Children's Home run by City of Doncaster Council in Doncaster

Inspection report children's home: 2701417 1 Registered provider: Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

A local authority runs this children’s home. It is registered to provide care for up to eight children with sensory needs, physical and/or learning disabilities. Currently, the service offers short breaks including a combination of overnight care, tea visits and day care during school holidays for up to four children.

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Information about this children’s home

The service registered with Ofsted on 1 September 2022. It was previously registered under Doncaster Trust. The service has a registered manager.

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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: 13 December 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 children's home: 2701417 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/12/2022 Full Good Inspection report children's home: 2701417 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy short breaks in a spacious, welcoming, and nurturing environment. Staff make sure that that the home is well-maintained. The home has facilities that enable children to learn new skills, become more independent and be more involved in their care. This includes adaptations made to help disabled children to cook and prepare food and to wash dishes. For some children, this is their first experience of being able to participate. A fob system means children rely on staff to open the doors so that they can go outside into the garden. It is not clear whether this is necessary for all children who stay at the service.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have made friends with other children and rekindled past friendships during their stays. Some of these important relationships now continue outside of their short breaks. The inspector saw that children were taking part in activities, playing, and having fun. The children were laughing and smiling with the other children and the staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand the needs of the children that they care for well. They have a warm and caring approach, and the children respond well to the care they receive. Staff communicate confidently with children using children’s preferred methods of communication. When incidents happen, staff talk to children in a kind way about what happened. This helps children to understand how they can manage their feelings and emotions better. Positive feedback from professionals referred to children being happy, and some children had become more able to manage their emotions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to work towards achieving the goals set out in their formal plans such as, education health and care plans. This means that the goals that children are working towards are consistent throughout school and home life.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Not all of the parents and carers spoken to were happy about the change of the time that children arrive for their short breaks. While this was positive for some families, others said it was affecting children’s routines and had not yet resulted in children being able to have longer days and trips out.

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

Children feel safe. They had made themselves at home and were relaxed during their short breaks. The children that spoke to the inspector said that they like the staff, and they are not worried about anything.

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

Staff consistently promote children’s positive behaviour. Staff deescalate and defuse incidents effectively. There is no use of restraint. The manager reviews incidents and identifies learning appropriately. This helps embed the home’s approach to positive behaviour and reduce incidents further. Inspection report children's home: 2701417 4 The manager has made improvements in the medicines processes within the home. The expectations for staff are clearer and better understood. The manager worked with external health professionals to seek advice and make sure that the staff follow the correct guidelines.

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

Staff put in place appropriate measures to support children when accessing the internet. This enables the children to have appropriate levels of support and online freedom. Staff are suitably vetted and checked to reduce the risks of unsuitable people being employed to provide children’s care.

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

Staff understand their roles and responsibilities in safeguarding children. They have acted promptly in response to concerns or allegations about the safety of children. However, there has been one incident where a child had unexplained injuries and although staff reported this to a social worker, they did not follow safeguarding policies and procedures fully. The manager and senior leaders have started an investigation into this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is led by an experienced and qualified manager. Staff say the manager is visible and supportive. The staff feel that they work cohesively as a team, are nurturing and supportive of each other. Staff receive regular supervision and training. This includes training to meet the individual and specific needs of the children who stay for short breaks. However, the workforce development plan needs to be updated to reflect recent changes in staff working in the service so that their development needs can be planned for.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has effective oversight systems and processes. This includes a range of audits that support the running of the home and reporting to senior leaders. The manager notifies Ofsted of serious events appropriately. There is an improved system for planning for children staying at the service together. There are regular visits from an independent person who provides external monitoring and oversight of the quality of care. One of these visits was completed by the head of safeguarding for the local authority. The manager also completes effective reviews of the quality of care which shape the development of the care provided to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There are some children staying at the service for short breaks for more than 75 nights per year. This is not stated in the home’s statement of purpose and is not in line with the conditions of registration. This makes external oversight for the regulator more difficult.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

When a complaint was made, this was investigated independent of the service. This meant that the managers were not able to check that the complaint has been investigated thoroughly or make changes following any learning identified. Inspection report children's home: 2701417 5 The location risk assessment does not reflect the views of relevant local agencies. However, the home is in a location that has low known risks and there is limited impact as children do not leave the service without staff. Inspection report children's home: 2701417 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;

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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

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

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(iii)(vi)(vii)).

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered provider must make sure that staff take appropriate action to report and record any concerns about the safety of children and act in accordance with the safeguarding policy and procedures. 30 September

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Requirement Due date

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; and 31 August 2023 Inspection report children's home: 2701417 7 notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision.

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Requirement Due date

Subject to paragraph (6), the registered person must ensure that the home is at all times conducted in a manner which is consistent with its statement of purpose.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered provider must ensure that the statement of purpose reflects the care that is provided by staff at the home. Subject to paragraph (6), the registered person must establish a procedure for considering complaints made by or on behalf of children.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that a record is made of any complaint, the action taken in response, and the outcome of any investigation.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must make sure that managers have oversight and access to any record made of a complaint, the action taken in response and the outcome of any investigation, as long as they are not named in the complaint. 30 September

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Recommendations

 The registered person should review the system in place for accessing the garden to ensure that this restriction is appropriate for the safeguarding of children, assessed rigorously and kept under regular review. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.10)  The registered person should have an up-to-date workforce plan which promotes the training, learning and development needs for all staff. (‘Guide to the children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)  The registered person should make sure that they engage with relevant agencies in the assessment of the location of the home. Where the provider is unable to work productively or engage with relevant agencies, they should maintain a record to evidence what they have done to achieve engagement and escalate concerns. (’Guide to the children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality

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Recommendations

standards’, page 11, paragraph 2.3) Inspection report children's home: 2701417 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 children's home: 2701417 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Civic Office, Waterdale, Doncaster DN1 3BU

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Catherine Richardson

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Inspector

Honor Hamshaw, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 2701417 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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