engage with education, even when children do not have an identified school placement. Managers and staff work in partnership with educational professionals to have an awareness of the different educational needs of the children and to understand the barriers in place for some children. Managers and staff work effectively with partner agencies in helping children to overcome these barriers. One child was supported to attend school out of region to enable them to take their GCSE exams without needing to change schools. Another child’s school told the inspector how well the child was doing and that they currently were on target to achieve good grades in their SATs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children who do not have school placements with online courses. One child has achieved a first-aid certificate via this training and the other children are Inspection report for children’s home: SC453726 4 working well towards completing their online courses. There is evidence of escalation and plans being progressed for children who do not have an identified school placement. This supportive approach used by staff helps children to access education and make good progress from their starting points.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Managers and staff are supported by the clinical lead to help children to re-establish, maintain and develop positive relationships with their families and friends, when this is appropriate. Staff recognise how significant these relationships are to children and to their well-being. Children’s family and friends are encouraged to visit and spend time in the home. Staff support children to host events, such as cultural days and tea parties, to make these occasions fun. This supportive approach ensures that children are not isolated from the people who are important to them.

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

Staff have an in-depth knowledge of children’s individual risks and needs. Staff and managers are supported by the clinical lead to ensure that children’s risk assessments are thorough and updated to reflect changes in behaviours and vulnerabilities. As a result, staff are supported to adapt their strategies to ensure that they keep children safe.

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

Through specific training and regular team around the child meetings, the clinical lead supports the registered manager and staff to develop strategies to help children. Staff receive clear guidance on how to support children in their interactions. This ensures that staff’s therapeutic practice is reviewed, updated and developed to ensure that it is consistently child focused and meets children’s individual needs.

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

Clear routines and boundaries are in place for children. This means that children understand what is expected of them. The clinical lead works closely with managers and staff to ensure that the approaches used to manage challenging or risky behaviours are fully considered and well thought out. As a result, there is clear evidence of action taken to safeguard children.

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

The staff’s good knowledge of children’s needs means that they recognise and respond quickly to changes in behaviour to offer additional support, and use de- escalation to prevent incidents from escalating. Staff follow children’s missing-from- home plans effectively. During significant incidents, staff have taken immediate action to work with the police to locate children and return them to the home. Children receive return-home interviews and information is used to review and update safeguarding strategies. This supportive approach means that children feel reassured and know that staff care about their well-being. One child told the inspector, ‘Staff try really hard to keep me safe.’

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

There has been a high number of incidents that have required the use of physical restraint to keep children safe. There is evidence of authorised and proportionate holds being used, and there is good oversight of these incidents by the manager and clinical lead. One child’s social worker told the inspector that since her child has lived Inspection report for children’s home: SC453726 5 at this home, there has been a significant reduction in physical interventions and her child is the most settled they have ever been. Following each incident, the children and staff are spoken to and provided with an opportunity to reflect on and learn from the incident. As a result, children are more aware of when and why staff need to safeguard them, and respond well.

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

The manager ensures that all complaints are responded to. When an allegation was made, the responsible individual followed the home’s policies to respond, investigate and reach an outcome. Mediation led by the clinical lead and manager allows relationships to be repaired with the children prior to staff members who have been subject to complaints or allegations returning to work. Consequently, children and those people involved in children’s lives feel valued and listened to when complaints or allegations are made.

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

Overall, records relating to incidents provide information that evidence that the home’s protocols are being followed. However, the quality of a small number of records was variable. This is an issue that had been identified by managers, and a workshop has recently been delivered to address this. The impact of this is not yet known.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The current registered manager started in post in October 2021 and has worked with senior managers and the clinical lead to support the home to progress. The managers and clinical lead are fully aware of the needs of the children in their care and work well with professionals to advocate for them. They have made changes to improve the care that children receive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is passionate, motivated and keen to develop the service so that children receive a high standard of care. Staff say that they feel supported by the managers to improve their practice. They have regular supervision sessions. These, alongside team meetings and training delivered by the clinical lead, contribute to staff development. As a result, staff are being supported to develop and embed therapeutic practices that meet children’s individual needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers and staff regularly consult with children on the care that they receive, and children know how to make a complaint. The staff and managers are proactive in gaining children’s views to inform developments in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The quality of communication between the home and external professionals is variable. One professional told the inspector that one of the children ‘feels supported to express their wishes and feelings and to be themselves’. She also said that the child ‘feels heard and has been supported by the home to re-establish contact with family members who they had not seen for some time’. However, other professionals have not always received regular communication from the home on the progress of the children. During the inspection, managers took action to resolve these issues. Inspection report for children’s home: SC453726 6 Managers know the home’s strengths and weaknesses, and have monitoring processes in place to have oversight of the care that children receive. Managers’ monitoring processes have resulted in areas of improvement being identified and strategies being used to address these shortfalls. For example, recording was an

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

area of development identified in both the home’s development plan and at this inspection. The manager has taken action to make improvements in these areas but it is too early to determine the impact of it.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager does not use their review of the quality of care within the home to fully evaluate the quality of care provided. As a result, this review does not inform the development of the home as well as it could. Inspection report for children’s home: SC453726 7

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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 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

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing, and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children;

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities, and the quality of care they receive in it; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, a report should be produced that evaluates the quality of care provided by the home. 30 August 2023

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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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: SC453726 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Aston Children’s Care Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 181 Penn Road, Wolverhampton WV3 0EQ

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Inspector

Sharon Bourne, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC453726 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, an 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

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted Inspection report for children’s home: SC453726 10

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