Children's home run by Pure Care Homes Ltd

Inspection report for children’s home: 2685250 1 Registered provider: Pure Care Homes Ltd 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 managed by a private company. The provider’s statement of purpose states that staff provide care for up to three children with emotional and social difficulties. At the time of the inspection, there were two children living in the home.

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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: 1 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: 2685250 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

01/11/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2685250 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive their care from a staff team whose members know them well and understand their needs. This promotes positive and nurturing relationships that support children’s progress and general well-being. A child said, ‘I really like living here. The staff are great; they listen and are kind.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff spend quality time with children. They use many creative approaches to help children to show how they are feeling. Staff also seek children’s views on developments in the home. For example, children are regularly consulted in order to gain their views regarding the staff who support them. This helps the staff with developmental progression.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff keep children’s individual goals under regular review and celebrate their achievements with those adults who are important to them. A member of staff said, ‘This helps children become confident in many situations and promotes their self- esteem and independence.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children can access all areas of the home. However, door alarms are used on external doors and children’s bedrooms as standard. The necessity of alarms is not considered regularly enough in relation to the individual needs and risks of each child. This impacts on children’s privacy.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive the support they need to actively engage in activities inside and outside the home. These activities enrich children’s experiences and serve to strengthen their relationships with staff. Additionally, this helps children to make developmental progress and promotes positive self-esteem. This includes one child successfully completing their GCSEs and enrolling onto a college course. The pride for this child in their achievement was immense.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff team helps children to spend time with the people who are important to them. There is a focus on establishing children’s support networks and links with agencies. This promotes children’s emotional health and well-being.

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

Children feel safe and supported living in the home. Staff have a strong response to safeguarding children, and they work closely with agencies. A social worker said, ‘The joint working and communication from the staff team are brilliant.’

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

Children are supported to take safe and appropriate risks in line with their care plans and developmental needs. Staff complete risk management plans for each child. This enables staff to identify and understand children’s risks. Staff review plans regularly and discuss them in team meetings. This helps staff to maintain consistency when protecting children from harm. Inspection report for children’s home: 2685250 4 Each child has their own missing-from-care procedure that staff follow to reduce missing-from-care incidents . When children have been reported missing the staff provided a coordinated response that minimised risks to the children involved. Staff followed the individual missing-from-care plan as part of a multi-agency response. This helped to quickly find the child and reduced any risk of harm.

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

Children are supported by staff who listen to them. Staff spend quality time with children in one-to-one sessions. Discussions take place to help children understand how to stay safe, the importance of good personal hygiene and managing their emotions. As a result, children say they feel safe and supported.

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

Incidents of physically holding children are minimal and proportionate and are only used to prevent children from hurting themselves or others. Children and staff review incidents, which helps them to reflect and learn and prevent future recurrences. This means that staff maintain positive and healthy relationships with children.

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

Safe recruitment processes for all staff are thorough. There is a robust checklist system in place to ensure that all recruitment checks are completed. This includes keeping records of any agency staff used. Consequently, only suitable adults can work in the home.

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

Staff undertake a broad range of good-quality training in safeguarding matters. Safeguarding themes are further explored with staff through supervision and team meetings. As a result, staff know how to recognise, report and act on any safeguarding concerns that they may have.

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

Children live in a spacious and warm environment. The home is furnished to a high standard with bright, tasteful décor. Children choose how they want to decorate and personalise their bedrooms. However, there are safety concerns regarding electrical extension cord use in a child’s bedroom that could affect their well-being. It’s important to enhance health and safety training for both staff and children to ensure everyone’s safety.

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

Staff support children to stay safe online. Children attend one-to-one sessions to talk about safe and healthy relationships. This raises children’s awareness of online harm and helps them to stay safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home has not had a registered manager since 27 July 2023. Recruitment for a new manager is underway. Interim arrangements to cover this vacancy are appropriate. Senior managers and the deputy manager are overseeing the home. Staff fed back that ‘even though there has been changes in management, they have felt fully supported’. Inspection report for children’s home: 2685250 5 Management monitoring systems are effective, and even in the absence of a registered manager, covering managers have good oversight of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

When the staff experience challenging times, they are highly resilient. The management team recognises the importance of staff support. Further support mechanisms were put in place following an increase in challenging behaviour from one child. Managers listen to staff and make sure that communication across the team ensures that all staff can raise any issues, secure in the knowledge they will be taken seriously.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff and managers attend regular monthly supervision sessions. Staff focus on children’s needs and progress. Supervision also enables staff to discuss their training needs with their manager. This helps staff to improve their skills and personal development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers conduct appraisals with staff on an annual basis. Staff reflect on their work and set targets for the year ahead. The managers also engage children in seeking their views on the entire staff team. This increases the effectiveness of the appraisals and helps to support staff progression.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers follow up and escalate concerns if responses from agencies are not satisfactory. This helps to ensure that children receive the right support and their needs are met. The managers have addressed the requirements made at the last inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers have a good understanding of the progress children make. They spend time with children on a regular basis, which helps them to measure progress. Additionally, the managers complete a regular review of care to highlight children’s progress and to evaluate children’s care. Inspection report for children’s home: 2685250 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the use of door alarms is adequately considered and assessed for each individual child, to make sure that alarms are only used when necessary. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.10)  The registered person should ensure that the home complies with relevant health and safety legislations, specifically around the safe use of extension cables used by children, and should ensure that staff complete regular checks and educate children. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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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: 2685250 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Pure Care Homes Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Beehive Mill, Jersey Street, Manchester M4 6JG

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Inspector

Jennifer Quest, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2685250 8 regulates and inspects 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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