Children's home run by Moonreach LTD in Dover

Inspection report children’s home: SC460671 1 SC460671 Registered provider: Moonreach Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned children’s home provides care for up to two children aged between eight and 18 years of age with social and emotional difficulties. There was one child living at the home at the time of the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since April 2018. She is also the registered manager of another of the company’s homes, which is close by.

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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: SC460671 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

01/11/2022 Full Good 05/10/2021 Full Good 14/11/2019 Full Good 20/09/2018 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC460671 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are cared for by staff who understand their needs and ensure that the children know they are loved. Staff members provide positive praise, acknowledge strengths and provide rewards to the children that focus on building self-esteem and self-belief.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The relationship between staff and external professionals is good. The manager and the head of care have positive relationships with the children’s wider professional network. They regularly communicate and consistently advocate for the children’s best interests.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A particular strength of the home is that the staff ensure that the children’s healthcare needs are met. Staff awareness and promotion of children’s mental health are good. They work with a range of professionals to ensure that the children’s mental health needs are met and they access therapy.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged and supported to engage with education. They attend school or college and complete educational work in the home. One is now in full- time education after not attending school for a significant period. Another child has achieved positive outcomes in school and is now attending college and has a part- time job.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged and supported to maintain relationships with their families. Children are taken to see their families by staff, which sometimes means travelling a significant distance. Staff liaise with family members and have good relationships with them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is a warm and inviting place for children to live. During the inspection, renovations were being undertaken to improve the quality of some of the rooms in the home, with the children’s views on colour schemes being gained. However, in the garden, there is a smoking area, despite the statement of purpose advising that staff and children will not be allowed to smoke in the home. This does not promote positive health and well-being outcomes for the children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When children move out of the home, this is mostly well planned and these endings are positive. Ongoing outreach support has been provided to one child to maintain relationships and provide support. The manager has reflected on unplanned moves out of the home and has started to consider lessons learned to improve practice.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When children move into the home, staff are well prepared, with the manager seeking appropriate information and holding meetings with staff to consider the needs of the child. Meetings are completed with the social worker for the child who is moving in and the child who is already living in the home to consider the impact of the children living together. Inspection report for children’s home: SC460671 4 Staff did not have signed medical consent for one child from the persons who held parental responsibility for the child. This means that staff would have been unprepared if a medical emergency had occurred, which could have been significant. This was resolved during the inspection.

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

Children who live in the home have appropriate risk assessments in place to ensure that staff are aware of their needs. Staff are appropriately trained to meet the individual needs of the children.

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

Staff are proactive when children go missing from home. They respond by looking for the child and communicate with the child’s wider networks to find them quickly and ensure that the child returns home safely.

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

Peer relationships in the home are supported with joint activities and acknowledgement that individual time is also needed. Where there have been times of strained peer relationships, key-work sessions have been completed to explore this further and encourage the children to make positive choices.

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

Staff want to provide consistent responses to the children, and there is evidence of communication in daily recordings and team meetings of this being a priority and something they are continuing to work towards.

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

When children have made allegations about members of staff, they have been listened to, and appropriate action has been taken to ensure the safety of the children while the allegation is investigated. However, one of these incidents was not notified to Ofsted or recorded fully regarding the steps taken.

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

Staff’s use of restraint is proportionate. However, there is a lack of detail in some of the recording of the incident, and debriefs with staff and children are not always completed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and the head of care are passionate about the needs of the children being met and ensuring high standards of care. There is a good working relationship between them. They appropriately challenge each other in the best interests of the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager knows and understands the strengths and weaknesses of the home and is actively working towards making improvements where needed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are provided with a good level of support by the manager and the head of care. Supervisions are held regularly and include a good level of detail, with staff well-being and safeguarding being discussed as priorities each time. Inspection report for children’s home: SC460671 5 Staff are provided with both in-person and online training that covers a wide range of topics. Staff are trained in the specific needs of the children in the home to allow them to feel confident in managing the risks.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

All staff who work in the home are permanent members of staff, which provides consistent care to the children and allows good relationships to form through which staff get to know children well.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and the head of care focus on ensuring that staff provide positive rewards and praise to the children. This is promoting progress and positive outcomes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Management oversight is present on records, with reflective comments made. However, on occasions, there is a lack of evidence of follow-up work being completed with children when required. Following an incident on one occasion, it was identified that a key-work session was required to discuss the incident, but there was no evidence of that key-work session being completed. Inspection report for children’s home: SC460671 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

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person who used the measure (“the user”), and of any other person present when the measure was used;

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (“the authorised person”)—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(vi)(b)(i)(ii)(c)) 27 October 2023

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Requirement Due date

Schedule 4 sets out the other information that the registered person must keep in relation to a children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4. (Regulation 37 (1)(2)(a))

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Requirement Due date

In particular the registered person should ensure that they hold consent forms which are signed by person(s) who hold parental responsibility for the child. 27 October 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: SC460671 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should notify Ofsted if one of the situations specified in Regulation 40(4)(a)–(d) occurs. (Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.10)  The registered person should ensure that all children’s case records (Regulation 36) are kept up to date. This includes ensuring that direct work needed with the child is competed and recorded, and these recordings should provide a good level of detail. (Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.3)  The registered person should ensure that each child’s day-to-day health and well- being needs are met. Staff should work to make the children’s home an environment that supports children’s physical, mental and emotional health, in line with the approach set out in the home’s statement of purpose. In particular, this should include not encouraging smoking on site, as stated in the home’s

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Recommendations

statement of purpose, which states that children will not do so. (Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 33, paragraph 7.3)

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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: SC460671 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 4 Dane John Works, Gordon Road, Canterbury CT1 3PP

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Inspector

Faye McCarthy, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC460671 9 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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