Children's Home run by Attivo Care Ltd in Halton

Inspection report for children’s home: 2680573 1 Registered provider: Attivo Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is operated by a private company and is registered to provide care for up to two children.

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Information about this children’s home

The staff team specialises in caring for children who may have social, emotional and mental health needs.

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Information about this children’s home

Two children were living in the home at the time of the inspection.

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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

Date of last inspection: 8 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: 2680573 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/11/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2680573 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is warm and welcoming. There are many pictures on the living room walls displaying positive images of the children. This gives children a sense of belonging and ownership. One social worker said, ‘It feels like a family home, not a children’s home.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide a high level of care that is responsive to children’s personal needs. This helps children to develop their own identity. They also support children with their cultural, religious and dietary needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff develop close working relationships with each child. As a result, children are happy and generally make good progress from their starting points. It also means that staff can de-escalate issues without the need for physical intervention.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage children to read their plans and take part in statutory meetings. Children also engage regularly with the independent visitor and express their views. One child said, ‘Things have gone well, it’s much better than where I used to live, there’s no comparison.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One child attends education full time and is making good progress following a significant period of non-attendance. However, staff do not have clear plans in place to support children’s learning when they are not attending school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children take part in a wide range of activities inside and outside of the home. For example, they enjoy martial arts, golf, fishing and regular camping trips. This promotes children’s social skills and their health and well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to engage with their families. One child previously spent limited time with their family, but they now enjoy overnight stays with them. One parent said, ‘[Name of child] doesn’t really go out with the wrong crowd anymore. They have grown up so much and they seem really happy.’

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

Staff complete risk management plans for each child. This enables staff to identify and understand children’s risks. Staff review the plans regularly and discuss them in team meetings. This helps staff to maintain consistency when protecting children from harm.

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

Children engage in work related to their vulnerabilities. This includes support from local agencies in addition to key-work sessions with staff. This work raises children’s awareness of topics such as online harms, exploitation and substance misuse. Inspection report for children’s home: 2680573 4 Staff have a good understanding of safeguarding procedures. However, on one occasion, a member of staff did not follow these procedures. This delayed the manager’s response to a safeguarding concern. Leaders took effective action when children made them aware of the issue.

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

Children said that they liked living at the home and felt safe there. A social worker said, ‘In other placements [name of child] was very unsettled and had lots of issues, but the current placement is a transformation for them. They are much happier and more settled.’

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

Managers do not consistently report serious incidents to Ofsted within the required timescale. This means that the regulator has no initial oversight of what action staff take to keep children safe.

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

Children rarely go missing from home. Staff keep children safe by following robust missing-from-home protocols for each child. This ensures that staff can act quickly and prevent incidents from occurring.

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good

The registered manager has a good understanding of children’s needs and the progress that they make. However, they do not consistently follow up and escalate concerns if responses from agencies are not satisfactory.

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good

Staff enjoy their work and feel fully supported by their line managers. One member of staff said, ‘I feel fully supported by my manager and the responsible individual. Any advice that I need they are always there to guide and support me to ensure I make the right decisions.’

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good

Staff say that they attend regular supervision. However, the manager is unable to access all staff’s supervision notes to demonstrate that this is happening. In addition, staff do not attend an annual appraisal meeting. This affects the manager’s ability to review staff’s performance and promote reflective practice to ensure that children’s needs continue to be met.

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good

The manager conducts a quality of care review. However, the manager does not fully evaluate the views of children, their parents, or the placing authority as part of the review. The review also covers a period greater than six months. This is not in line with regulation.

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good

Leaders do not evaluate the use of consequences with children. This limits staff’s learning and the development of good practice to prevent issues recurring.

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good

The manager completes a workforce development plan, which helps them to monitor staff’s skills, experience and training. However, the plan is not up to date and does not include all members of the staff team. Inspection report for children’s home: 2680573 5 The manager ensures that staff access training to meet children’s needs. One member of staff said, ‘We do training all of the time, so we know how to respond to the young people.’

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good

The manager has an understanding of the team’s strengths and weaknesses. However, the manager is in the process of developing monitoring systems to help them to effectively evaluate and review practice. Inspection report for children’s home: 2680573 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

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

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

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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

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(v)(vi)(vii)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that staff follow whistle-blowing procedures and report their concerns without delay. 10 November

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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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

help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans; 10 November Inspection report for children’s home: 2680573 7 support each child’s learning and development, including helping the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study;

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Requirement Due date

understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers;

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally;

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Requirement Due date

help a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non-attendance and to return to school as soon as possible;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to attend education or training in accordance with the expectations in the child’s relevant plans; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child has access to appropriate equipment, facilities and resources to support the child’s learning. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(v)(viii)(x)(b))

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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

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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 the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(f)(h)) 17 November

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being 17 November Inspection report for children’s home: 2680573 8 involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation;

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious;

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there;

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Requirement Due date

a child protection enquiry involving a child—

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Requirement Due date

concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(a)(b)(c)(d)(i)(ii)(e))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(c)) 17 November

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children ("a quality of care review") at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children;

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c) (5)) 31 October 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2680573 9

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that they can evidence the steps that they have taken to escalate concerns when responses from the wider support system are not satisfactory in meeting children’s needs. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 11, paragraph 2.3)  The registered person should have a workforce plan that meets the requirements of regulation 16, schedule 1 (paragraphs 19 and 20). (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)

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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 for children’s home: 2680573 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Attivo Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: PO Box 5, 5 Swan Alley, Ormskirk L39 2EQ

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Inspector

Mark Woodbridge, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2680573 11 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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