Children's home run by Inspire Care (UK) Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 1280478 1 Registered provider: Inspire Care (UK) Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned home provides care for up to two children who have experienced trauma and encounter associated difficulties with their emotional well- being.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has a registered manager who is suitably experienced and qualified.

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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: 25 January 2022

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not judged

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 1280478 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

25/01/2022 Interim Not judged Inspection report for children’s home: 1280478 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in a warm and homely environment. When the home is damaged, the manager takes prompt action to address this and restore its homely features. Children’s rooms are personalised appropriately, and photos of the children are in communal areas as well as their own rooms. This helps children feel valued and welcome. Careful planning and thought are given to children’s moves into and out of the home. There has been excellent support for one child who was unable to settle. When the child moved on to her new accommodation, staff supported her to do so in a planned and positive way. As a result, the child experienced a very positive transition from the home, and she felt listened to, supported and valued. The child chose to remain in contact with staff after she left the home because of the positive relationships she had built. Children make some good progress from their starting points. They benefit from a

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

calm, nurturing and positive environment. Staff provide children with unconditional, positive respect. This helps children to feel accepted and talk about their feelings with staff. Incidents in the home have reduced because of the relationships children build with those caring for them. Children’s progress in education has been limited due to delays and difficulties in attaining suitable education arrangements. Managers have escalated delays with the placing local authority. In the absence of formal education, purposeful plans are implemented to ensure that children have opportunities to engage in educational activities and develop their social skills while they wait to return to school. Staff understand and support children’s health needs well. Staff ensure that children’s hobbies and interests are encouraged and nurtured. Children are supported to access a range of activities, including attending local sports clubs, and

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

enjoy holidays and days out. This helps children to gain confidence, develop their social skills and build friendships. External stakeholders commented positively on the care that children receive in the home. One social worker wrote, ‘They kept [name of child]’s needs in the centre of everything they did, despite challenging incidents. They provided [name of child] with the most thoughtful and positive ending.’ Children’s views are largely well understood and the registered manager acts as a strong advocate for them.

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

Missing-from-home incidents are low. When children do go missing, there is a strong and proactive response. Staff follow the children and quickly inform safeguarding Inspection report for children’s home: 1280478 4 agencies. When children return home, they are welcomed and cared for by the staff team. Staff provide nurturing care to help children when they are distressed. They respond to children with understanding and empathy. When physical intervention is required to keep children safe, this is used as a last resort. However, staff are not always able to use physical intervention when required because some staff have not received the required training. The manager has identified this shortfall and made changes to the rota while those staff who have not yet received training are trained appropriately. Appropriate action is taken in response to allegations and complaints. Information is shared with relevant safeguarding agencies and there is a multi-agency approach to

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

keeping children safe. When one allegation was not explored with safeguarding agencies as soon as it could have been, the manager ensured that reflection and learning informed future practice. There have been missed opportunities to support children to fully understand how their views have been responded to and how decisions are reached. For example, when children make allegations, they are not always helped to fully understand the outcome of investigations that take place. Children learn about dangers. They engage with a range of topics to help them identify risks. For example, staff educate children about online safety, risk in the community and sexual health. In addition, children are provided with opportunities to reflect and learn when things go wrong. This helps children to build resilience and understanding as they develop and become more independent. Staff support children to learn about healthy and safe relationships. They educate

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

children about bullying and use a range of visual and practical resources to develop children’s understanding. This means that children understand behaviours that are acceptable and the impact of bullying behaviours on others. This promotes positive behaviour and helps children feel safe. Bedroom door alarms are in place. The registered manager does not always review the need for this type of surveillance in the home. Consequently, some children remain under surveillance when it is not necessary. A recommendation is made to support improvement in this area. Staff complete risk-management plans for each child. This enables staff to identify and understand children’s risks. Staff review risk-management plans regularly. However, children’s risk assessments do not include all known risk-reduction strategies. Because staff know children well, this is not compromising children’s safety.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

A child-focused manager leads the home. She is ambitious for the children and understands their needs well. The manager is approachable and supportive. She ensures that she is available to staff and they have responded well to her effective Inspection report for children’s home: 1280478 5 leadership. Staff spoke highly of the manager, and said that they are well supported and work in an open and honest culture. Children receive support from a committed, passionate but inexperienced staff team. This means that staff are not always confident and skilled in the most appropriate ways to respond to children’s behaviours. However, the management team has identified areas for development and has plans in place to upskill the staff team and develop staff’s confidence. To further support this, staff liaise with the provider’s therapeutic support staff. This is helping to increase staff’s understanding about children’s lived experiences and

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

how these affect their behaviours and interactions with others. The manager and staff work hard to ensure that they use the home’s therapeutic model of parenting to inform their care of children. This means that children receive care that is supportive and empathetic. Staff have access to a wide variety of training. The manager reviews training as children’s needs change and evolve. However, not all staff have completed training in physical intervention and, due to new staff joining the team, there are some gaps in training around the specific needs of the children. Staff are supported through reflective team meetings and regular supervision. However, staff do not always benefit from supervision that allows them sufficient opportunity to reflect on their practice and their relationships with children. The manager has a good understanding of the strengths of the home. Internal and external monitoring systems are in place to support prompt identification of

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

shortfalls. This enables managers to act quickly to avoid any impact on children. This is supported by active monitoring and oversight from the responsible individual. There are clear plans in place to support the ongoing development of the home. Managers understand the importance of working in partnership with other professionals. They keep other professionals fully informed about children’s progress. Managers proactively advocate for children and challenge decisions made by other professionals when they believe those decisions are not made with children’s best interests in mind. Inspection report for children’s home: 1280478 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 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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c)) 1 November 2023

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that, where there are safeguarding concerns for a child, their placement plan, agreed between the home and their placing authority, includes details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risks on a day-to-day basis. In particular, ensure that risk assessments include all risk-management strategies that are in place for children and that language used for recording is clear and helpful for staff and children. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)  The registered person should ensure that children see the results of their views being listened to and acted on. In particular, children need to be informed of the outcome of concerns that they raise. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.11)  The registered person should have systems in place so that all staff, including the

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Recommendations

manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)  The registered person should ensure that the home complies with relevant health and safety legislations (alarms, food hygiene etc.); however, in doing so, the home should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression. In particular, ensure that the need for children to have Inspection report for children’s home: 1280478 7 bedroom door alarms to keep them safe is kept under review. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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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: 1280478 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Inspire Care (UK) Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Keystone Chartered Accountants, 263 Nottingham Road, Nottingham NG7 7DA

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Inspector

Natasha Skinner, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 1280478 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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