Children's Home run by Acorn Residential Care Ltd in Staffordshire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2509731 1 Registered provider: Acorn Residential Care Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a privately owned children’s home. It is registered to provide care for up to two children with social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The current manager was registered with Ofsted in April 2023.

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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: 18 October 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: 2509731 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

18/10/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 22/06/2021 Full Good 11/12/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 2509731 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Two children live at the home. One child has lived at the home for over two years. Since the last inspection, one child has moved out of the home and another child has moved in.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children well to settle into the home from very unsettled starting points. Staff know children well, and their consistent, child-centred approach takes account of the trauma children have experienced. This enables them to provide children with individualised care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have opportunities to engage in the activities they are interested in, at the home and in the community. They enjoy gymnastics and karate, as well as swimming, gaming, playing in the park, going to theme parks and going on holiday. The children socialise with peers and develop good self-esteem and confidence while having lots of fun.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff promote children’s relationships with people who are important to them. The children enjoy positive family time, and the relationships between children’s families and staff are positive. Children benefit from staff and families working together.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have secure, nurturing relationships with children. Children enjoy spending time with the staff, and they feel valued and cared for. One child asked the inspector, ‘What is above good?’ When they were told ‘outstanding’, the child told the inspector, ‘All of the staff should be given outstanding.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage and support children to attend school and complete schoolwork. One child, who previously accessed education via a tutor visiting the home, has successfully transitioned into full-time education. This child is making good progress and education professionals commented to the inspector that the child is ‘provided with lots of enrichment by the home and supported with their reading’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children who do not have an identified education placement to engage in education. There is evidence of the manager advocating for the placing authority to meet one child’s educational needs via a tutor while an education placement is being identified.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are able to personalise their bedrooms, which they enjoy doing. One child showed the inspector their mood board, which had a number of ideas on it for updating the decor in their room.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff and the manager are in the process of improving some areas of the home environment. A shortfall was identified at this inspection relating to the repair of damages in the home being completed in a timely manner. When repairs are identified, the provider has no system in place for these requests to be escalated Inspection report for children’s home: 2509731 4 and actioned. This prevents there being a safe and homely feel throughout. For example, spindles that were damaged and missing from the top of the home’s stairway had not been repaired for a period of four months.

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

Staff understand the risks to children well. For example, when children go missing from the home, staff implement the missing-from-care protocol. Managers and staff search local areas and work with the police to locate children who go missing. As a result, children have felt cared for by the team around them.

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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. Staff and managers work with the home’s therapist to review the strategies staff use to respond to children’s behaviours and adapt them so that the strategies remain effective at meeting individual children’s needs.

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

Staff and the manager are proactive in identifying any concerns around peer relationships. When children appear to be unkind to each other, staff monitor this and do regular key-working sessions around maintaining positive relationships. Staff emphasise the importance of celebrating diversity and being empathetic. Consequently, children have empathy for each other and relate to each other well.

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

Managers and staff have a good understanding of online safety and help children to learn how to access the internet safely. Staff have installed an app on children’s devices to ensure that children are only accessing age-appropriate material. These actions help to safeguard children when they use the internet.

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

Leaders and managers respond to allegations immediately. If allegations are made, staff and managers prioritise the safety and well-being of children. The managers follow the home’s policies and are thorough in their investigations in order to reach a conclusion. Consequently, children and those people involved in children’s lives feel valued and listened to.

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

Overall, incidents of physical intervention are undertaken and recorded in line with the home’s policy. However, within one record of a significant event, recording did not detail any de-escalation techniques used, so it is not clear if this physical intervention had been used as a last resort. In addition, during one incident, staff did not clearly record the rationale for locking doors during the incident.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The managers are clear about the strengths of the home and some of the areas for development. They are committed to ensuring that the staff team delivers good- quality care to children. The managers and staff speak positively of the children they care for. They want children to succeed and ensure that children are provided with clear and consistent boundaries. This supports children’s development and progress. Inspection report for children’s home: 2509731 5 Staff receive training to support them in meeting children’s individual needs. Since the last inspection, the team has been provided with specific training to care for children with oppositional defiant disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Staff receive additional support through regular team around the child meetings with the home’s therapist to support them to understand and meet children’s individual needs. This supports the relationships between staff and

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

children and promotes the staff’s learning and understanding of how to respond to children’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular supervision from the managers and seniors. This provides staff with the opportunity to discuss issues and receive consistent feedback on their practice and any areas of development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The managers continue to ensure that there is enough staff to meet the children’s needs. There have been some changes to staffing, but the managers use familiar staff when cover is needed to provide continuity of care to the children. The managers continue to recruit to the staff team, so that any shortfalls in sufficiency can be addressed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers have systems in place to monitor and oversee the quality of care received by children. Incidents are regularly reviewed. However, following one incident, it was not evident how the lessons learned had positively influence practice. For example, following one child moving on from the home due to staff being unable to meet their needs, a management review highlighted the need for more robust consultation prior to admitting the child. However, very little consultation was then undertaken prior for the transition of the next child into the home. As a result, the needs of children transitioning into the home have not been fully explored to establish if children’s needs can be met prior to placement. Inspection report for children’s home: 2509731 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, 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

provide children living in the home with 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

In particular, the provider should ensure that they will schedule repair work for any damage or maintenance needed in the home in a timely manner, to allow children to live in a safe and comfortable environment. 19 October 2023

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records ("case records") for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are kept up to date. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that information relating to any review of the placing authority’s plan for the care of a child, which includes any specific restrictions to safeguard a child, is recorded and available to 19 October 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2509731 7 evidence what has been agreed with a child’s placing authority.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should actively seek to make best use of information from internal monitoring to ensure continuous improvement. In particular, to have systems in place to evidence management oversight and review of lessons learned that influence continuous improvement in practices. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)  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. In particular, staff and managers should ensure that all steps and actions taken when responding to incidents are clearly recorded. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including 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: 2509731 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Acorn Residential Care Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 13a Pitsford Street, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham B18 6LJ

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Inspector

Sharon Bourne, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2509731 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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