Children's home run by Madiba Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2728057 1 Registered provider: Madiba Limited 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 provider. The home provides care for one child with learning disabilities and social and/or emotional difficulties. There is currently one child living at the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has been registered with Ofsted since 7 June 2023. The registered manager resigned from their role prior to the inspection. An acting manager is in post. However, they have not yet applied to register 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 requires improvement to be good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2728057 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

Not applicable Not applicable Not applicable Inspection report for children’s home: 2728057 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A lengthy transition period enabled staff to start building relationships with the child long before they moved into the home. However, some staff left the team soon after the home opened, disrupting some of the trusting relationships with the child. The commitment and devotion from core members of staff have helped to reduce some of the impact of these staff leaving. As a result, the child has been helped to develop a sense of belonging in order to feel more comfortable living at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff use social stories to help the child’s understanding of their day-to-day routines and decisions that may affect how they feel. For example, stories are used to talk about routines, about being safe during activities, as well as talking about plans for family time. These social stories are helping the child to visualise the event and share their wishes and feelings through a more structured conversation. This has helped to reduce some of the anxiety the child has experienced while adapting to their new home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The homely environment and the relationships staff have developed with the child’s family enhances the child’s experience of spending time with family members. A parent who highly values staff’s support said, ‘I feel we work together as a team. They are good at helping [Name of child] understand the plan. Staff listen to [Name of child].’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff organised an Eid party for the child as celebrations could not be achieved at the time of the religious festival. Family members, staff and the child’s social worker shared in belated festivities that were thoroughly enjoyed by the child. The dignity and respect staff show in their practice is helping the child’s self-esteem to flourish.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff attend multi-agency meetings to discuss the child’s care needs. This forum helps staff to share their challenges and concerns. Staff advocate and push for decisions to be made to help shape the child’s care plan. A professional who attends these meetings said, ‘The manager has really advocated for [Name of child] and challenged other professionals.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are working in collaboration with the local authority and the child’s school to agree on a special arrangement to support the child to start a new learning programme. Plans were being finalised at the time of the inspection to help the child re-engage after education services have been unable to meet the child’s learning needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Managers take complaints seriously and have thoroughly explored a concern raised by the child. The child was kept informed about the progress and outcome of the complaint. When the child was not happy about certain aspects of the outcome, managers responded clearly to affirm that the outcome was in the child’s best interests. Inspection report for children’s home: 2728057 4

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

The relationships the child is forging with staff are providing them with a sense of safety. Over recent weeks, despite the complexity involved with caring for the child, they have been more accepting of the nurture and affection shown by staff. This is helping to strengthen these relationships.

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

A high number of holds used by the staff continue to keep the child and others safe. These are mostly needed when the child has experienced high levels of anxiety and while adjusting to their new environment and staff team.

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

Staff used specific words and phrases to help the child to communicate their thoughts and feelings. This is helping staff to recognise sooner when the child is struggling to cope. As a result, the frequency and intensity of restraint incidents are reducing. Learning is being taken from each incident to help improve staff’s practice and develop the child’s behaviour plan.

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

High levels of supervision prevent the child’s unwanted behaviours from escalating. Managers follow safeguarding procedures when concerns have been identified.

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

The providers practice of recruiting new staff and agency workers is in line with safer recruitment. The system they follow enables managers to take the necessary steps to evaluate whether applicants are suitable to work with children.

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

Some areas of the home have been damaged during challenging incidents. They reflect the challenges the team has faced in meeting the child’s emotional and behavioural needs. A program of repair is addressing some of the damage caused as well as strengthening areas of the home in order to reduce the risk of incidents being repeated. However, ineffective environmental checks of the external grounds have not identified numerous shortfalls that have the potential to cause an injury to the child.

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

Managers have worked hard to improve the quality of staff’s recording skills and the clarity of their recordings. However, restraint records and incident reports refer to agency workers without their actual name at the start of the documents. This makes it more difficult for managers to read these reports and may lead to gaps in their oversight.

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good

The registered manager has decided to step down into a deputy post though he remains committed to working with the child and the staff team. The acting manager has stepped in from a sister home to oversee the management of the home. Inspection report for children’s home: 2728057 5 Staff members leaving at short notice soon after the home opened has affected relationships. Additional support from senior managers and the commitment of a few core members of staff have reduced this impact. At the time of the inspection, not all staff had received training on the provider’s model of care. This limits the provider’s ability to embed this into staff practice and ensure that the members of the team draw on their training when reflecting on their practice.

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good

The home’s statement of purpose does not accurately reflect the level of clinical support provided to the manager. This is misleading to local authorities when using this document to help them decide if they would like their child to live at this home.

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good

Individual risk assessments are well written. However, aspects of the behaviour management strategies are confusing because they refer the reader to other documents that have conflicting information in them. This may result in staff following out-of-date strategies.

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good

Staff have not completed personal care training. The provider does not have a personal care policy, despite the child requiring aspects of personal care and this being included in their child’s plan. This is mitigated through the detailed risk assessment that gives staff direction on how to support the child.

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good

Practice-related supervision, single-subject conversations and induction sessions provide staff with a number of forums to talk about their role. Managers have used these forums to good effect to support staff development when shortfalls in their practice have occurred. This is helping to improve staff performance and strengthen the consistency across the team.

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good

Where possible, managers have used the same agency workers to cover gaps in the working rota after some staff left the home soon after opening. Positive progress has been made to secure new staff and backfill the gaps by those who have left. This has helped to energise the team’s morale. Inspection report for children’s home: 2728057 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 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

That the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that the outside environmental checks are robust and identify areas that present a risk to the child so that the risk can quickly be removed. 5 November 2023

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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 promotes their welfare.

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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

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child; and 5 November 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2728057 7 ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(c)(d)(e))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person should ensure that the provider’s model of care is delivered to staff so that they are adequately trained to care for the child, as described in the home’s statement if purpose.

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Requirement Due date

The home’s statement of purpose provides accurate information about the level of support provided to the manager.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that restraint records do not use the word ‘agency’ in any section of the record without the relevant workers name accompanying it. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.59)  The registered provider should ensure that they have a policy that sets out the expectations and protocol about staff providing personal care for children. Staff should also have adequate training with regard to caring for children who have personal care needs. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.20)  The registered person should review the risk assessment and behaviour management documentation to prevent the risk of duplication and make it easier for staff to find the specific strategy they need to support the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62,

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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: 2728057 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: One City West, Gelderd Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS12 6NJ

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Inspector

Aaron Mcloughlin, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2728057 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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