Children's home run by Madiba Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2677465 1 Registered provider: Madiba Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home is owned and managed by a private provider. It was registered with Ofsted in July 2022 to provide care to up to four children with learning disabilities. One child lives in the home and there is no plan for any other children to move in to the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The current manager started in post in February 2023. They have applied to register with Ofsted. There were temporary management arrangements after the registered manager left the home in December 2022.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: 14 December 2022

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2677465 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/12/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 2677465 3

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improvement to be good

The home requires refurbishment and repairs to bring it up to an acceptable standard for children to live in. The interior is worn and tired, and there has been damage to the home over the last few months. This has been an ongoing issue identified at the last two inspections.

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improvement to be good

The child is not yet receiving good enough help and care to have consistently positive experiences and make good progress. Staff do not always respond in effective ways to help the child when their emotions are heightened. As a result, the child has had avoidable adverse experiences since moving in to the home. However, the child likes living at the home and most of the staff who care for her. She feels that she is loved and cared for, and the inspector observed warm and playful interactions between staff and the child.

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improvement to be good

The child is making early progress. Staff are supporting the child to build and grow their relationship with their family, which is very important to her, and this support is also highly valued by the child’s family. A home tutor has started to deliver some education within the home and the child has a goal to attend college in the future. The child enjoys good physical health.

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improvement to be good

The child’s transition to the home was well planned. This helped the child to get to know the manager and a few key staff who would be caring for her when she moved in to the home. This has helped her to build some stable relationships.

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improvement to be good

Staff and managers hold regular conversations with the child to help her to express her views, be involved in decision-making, talk about things that have happened, and provide emotional support and reassurance to her.

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improvement to be good

There have been avoidable incidents where staff have not prevented the child from hurting themselves and others. There have been times when staff have been complacent and acted too slowly, which has led to incidents occurring and escalating. Staff have not always considered alternative strategies that would be more effective in preventing or curtailing incidents quickly. The information in the child’s records for staff to follow in the event of the child being in crisis is unclear. There is an increased risk that similar incidents will recur.

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improvement to be good

Staff do not take sufficient action to prevent the child from going missing from care, particularly when her emotions are heightened. This is despite there being a high number of staff who supervise her and provide her care. Additional restrictions are agreed, which staff are permitted to apply to protect the child from harm. Despite Inspection report for children’s home: 2677465 4 this, the child has been able to leave the home and the care of staff easily on several occasions.

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improvement to be good

When the child is missing, staff look for her and take appropriate action to report this to the relevant agencies. When the child returns home, she receives an independent return-home interview.

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improvement to be good

Staff and managers understand their roles and responsibilities in safeguarding children. Staff know how and to whom they should report safeguarding concerns. When an allegation was made, managers took appropriate action to report it externally and investigate it thoroughly. Managers also make sure that staff are checked and vetted to ensure that they are suitable to provide the child’s care.

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improvement to be good

Staff only use restrictive practices, such as restraint and restrictions, where these are necessary and proportionate to reduce the risks to the child’s and others’ safety. There are robust measures in place to ensure that risks to the child’s safety when using the internet are reduced. Staff support the child with working on positive behaviour incentives, which are meaningful, and they do not use negative consequences.

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good

The home’s statement of purpose is misleading because it states that the staff are experienced, competent, and qualified. However, the staff providing the child’s care are not sufficiently qualified, skilled, or experienced. Staff receive basic training in the home’s approach and in response to the child’s diagnosed conditions. Some staff are relatively new to their roles and have no previous experience of working in residential children’s care. A small proportion of the staff have completed relevant qualifications. The workforce development plan is not used to meet the continuing professional developmental needs for staff, including the manager.

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good

The home’s manager is not always involved in delivering staff supervision and team meetings. There are some team meetings that the manager has not attended, and staff receive supervision from a senior member of staff, which is not always a manager. This reduces the manager’s oversight and opportunity to make sure that key messages, expectations, lessons learned, and the understanding of staff are followed up.

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good

The risk assessment for the location of the home is not comprehensive. There are ongoing incidents where members of the public discard items that could be harmful to children in the garden, which are not included in the location risk assessment. There has been no consultation with local relevant agencies when the risk assessment was last reviewed, which means that staff may not be aware of other known risks to the child’s safety.

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good

The provider does not ensure that Ofsted is notified of all incidents and relevant information. The inspector identified one incident of the child being missing from Inspection report for children’s home: 2677465 5 care that was not notified to Ofsted and was a serious event. In another incident, the notification did not provide sufficient information when compared with the home’s incident record. This means that the regulator cannot maintain sufficient oversight.

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good

The manager knows the child and their needs very well. The manager has clear oversight of the child’s care through reviewing incidents, and can state their expectations for staff and the action that they need to take to meet the child’s needs. The manager is taking action where they have identified that practice is falling short of these expectations.

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good

The manager engages and works well with external professionals who are involved in the care of the child. There are daily huddle meetings to discuss key information and concerns. However, although the child’s social worker is informed of incidents, there is a delay in them receiving the written incident reports. This does not support the external oversight and scrutiny of the child’s care. Inspection report for children’s home: 2677465 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 quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, ensure that all areas of the home are suitable and well maintained throughout. 29 September

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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

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

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Requirement Due date

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; and 15 September Inspection report for children’s home: 2677465 7 understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the manager must have oversight of staff supervision, team meetings and training to ensure that the care provided to children is aligned with the level of support and care they need. (Regulation 13 (1)(b) (2)(a)(c)(f))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises used for the purposes of the children’s home at least once in each calendar year taking into account the requirement for regulation 12 (2) (c) (the protection of children standard).

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Requirement Due date

When conducting the review, the registered person must consult, and take into account the views of, each relevant person. (Regulation 46 (1) (2)) 11 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

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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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;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare.

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(iii)(v)(vi)(b)) 15 September Inspection report for children’s home: 2677465 8 The registered person must compile in relation to the children’s home a statement ("the statement of purpose") which covers the matters listed in Schedule 1.

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Requirement Due date

keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it. (Regulation 16 (1) (3)(a))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make sure that the statement of purpose is reflective of the care provided. It must not contain any information that is inaccurate about the care provided or staff who work in the home. 11 August 2023

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious.

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Requirement Due date

A notification made under this regulation—

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Requirement Due date

the matter. (Regulation 40 (4)(e) (5)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify Ofsted of serious events and must make sure that the notifications submitted contain all of the relevant information about the serious event. 27 July 2023

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Recommendations

 The registered provider should provide the child’s statutory social worker with sufficient information to ensure that they can maintain sufficient oversight over the child’s care. (‘Guide to Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 11, paragraph 2.5)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should make sure that the workforce development plan is used to record the ongoing training and professional developmental needs of all staff, including the home’s manager. (‘Guide to Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8) Inspection report for children’s home: 2677465 9  The registered person should review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises of the home at least once a year. This review should include the identification of any risks and opportunities presented by the home’s location and the strategies for managing these. (‘Guide to Children’s Home’s Regulations, including the quality standards, page 64, paragraph 15.1)

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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: 2677465 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: One City West, Gelderd Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS12 6NJ

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Inspector

Honor Hamshaw, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2677465 11 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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