Children's home run by Pathways Care Group Limited

Inspection report for children's home: 2633127 1 Registered provider: Pathways Care Group 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 private company. It is registered to provide care for up to four children with social and emotional needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been in post since 17 May 2023. She is in the process of submitting her application to become 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

Date of last inspection: 6 September 2022

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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: 2633127 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/09/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 14/06/2022 Full Inadequate 12/01/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children's home: 2633127 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Two children were living at the home at the time of this inspection. Since the last inspection, one child has moved out of the home and has successfully moved on to semi-independent living.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support and encourage the children to lead healthy lifestyles, to engage in activities and hobbies and to learn life skills. Children are gaining confidence, and they take pride in their appearances. They are building and maintaining friendships, increasing their free time in the local community and going on holidays together.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Parents, social workers and independent reviewing officers speak highly of the progress that the children are making. One parent told an inspector that the staff go ‘above and beyond’ to look after their child. Professionals describe working closely with the home’s manager to support the children in areas where they are struggling. For example, the plans and education arrangements for both children are under review, with a focus on new services being accessed after the summer holiday.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide opportunities for children to develop their confidence and skills in preparation for adulthood. The young person who had moved out of the home into semi-independent living told an inspector that the home was ‘the best thing that had ever happened to me, and I would recommend the home to anyone’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is welcoming, with photos and canvases of the children displayed throughout. The children and staff take pride in the environment. They have ongoing plans to continue to develop the home and garden. The children are currently revamping their bedrooms. They have chosen new colours for their bedrooms, which were being painted while they were on a two-day holiday to Thorpe Park.

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

Staff are skilled at promoting the safety and well-being of the children while balancing their rights to increased age-appropriate independence.

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

The children are settled, feel safe and build positive relationships with staff. This helps them reduce their historical risk-taking behaviours. For example, there have been no missing-from-care incidents for the children, for whom historically this was a serious concern.

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

The staff promote the children’s freedom and help them make informed decisions. The home’s manager advocated for one child’s deprivation of liberty order to be removed. The child is now supported by one member of staff instead of two. He has learned to use a mobile phone and has started to spend free time out in the local community, which he is managing well. Inspection report for children's home: 2633127 4 Incidents of self-harm in the home are low. When these do occur, staff use their knowledge of the children to support them to talk about the incident. Staff provide the children with reassurance and education and put measures in place to safeguard them. The children trust the staff to support them, and incidents of self-harm are decreasing. One child told an inspector that the staff had taught him ‘how to love myself’.

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

There has been one complaint. The child verbally raised this directly with a staff member. This was reported and investigated. However, on this occasion, staff did not follow the action set out in the manager’s evaluation, which is to have a key- worker session with the child. This was a missed opportunity to reassure the child and show that their views had been listened to.

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

Staff use positive reinforcement and, at times, consequences to help the children understand their behaviours. The home’s manager has evaluated the one consequence that has been given, and records show that there have been lessons learned. However, the child was not spoken to about why the consequence occurred. The child expressed that they were not happy with the consequence as they did not understand why it had been given.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Overall, the responsible individual and the manager have a good understanding of the operation of the home. They use internal and external quality assurance tools to monitor staff practice. The quality of the independent visitor’s monthly report and the new manager’s quality assurance report is good. These are being used effectively to feed into the plan for the ongoing development of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager, deputy manager and some members of the staff team are new, and the team is developing. Team meetings and supervision sessions are regular and reflective. Four staff annual appraisals have not been held within the required time frame. The manager has scheduled training to learn about the new appraisal process, and dates are booked for the appraisals to then take place.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have access to a range of online and face-to-face training. Overall, staff are positive about their work and say that the manager provides good support. The responsible individual and manager are aware that team dynamics are not yet resulting in a cohesive staff team with confident and consistent practice. Plans are in place to further develop the managers and team members.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

During the inspection, paper records were in the process of being migrated onto a new electronic recording system. There were occasions when required documents were not easily accessible in either format. This hinders staff from having quick access to important information relating to the care of the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is a protocol in place that informs staff about how to support a child with night-time encopresis, and the manager has sourced specific training for the staff Inspection report for children's home: 2633127 5 team. However, this is not yet resulting in the whole staff team being consistent in their practice. The practical short-term and long-term health and safety aspects of the process have not been fully considered. Although a referral has been made for specialist support and the provider’s psychologist is involved, the plan does not yet include emotional support for the child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Since starting in post, the new manager has focused on stabilising the staff team, introducing consistent routines and establishing clear systems. This work is ongoing. Training is being undertaken by the manager to support her to develop her management skills, strengthen staff practice and further develop the service. Inspection report for children's home: 2633127 6

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meetThe 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 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

treat each child with dignity and respect. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(iii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that there are strategies in place to support a child who experiences encopresis. Additionally, this relates to ensuring that procedures for staff to manage these incidents respect the dignity of the child and ensure good arrangements for health and safety. 30 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

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. 30 September Inspection report for children's home: 2633127 7 (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the manager ensuring that they review practice following a consequence or complaint to ensure all steps are followed.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that electronic records can be easily accessed by anyone with a legitimate need to view them and, if required, be reproduced in a legible form. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 14.2)  The registered person should ensure that all staff have their performance and fitness to carry out their role formally appraised at least once annually. This appraisal should take into account, where reasonable and practical, the views of other professionals who have worked with the staff member over the year and of children in the home’s care. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.5)

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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: 2633127 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Pathways Care Group

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 1st Floor, Minton Place, Victoria Street, Windsor SL4 1EG

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Inspectors

Dawn Bennett, Social Care Inspector Jade Bradburn, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2633127 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 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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